Finished this article at the airport. Will make a video when I get home. This card takes place on Thursday at 02:30 PM ET.

DARRAGH KELLY (9-0) vs. JAY JAY WILSON (11-2) – Lightweight

This is a tough one to call. Originally Wilson was booked against Paul Hughes but Kelly has now been rebooked for this main event. Hughes is mostly a striker, whereas Kelly is the opposite and is a big grappler. On the feet Kelly doesn't offer much but he does throw hard, especially his right hand. He hasn't managed a big KO yet on the feet but as he improves his technique that striking threat will get more dangerous. Kelly doesn't spend much time on the feet though. He works against the cage and uses his size advantage over most lightweights to drag opponents down. His grappling is very good once the fight reaches the mat as he can threaten submissions as well as reverse tough positions. He is happy to draw the fight out if necessary which could be a factor here. Jay Jay Wilson is a bit more well rounded in my opinion. He is big for lightweight himself especially since he used to fight at 145. His striking is pretty good but not excellent. He is pretty stiff but he is dangerous in close, dirty boxing and throwing plenty of knees. His grappling is a strong point of his game, especially impressing me against Mansour Barnoui. His biggest weakness is that he spends a lot of time on his back. He was able to reverse Barnoui but Colgan was able to hold him down. He won a close decision against Tokov in Bellator and he has to win that fight off his back. Kelly will be the aggressor when it comes to controlling where the fight takes place but I have seen him reversed himself when he is in dominant positions. What makes the fight hard to call is that I don't think Wilson will be able to defend the take downs as his take down defence has not held up his entire career, so it comes down to whether or not Wilson will be able to match Kelly's grappling and scramble to his own dominant positions. I think he can but the Colgan fight leaves me with a little doubt. On the feet Wilson will certainly be landing more volume so he should get the nod on damage there too.

Pick: Jay Jay Wilson by decision. Low confidence.

RHYS MCKEE (14-7-1) vs. ALEX LOHORE (26-11) – Welterweight

I trust McKee far too much in the UFC. He is slow and has some of the worst fight IQ we may have ever seen. I was not sure why the online discourse is describing this as a close fight though. Lohore is a striker but he is likely coming into this injured as he just lost on Karate Combat not long ago and has a scar on his left eyebrow. Lohore is a decent boxer and after looking into him a bit more I can say he does have a punchers chance in this fight. He spends a lot of time in the pocket where he catches a lot of his opponents with quick hooks. The problem is he doesn't have the best head movement so can get caught on the end of these exchanges himself. His loss to Ion Surdu is a prime example of this. When he fights competent strikers he seems to be kill or get killed. McKee is massive for welterweight and mostly uses his length to strike from a distance. As I stated before his problem is that he is far too slow for the weight class. Lohore is old and nearly 40 fights into his MMA career but I am certain he will be faster. McKee does have his moments where he looks good but that is when he is chasing after oppoents and bullying them with his reach. He should be able to do this against Lohore without getting caught given this reach advantage. Not super confident in McKee after looking into Lohore further but this looks like the type of fight he wins.

Pick: Rhys McKee by KO/TKO. Medium confidence.

TYSON PEDRO (10-5) vs. DOVLET YAGSHIMURADOV (25-8-1) – Light Heavyweight

Pedro must owe some dangerous people money to take a fight like this. He has a lot of power and has been trying his hand at boxing recently so he has a punchers chance but I don't like the fight for him at all. Dovlet can be a boring cage pusher on his worst day, but on his best day he is a powerful boxer who uses this pressure to put his opponents against the cage and knock them out. Pedro can grapple too but he doesn't have the take down threat of Corey Anderson. This is either a very boring decision where Dovlet just clinches Pedro, or knocks him out. Pedro hasn't fought in MMA in 2 years and I thought he retired so I am picking the KO route.

Pick: Dovlet Yagshimuradov by KO/TKO. High confidence.

