Preview: UFC Fight Night 170 ‘Lee vs. Oliveira’
Carneiro vs. Hadzovic
Lightweights
#7 FW | Renato Carneiro (13-3-1) vs. NR | Damir Hadzovic (13-5)Advertisement
It has been a surprising rise and fall for Carneiro over the last few years. The Brazilian enjoyed an impressive start to his UFC career in 2014 but spent much of the next few years recovering from injuries. That made it a surprise when the promotion chose him to face Jeremy Stephens at UFC on Fox 24 in 2017 and even more of a shock when he scored the most significant win of his career. From there, impressive dissections of Calvin Kattar and Cub Swanson made “Moicano” a featherweight contender to watch heading into 2019. However, the past year wound up being rather cruel. Jose Aldo turned up the pressure on his fellow Brazilian and knocked him out in the second round, and a main event against Chan Sung Jung was over before it began, with Carneiro getting starched in under a minute. In an interesting gambit, “Moicano” has decided to move up to lightweight, where Hadzovic will welcome him.
Hadzovic is a fun and dangerous fighter, but he is obviously being set up here as a soft point of entry for “Moicano” at 155 pounds. The Bosnian has evolved well as a boxer and shown some knockout power, but recent wins over Nick Hein and Marco Polo Reyes have not aged particularly well.
It will be interesting to see how safe Carneiro plays this, but he should take it either way. He is both the longer fighter and a better range striker, and if the Brazilian decides to break out his grappling skills for the first time in a while, that is a clear weakness in Hadzovic’s game. The pick is for Carneiro to coast to a decision.
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