Already over a seven-year vet prior to making his late-notice UFC
debut in January, Portugal’s Fialho feels like he is on the verge
of a breakthrough. Fialho comes into his fights with some solid
ideas, mostly built around pressure striking that is often quite
effective; after that, things tend to go a bit sideways. If that
approach does not work—or does not wind up as potent as Fialho
expects—he often has the capabilities to pivot to some other
strategy. However, he is usually quite uncomfortable doing so,
leading to things becoming a lot uglier than Fialho’s talent and
tools should suggest. Fialho does seem to be working through it, as
he put in some strong showings before getting knocked out by
Jake
Matthews in June, the loss ending a busy stretch for Fialho
where he somehow managed to pack four fights into the first half of
the year. He attempts to rebound against Salikhov, who really would
have been best served keeping as busy as Fialho over the last few
years. A multi-time champion in wushu sanda, Russia’s Salikhov came
to the UFC in 2017 with some rightful hype but disappointed in his
debut, getting outwrestled and tapped out by Alex Garcia
with little issue. “The King of Kung Fu” rebounded well enough,
showing better takedown defense and dictating range against
opponents on the feet. Despite five straight wins, it never felt
like Salikhov gained much momentum, owing mostly to some long
stretches of inactivity between fights. That made a July bout
against Jingliang
Li particularly crucial, and the subsequent second-round
knockout loss was quite damaging to Salikhov’s hopes. Now 38 years
old, Salikhov could easily rebound in this assignment. Fialho
should find some early success with his pressure. However, it is a
matter of how quickly Salikhov is able to find his groove and stay
evasive and subsequently how much he is able to make Fialho
uncomfortable with his range offense. If Salikhov can find a few
big moments, this could easily go off track for the Portuguese
fighter, but the bet is that Fialho can keep his aggression going
long enough to make some headway on the scorecards. The pick is
Fialho via close decision.
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