CHRIS MIXAN (7-1) vs. EOIN SHERIDAN (4-0) – Welterweight

Been paying attention to Mixan since he knocked out Joey Hart. His boxing great, mostly fighting behind straight punches. He has a long reach for the division at 74″ which helps him but he will be at a big disadvantage here. Sheridan is a 6'5″ welterweight who certainly has a lot of potential. As you would expect, that height at this weight class makes him incredibly awkward. Surprisingly, he is mostly a grappler. Typically fighters with this size use their length to be long range strikers. Sheridan looks to drag his opponents down against the cage, or use his height to take their back standing. On the feet he can be a bit off balance and his defence is a bit weak but nobody has been able to exploit this yet. Mixan's take down defense is good but I am not ready to call it great. If he can stay out of trouble on the ground he should certainly be the better striker. Even in fights where Sheridan has found striking success he is still throwing looping strikes that leave his chin exposed. Mixan can be low volume which is a big concern but his technique should overcome Sheridan. I am interested to see how Mixan's striking looks in the pocket. If it even gets there as even against Joey Hart he chose to just jab his from range, eventually knocking him out with a perfectly timed jab.

Pick: Chris Mixan by KO/TKO. Low-medium confidence.

PEDRO CARVALHO (14-10) vs. SERGIO COSSIO (27-11-1) – Lightweight

I originally had confidence in Carvalho but after watching a few fights, having any level of confidence in this fight would be irresponsible. Carvalho is a decent boxer but his chin is completely gone now. No wonder as even in his prime he had no head movement and got most of his best wins off of wrestlers with much worse striking ability than him. He does have a few submissions wins but he doesn't shoot take downs much. Cossio is an interesting sort as he was on a strong run on the Mexican regional scene, but he has looked completely shot in his last two fights. Not sure what happened but the guy who showed up against Dedrek Sanders was not the same fighter who won on Bellator 300, and the guy who derailed whatever hype Anthony Romero had left after his OEM loss. His striking has got much worse, I don't even know how to describe it. He has his hands by his waist and he completely folds under any pressure. His head movement also sucks so in general he just has no striking defence anymore. Carvalho isn't anything special but at least he has been fighting good competition and in some instances making it close.

Pick: Pedro Carvalho by KO/TKO. Low confidence.

OMRAN CHAABAN (9-1) vs. CHEQUINA NOSO PEDRO (10-4) – Welterweight

There is a lot of online discourse regarding this fight, largely because many believe in Noso Pedro to pull off yet another upset. All three of Pedro's recent wins have come against undefeated fighters and it seems he loves to be the test for prospects. He isn't the biggest fighter for the weight class but he is a good wrestler. He mostly shoots his take downs against the cage and score points with top control and ground and pound. He is coming off a big upset over Khamzat Abaev where Abaev couldn't knock him out early and gassed out in round 2. The same goes for the Duraev fight as well. I am somewhat surprised they scored it for Noso Pedro in the end but Duraev also death gassed after winning round 1 with his wrestling. From what I have seen Chaaban has decent cardio. Chaaban is a massive welterweight and from the faceoffs was towering over Pedro. He isn't a bad striker but I will say I think he is too comfortable on the feet. He strikes well from range but starts to get confident and tries to get fancy. I would say he is the better striker in this fight if he can fight smart. He is a grappler but isn't desperate to get the fight down. Pedro is good and is a respectable underdog but I have to side with Chaaban.

Pick: Chaaban by decision. Low confidence.

CIARAN CLARKE (10-0) vs. DEAN GARNETT (14-4-1) – Bantamweight

Clarke is really boring. He hasn't fought for 2 years while Garnett has been going life and death with killers. Could be a fun one but think Clarke plays it safe and grinds out a decision. Mind hasn't changed on this, but I do think Clarke could be very fraudulent. Clarke has not impressed me and his competition has been poor his entire career. His striking is awful and for once Garnett will have a striking advantage. The problem with Garnett however is the fact that he is 37 years old now and has taken a lot of damage in his career, He was knocked down multiple times by Lewis McGrillen, and in his last outing was knocked out again. The fight against Baris only lasted 40 seconds but from the start Garnett looked a lot slower than usual so the age may finally be catching up to him. Clarke is largely just a grappler and Garnett can hold his own on the ground, even beating the undefeated Jan Ciepowski convincingly with his grappling. This Clarke's toughest test but he is getting Garnett at the right time.

