UFC Predictions: UFC Fight Night: Edson Barboza vs. Giga Chikadze

This weekend sees the UFC return to its Las Vegas APEX for UFC Fight Night: Edson Barboza vs. Giga Chikadze.

As well as a great featherweight main event, this UFC Fight Night card also features the finals of the 29th season of The Ultimate Fighter.

Interest in TUF is not what it once was, but this still looks like a decent card overall, albeit one seriously lacking in name value.

Here are the predicted outcomes for UFC Fight Night: Edson Barboza vs. Giga Chikadze.

#1. UFC featherweight division: Edson Barboza vs. Giga Chikadze

This featherweight clash promises to be a striking fans’ dream match, as both men love nothing more than to swing heavy leather at their opponents until they fall. It’s also a massive opportunity for Giga Chikadze to really climb into the upper echelons of the division.

Naturally, Edson Barboza is the more proven of the two. He has been in the UFC now since 2010, and while he has never quite reached the very top, he’s still a highly dangerous veteran with the skills to take out any opponent.

‘Junior’ was beginning to look past his prime around a year ago, as he was on a horrendous run of just one win in five fights, even if two of those losses were razor-tight split decisions.

Since then, though, he’s won two fights impressively. In particular, his knockout win over Shane Burgos at UFC 262 was fantastic, as the Brazilian showed his trademark nasty striking but also demonstrated plenty of poise, durability and patience against a very difficult opponent.

Barboza can be beaten. He has shown a serious weakness when it comes to fighting opponents who can take him down and work him over from the top, as Khabib Nurmagomedov and Kevin Lee did. And while he looked durable against Burgos, he has been stopped by strikes three times.

This one is an interesting fight for him as it pits him against a fellow striker, but unlike Burgos, Chikadze is not really a power puncher per se.

Instead, the native of Georgia prefers to push a torrid pace, looking to overwhelm his opponents with a tornado of combination strikes, in particular his kicks.

‘The Ninja’ has beaten his last two opponents – one of which was tough veteran Cub Swanson – via stoppage, both times set up with head kicks. Whether he can do the same to Barboza, though, is another thing entirely.

At the end of the day, he has definitely looked great in the UFC thus far, but the only high-level opponent he’s ever faced is Swanson, and to tell the truth, Cub is miles past his prime and lasted just over a minute.

Barboza, on the other hand, has fought basically every great lightweight the UFC’s had over the past ten years. It’s hard to imagine Chikadze’s hyper-active attack really fazing him.

More to the point, while Barboza has been slightly outworked in previous fights – notably by Dan Ige in the eyes of the judges at least – he’s never really been undone by sheer volume. Rather, the fights that have seen him get tired have also seen an opponent cause a lot of damage to him in quick fashion.

The question, then, is whether Chikadze has enough in his arsenal to really hurt Barboza early, either taking him out or causing him to tire out down the stretch. It’s a tricky question to answer, but we just haven’t seen enough evidence that he’s capable yet.

So with that in mind, the pick is Barboza via decision.

The Pick: Barboza via unanimous decision

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