A little over a year ago when Mario beat Jose Aldo, we collectively decided we hated him. We all sat down and agreed that he was boring and annoying and should not have beaten one of our favorite fighters. Then he beat the biggest fraud of 2025 in Patchy Mix and we seem to have full flipped to Mario love. It actually took me just slightly longer to get over that hump and fully respect how good Mario is. It was actually the loss to Umar that did it. He rocked Umar with his hands, almost had multiple submissions, scrambled like crazy, looked huge and was always in that fight. The scorecards and the actual fight are very different things. Vinicius is very good and his aggression find shim success but I think Mario is the more skilled fighter. I think Mario's striking is much better and his scramble jiu jitsu is fantastic. Mario is going to be the pick and we will find out what kind of cardio these two have.

Mario Bautista

Mario Bautista is a high volume, get one to give one style striker. He sets a nice pace and is always plotting forward while being light on his feet. He lands an impressive 6 significant strikes per minute but is hit with almost 5. He has been steadily evolving the last few years and even though he lost to Umar Nurmagomedov, his scrambles and striking were impressible.

Vinicius Oliveira

Vinicius Oliveira is a fun guy who charges forward and throws everything at the wall looking for a finish. He is sloppy but dangerous. He's not just chaos on the feet through, he is also chaos on the ground. He will get to the ground and then donkey kong style rain down punches and hammer fists. He's winning fights with aggression, power and creativity. He is coming off a very lokdog-esque win over Kyler Philips where he knocked him down, took him down, and outworked him everywhere.