Preview: UFC 269 ‘Oliveira vs. Poirier’

Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream UFC 269 live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app.

Bantamweights

NR | Sean O'Malley (14-1, 6-1 UFC) vs. NR | Raulian Paiva (21-3, 3-2 UFC)

ODDS: O’Malley (-280), Paiva (+240)

O’Malley was certainly one of the standouts of the first season of Dana White’s Contender Series. Beyond his natural charisma and ability to market himself, O’Malley showed off an impressive and entertaining fighting style, as he picked apart Alfred Khashakyan on his way to a first-round knockout. To its credit, the UFC struck while the iron was hot and featured O’Malley prominently, giving him showcases against Terrion Ware and Andre Soukhamthath in main card slots. However, O’Malley’s career stalled after the Soukhamthath win, through no fault of his own. He suffered a major foot injury in the Soukhamthath fight and was railroaded by the United States Anti-Doping Agency upon his attempted return. The end result was that O’Malley spent two years on the shelf, though he certainly made up for lost time in his comeback with highlight-reel knockouts of Jose Alberto Quinonez and Eddie Wineland. That set up O’Malley for a co-main event against Marlon Vera at UFC 252 that figured to be a breakout performance but instead wound up raising a ton of questions. Vera got the better of things before a leg injury—caused by either Vera’s kicks or O’Malley’s own high-movement style—got the ball rolling towards a stoppage victory, and O’Malley handled the loss about as poorly as possible. Add in that this was now the second time that O’Malley’s body betrayed him during a fight, and the loss dulled much of O’Malley’s prospect shine. Not much has been clarified in the year-plus since. O’Malley has looked good in two subsequent wins, but those fights against Thomas Almeida and Kris Moutinho were essentially built to be showcases. O’Malley now gets his first real test since the Vera fight, taking on Brazil’s Paiva.

Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream UFC 269 live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app.

Paiva has had an odd path towards bantamweight relevancy. The Brazilian came to the UFC via Dana White’s Contender Series as a flyweight with a resume built more on quantity than quality, though he did look like a natural talent in earning a contract against Allan Nascimento. Of course, Paiva had the poor fortune of coming to the UFC just as it seemed set to shutter his division, and so it was a bit worrying when he started his Octagon campaign with losses to Kai Kara France and Rogerio Bontorin, albeit both in exciting fights where he had his moments. Paiva thankfully got the chance to turn things around, which he did with a knockout win over with Mark De La Rosa. However, a subsequent victory over Zhalgas Zhumagulov saw the beginning of weight issues that would wind up forcing Paiva up to 135 pounds. Paiva’s move up to bantamweight was an interesting proposition; the additional speed advantage figured to help his striking, though as a reedy flyweight, he might wind up undone by being at size parity with physically stronger opponents. Through one bout, it is hard to tell how the move will pay off, though Paiva did notch the biggest win of his career against Kyler Phillips in his bantamweight debut. That was mostly thanks to the performance from Phillips, who hunted a knockout early in extremely inefficient fashion and allowed Paiva to outlast him over the latter two rounds. If nothing else, O’Malley’s last two fights show he is unlikely to make that mistake. While Almeida and Moutinho had little to offer against O’Malley, he did stay composed and avoid some of the cardio issues that plagued his earlier UFC fights. Paiva is the first opponent since Vera who should bring enough to the table to make O’Malley work for the victory, but he is also a defensively void fighter who should provide O’Malley with a lot of opportunities to hit clean offense. That should be enough for O’Malley to take the win, likely within three rounds. The pick is O’Malley via second-round knockout.

Continue Reading » Emmett vs. Ige