Preview: UFC 267 ‘Blachowicz vs. Teixeira’

Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream UFC 267 live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app.

Light Heavyweights

#7 LHW | Magomed Ankalaev (15-1, 6-1 UFC) vs. #8 LHW | Volkan Oezdemir (17-5, 5-4 UFC)

ODDS: Ankalaev (-290), Oezdemir (+245)

Ankalaev has certainly righted the ship. The Russian came to the UFC in 2018 after mauling most of his competition and figured to do the same inside the Octagon. Ankalaev’s combination of powerful striking, impressive wrestling and vicious ground-and-pound did not leave much opportunity for opponents to exploit any of his possible weaknesses. Through about 14 minutes and 50 seconds of his UFC debut against Paul Craig, things were continuing along that path—until the Scotsman scored one of the unlikeliest upsets in mixed martial arts history, clamping down on a desperation triangle choke that got Ankalaev to tap with just a second left in the fight. It subsequently looks like Ankalaev just got his bad luck out of the way early, as his UFC career has been a clean march up the ladder since. The first three wins of Ankalaev’s UFC career were relatively controlled, but he spent 2020 showing he can hold his own at a higher pace against Ion Cutelaba, knocking out the Moldovan twice in less than five minutes combined. Ankalaev went back to his more pedestrian approach for an ugly win over Nikita Krylov in February, and he can continue his climb with a victory over Oezdemir here.

Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream UFC 267 live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app.

Oezdemir’s 2017 campaign remains one of the unlikeliest breakout years in UFC history, as “No Time” went from an unsigned part-time heavyweight to the promotion’s top light heavyweight contender over the course of just six months. An ugly win over Ovince St. Preux in his UFC debut was controversial, but Oezdemir rode that to sub-30-second knockout wins over Misha Cirkunov and Jimi Manuwa, taking advantage of a wide-open division to suddenly find himself opposite Daniel Cormier for the belt. From there, Oezdemir’s luck quickly corrected itself with three straight losses, but the Swiss fighter has found his footing as a stalwart of the Top 10 as he has consistently improved. A 2019 victory over Ilir Latifi, in particular, showed how Oezdemir has built out a much more effective and layered striking game past the sneaky knockouts that fueled his run towards title contention. Oezdemir is attempting to rebound from a knockout loss to Jiri Prochazka, but unfortunately, Ankalaev figures to be a tough draw. Oezdemir can certainly win this fight in an instant with one well-placed moment of offense—he has done it before and the Russian sambo practitioner has obviously been caught—but Ankalaev is a powerful and measured striker from range, and any close-distance exchanges figure to quickly lead to his taking over this fight on the mat. It feels like there should be more suspense, as Oezdemir is an excellent fighter, but this seems likely to slowly turn into an Ankalaev mauling. The pick is Ankalaev via third-round stoppage.

Continue Reading » Ribas vs. Jandiroba