We are sitting at 14 fights so far for UFC Fight Night Kansas City, with a banger headlining it with Ian Machado Garry against the rising star from the fighting nerds Carlos Prates. We only have a couple of outrageous lines luckily, so there should be some good close fights along with some finishes inside the distance considering who is on the card from top to bottom.
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$9,000+ PRICE POINT
IKRAM ALISKEROV
He stepped up his last fight and went from a headliner at the Apex to a short notice main event against Robert Whitaker in the middle east. He got KO’d, but he took plenty of time off and was coming off 3 first round stoppages of his own. Lands 3.5X the amount of significant strikes per minute than Muniz and has grappling to rely on if the exchanges on the feet are not working out.
ZHANG MINGYANG
Zhang is a pretty solid looking fighter at 205, has some nice wins with his power finishing guys early, and to add the cherry on top Smith is retiring after this fight and has not looked great the last couple years in the octagon. Zhang averages over 8.5 significant strikes per minute, which is insane volume, and has a background in grappling; while Smith is the BJJ specialist, his takedown offense is terrible so I don’t think we see this go to the ground unless its someone doing ground and pound to finish it off.
$8,000 – $8,900 PRICE POINT
DAVID ONAMA
Giga is a straight kickboxing son of a gun, whereas Onama has the chops to take someone down and will shoot for them. He only averages .75 takedowns per fight, but he also outpaces Giga on the feet with 5.6 significant strikes per minute and has looked better during their last few fights in the UFC and is 6 years younger.
MICHEL PEREIRA
I think everyone saw the game plan to beat Pereira that Fluffy implemented last time out, I just don’t think Abus can do that without gassing himself. Questionable gas tanks on both these guys, but Michel is so much more dangerous on the feet. He has the power, he has the speed, and he can choke you out from any position if he gets a hold of you.
Under $8,000 PRICE POINT
CARLOS PRATES
This is going to be an interesting fight as these two got thrown together a couple weeks ago to fill in for Hill and Roundtree. Prates is undefeated in the UFC, Garry just lost for the first time in December against Shavkat in a dog fight. I think it a very even fight on the fight, Prates should have the power and Garry the speed, the big unknown is the grappling as Prates has just beein KO’ing everyone lately and Garry has shown he will try to take people down. Fighting Nerds vs Chute Boxe, give me the nerd.
CAMERON SAAIMAN
Saaiman was an up and coming prospect until about 18 months ago and now has lost two in a row. This seems like the UFC is testing out the bounce back ability against a guy in Wellmaker who is a undefeated prospect making his debut. He has averaged almost 112 DK points in his wins, so if he pulls it off in that fashion and wilts the newcomer, it should be a big boy score.
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