UFC Predictions: UFC Vegas 28: Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs. Augusto Sakai predictions

#2 UFC Heavyweight division: Walt Harris vs. Marcin Tybura

Marcin Tybura's most recent UFC win came against Greg Hardy.

This fight is probably more likely to produce a finish of some kind than the main event. After all, Harris, win or lose, is one of the most prolific finishers in the UFC right now.

At 37 years old, it’s no longer appropriate to label the Big Ticket as a prospect in the UFC. Instead, it’s better to see him as a highly flawed fighter who’s capable of taking out anyone on his day, making him a lot of fun to watch.

Overall, Harris is 8-7-1 in the UFC, with all of his wins coming via KO or TKO.

Right now, he’s coming off a pair of bad losses, going down to Alistair Overeem and Alexander Volkov. Had things gone even slightly differently, though, he would’ve knocked Overeem out, putting him at 4-0-1 in his last five.

Essentially, Harris is ridiculously fast for a big man and hits remarkably hard too. However, his ground game is painfully lacking. Fabricio Werdum made him look like a rank amateur in their fight and he’s not all that durable.

Tybura, on the other hand, is excellent on the ground, particularly if he can get an opponent underneath him from mount. He’s punished numerous opponents that way, including Greg Hardy and Andrei Arlovski.

The Polish native’s issue has largely been with his lack of explosive speed. He’s a decent technical striker but has struggled at times with quicker opponents, particularly Derrick Lewis in 2018.

And to be fair, Augusto Sakai and Shamil Abdurakhimov aren’t the quickest and even they got the better of Tybura on the feet.

However, based on Harris’ waning durability and panicky ground game, it’s hard not to favor Tybura here.

Harris can almost certainly take him out in a rush in the early going. In fact, if he did so, it wouldn’t be a surprise at all.

However, the smarter money is on Tybura simply staying out of range, taking Harris down and either TKO’ing him from the top or submitting him. The former is probably more likely.

The Pick: Tybura via second-round TKO