UFC on ESPN: Holm vs. Aldana - Predictions and Picks

#2 UFC Heavyweight Division: Yorgan De Castro vs. Carlos Felipe

Yorgan De Castro's striking style is reminiscent of Mark Hunt.

Given that these two Heavyweights lost in pretty disappointing fashion last time around, it's hard to understand why the UFC have put them in the semi-main event here. Sure, the likelihood is a big knockout for one of them, but neither is a contender right now, so why not use a more relevant fight?

At any rate, both men are similar. They're hardly physical specimens, but they hit hard, with a total of 11 KO's or TKO's between them in just 16 fights. If they were up against different opponents here, it'd probably be worth breaking their skillsets down. For instance, Felipe's ground game looked like a major liability in his loss to Sergey Spivak.

The truth, however, is that the two men aren't likely to go to the ground anyway. Instead, they're more likely to fire big shots at one another until one is unconscious. Naturally, the likelihood of a violent KO is exactly why the UFC have chosen to showcase them. Overall, I'm probably favoring De Castro here by a hair.

Firstly, despite appearing to be in bad shape, the native of Cape Verde simply has a very low center of gravity, ala former UFC star Mark Hunt. That means that everything he throws comes with a ton of power, but he's not a crude brawler per se. He KO'd Justin Tafa with a picture-perfect counterpunch, and he was picking Greg Hardy apart before breaking his foot.

Brazil's Felipe is much more likely to simply come out swinging, and if that's the case, then he could find himself in some trouble. He's never been stopped by strikes before, but there's a first time for everything - particularly in the UFC - and I suspect he'll walk into something nasty and find himself out before the first round ends.

The Pick: De Castro via first-round KO