UFC Vegas 97 picks and predictions

See who we are picking to win at the UFC APEX this weekend.

Who will fall? Art by Chris Rini

The UFC remains in the APEX facility this weekend with a very typical APEX-like card. The main event is somewhat intriguing, but below that are fighters who have mostly been produced through the UFC’s various minimum contract farms.

Sean Brady vs. Gilbert Burns is our headliner. Both these Welterweights have recent losses to current champ Belal Muhammad. The co-main is perennial title challenger Jessica Andrade versus the streaking Natalia Silva. Other fights of note include Steve Garcia vs. Kyle Nelson and Jaqueline Amorim vs. Vanessa Demopoulos.

Whenever there are fights in the Octagon there’s picks from us here. Sadly we’ve said goodbye to Dayne Fox this week. He’s taken his considerable talent over Sherdog. Check him out over there! We have drafted in Miguel Class to provide his picks, though. Miguel, if you don’t know, is one of the sharpest technical analysts in the game.

Scroll down for his picks, as well as those from Zane Simon, Eddie Mercado, Stephie Hayes (aka Crooklyn) and more!

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Gilbert Burns (+155) vs. Sean Brady (-185)

Miguel: This is a puzzling matchup. Burns definitely looks like a tough matchup on paper for the injury-prone Brady, who is making his third walk to the octagon in as many years while Burn’s is making his sixth appearance in that time. But at 38 years old and coming off his first ever back-to-back defeats in his career, we have to wonder how much the Brazilian has left in the tank.

Stylistically this fight also seems strange. Both guys like to circle on the outside, looking to set up single shots. While Burns favors explosive right hands and kicks, Brady relies more on his lead left hook, but both usually look mostly out of sorts in extended exchanges.

Adding to the difficulty in making a pick is the fact that neither fighter has had to fight many opponents who were willing and able to grapple offensively against them. Even Khamzat Chimaev mostly avoided that phase with Burns, so we have to go back to Burns’s win over the aging Demian Maia to remind ourselves how Burns deals with a dangerous submission threat. Given that Burns was able to escape from underneath one of the greatest top players ever, I would be surprised if Brady comes in feeling confident that he can consistently win the battles for position on the mat.