Pick: Ciaran Clarke by decision. Low confidence.

CAOLAN LOUGHRAN (10-3) vs. ALAN PHILPOTT (21-17) – Bantamweight

Philpott is the only fighter from Northern Ireland on the card and they don't give him a lay up. I think the PFL is trying to justify their signing of Loughran here. Loughran is huge for the division and I will admit I got a bit too sold on him after seeing him beat Festus Ahorlu who is a prospect I was interested in at the time. He even started his UFC run with an impressive performance against Taylor Lapilus as that fight was closer than many give Loughran credit for. The problem with Loughran is that he is boring. He doesn't do much on the feet and largely wants to just control the cage. You could argue he beat Jack Cartwright in his last outing but even then the fight was unimpressive. I know of Philpott as he has fought for Eternal MMA a few times. He is pretty fun as he is pretty dangerous everywhere but the blueprint to beat him is very clear. Philpott's grappling defence is terrible. He has been submitted 15 times and nearly all of those losses are to either rear naked choke or arm triangle choke. Loughran hasn't submitted anyone with a winning record and he hasn't won by submission since 2020. But being the wrestler that he is I am sure he will take the fight down and find some sort of grappling success against the veteran.

Pick: Caolan Loghran by submission. High confidence.

DAVID MARTINEZ (16-6) vs. GIANNIS BACHAR (9-3) – Welterweight

About time Martinez got an opportunity like this. I have known of David Martinez since I started following Eternal but he has never been able to put a good win streak together until now. He has wins over solid guys like Jack Becker and Matt Vaile but he also has some pretty bad losses. Seems like he was never able to beat the step up in competition. He was able to put a streak together and is now the Eternal MMA champion. His biggest improvement has certainly been in the striking. His technique used to be quite poor and he would leave himself open a lot. His boxing technique has improved a lot and that has helped get him his recent wins. He is a grappler though and he looks for take downs against the cage. His cardio is solid and he has pushed deep into 3 rounds multiple times, even beating Vaile at the end of round 5. Bachar is an interesting case. He's not bad but he's not good. He was beating Kikiuiri in his last fight and then quit on the stool due to a knee injury. He is a boring clinch fighter most of the time but he is big for the division and could win by holding Martinez against the cage for 3 rounds. I think Martinez is strong enough in these positions though and has far better cardio than Bachar. I think Martinez has the ability to put a pace on Bachar and finish him late. That being said these odds are getting a bit out of hand.

Pick: David Martinez by KO/TKO. Medium confidence.

SEAN GAUCI (10-1) vs. LIAM GITTINS (13-5) – Bantamweight

I think Gauci should win this but Gittins is legit himself. We did just see Harry Hardwick lose to Marwan Rahiki so the Australian scene is up one over Cage Warriors champs coming into this one. Gauci is a good boxer who used to fight at flyweight but he is coming up to bantamweight. I don't love the move and I am guessing he is only doing it because PFL doesn't have a flyweight division. That being said, Gittins isn't the biggest for the division himself as he looked relatively small compared to Lapilus. Gittins is a Muay Thai striker who does have good grappling as well. He was getting pressured a lot by Lapilus who was overwhelming him with volume. That is the style Gauci typically employs with his boxing. He did wrestle a lot on the Contender Series but I don't know how that will go against Gittins who is a good grappler and will likely be the bigger fighter. It's hard to be confident as Gauci hasn't fought for 18 months now but he can beat Gittins with pressure and volume.

Pick: Sean Gauci by decision. Low confidence.

EOGHAN MASOLIVER (1-0) vs. SHANE MULLEN (1-0) – Bantamweight

Pick: Eoghan Masoliver by KO/TKO. This is a lay up but only one pro fight confidence.