UFC Fight Night 146: Lewis vs. Dos Santos - Predictions and Picks

#6 Tim Boetsch vs. Omari Akhmedov

Tim Boetsch has been in the UFC for over a decade now

Time flies, as evidenced by the fact that Tim Boetsch has now been in the UFC for over a decade, and holds a record of 12-11 inside the Octagon. There have been plenty of times in the past – his three-fight skid between 2015 and 2016, for instance – when it looked like ‘The Barbarian’ was finished, and yet here he remains, still the same dangerous wrestle-boxer he’s always been.

Akhmedov was last seen fighting to a draw against Marvin Vettori in December 2017, and he’s been gone for over a year since, despite no issues with USADA or anything like that. Simple injuries have kept the Dagestani out, basically.

A dangerous fighter, Akhmedov loves to attack his opponents with clubbing blows from inside the clinch, and he’s also proven to be pretty solid with his takedowns, too. His issue has traditionally been with his durability – he was knocked out twice during his run at 170lbs and was also hurt pretty badly by Abdul Razak Alhassan in their fight in 2017.

Assuming Father Time hasn’t caught up to Boetsch yet, this should be his fight to lose; he’s far bigger than Akhmedov at 185lbs and he hits extremely hard. He’s also got a tremendous wrestling base, and the only men to really best him on the ground were either phenomenal wrestlers like Matt Hamill and Phil Davis, or world-class BJJ artists such as Ronaldo Jacare and Thales Leites. Akhmedov falls into neither of those categories.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see Boetsch make this one tricky for himself – I could see him taking some big shots from Akhmedov and getting himself into trouble – but I think he’s got the toughness and the skill-set to grind the Dagestani down, and probably put him away at around the midway point of the fight.

The Pick: Boetsch via second round TKO