This is the best card of the season in my opinion. Every fight features at least one very highly touted prospect, and this is a card I am expecting all 5 winners to receive a contract. Unfortunately I have been a bit late on writing this article. I have the famous “Bridge building competition” coming soon, if you know, you know. I feel somewhat confident in 4 out of 5 fights on this card.

ARTEM VAKHITOV (2-1) vs. ISLEM MASRAF (3-0) – Heavyweight

It is no secret that I am a fan of Artem Vakhitov. Myself and him have messaged briefly and despite our language barrier I hope to interview him someday. I know he holds a recent win over Alex Pereira in kickboxing, but in truth I don't know if his striking style will translate well into MMA. He is going to be a small light heavyweight if he chooses to stay there. He may go down to middleweight. Unlike Pereira, he fights in close range. He has nasty leg kicks but wants to get in close to throw combinations with his hands. He does throw one shot at a time for the most part though. In GLORY, he also very regularly closed the distance to get into the clinch, which could be a mistake in MMA against someone with good wrestling or judo. As for his MMA fights, there really isn't much to take away from them. He is fighting very poor competition and in his one loss he was in mount and dislocated his elbow. He has shown take down defense but against someone that looked like they had no real wrestling training. This fight was scheduled for light heavyweight, but has been moved to heavyweight. I'd say it is to do with Masraf as he has a lot more pizzas in him than Vakhitov does. In theory, this is a good match up for Artem. Islem is a striker. I never saw him shoot a take down in any of his 3 pro fights, but there was a lot of wrestling in his debut. Mostly him defending take downs. Islem is a pretty sloppy striker and won't be near as polished as the former GLORY champion. He does have one highlight KO in the PFL which his opponent just walked forwards with his hands down. Although I haven't seen Islem wrestle, I would be shocked if he didn't. The fight is now at heavyweight and Islem is going to have a huge size advantage which I am sure he will look to employ in some way. At first I was very confident in Artem but with the fight being moved to heavyweight the size advantage for Islem is going to be a real factor and I genuinely don't know how good Artem's take down defense is. Nonetheless, Artem's striking is still far superior and he does have a lot of power. He doesn't have a lot of KO's on his GLORY record but he did hurt Alex Pereira on a couple of occasions in their rematch.

Pick: Artem Vakhitov by round 1 KO/TKO. Medium confidence.

KODY STEELE (6-0) vs. CHASEN BLAIR (6-2) – Lightweight

Chasen Blair has accepted this fight on short notice as Quemel Ottoni withdrew from fighting Steele on Week 5. Worth noting as Steele now has to cut weight twice in a short period of time. We have seen this be a factor in the past, I will use Chris Duncan vs. Viacheslav Borshchev as an example. Blair is a dangerous grappler but I think his striking is sloppy. He did get quickly submitted with a kneebar by Hassanzada but I think he was caught off guard in that moment. He is from the USA but to my knowledge he moved to the UK and trains there which is why he has been on a few of the Cage Warriors cards in both the US and Europe. He is listed as only 1 inch taller than Steele, so I am interested to see him at the weigh in. He has a very thin build for a 5'10” lightweight. As I said his striking isn't the best and this is a fight where Kody will have the striking advantage. Steele's striking looked poor in a lot of his earlier fights, he was getting caught by Nico Echeverry before getting the KO himself. In his most recent fight against Alejandro Martinez his striking looked greatly improved and he won that fight with his boxing. I would say that Steele is a wrestler though. He has a background in grappling and it has lead to him finding success so far. In this fight I am expecting Steele to be the one defending the take downs as he should be the better striker. Blair is better than his record suggests, but he has accepted this on short notice and I think Steele is a big step up from his recent competition.

Pick: Cody Steele by KO/TKO in round 1 or 2. Medium confidence.

MARIO PINTO (8-0) vs. LUCAS CAMACHO (6-0) – Heavyweight

I am confident in Pinto. Camacho looks to be good on paper, but watching his fights I wasn't super impressed. He has fought twice recently but took a 4 year break from MMA before those two LFA fights. In those fights he just rushes forwards throwing boxing combinations. But they don't look to be very good. Most of the time he is throwing from his waist, but he holds his hands super high when he isn't throwing strikes so some times he looks like he's throwing from above his head. Both of his wins in the LFA come from his opponent gassing out. He does pressure forward a lot which could be an annoying style for Pinto to deal with. I do think that Pinto is a real talent at heavyweight. He has technical striking, and can throw kicks to the leg, body, and head. His leg kicks are especially dangerous as he was able to really slow down Bellator veteran Kasim Aras by shutting down his leg. He has solid take down defense and if needed can wrestle himself. His biggest weakness which could be a factor is that he does get pressured very easily. Camacho will be an annoying style for him to deal with as he is literally running forwards. But I think Pinto is simply the much better fighter and he should be able to exploit

Pick: Mario Pinto by KO/TKO in round 1. High confidence.

ISLAM DULATOV (10-1) vs. VANILTO ANTUNES (16-6) – Welterweight

Lay up for Dulatov. Dulatov was meant to fight Meng Ding who I thought could have given him some problems in the striking (in hindsight this was a terrible observation), but it looked like he had his VISA delayed for being a naughty boy in Germany. Antunes is 5'11” which is going to be much smaller than Dulatov, whether or not you believe that he is 6'6″ (I think he is 6'4″ but time will tell). Dulatov has been regarded as one of the best MMA prospects outside of the UFC. With a big DWCS performance he could be a guy they really push because he is a genuine talent. Despite being tall, he does close the distance a lot and throw shots in close. He has especially dangerous hooks, uppercuts and knees. Antunes is a striker and is nothing else. He did look pretty good in his last fight but it looked like his opponent gassed out in 3 minutes? Surprisingly I saw him attempt take downs in a few of his older fights but he genuinely has no grappling ability at all. Dulatov does have submission wins but he doesn't shoot for take downs very often. Due to the lack of grappling of Antunes it would be a good option for him. I am sure the sportsbooks will favour Dulatov KO/TKO, so submission is potentially a very sneaky prop. Overall this really is a lay up for Dulatov and I would be shocked if he lost.

Pick: Islam Dulatov by KO/TKO or submission in round 1. High confidence.

SEAN GAUCI (9-1) vs. ANTHONY DRILLICH (8-1) – Flyrweight

To be fully transparent, this isn't a fight I want to pick as I do have a relationship with both of these fighters. It is odd that they are fighting each other, both being from Australia, and both having the same management (I think). Drillich is one of the hardest hitters at flyweight with his left hook. But he rushes in to land most of his strikes and I think that Gauci is the more technical striker so his jab will be there to catch Drillich coming in. Drillich can wrestle and watching his older fights it looks like he started as a grappler but has recently gained a lot of confidence in his hands – for good reason. Both of these guys are mostly boxers. I think Drillich hits harder, but Gauci is more technical. The general consensus on this fight is that it either ends with a Drillich KO, or Gauci out points him to a decision by landing more volume and maybe even shooting for some take downs. Gauci beat Steve Erceg by wrestling with top control, but most recently defeated Hae Won Lee by 5 round decision using his wrestling. Drillich is coming off two big KO wins, where he had to defend take downs. Prior to that he dominated Frank the Tank by knocking him down multiple times and even controlling on top. To see more of Drillich wrestling I recommend watching his fight against Renouf as he spends the first two rounds attempting take downs.

Pick: Sean Gauci by decision. Low confidence