UFC Predictions: UFC Fight Night: Vicente Luque vs. Belal Muhammad 2

#2. UFC welterweight division: Miguel Baeza vs. Andre Fialho

Can Miguel Baeza regain some momentum this weekend against Andre Fialho?

Quite whether this fight turns out to be the co-headline bout on this weekend’s UFC event remains to be seen, but it has been confirmed as a main card fight and given the potential of Miguel Baeza, it’d probably make sense for it to be placed in that spot.

Baeza is coming off two straight losses here, suffering a knockout against Khaos Williams after dropping a decision to Santiago Ponzinibbio. However, both fights were absolutely fantastic and saw ‘Caramel Thunder’ have plenty of high points en route to his eventual defeats.

Initially, he was set to fight Dhiego Lima here in what would definitely have been a winnable fight for him given Lima’s questionable chin. However, the TUF veteran decided to hang up his gloves in February, leaving Baeza to face Andre Fialho.

So will Baeza be able to defeat the native of Portugal, or is he heading for a third straight defeat – one that would destroy his reputation as a prospect to watch entirely?

Fialho’s 14-4 record is solid enough, but it’s probably safe to say that those four losses came against his best opponents, including a defeat to Michel Pereira in his octagon debut in January.

However, that fight was a crazy one that saw Fialho give as good as he was getting for the most part. Really, the only difference was that the newcomer gassed out, allowing Pereira to take command in the later rounds.

With that considered, then, this one is likely to be a total barnburner, with both men throwing heavy shots with bad intentions from the off. Sure, one of the two could decide to play things more technically, but based on what we’ve seen before, that feels highly unlikely.

This means that the clash will essentially be a coin flip and given that Baeza was hurt by strikes in his last two bouts, falling by knockout in November, it could be fair to suggest that Fialho might have the advantage.

However, ‘Caramel Thunder’ is the more proven fighter and his win over the ultra-tough Matt Brown is better than anything Fialho’s produced thus far into his career. Therefore, Baeza is the pick here.

The Pick: Baeza via second-round TKO