UFC Fight Night heads to Rio De Janeiro in Brazil for a Lightweight Main Event between former champion Charles Oliveira and Mateusz Gamrot this Sunday.
Appearing on the card along with one of Brazil’s favourite sons Oliveira, is Deiveson Figueiredo who will take on Montel Jackson in the Co-Main Event.
There are plenty of fun fights on the card and our thoughts and betting plays can be found below.
At 35 years of age Charles Oliveira is one of the most decorated fighters on the entire UFC roster.
The former Lightweight champion has the most submissions, most finishes and most bonuses in UFC history.
He won the UFC lightweight championship in 2021 by defeating Michael Chandler by TKO and then defended the belt twice by beating Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje by submission.
His winning streak was at 11 at that time.
Leading into this fight he has won two of his last five but those three losses were all in championship fights or title eliminators.
Mateusz Gamrot is just a year younger than Oliveira but made his debut in the UFC in 2020.
His only loss since the start of 2023 was a split decision loss to Dan Hooker and he has wins over Rafael dos Anjos, Rafael Fiziev and Armen Tsarukyan.
Six of his last seven fights have gone to the judges for a decision and the only one that didn’t was when his opponent suffered a knee injury.
If you are not a threat to finish the fight at this level of competition, your opponent will take advantage.
Especially when you are facing a person who has more finishes than any fighter in the history of the UFC.
Another Brazilian former champion attempting to climb the ladder to touch UFC gold once more is Deiveson Figueiredo.
A former two-time UFC flyweight champion who has gone 3-2 since making the move to bantamweight.
Wins over Rob Font, Cody Garbrandt and Chito Vera were followed by losses to Petr Yan and Cory Sandhagen.
Montel Jackson earns this shot against such a high profile fighter off the back of six straight wins including three by KO/TKO.
This will be his biggest challenge to date by quite some distance but he has shown he is capable of finishing a fight at the drop of the hat.
He is an exciting fighter who is on the rise, but I can’t have him as short as his current price with such a sharp rise in quality of opponent.
Another local with a poor recent record is Vicente Luque who is searching for a much needed win on the main card in front of his home fans.
Luque has two wins from his last six fights but those losses were against top quality opponents in Geoff Neal, Belal Muhammad, Joaquin Buckley and Kevin Holland.
A black belt in BJJ with nine submissions to his name, he is very much capable of finishing any fight he is a part of.
In fact, 20 of his 23 career wins have not needed the judges.
Joel Alverez is a 32 year old Spaniard who has had nine fights in the UFC since making his debut in 2019.
His only loss in recent times was to Armen Tsarukyan in 2022 and all but one of his UFC fights have ended in a finish.
If this fight ends up on the canvas, grappling enthusiasts are in for some high level BJJ as Alverez has 17 pro MMA submission wins on his resume.
Oftentimes this actually results in the grappling being neutralized and I’m looking for some value.