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

#7 The Prelims: ESPN+ card

Sergio Moraes headlines the prelims against Anthony Rocco Martin

All of this weekend’s prelims will air on the ESPN+ streaming service, including the headliner between Welterweights Sergio Moraes and Anthony Rocco Martin. In his previous life as a Lightweight, Martin struggled with top-level BJJ artists – beaten by the likes of Leonardo Santos and Beneil Dariush, neither of whom have the credentials that Moraes does. At Welterweight though Martin looks like a different fighter, a hard-hitting striker who’s maintained the massive strength he held at 155lbs. Moraes is a reckless and dangerous fighter from all areas but his durability isn’t great and so I’m taking Martin to win by TKO.

At Bantamweight, Yana Kunitskaya takes on Marion Reneau. Reneau was looking on route for a title shot before falling to Cat Zingano last year, while Kunitskaya bounced back from her loss to Cris Cyborg by beating Lina Lansberg in a tough fight. I like Kunitskaya here – she’s an excellent grappler who also has a slight size advantage over Reneau, and at 41 Reneau could really start slowing down at any point. I’ll take Kunitskaya via decision.

Julian Erosa faces Grant Dawson in a Featherweight match, with ‘Juicy J’ looking to bounce back from a KO loss to Devonte Smith. Dawson, meanwhile, is a dangerous finisher who won his fight on Dana White’s Contender Series last year to earn this slot. I don’t know too much about Dawson, but I worry about Erosa’s durability and so I’ll take the newcomer to win via KO.

At Heavyweight, TUF veteran Maurice Greene faces off with newcomer Jeff Hughes, curiously in a rematch of a 5-round decision in April 2018 that went Hughes’ way. Greene’s UFC experience could serve him well here but he didn’t show all that much on his TUF run and less than a year after losing to Hughes, I’m not sure I can pick him in good conscience. Hughes via decision is my pick.

Louis Smolka continues his move to the Bantamweight division against fellow former Flyweight Matt Schnell. Schnell is on a two-fight win streak but Smolka has been underrated for a long time in my opinion and I think he’ll use his ground skills to take ‘Danger’ out here probably by TKO.

At Welterweight, Alex Morono takes on Zak Ottow in a fight between two men who have hardly set the UFC world on fire with their fighting styles thus far. I’ll go with Ottow via decision, but in all honesty, it’s difficult to care about this one.

Finally, brawler Alex White returns to face Dan Moret at Lightweight. Moret didn’t show a lot in his UFC debut against Gilbert Burns, but to be fair he wasn’t given a lot of a chance. White, meanwhile, hasn’t won since a November 2017 knockout of Mitch Clarke. I like White here due to his UFC experience and dangerous striking, probably by TKO.