Young had about the roughest UFC debut possible, stepping in on
late notice to take on Alexander
Volkanovski in 2017, but he carved out a niche as a fun
scrapper with wins over Rolando Dy
and Austin
Arnett. Unfortunately, it has been a rough time since that 2019
win over Arnett, as Young has since hit a ceiling against
higher-level athletes. Ludovit
Klein quickly knocked Young out, and the Kiwi could not make
much headway in a decision loss to Omar
Morales. Young now returns from nearly two years off to take on
a UFC newcomer in Bilder, a Dana White’s Contender Series alum who
is an interesting addition to the roster. Amusingly, Bilder’s style
is essentially the opposite of his last name, as there is not much
building in what “El Animal” brings to the table. A powerful
athlete, Bilder essentially relies on singular big moments to find
his way to a win, usually via finish. As a talented grappler,
Bilder is often content to give up time and control on the ground
in order to hunt for a submission, and that is part of the general
issue with his game. Without those huge moments of dynamism and his
ability to immediately end the fight, Bilder does not do much to
clearly win rounds. The finishes figure to dry up for Bilder at
some point, and it remains unclear if that will be here. Young has
done well to keep rounding out his aggressive style with some more
wrestling and a smarter approach, but he will still remain
vulnerable to Bilder pulling something effective out of thin air.
Klein fight aside, Young has been tough to finish, so the UFC
veteran gets the mild benefit of the doubt, even if it is not a
confident call. The pick is Young via decision.
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