If you remember, Ricky was supposed to fight Cameron Smotherman at UFC 324 but Cameron faceplanted at weigh-ins and that fight was cancelled. So while he hasn't fought in over a year, he has certainly been training and through camp. Alberto Montes is in the exact same boat, he hasn't fought in a yea ron paper but has had a few camps where the fight fell through. Listen, Ricky stinks. He used to stink but be a dog, now he just stinks. So Alberto has to be the pick here. My only concern is Alberto might be a jiujitsu nerd. It's easy to snatch necks when you're fighting in the ballroom of a Holliday inn, it's very different at this level. The pick is Alberto but he is likely sub or bust here.

Alberto Montes

Alberto Montes is a nasty grappler with a nasty Anaconda. He has a bunch of Darce wins as well which if you don't know is essentially the same choke, th eonly difference is where it starts, I'm either starting at the neck and then adding the arm or starting at the arm and then adding the neck. Either way, dude is nasty on the ground and will specifically hunt for this. His striking is just ok, he throws a ton of kicks and doesn't care if you catch them because he wants to be on the ground anyway. Takedowns are also just ok, but he doesn't need them to find his anaconda.

Ricky Turcios

Ricky Turcios is a very fun high pressure fighter. He will throw anything from anywhere and smile while doing it. In half of his UFC fights he landed more than 100 significant strikes and that includes a loss. He doesn't have much to offer outside high volume and high pace because he has a very low 20% takedown accuracy and a 40% takedown defense. He is coming off decision loss to Bernardo Sopaj where he literally just running forward.