Preview: UFC on ESPN 36 ‘Blachowicz vs. Rakic’

Light Heavyweights

Ion Cutelaba (16-6-1, 5-5-1 UFC) vs. #13 LHW | Ryan Spann (19-7, 5-2 UFC)

ODDS: Cutelaba (-220), Spann (+180)

This has the potential to be an entertaining mess, which is true of most fights involving both Spann and Ion Cutelaba. It has been a frustrating UFC career thus far for Cutelaba, who made his promotional debut at age 22 with an immense amount of promise. Cutelaba has found success, but living up to his nickname of “The Hulk” eventually became more of a curse than a blessing for the Moldovan, who became aggressive to a fault. He would start out hot behind some knockout power and an effective wrestling game but would increasingly turn up the pressure to the point of exhausting himself and taking himself out of the fight. That eventually reached its peak with two quick losses to Magomed Ankalaev, and surprisingly, Cutelaba seems to have learned some lessons since. Cutelaba at least survived to a draw against Dustin Jacoby after another signature hot start, and Cutelaba’s last win over Devin Clark was the most measured performance of his career. Cutelaba relied on his wrestling early and often, coasting to a clear decision victory. Now he gets a big shot against Spann, who would serve as Cutelaba’s most impressive win to date. Spann has had a successful UFC career of his own, to the point that he is coming off of a main event loss to Anthony Smith. However, he is still a bit hard to pin down in terms of his approach. Spann can do a little bit of everything, but “Superman” does not seem to have any sort of unifying theory behind his game. It still works, however, mostly due to Spann’s combination of size, speed and athleticism. Fast hands and a willingness to throw is often enough against most of the light heavyweight division, and Spann has some decent wrestling and grappling to back it all up. Between Spann’s dynamism and lack of durability, his fights are usually sprints to a finish, but things tend to get quite aimless past those opening salvos, as he has a tendency to gas and run out of ideas. Spann could prove to have the wrestling chops to hold his own against Cutelaba and just blast the Moldovan immediately, but the bet is that “The Hulk” can find a path to taking this to the mat and getting some momentum going from there. That is where Cutelaba is at his best as a finisher, so that could lead to him ending the fight outright. Spann’s ability to bring constant danger is a concern, particularly if this makes it to the later stretches, but that is hampered a bit by the fact that while Cutelaba tires even while he is winning, Spann is just as likely to do the same. The pick is Cutelaba via second-round stoppage.

Blachowicz vs. Rakic
Cutelaba vs. Spann
Grant vs. Smolka
Chookagian vs. Ribas
Camacho vs. Torres
Hadley vs. Nascimento
The Prelims