The Toyota Center in Houston will play host to a Middleweight main event this Sunday between former UFC champion Sean Strickland and Anthony Hernandez.
As always Strickland has been controversial on the mic leading into this main event fight but he can fight his way into title contention with a win against a very strong opponent.
The main event isn’t the only interesting fight on the card and we have offered our thoughts and betting plays below.
He not only remains one of the most controversial fighters in the UFC, but Sean Strickland is one of the best Middleweight’s in the sport.
He caused one of the biggest upsets in uFC history when beating Israel Adesanya in Sydney back in 2023 but he has now lost two of his last three fights in the octagon.
Both of those losses came against Dricus du Plessis via decision and the judges did not unanimously agree on the first encounter.
Strickland’s fighting resume is impressive with 29 wins in 36 professional fights but he is tied for the third most split decision wins in UFC history.
Anthony Hernandez had a tough time initially in the UFC after winning a contract through Dana White’s Contender Series.
He lost two of his first three fights including a TKO loss to Kevin Holland.
Since then though, he has won eight fights in a row including finishes over Roman Kopylov, Michel Pereira and Roman Dolidze.
Nine of his 15 career wins have been via submission but he is going to have a tough time getting Strickland to the canvas in my opinion.
Strickland is a zombie who continually puts pressure on his opponents with his forward pressure and boxing combinations, mixing it up with good front kicks to the body.
There is too big a gap in this head to head market and it’s for that reason I will be tipping the former champ.
UFC stalwart Geoff Neal made his debut in the biggest promotion in the sport back in 2017 and won his first five fights in the octagon.
He has consistently been at the top of the division and acted as a gatekeeper for up and coming fighters and has KO/TKO wins over Vicente Luque and Rafael dos Anjos in the last four years.
Uros Medic is a Serbian mixed martial artist who won a contract through DWCS in 2020 and has gone 6-3 since then.
The judges have never been needed in his UFC career and he comes into this fight with back to back first round finishes over Gilbert Urbina and Muslim Salikhov.
Both men are dangerous but Geoff Neal is an experienced fighter who will be aware of the power coming back the other way.
Couple this with the fact that this is the biggest fight of Medic’s career and I’m willing to bet the fight will see a second round at least.
Dan Ige is a fan favourite because of his fighting style and no frills attitude.
I’m unsure whether he regrets taking the fight with Diego Lopes on less than 24 hours notice in June of 2024 but he has lost three of his last four since that date.
In defence of that point, all three of those losses have been by decision against quality opponents including Lerone Murphy and Patricio Pitbull.
Coming out of the very successful Chute Box is Brazilian Melquizael Costa who has a career record of 25-7.
He made his UFC debut in 2023 and has been a very active fighter with eight fights in his first three years in the company.
Five straight wins has earned him this fight against a very head level opponent including two submissions and first round head kick knock out win in December.
This will be a fascinating and entertaining fight and Dan Ige is a live chance to get a finish simply because he throws with such power.
Ige is such a difficult opponent to knock out but the ground game of Costa adds another string to his bow and increases the likelihood of a finish.