I am a known and vocal Joel Avarez hater. It started back in 2022 when I said Arman Tsarukyan would beat him and all the insane Joel loyalists came for my head like I didn't pick a 2-1 favorite. But we've moved past that. Yes, I root against him in some weird 3 year long bitterness, but at a certain point i need to cleanse the hate from my heart and move on. This is not that point, Drakkar smokes Joel here.. No, I'm kidding. I did come into this looking for a reason to pick him, but i think Joel has improved too much everywhere and probably wins this fight. Drakkar's best chance to win here would be grappling and as I mentioned earlier, that is a dangerous game. So Joel is the pick and maybe we can get lucky with a favorable round line.

Drakkar Klose

Drakkar Klose is a very good wrestler who developed striking as well. He was a state champion wrestler who uses his wrestling offense, but does have some issues defending takedowns. He has solid boxing with power and speed. Overall he is a well rounded guy who can go the distance or finish a fight. He is coming off the decision win over Joaquim Silva where he was dropped and managed to survive a guillotine choke by launching himself backwards Michael Chandler style

Joel Alvarez

Joel Alvarez is very tall for the division at 6'3 and he uses that length and reach well. He has solid kicks and ok boxing but very good grappling. His grappling is interesting because he gotten a single takedown in the UFC. in fact, he hasn't defended one either. It may be easy to take Joel down, but he did submit 4 of the 5 people who have. He is coming off the TKO win over Elves Brenner where his striking in general looked fantastic and his knees specifically got it done.