UFC Vegas 58: Rafael Dos Anjos vs Rafael Fiziev fight preview, odds and final prediction
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Rafael Dos Anjos- Rafael Fiziev
UFC Vegas 58 kicks off this weekend as former UFC lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos will be looking forward to keeping winning in what will be his final title run in the UFC when he will face upcoming striking specialist Rafael Fiziev in a five-round main event. The fight will take place this Saturday night in UFC Apex, Las Vegas, USA. This will be the 39th UFC event exclusive for the ESPN network in the United States.
Other fighters featured on the card are Aiemann Zahabi who’s the younger brother of legendary MMA coach Firas Zahabi, Antonina Shevchenko who’s the elder sister of UFC flyweight queen Valentina Shevchenko and Nina Nunes who is the wife of UFC women’s featherweight champion Amanda Nunes. The card also marks the return of UFC lightweight Michael Johnson and also features upcoming UFC fighters such as Said Nurmagomedov, Caio Borralho and many more.
Also Read: UFC Vegas 58: When and Where to Watch the thrilling fight card stacked with absolute killers
UFC Vegas 58: Rafael Dos Anjos vs Rafael Fiziev fight preview
Rafael Fiziev is a striking specialist and knows how to read his opponents in the middle of a back and forth. But he likes to start off with patience as you can see in his fight with Renato Moicano. As you will watch Fiziev is just circling in the Moicano fight and that’s what he was doing in the Bobby Green fight as well. Fiziev is basically trying to escape from his opponent’s intention to corner him and in that way gets more space for himself to throw as many tools as he wants during the fight.
Along with a great IQ in counterstriking, Fiziev is a master in evading strikes. There’s a compilation of him just leaning back and entering the matrix in order to defend his opponents’ head kick. Fiziev is also a coach himself in the gym where he trains, Tiger Muay Thai.
As dangerous as Rafael dos Anjos is on the ground with his background in BJJ, Dos Anjos has notable knockout victories as well over some of the best strikers in 155 lbs history like Donald Cerrone and Benson Henderson. The way he outclassed Anthony Pettis for the UFC lightweight championship back in 2015 still speaks volumes of one of the best championship performances in UFC history. After Gleison Tibau, if anyone else gave UFC Hall of Famer Khabib Nurmagomedov a very tough time inside the octagon in the grappling department, it’s Rafael Dos Anjos.
Dos Anjos also dominated Nate Diaz with moments where Diaz couldn’t do much on the ground even when the latter was known for his dangerous submission skills off his back. Dos Anjos formerly used to train at Kings MMA and Evolve MMA but now trains at RDA Academy and Nova Uniao.
UFC Vegas 58: Rafael Dos Anjos vs Rafael Fiziev betting odds and final prediction
According to the official UFC website, the betting odds say that Fiziev is a -210 favourite over Dos Anjos who’s a +180 underdog.
Final Prediction: Rafael Dos Anjos to defeat Rafael Fiziev via submission in round 3
While the upper hand in striking can be given to Fiziev, still Dos Anjos is not seriously at any disadvantage because being in the UFC for a long time also meant facing the best strikers in the world for the latter and can therefore significantly put damage on his opponent in stand up as well. Also, with Dos Anjos’ slick ground game, he has more ways to win than Fiziev. This will be Fiziev’s first tough setback from which he is expected to bounce back stronger.
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Abhai Singh Tanwar
(1386 Articles Published)