UFC Fight Night 175: Smith vs. Rakic - Predictions and Picks

#6 The Prelims: UFC on ESPN+ card

Striker Maki Pitolo is set to headline this weekend's prelims

This weekend’s prelims will all be shown on ESPN+, and at the top of the card sits a Welterweight bout between Maki Pitolo and newcomer Impa Kasanganay. This fight was actually supposed to take place on last week’s UFC card but was moved for undisclosed reasons.

Last week, I took Kasanganay to win, feeling that he had the grappling chops to outwrestle Pitolo while also having the willingness to trade off with him standing. If he can avoid ‘Coconut Bombz’ KO power, then I’m still happy to take the UFC newcomer to win a decision.

In a Strawweight fight, Mallory Martin faces Hannah Cifers. This will be Cifers’ fourth fight of 2020, and worryingly she’s gone 0-3 thus far, losing her last two fights via submission. Martin has less UFC experience and lost her debut to Virna Jandiroba. But based on her recent form, there’s no shame in that. Based on her recent form it’s just hard to see Cifers finding a way to victory here, so I’m taking Martin via decision.

At Middleweight, Italy’s Alessio Di Chirico faces Zak Cummings. A grinder by nature, Cummings struggles against better athletes. But he’s tough enough to hang in with anyone and has dangerous finishing skills given the chance.

Di Chirico, on the other hand, is on a two-fight skid in the UFC. But before that, he was showing plenty of potential and is exactly the kind of athlete that could give Cummings problems. It’s hard to count Cummings out of this one. But a lot of his wins have come against smaller foes and I don’t think that’ll be the case here. I think Di Chirico will outwork him for a decision.

In a Featherweight clash, Alex Caceres faces Giga Chikadze. Like a couple of the other fights on this card, this one was scheduled to take place a couple of weeks ago on a different UFC show but ended up being moved here. It sounds like a fun fight on paper too, as both men usually show a lot of aggression.

I expect Chikadze to be more of the aggressor here. He’s a whirlwind of strikes mixed in with takedowns – and I think that pace will allow him to overwhelm ‘Bruce Leeroy’. He’ll need to be careful as Caceres is a dangerous finisher when given the opportunity, but I think Chikadze will wilt him and take a decision.

In the Flyweight division, Polyana Viana takes on Emily Whitmire. These two look quite well-matched and given they both prefer to grapple, we could be in for a fun ground battle with plenty of scrambles.

Viana has the more extensive record – she’s 10-4 – but Whitmire has almost certainly beaten the better opponents, with UFC wins over Jamie Moyle and Aleksandra Albu to her name. I think this one should be close, but I’m going to take Whitmire to win by submission.

At Welterweight, Sean Brady faces Christian Aguilera. Brady is a big-time prospect in this division, 12-0 including two wins in the UFC over veterans Court McGee and Ismail Naurdiev. An excellent fighter in all areas, Brady’s striking has looked powerful and we’ve also seen him mix in his wrestling to great effect.

Aguilera, meanwhile, debuted in the UFC in June on very late notice, defeating Anthony Ivy by TKO. This promises to be a much trickier fight for ‘The Beast’ though, as Brady is very much battle-tested and appears to be a better fighter overall. I expect Aguilera to bring the aggression again, but I think Brady’s got enough in his arsenal to take it and put his opponent away by TKO.

Finally, in the Middleweight division, former Light Heavyweight Saparbek Safarov goes up against Julian Marquez. Safarov is a tough fighter but his issue in the UFC has always been his lack of sheer athleticism, something that caught up with him against explosive opponents like Rodolfo Vieira and Tyson Pedro.

Marquez isn’t as great an athlete as those two, but he’s extremely tough, appears to be faster than Safarov, and hits very hard. The issue for him is that he hasn’t fought in the UFC since the summer of 2018, left on the shelf after tearing his lat. Assuming he’s fully recovered though, I think his aggression and speed will be enough here to win by TKO.