Preview: UFC Fight Night 227 ‘Grasso vs. Shevchenko 2’

Bantamweights

Raul Rosas Jr. (7-1, 1-1 UFC) vs. Terrence Mitchell (14-3, 0-1 UFC)

ODDS: Rosas Jr. (-575), Mitchell (+425)

Rosas’ career has hit its first setback, and it will be interesting to see how the 18-year-old rebounds. The youngest fighter in UFC history, Rosas is a dogged wrestler and grappler who figured to find wins in the promotion as he figured out the rest of his game. To that end, a sub-three-minute win over Jay Perrin in his UFC debut kept the hype train going. That quickly came to a halt against Christian Rodriguez in April. Rosas got off to his usual hot start and won a dominant first round, but he gassed himself out in the process and allowed Rodriguez to take over for what became a one-sided decision victory. Rosas should be fine in the long term as he keeps evolving, and in the short term, the UFC has given him a quite winnable fight against Mitchell. A competitor on “The Ultimate Fighter” back in 2016, Mitchell returned to the subpar Alaskan scene and dominated through his athleticism, but a late-notice UFC debut against Cameron Saaiman saw him show little that would translate against better competition. Add in that Mitchell looks to wrestle and grapple himself, and Rosas seems set up well to get exactly the fight he wants and a quick finish as a result. The pick is Rosas via first-round submission.

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Grasso vs. Shevchenko
Della Maddalena vs. Holland
Rosas Jr. vs. Mitchell
Zellhuber vs. Giagos
Padilla vs. Nelson
The Prelims