Injuries have led to the shuffling of the main event of the UFC’s upcoming card in Russia, and my initial thoughts on the new headliner are under.
Alistair Overeem vs. Alexey Oleynik, UFC Fight Night 149
The main event of UFC Fight Night 149 will be a five-round heavyweight bout between Alistair Overeem and Alexey Oleynik. Alexander Volkov pulled from this fight due to injury, and the UFC chose to remove Oleynik from his scheduled UFC Fight Night 150 bout against Walt Harris to take on Overeem instead. This card takes place April 20 at Venue Yubileyny Sports Palace City in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and ESPN’s Ariel Helwani was the first to break news of the chief event swap.
Overeem (44-17, 1 NC) is 9-6 overall in the UFC and in his last fight knocked out Sergey Pavlovich as an underdog. Many bettors and fans wrote off Overeem after back-to-back brutal knockout losses to Curtis Blaydes and Francis Ngannou, but he seemed fantastic against Pavlovich and showed he still has some gas left in the tank in age 38. Obviously, while he showed off his vaunted finishing abilities against Pavlovich, the threat of Overeem being pumped himself out is always there each time he steps to the Octagon because his chin is quite questionable at this point of his profession. Luckily for Overeem, while Volkov would have had a good opportunity to knock him out, the odds are Oleynik will look to take this battle to the ground, which makes this a more favorable matchup for”The Reem.”
Oleynik (57-11-1) is 6-2 at the UFC and is coming from back-to-back submission wins over Mark Hunt and Junior Albini. Among the most underrated heavyweights in MMA history, Oleynik has been deserving of a significant fight for quite sometime, yet for whatever reason was reserved to combat a mid-tier heavyweight in the form of Harris, that attracted criticisms from those who pay close attention to matchmaking. Instead, an injury into Volkov helped him out as he will now get his opportunity to combat a top-10 ranked opponent in Overeem, along with an impressive win here could push him closer to the title picture in the wide-open UFC heavyweight division.
Though Oleynik is a magician on the mat, Overeem is no slouch there either, and on the feet you need to provide that the Dutchman a good-sized benefit. I’m curious to find out exactly what the lineup is for this particular bout after Overeem was a puppy against Pavlovich, but in my eyes that he must be the favored to beat Oleynik.
Devin Clark vs. Ivan Shtyrkov, UFC Fight Night 149
At the same time, light heavyweights Devin Clark and Ivan Shtyrkov will fulfill UFC Fight Night 149. Marcel Dorff broke the news. Shtyrkov is filling in on short notice for its wounded Abdul-Kerim Edilov. Clark (9-3) is 3-3 in the UFC and is coming off of a TKO loss to Aleksandar Rakic. He hasn’t looked very good from the UFC at either middleweight or light heavyweight, and with a reduction here is very likely to be released from his contract. Shtyrkov (15-0-1) is coming from back-to-back finishes over UFC vets Fabio Maldonado and Thiago Silva on the Russian regional circuit, and he also holds notable wins over Antonio Silva, Jeff Monson and Ricco Rodriguez. Though Clark has more UFC experience, I’d prefer Shtyrkov quite heavily in this respect because of the fact he’ll be battling in Russia and because I believe Clark must be faded.
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