Hall vs Silva - Fight By Fight Preview

An exciting featherweight pairing mans the penultimate position on this weekend’s fight card as Team Alpha Male’s Andre Fili squares off with emerging Ultimate Fighter alum Bryce Mitchell.

The 30-year-old Fili has won three of his last four and over the last five years, he has compiled a 6-4 record, turning in steely performances each time out while only losing to ranked competition.

Arkansas’ Mitchell claimed the “bronze medal” on Season 27 of The Ultimate Fighter when he edged out Tyler Diamond on the cards at the finale, but since then, the 26-year-old has emerged as one of the top up-and-coming talents in the featherweight division. His twister submission of Matt Sayles at the end of 2019 opened everyone’s eyes to his potential and his dominant effort against Charles Rosa last time out confirmed he’s not one to be trifled with on the canvas.

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This is an ideal pairing for both participants and should provide a tremendous amount of insight into where each man stands in the featherweight ranks.

For Fili, it’s a chance to turn back a streaking upstart and collect a second consecutive win, further cementing his status as a fixture on the fringes of the Top 15 while putting himself in position to potentially make a run towards the Top 10 next year. As for Mitchell, he puts his perfect 4-0 mark inside the Octagon on the line against his toughest opponent to date, with the opportunity to climb the divisional ladder and solidify his status as the top young threat in the division heading into 2021.

Do not miss this fight.

Lightweights looking to continue making moves in the loaded 155-pound weight class collide here as veteran Bobby Green takes on Brazil’s Thiago Moises.

Just like Kevin Holland, Green has taken full advantage of the UFC restart, registering three victories since June. After outworking fellow divisional staple Clay Guida in his first appearance of the year, the 34-year-old “King” has followed it up with victories over Lando Vannata and Alan Patrick, and looks to make it three wins in as many months, just like Holland, when he faces off with Moises on Saturday.

Moises has alternated losses and wins since landing a place on the UFC roster through the Contender Series in 2018. Last time out, he rebounded from a slow start to lock up one of the top submission finishes of the year, lacing up Michael Johnson’s leg and forcing “The Menace” to tap to an Achilles lock just 25 seconds into the second round. The 25-year-old was a quality prospect before arriving in the Octagon and could finally be finding his footing now that he’s got a few big-league appearances under his belt.

Green has made a career of being a tough out and an entertaining fighter, and he should prove to be both again here, as Moises goes searching for a second straight strong showing against an established veteran as he looks to build some momentum heading into next year.

Saturday’s other lightweight pairing is an intriguing clash between the returning Chris Gruetzemacher and regrouping Alexander Hernandez.

Fighting for the first time since registering a second-round stoppage win over Joe Lauzon at UFC 223, the 34-year-old Gruetzemacher has dealt with myriad injuries since then, including a torn ACL. A member of Team Faber on Season 22 of The Ultimate Fighter, “Gritz” has been limited to just three appearances in the last five years, but was 13-1 in the seven years prior when he was competing regularly on the way to reaching the UFC.

Hernandez burst onto the scene with a 42-second knockout win over Beneil Dariush in his short-notice promotional debut in early 2018, but has been inconsistent since, splitting four appearances. The confident 28-year-old shifted his training to Factory X Muay Thai in Colorado following his loss to Drew Dober earlier this year, and it will be interesting to see what kind of adjustments and improvements he has made when he steps into the Octagon this weekend.

There is no denying that Hernandez is a talented fighter with a ton of promise, but he looked like someone who was trying to run before he really knew how to walk in his loss to Donald Cerrone and couldn’t make the correct adjustments last time out against Dober. Working with Marc Montoya could bring about major changes and this bout with Gruetzemacher should be a good measuring stick to help determine where he fits in the stacked lightweight class as 2020 winds to a close.

Fresh off a blistering performance on the Contender Series, Adrian Yanez makes his first foray into the Octagon opposite fellow newcomer Victor Rodriguez on Saturday night in Las Vegas.

Yanez scored one of the more impressive finishes thus far this season on the Contender Series in mid-August when he knocked out Brady Huang with a slick two-piece in just 39 seconds. The effort earned the LFA staple a fourth straight victory, a UFC contract, and a place on the roster alongside the last two men to get the better of him, fellow Halloween combatant Miles Johns, and Domingo Pilarte.

Like his opponent, Rodriguez also carries a four-fight winning streak into his initial trip into the UFC cage. The 28-year-old has collected finishes in each of his seven career victories, including a second-round stoppage in his 2020 debut back in February, and looks to make the most of this opportunity against the highly regarded Yanez on Saturday night.

Graduates from this season of the talent search that takes place inside the UFC Apex have had mixed results thus far, and Yanez will have to contend with elevated expectations coming off the quickest finish of the season thus far, while Rodriguez rolls into a low risk, high reward contest this weekend. Each of these bantamweights will be crossing the threshold into the Octagon looking to prove they belong, and no matter how it shakes out, the process of determining a winner should be fun to watch for as long as it lasts.

Fighting for the first time in more than two years, Sean Strickland returns to the middleweight division this weekend against Welsh veteran Jack Marshman in a Fight of the Night contender.

Strickland arrived in the UFC in 2014 with a perfect 13-0 record and plenty of promise, scoring victories over Bubba McDaniel and Luke Barnatt before dropping down to the welterweight ranks, where he posted a 5-3 record. The 29-year-old Californian was involved in a bad motorcycle accident in December 2018, and the resulting injuries, surgery, rehab and recovery have kept him out of action until this weekend.

Filling in for Brazilian Wellington Turman, the 30-year-old Marshman looks to get back into the win column after suffering a first-round submission loss to Edmen Shahbazyan at UFC 239. “The Hammer” is just 3-4 inside the Octagon, but is allergic to being in a boring fight, and should pair with Strickland to deliver some excitement on Saturday night.

This is a tough assignment for the returning American, but one that should establish a baseline for where he fits in the 185-pound ranks. With a victory, Strickland will head into next year as an intriguing dark horse, one that still has plenty of time to live up to the lofty expectations he carried earlier in his career.

Flyweights looking to build some momentum heading into 2021 square off early on the card on Saturday as Cortney Casey makes her third appearance of the year against Brazil’s Priscila Cachoeira.

A fighter whose talents and toughness are not accurately represented by her 9-8 record, Casey earned a first-round submission win in her divisional debut in May, but landed on the wrong side of the submission finish in her sophomore showing at flyweight the following month. Now the tenacious Arizona resident is back for her third bout since the restart, eager to close out her 2020 campaign by getting her hand raised once again.

Cachoeira had one of the roughest debuts in recent memory back in February 2018 when she got beaten by current flyweight champ Valentina Shevchenko. Though two more losses followed, the 32-year-old “Zombie Girl” persisted, and earlier this year, Cachoeira collected her first UFC win when she knocked out Shana Dobson in 40 seconds.