People absolutely love Pinas here and on the surface. I can understand it, he's fast, powerful and 14 years younger. But he is an MMA fighter who likes to kickbox. Cesar is a phenomenal kickboxer. So if Damien comes in here thiking he can make Cesar look as stupid as he made Wes Shultz look, it might get weird fast. On one hand we have never seen Cesar knocked out in MMA, but on the other we have seen him be knocked down by both Roman Kopylov and Abdul Razak Alhassan. This is a really tough pick because I think Cesar Almeida is the better striker and what will likely be a mostly striking matchup – so we just need to decide if we think his chin is completely gone at 38 years old or not. I don't think it is and I am going to shoot for the stars and pick Almeida because he's the better striker and this is a striking match.

Damian Pinas

Damian Pinas is a stalky striker who is so composed he almost seems like he doesn't care. But once he connects you likely go to sleep. His power is insanely impressive and he hides the big right hook behind an easy jab. he can grapple as well and does a great job grabbing submissions when they are available instead only looking for KOs. His takedown defense is ok. It isn't great but because he has so much power people tend to take shitty shots from far away and that was never more evident than his last fight where Wes Shultz was making an asshole out of himself.

Cesar Almeida

Cesar Almeida is a big time professional kickboxer who has had success at the highest levels including beating Alex Pereira. He does everything you expect a high level kickboxer to do. He has clean combinations, big power, good foot work and is very dangerous every second the fight remains standing. His takedown defense in the middle of the cage is non existent, but he can defend well against the cage. If he is taken down has does a nice job scooting to the cage and working back up. He is coming off the decision loss to Cezary Olekziejchuk where he was taken down 6 times.