UFC Fight Night 157: Andrade vs. Zhang - Predictions and Picks

#4 Movsar Evloev vs. Lu Zhenhong

Movsar Evloev won his UFC debut back in April

Russia’s Evloev made his UFC debut back in April at the promotion’s St. Petersburg card, and he brought in quite a lot of hype given his 10-0 record and 7 finishes. Unfortunately, he didn’t quite deliver in terms of action despite whitewashing Sung Woo Choi – essentially, he just outwrestled the Korean for a clear-cut decision.

Evloev was initially pegged to face Darren Till training partner Mike Grundy here in what would’ve been an interesting test for him given Grundy’s size and toughness, but with the Brit sidelined with an injury, the UFC has brought in Chinese fighter Lu Zhenhong on late notice.

The good news? Evloev is a solid prospect to watch and so it’s nice that he’s been able to stay on the card. The bad news? Zhenhong is coming off a loss (although he was on a 9 fight streak prior to that) and he’s already been beaten by Evloev once, back in an M-1 Global bout in 2016.

Their first fight is definitely worth watching to make a call as to who will win this one; the fight largely saw little striking, although it was clear that Zhenhong was the more polished kickboxer. On the ground though, despite some periods of success, the Chinese fighter was largely outclassed by Evloev, who came close with a second-round rear-naked choke en route to a unanimous decision victory.

From the footage I’ve seen on Zhenhong, I’m simply not convinced that he’s improved in the grappling realm enough to get his win back in this one. When you throw in the fact that he’s taken the fight on late notice and will be making his UFC debut, things look even trickier for him. I suspect he may see some success on the feet, but I don’t see him stopping Evloev’s takedown and that’ll lead to his defeat. Evloev will need to round out his game in the future to progress in the UFC, but I think this one should be simple enough for him.

The Pick: Evloev via unanimous decision