Preview: UFC on ESPN 18 Prelims

Bantamweights

Martin Day (8-4) vs. Anderson dos Santos (20-8)

ODDS: Day (-170), dos Santos (+150)

This is an underrated scrap that could compete for “Fight of the Night” honors. Day has yet to win his first fight inside the UFC, but he has still shown a lot during his two bouts inside of the Octagon. His loss to Pingyuan Liu resulted in a controversial decision before he kicked off UFC 251 with an absolute banger against Davey Grant. Day is a tall and reedy bantamweight and uses that form to his advantage by relying on a range kicking game. However, he is willing to let loose with his hands or scramble for submissions as needed, even if he is not particularly physical. Dos Santos is also looking for his first UFC win in his third try. “Berinja” has proven to be an entertaining scrapper who is willing to press the action, but he has yet to find one standout skill on which to rely at this level. Dos Santos was outwrestled by Nad Narimani and picked apart by Andre Ewell, and while he fought to the very end, both losses were one-sided in nature. While Day is not quite as fast-handed as Ewell, he should be able to approximate that performance and keep damaging dos Santos as he plods forward; and even if dos Santos can get inside on Day, the Hawaiian has shown enough on the mat that he should be able to get things back to the feet in short order. The pick is Day via decision.

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