Preview: UFC Fight Night 178 Main Card

Middleweights

Khamzat Chimaev (8-0) vs. Gerald Meerschaert (31-13)

ODDS: Chimaev (-420), Meerschaert (+335)

Now, things truly get interesting for Chimaev. An adopted Swede of Chechen heritage, Chimaev was one of the stars of the UFC’s initial run on Fight Island in July, as he won two fights in 10 days to set a new promotional record. Chimaev dominated both of those bouts, though, to be fair, they were quite advantageous style matchups. Chimaev’s primary weapon is his dogged and aggressive grappling, which completely overwhelmed one-dimensional striker John Phillips and reedy prospect Rhys McKee. Since July, the hype train has been fully in motion for Chimaev, and the UFC is completely on board. This was the quickest that the UFC could get Chimaev back into the Octagon due to visa issues, and the promotion has reportedly already lined up an October fight with Demian Maia if he can get the nod here. Meerschaert is in the role of spoiler, and if nothing else, he is the right type of step up in competition to see exactly how close Chimaev is to reaching his considerably high ceiling. Meerschaert came into the UFC as a veteran scrapper but has still managed to improve over the last few years, including building out a much stronger boxing game. However, between Chimaev’s considerable athletic advantages and the fact that Meerschaert’s takedown defense has never been particularly exceptional, the prospect should be able to quickly dictate the terms of this fight and get it to the mat. From there it becomes Chimaev’s fight to lose, but unlike Phillips and McKee, Meerschaert has the ability to slow him down and test him on the ground enough to provide some sort of benchmark for exactly what the UFC is working with when it comes to the undefeated prospect. The pick is Chimaev via second-round stoppage, mostly due to accumulation of damage, and it will be a pleasure to see him work for it.

Continue Reading » Walker vs. Spann