For some reason people love to see someone fail. When Wellmaker lost to Ethyn Ewing as a 5-1 favorite, people couldn’t wait to make fun of him, tell him to get the job back that he quit and meme the hell out of him. It happened it again in his last fight and unfortunately it may happen again in this fight. Now I’m going to pick Malcom here because even though his takedown defense sucks, his get up game is solid and Tanzilovi’s control is horrible. There is not a doubt in my mind that Otar Tanzilovi will take down Wellmaker, but I think the striking gap is wide Wellmaker can take over after popping right back up. They told us wrestling doesn’t matter in Vegas and we likely need that to be true here, but let’s hope all the people rooting for Malcolm’s downfall bet against him so we can fix these pretty crazy odds.

Malcolm Wellmaker

Malcolm Wellmaker is a powerful striker with great accuracy and timing. He does a really nice job managing range with a solid jab and then firing away. He’s not overly aggressive but does fully commit when he throws and counters when people come back at him. He can also grapple with solid takedowns but less than average takedown defense. Coming off his second big upset loss in a row, this time to Juan Diaz where he was taken down 5 times and ultimately subbed.

Otari Tanzilovi

Otari Tanzilovi is a Georgian wrestler who has solid power in his hands. He actually started his career as a kickboxer then transitioned to MMA. He likes to fight tall and at range on his feet before fully committing to wrestling. He does this by throwing a lot of kicks or long jabs. He is not a pocket fighter and does try to avoid a brawl which be a bad look with the judges because he’s always backing up. Despite the talent. his career has been pretty inconstant. He is coming off the decision loss to Shane Collins in his UFC debut where the takedowns where nice, but he backed up and had no control.