Preview: UFC Fight Night 169 ‘Benavidez vs. Figueiredo’
Ankalaev vs. Cutelaba
Light Heavyweights
NR | Magomed Ankalaev (12-1) vs. NR | Ion Cutelaba (15-4)Advertisement
This fight could be absolute madness, though that is always true whenever Cutelaba is involved. Despite having a solid base of skills, the Moldovan’s career is a testament to aggression first and foremost, as he is known for getting into his opponent’s face before his fights start and keeping up that approach once the first round actually begins. A look at his record says it all. He entered the UFC on a run of five straight first-round finishes, and three of his four UFC wins have come via the same manner. After being one of many opponents to lay a beating on Glover Teixeira only to lose later in the fight, “The Hulk” rebounded in impressive fashion by running over Khalil Rountree. He now looks to make it two in a row against one of the UFC’s most underrated talents in Russia’s Ankalaev.
Ankalaev is one of the best light heavyweight prospects to come along in recent memory, which makes his failed UFC debut all the more shocking and memorable. Ankalaev showed off his wares—particularly his brutal ground-and-pound—for the greater part of 15 minutes against Paul Craig, but the Scot threw up a triangle choke as a last resort and somehow managed to get the tap with just one second left. Since then, Ankalaev has mostly taken out his frustration on his opponents. His win over Klidson Abreu was a slow-paced affair, but he also scored beautiful and brutal knockouts of Marcin Prachnio and Dalcha Lungiambula. It will take a lot to erase the stain of that loss to Craig given the magnitude of the upset and the manner in which it happened, but Ankalaev is probably good enough to make that happen.
This is Ankalaev’s fight to lose, but it is a tricky matchup nonetheless, given the complete divergence in approach between him and his opponent. Cutelaba is pathologically aggressive, while Ankalaev stays patient and takes what is offered to him, even if the Russian is capable of some incredible violence when he does. Add in the fact that the Craig loss showed that Ankalaev may fold a bit when things go off the rails, and it is easy to envision a scenario in which Cutelaba takes Ankalaev out of his game early and scores a finish before the Russian can recover. However, Ankalaev seems quite durable, and without the knockout, it seems inevitable that he will start outwrestling Cutelaba, at which point he can cause a ton of damage on the mat. The pick is Ankalaev via second-round stoppage.
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