UFC Saudi Arabia: Adesanya vs. Imavov picks and predictions

Check out who we think will win on Saturday morning.

The Stylebender is back. Art by Chris Rini.

The UFC is making another cash withdrawal from the desert this weekend with a Saturday morning card (for those of us on the US East Coast) featuring a former champ.

This latest installment of UFC Saudi Arabia is headlined by Israel Adesnaya vs. Nassourdine Imavov in the Middleweight division. The co-main event is an exciting match-up between Shara ‘Bullet’ Magomedov and Michael ‘Venom’ Page. We’ve also got Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs. Sergei Pavlovich and Said Nurmagomedov vs. Vinicius Oliveira. The rest of the card isn’t much to write home about.

We’ve looked over these match-ups and done our best to figure out who is going to win each fight. You can scroll down to see all those picks, including our picks on the round totals for the main card fight.

If you’re using our opinions for betting purposes, please do so responsibily. Hopefully we steer you in the right direction!

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Israel Adesanya (-160) vs. Nassourdine Imavov (+135)

Miguel: Even though we’ve had years of seeing Adesanya at the top of the middleweight division, giving most analysts a pretty firm grasp on his style, his fights have been quite difficult to pick. That’s because he’s simultaneously very skilled and very vulnerable, not unlike many of the previous champions in the division. Still, there’s been a few common factors in his losses. First, opponents who can defend against his kicks (Blachowicz, Pereira, and Strickland) create a major issue for Izzy because he has increasingly relied on his kicks and kick feints to set up all of his offense. Second, opponents who can pressure him (Pereira, Strickland, and DDP) make him very uncomfortable and have exposed his vulnerabilities in the pocket.