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UFC Fight Night 162 Odds, Preview & Picks

UFC Fight Night 162 Odds, Preview & Picks

Written by on October 23, 2019

UFC News and Betting Previews| Xbet.ag
UFC heads to Singapore for UFC Fight Night 162: Maia vs Askren, as Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang is set to host the action on Saturday. The main event is a welterweight tilt between Ben Askren, a former ONE Welterweight Champion and a former Bellator Welterweight Champion, and Demian Maia, a former challenger for the UFC Welterweight and Middleweight titles. The co-main event is a lightweight bout between Michael Johnson and Stevie Ray. We have the full fight card as well as thoughts about the key matchups.

UFC Fight Night 162 Odds, Preview & Picks

Event Info

  • When: Saturday, October 26th, 2019, 8am ET
  • Where: Singapore Indoor Stadium, Kallang, Singapore
  • TV: ESPN+
  • Live Stream: UFC Fight Pass

Main Card (ESPN+)

  • Demian Maia vs Ben Askren (Welterweight)
  • Michael Johnson vs Stevie Ray (Lightweight)
  • Frank Camacho vs Beneil Dariush (Lightweight)
  • Ciryl Gane vs Don’tale Mayes (Heavyweight)
  • Muslim Salikhov vs Laureano Staropoli (Welterweight)

Preliminary Card (ESPN+)

  • Randa Markos vs Ashley Yoder (Women’s Strawweight)
  • Alex White vs Rafael Fiziev (Lightweight)
  • Enrique Barzola vs Movsar Evloev (Featherweight)
  • Sergei Pavlovich vs Maurice Greene (Heavyweight)
  • Lona Lookboonmee vs Aleksandra Albu (Women’s Strawweight)
  • Raphael Pessoa Nunes vs Jeff Hughes (Heavyweight)

Demian Maia (27-9) vs Ben Askren (19-1)

Ben Askren has built a career as a wrestling-first MMA fighter, and he ran through the competition at Bellator and the ONE Championship without much difficulty. However, he had a difficult time getting into UFC because of the promotion’s tendency to avoid fighters who don’t have much of a striking game. Once he finally got his UFC debut, he submitted Robbie Lawler — but only after narrowly missing a bomb from Lawler that would have knocked him out. Then came a fight against Jorge Masvidal, who delivered a flying knee just five seconds into the bout that knocked out Askren and gave him his lone MMA fighting loss, finally showing that a lack of striking defense would end up costing him. Now he fights Maia, who is almost 42 years old but still has a solid game. Maia is one of the best MMA wrestlers out there, generally either delivering a submission or getting enough points to win on the cards. He had a title bout against Anderson Silva that did not go his way, and so then he added kickboxing to his repertoire. This forced him to go down to welterweight, where he had some success until he lost in succession to Tyron Woodley, Colby Covington and Kamaru Usman. In 2019, he has beaten Lyman Good and Anthony Rocco Martin, two of the lesser fighters in the division, and now he has a chance against Askren that both need if they want consideration for a title bout. If this fight stays on the ground, Askren should grind out the win, but if Maia can stay away, he can use striking and kickboxing to shred his defenses and deliver the win. Final Prediction: Maia wins via decision Michael Johnson (19-14) vs Steven Ray (22-9) Johnson makes his return to the ranks of the lightweights after dropping down to 145 pounds and paying the price. He was a contender in UFC until he lost to Nate Diaz in 2015, but after that he delivered a knockout of Dustin Poirier. Losses to Khabib Nurmagomedov and Justin Gaethje ate at his confidence, which is why he dropped to featherweight. He went 2-2 there, but he had the same issues with the mental side of the fighting, so after a knockout loss against Josh Emmett, he is back in the lightweight ranks and gets a fairly forgiving matchup with Ray. Ray started out 5-1 in UFC in the lightweight division and then got a featured bout against Paul Felder. However, Felder did not take long to finish Ray, and Ray had to wait a while to get his next fight. He has gotten less active over time, letting the other fighter drive the rhythm. That worked against Jessin Ayari but not against Kajan Johnson or Leonardo Santos. He needs to find ways to drive the fight instead of having the fight come to him. I don’t see him making the necessary adjustments against an established fighter like Johnson, even though Johnson seems to have reached his apex already. Final Prediction: Johnson wins via decision
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