Preview: UFC on ESPN 48 ‘Strickland vs. Magomedov’

Middleweights

Brunno Ferreira (10-0, 1-0 UFC) vs. Nursulton Ruziboev (34-8-2, 0-0 UFC)

ODDS: Ferreira (-195), Ruziboev (+165)

The UFC is always willing to take a flier on a knockout artist, and Ferreira is on the more promising end in terms of recent pickups. Brazil’s “Hulk” is a ball of muscle who has about the game that you would expect, swinging hard and figuring out the rest later, though he has shown enough flashes of wrestling to suggest he could develop something deeper down the road. For now, Ferreira has proven quite effective with his current gameplan, scoring a particularly impressive win over Gregory Rodrigues with yet another brutal first-round knockout. For his next fight, Ferreira draws Uzbekistan’s Ruziboev, and the UFC newcomer should make for a strange stylistic matchup against the Brazilian. For one, Ruziboev is a lanky 6-foot-4 and stands in stark contrast to Ferreira’s fireplug frame, although it is unclear if he will be able to keep him at bay. Ruziboev’s striking is fairly perfunctory, as he finds most of his success as a grappler, both from top and bottom. Both men typically do their best work in the first round, so there is a morbid curiosity as to what happens if this goes any length of time, but this figures to be a race to a finish. The lean is that Ferreira’s speed advantage can find him another knockout before Ruziboev finds success on the mat. The pick is Ferreira via first-round knockout.

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Strickland vs. Magomedov
Ismagulov vs. Dawson
Morales vs. Griffin
Gatto vs. Lipski
Bonfim vs. St. Denis
Ferreira vs. Ruziboev
The Prelims