Injuries have contributed to the shuffling of the chief event of this UFC’s upcoming card Russia, along with 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 out of this fight due to injury, and also the UFC opted to remove Oleynik out of 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 main 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 fans and bettors wrote off Overeem after back-to-back brutal knockout losses to Curtis Blaydes and Francis Ngannou, but he looked fantastic against Pavlovich and showed that he still has some gas left in the tank in age 38. Obviously, while he showed his vaunted finishing skills against Pavlovich, the threat of Overeem being pumped himself out is always there each time he steps into the Octagon because his chin is very questionable at this stage of his career. Luckily for Overeem, while Volkov would have had a good chance to knock him out, the chances are Oleynik is going to look to take this fight to the ground, making this a favorable matchup for”The Reem.”
Oleynik (57-11-1) is 6-2 in the UFC and is coming off of back-to-back entry wins over Mark Hunt and Junior Albini. One of the most underrated heavyweights in MMA history, Oleynik has been deserving of a big fight for quite sometime, yet for whatever reason was booked to fight a mid-tier heavyweight in the form of Harris, which attracted criticisms from people who pay close attention to matchmaking. Rather, an injury into Volkov helped him out as he’ll now get his chance to combat a top-10 ranked competition in Overeem, and also an impressive win here could push him closer into the title picture from the wide-open UFC heavyweight division.
Though Oleynik is a magician on the mat, Overeem is no slouch there either, and on the toes you need to give the Dutchman a good-sized advantage. I am curious to find out what the lineup is for this particular bout after Overeem was a dog against Pavlovich, but in my eyes he should be the favored to beat Oleynik.
Devin Clark vs. Ivan Shtyrkov, UFC Fight Night 149
As well, light heavyweights Devin Clark and Ivan Shtyrkov will fulfill UFC Fight Night 149. Marcel Dorff broke the information. Shtyrkov is filling in on short notice for its injured Abdul-Kerim Edilov. Clark (9-3) is 3-3 in the UFC and is coming off of a TKO loss to Aleksandar Rakic. He has not looked very good from the UFC at either middleweight or light heavyweight, and using a reduction here is very likely to be released from his contract. Shtyrkov (15-0-1) is coming off of back-to-back finishes over UFC vets Fabio Maldonado and Thiago Silva in the Russian regional circuit, and in addition, he holds notable wins over Antonio Silva, Jeff Monson and Ricco Rodriguez. Though Clark has more UFC experience, I would prefer Shtyrkov quite heavily in this bout because of the fact he will be battling in Russia and also because I believe Clark has to be faded.
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