UFC Fight Night 141: Blaydes vs. Ngannou 2 - Predictions and Picks

#5 The Prelims: Fight Pass card

Chinese prospect Kenan Song highlights the prelim card

As the whole card is being shown on Fight Pass for most viewers, it’s a little tricky to separate it into a ‘main card’ and ‘prelim fights’ in the traditional sense, but the likelihood is that the following 8 fights will not be televised in countries such as the UK, so I’m counting them as the preliminary bouts.

First up we’ve got China’s Kenan Song – 2-0 in the UFC right now – taking on Alex Morono, who is all even at 3-3 in the UFC if you ignore the marijuana bust that caused Niko Price’s win over him to be rendered a No Contest. Song’s heavy hands – he’s knocked out both of his UFC opponents and has 7 knockouts on his record – make me lean towards him here, particularly as Morono is more of a grappler who’s found it somewhat hard to work his takedowns at times. Song by knockout is the pick.

In a battle of Heavyweights, Hu Yaozong takes on Rashad Coulter in what should be a loser-leaves-town match given Yaozong lost his UFC debut last November and hasn’t fought since, while Coulter is 0-3 in the Octagon. I’m taking Coulter here, probably by TKO, as despite his terrible UFC record, he was competitive with all of his opponents – including the fast-rising Tai Tuivasa – and despite being short for a Heavyweight, he’s a big guy, while Yaozong showed very little in his UFC debut against Cyril Asker.

Former Flyweights Martin Day and Liu Pingyuan will throw down at Bantamweight – another signal that the 125lbs division doesn’t have long left. Footage on Day is pretty hard to come by outside of his loss on Dana White’s Contender Series last year, while Pingyuan is far more experienced and looked decent in his July win over Damian Stasiak. I worry about Day’s physicality here going against a fighter who appears to have a size advantage, so I’ll take Pingyuan by decision.

Kevin Holland will take on Welsh fighter John Phillips in a rare fight on this card to not involve a Chinese combatant. A training partner of Conor McGregor, Phillips showed very little in his UFC debut – a quick loss to Charles Byrd – and while he’s had a ton of experience and has good punching power, he’s traditionally struggled against grappling-based opponents. That’s worrying for him against Holland, who showed insane toughness in his Octagon debut against Thiago Santos, and he even had Santos in trouble on the ground at points. Holland via a ground-based TKO would be my pick.

Former Flyweight Louis Smolka makes his return to face the interestingly-named Sumudaerji Sumudaerji at 135lbs, and given the dearth of footage on Sumudaerji, it’s not an easy one to call. Smolka is smaller but I suspect his UFC experience will see him through, as he traditionally only struggled with more grappling-based fighters like Ray Borg and is pretty well-rounded himself. Smolka via submission is my pick.

The unbeaten Lauren Mueller takes on Wu Yanan in the Women’s Flyweight division and while the Chinese fighter has more experience, I’m taking Mueller to pull out the win here. Yanan worryingly hasn’t fought since the UFC’s last outing into China a year ago, and she didn’t look to offer much there in a loss to Gina Mazany. Mueller hasn’t moved the earth yet but she’s been very solid and comes from a good camp in Alliance MMA. I’ll take Mueller via decision.

Formerly considered the best Strawweight in the world, Jessica Aguilar has struggled in the UFC thus far, pulling out of numerous fights with injuries and losing to Claudia Gadelha and Cortney Casey before picking up a maiden win over Jodie Esquibel in July. Weili Zhang meanwhile defeated the tough Danielle Taylor in August and is on a 17-fight win streak. In her prime, I’d have taken Aguilar to win via her strong grappling game, but I worry she’s past her prime now after so many injuries, so I’m taking Zhang via decision.

Finally sometime Japanese pro-wrestler, kickboxer and MMA fighter Syuri Kondo takes on Yan Xiaonan in the opening fight. Both women are relatively inexperienced in MMA but I’m going purely by what I’ve seen from them here, and Xiaonan defeated a pair of solid opponents in Kailin Curran and Viviane Pereira in her first 2 UFC fights, while Kondo edged out Chan-Mi Jeon in her debut and was easily beaten by Polania Botelho in her second outing. Given how bad Kondo looked in that fight, I can’t pick her in good conscience so I’m taking Xiaonan via TKO.