Preview: UFC 248 ‘Adesanya vs. Romero’

Women’s Strawweights

NR | Polyana Viana (10-4, -115) vs. NR | Emily Whitmire (4-3, -105): Whitmire’s UFC career has been a pleasant surprise thus far. She was one of the many anonymous fighters on the women’s flyweight championship season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” but after dropping to strawweight for her proper UFC career, she has done a solid job of capitalizing on the flaws of her opponents. She managed to pick apart the much smaller Jamie Moyle and tap the less skilled Aleksandra Albu for her two UFC wins. However, there is a clear ceiling, at least for the moment. She is still quite wooden on the feet and can be overwhelmed athletically, as Amanda Ribas showed in June. She will look to rebound here against Viana, who somewhat surprisingly gets another UFC fight after three straight losses. Viana ran over competition in her native Brazil and won her UFC debut in impressive fashion, but she has not had many answers for opponents she did not immediately knock out or tap out. After getting quickly submitted herself by Veronica Macedo in August, that figured to be it for Viana, but instead, the UFC threw her a lifeline. Viana could catch Whitmire in a scramble, but the American fights intelligently enough that she should stay out of trouble. More importantly, the Brazilian has shown little ability to win rounds. It may be a cautious affair, but the pick is Whitmire via decision.

Featherweights

NR | Jamall Emmers (17-4, -165) vs. NR | Giga Chikadze (8-2, +145): This was initially slated to be a bout between Douglas Silva de Andrade and Movsar Evloev, but with both men injured, the UFC did well to put together an entertaining replacement. Chikadze has a unique resume. Coming from a successful kickboxing career, the Georgian’s win over Brandon Davis in September was effectively the first professional win of his career. Up to then, there was a clear line between victories over professional opponents and losses to anyone with any sort of valuable experience, and even in the narrow win over Davis, Chikadze’s strengths and weaknesses were pretty set. He can destroy an opponent as a range striker, but his ground game is nothing but submission attempts, and while he shows some promise, those skills are nowhere near ready for primetime. Emmers has been long overdue for a UFC callup and should make for an interesting opponent, given that he is also a long striker who prefers to throw single shots from range. A win is here for Emmers if he wants it. He can match Chikadze on athleticism and has shown some solid wrestling and submission ability when he sets out to do so. While there is a chance that he gives Chikadze his type of fight, the pick is for Emmers to score a second-round submission.

Bantamweights

NR | Danaa Batgerel (7-2, -135) vs. NR | Guido Cannetti (8-4, +115): It has taken some long layoffs and a lot of luck, but Cannetti has somehow turned an unsuccessful run on the first season of “The Ultimate Fighter Latin America” into nearly six years on the UFC roster. Cannetti is all power and aggression, which has been enough to score two wins over the lower reaches of the UFC roster, but the Argentinian gets himself into trouble just as much as he imposes his will on his opponents. After missing all of 2019, he returns against Mongolia’s Batgerel, who showed off some decent power boxing against Heili Alateng in his UFC debut in August. This comes down to Cannetti’s ability to get his wrestling going. He will tire out either way, but if he cannot control this fight on the mat, he will just wind up getting picked apart from range and possibly knocked out. Batgerel’s strength of opposition is not particularly high—save for a 2013 win over a nascent Kai Kara-France—and Alateng managed to have success with his takedowns. While there is not much reason to have confidence in either man, Cannetti by decision is the pick.