UFC Fight Night 143: Cejudo vs. Dillashaw - Predictions and Picks

#7 The Prelims: ESPN card

The legendary Donald Cerrone headlines the ESPN prelims

Main event-ing the first ever UFC card on the full ESPN network will be a true legend in Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone. Fresh off his November win over Mike Perry – which gave him the records for both the most UFC wins and finishes – Cerrone now faces hot prospect Alexander Hernandez. Hernandez had a tremendous 2018 – upsetting Beneil Dariush with a quick knockout and then outgrappling Olivier Aubin-Mercier – but this feels to me like a step too far. Cerrone lost to Darren Till and Leon Edwards at 170lbs, but he was outsized there, and for me he’s too wily for a relatively inexperienced foe like Hernandez. Cerrone by submission is my pick.

At Women’s Flyweight, Joanne Calderwood returns to face newcomer Ariane Lipski, a Brazilian fighting out of Poland who is considered one of the best in the world at 125lbs. Calderwood has long claimed that the cut to 115lbs gave her most of her issues, but while that may be true, I worry about her overall durability as she’s been rocked in most of her losses. It’d be nice to see the popular ‘JoJo’ pick up a win, but I don’t like her chances against a fighter who sounds like a dangerous newcomer. I’ll take Lipski via TKO.

In a tricky fight to pick at 205lbs, Alonzo Menifield, an unbeaten prospect who won his fight on Dana White’s Contender Series, takes on newcomer Vinicius Alves Moreira, who also won on the Contender Series last year, albeit the Brazil version. This is a tough fight to pick given we don’t know all that much about either man; Menifield won his fight on the Contender Series in just 8 seconds and appears to be an explosive striker based on his past fights. Moreira meanwhile looks more of a grappler, winning most of his fights via submissions. I’m taking Menifield here though – Moreira looked somewhat hittable in his Contender Series fight, and Menifield looks like the kind of guy who destroys whatever he hits. Menifield via KO is my pick.

In a last-minute fight at Bantamweight, Cory Sandhagen takes on Mario Bautista, who is stepping in for an injured John Lineker on a week’s notice. Bautista is 6-0 and fights out of the MMA Lab – Benson Henderson’s camp – but Sandhagen has looked fantastic in his first two UFC fights and given he was due to fight Lineker, you have to think the UFC has high hopes for him. I can’t see a late replacement like Bautista taking him out and so I’ll go with Sandhagen with his third TKO in the Octagon.