UFC Fight Night 140: Magny vs. Ponzinibbio - Predictions and Picks

#5 Guido Cannetti vs. Marlon Vera

Marlon Vera is one of the UFC's most exciting fighters

It’s been four years since the first season of The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America and yet a lot of the cast are still around and kicking on the UFC’s roster despite not breaking into title contention. That’s because all of them to a man fight with reckless abandon – including these two – and so I’m expecting an exciting fight here.

Argentina’s Cannetti went into hostile territory in May to defeat Chilean fighter Diego Rivas in his home country, but now he defends his own patch against Ecuador’s Vera, who has shown himself to be dangerous in all areas if slightly incapable of stepping up to the level of being a genuine contender.

Both men are similar fighters – they’re massively aggressive and will hunt for the finish on the feet and on the ground – but I give the advantage to Vera, primarily due to his superior experience. Cannetti has just 4 UFC fights to his name while Vera has 9, and the Ecuadorian has been in with legitimate talent like John Lineker, Brad Pickett and Douglas Silva de Andrade.

Experience isn’t everything of course, but Cannetti’s wild aggression won’t offer Vera anything he hasn’t seen before, and if anything will likely play into the hands of ‘Chito’. To see Cannetti have some early success with his kickboxing wouldn’t surprise me, but I think he’ll get too aggressive for his own good and leave himself open to a submission.

The Pick: Vera via second round submission