Preview: UFC Macau Prelims

Bantamweights

Long Xiao (26-9, 0-1 UFC) vs. Quang Le (8-1, 0-1 UFC)

ODDS: Xiao (-118), Le (-102)

It’s a bit of a surprise to see Xiao here, but he appears to have stuck with the UFC despite two unsuccessful attempts to win a contract outright. Xiao lost his 2021 fight on the Contender Series to Cristian Quinonez but resurfaced two years later as part of the annual “Road to UFC” tournament, earning two narrow decision victories before losing to Chang Ho Lee in the season’s final. If nothing else, Xiao has been a perennial tough out at the lower levels, having enough wrestling to get by while also possessing the durability to work behind a pressure-heavy style. For now, he appears to have a fairly low ceiling, particularly after losing a narrow decision to Lee. With that said, he could muck things up enough to find some success against Le, who impressed in a late-notice debut in August. Born in Vietnam and fighting out of Minnesota, Le put together a solid regional career with a practiced if unexciting approach, preferring a slow pace and range to pick his opponents apart with a surprising amount of knockout power. Le can also wrestle some, and that overall package allowed him to hang tough with Chris Gutierrez in that late-notice UFC debut, showing he has the durability and skill to avoid getting blown out even while taking several jumps up in level of competition. Xiao will probably bring enough aggression to the table to make this ugly, but Le should land enough hard offense to outweigh any control time that his opponent is able to bank. The pick is Le via decision.

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