Featherweights
NR | Julian Erosa (26-9, 4-5 UFC) vs. NR | Steven Peterson (19-9, 3-3 UFC)It has been a pleasure to watch Erosa make the most of his third time in the UFC. “Juicy J” previously earned contracts through “The Ultimate Fighter” and Dana White’s Contender Series. However, he seemed destined to plateau as someone just good enough to make it to the UFC but never quite capable of sticking on the roster. Erosa is a willing and well-rounded scrapper, but his main issue seemed to be a defense built around evasive movement that simply got him knocked out by better and quicker athletes. Erosa got his third UFC call as a late-notice replacement in the early days of this pandemic era, and his return victory over Sean Woodson saw him finally achieve the platonic ideal of the road-tested veteran, wearing out the previously unbeaten Glory MMA export for a come-from-behind win and a late submission finish. Erosa is still capable of getting sparked, as he was in his June loss to Seung Woo Choi, but he has won three of his four fights since his UFC return and proven himself to be one of the most reliably entertaining fighters on the roster. He gets a willing dance partner in Peterson, who is quietly riding the first winning streak of his UFC career. Peterson’s approach is about as straightforward as it gets, as he marches forward and looks to either take down or brawl with his opponent. Thus far, it has not taken much to outmaneuver Peterson when opponents have dedicated themselves to that gameplan, but “Ocho” has proven dangerous against anyone willing to meet him head-on. He scored a sudden knockout win over Martin Bravo via spinning backfist in 2019, then returned from a long layoff to take an ugly decision off Chase Hooper in June. Erosa is definitely the better fighter of the two, but it is unclear how much that matters if he is willing to meet Peterson on his terms. Peterson is the much more durable fighter and has the type of occasional creativity that could catch Erosa unawares. The bet is that Erosa can use his deeper bag of tools to take a hard-fought win, but Peterson is a much tougher opponent than it would appear at first glance. The pick is Erosa via decision.