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Flyweights
Muhammad Mokaev (8-0, 2-0 UFC) vs. Malcolm Gordon (14-5, 2-2 UFC)Advertisement
Mokaev is back for his third UFC fight of 2022, and it will be interesting to see where the top prospect goes from here. Born in Dagestan and raised in England, Mokaev is the starkest example of a fighter who came up through the amateur mixed martial arts ranks, putting together a decorated multi-year career before turning professional in mid-2020. As a result, Mokaev fights with an obvious poise that often guides him smoothly into the wrestling phase, where he is at his best and most comfortable. For now, it mostly seems to be a waiting game to see how well “The Punisher” can hold serve as he physically matures. As someone who looks to control his opponents, the major concern in the short term is that having just turned 22 years old, Mokaev is not yet strong enough to dictate things against the best athletes in the division. For the time being, Mokaev has still impressed greatly in two UFC bouts thus far: He quickly took care of Cody Durden in an electric UFC debut, and given all the outlined concerns, it was nice to see him win a grinding decision over Charles Johnson, even if the fight itself was not particularly interesting. Up next for Mokaev is Gordon, who has been hard to peg thus far. Gordon has some obvious skills and fights with some effective aggression, but he figured to quickly get undone by defensive and durability concerns at the UFC level. Amir Albazi quickly tapped him in his UFC debut, and Gordon’s sophomore effort against Su Mudaerji was a 44-second knockout loss, affirming the scouting report that the Canadian reacts terribly to getting hit. However, Gordon has somehow managed to turn things around in his last two fights. He survived and outlasted Francisco Figueiredo for an impressive decision win, then quickly scored an injury stoppage victory over Denys Bondar in February to keep his momentum rolling. Gordon could cause some issues with his early aggression, but in general, it seems difficult for him to thread the needle towards an actual victory. The gambit of opening up defensively only seems to give Mokaev a better chance of scoring a finish, but Gordon likely cannot string together a win without it. Mokaev should be able to find something over 15 minutes. The pick is Mokaev via second-round submission.
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