UFC On ESPN: Blanchfield vs. Barber Predictions

UFC On ESPN 68 takes place on Sunday (AEDT) at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, United States. – and we’ve got our UFC predictions for all the fights below, and you can place your bets with the best betting sites Australia has to offer!

UFC On ESPN 68 Predictions

Erin Blanchfield vs. Maycee Barber Prediction

Erin Blanchfield’s seven-fight winning streak was ended by Manon Fiorot last year, but she’s since returned to winning ways by beating Rose Namajunas. Now she goes on to fight Maycee Barber, who is on a six-fight winning streak.

The 26-year-old Blanchfield is a lot tougher than she looks, with there being a real steely determination to her work. A couple of fights ago the bigger, stronger and more athletic Fiorot managed to convincingly outgun her on the feet, but to her credit Blanchfield never backed down despite coming off second-best. Against most other opponents she’s proven to be a decently capable striker, but there’s no doubt her stand-up game is more limited technically and physically than her very assured grappling ability, where she’s proven to have good control, a real submission threat and even mean ground and pound too at times. And while it’s certainly not on the same level as her BJJ, Blanchfield can also wrestle too in order to try to get the fight down into her world, while she has solid cardio too.

Known as ‘The Future’, Barber arrived in the UFC at an early age and started promisingly enough with a few stoppage wins before suffering back-to-back losses. The 27-year-old has learned from that though and built up momentum thanks to a lengthy winning streak, though unfortunately health issues kept her out of action for the past year. She is still a fighter who leans more on her physicality, toughness and competitive drive rather than refined technique. She likes to bring the fight to her opponent, showing a willingness to brawl in the pocket with power punches while looking for clinch opportunities, where she can use her strength and dirty boxing to try to gain control of the action. Meanwhile Barber can wrestle offensively and has heavy ground-and-pound, but her takedown defense isn’t all that convincing.

Blanchfield showed against Jessica Andrade a couple of years ago that she doesn’t back down to a bully on the feet, and while Barber’s physicality will be a potential stumbling block, her forward pressure will invite opportunities for Blanchfield to seek out takedowns. And if Blanchfield can get the fight to the mat I’d certainly favor her to get the upperhand there thanks to her superior technique and composure, leading to a second round submission victory.

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Mateusz Gamrot vs. L’udovit Klein Prediction

Mateusz Gamrot’s split-decision loss to Dan Hooker last year ended a three-fight winning streak and now he’ll go up against L’udovit Klein, who has gone unbeaten in his last seven UFC fights.

The 34-year-old Gamrot has gone 7-3 in the UFC so far while going up against a constantly tough slate of opponents, including registering victories over the likes of Rafael dos Anjos, Rafael Fiziev, Jalin Turner and Arman Tsarukyan. Gamrot is a well-rounded fighter with a hard-working, doggedly determined approach that serves him well. On the feet he’s perhaps not the most slick and artful striker, and he doesn’t have particularly heavy hands, but good fundamentals mixed with fighting at a high tempo, applying constant pressure and using his footwork to move in for swarming attacks at close quarters helps him stay competitive. And meanwhile his opponents have to be wary of Gamrot’s very good wrestling that enables him to him to transition from striking to convincing takedowns frequently, and he has good control on top and scrambles well too. Gamrot’s style is perhaps best suited to gradually wearing down opponents and winning on the scorecards, and he’s helped in that regard by his dependable cardio and the fact he’s never been finished himself by either strikes or submission.

The 30-year-old Klein is on a lengthy winning streak, but victories over the likes of Roosevelt Roberts and Thiago Moises haven’t been enough to get him into the rankings yet. Klein is known as ‘Mr Highlight’, and has notched up 17 stoppage wins from 23 career victories, split almost down the middle between strikes and submissions, but that may flatter to deceive a little nowadays as his current seven-fight unbeaten run actually includes five decision wins and a draw. Klein is a good athlete with agile kicks from range, accurate punches and good movement, but while he does have good power at times it can feel like he’s not making the most of the weapons at his disposal. Klein is also a capable offensive wrestler with solid takedown defense. He can also grapple, but though he has eight submission wins on his record the last of those was all the way back in 2017, and he has lost a couple of times via submission since then.

It’ll be interesting to see how Klein gets on against a more challenging opponent, but this is a tough match-up as Gamrot has proven to be very hard to beat. Klein’s best chance is on the feet, but Gamrot will still stay active there, while seeking out frequent takedown opportunities, and I think his wrestling will should be his key to victory here, leading him to a decision victory.

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Dustin Jacoby vs. Bruno Lopes Prediction

After four losses in his previous five fights, Dustin Jacoby managed to seize a KO victory in the final event of last year and now gets ready to fight Bruno Lopes, who earned a decision win in his January debut to go 14-1 for his career overall.

Jacoby’s career has had a number of twists and turns, starting with a disappointing first stint in the UFC that saw him crash out after losing his first two fights, and the same thing happened when he went to the Bellator promotion. At the time Jacoby was also now competing in kickboxing for Glory, but after going 10-8 in that sport he refocused on MMA and managed to make it back to the UFC via the Contender Series. And surprisingly he then went on a 7 fight unbeaten run before going on to have a mostly disappointing last couple of years. Having recently turned 37, Jacoby is at that stage where he’s starting to decline, but he remains a solid kickboxer with sturdy physicality who has a bit of a middle-of-the-road, unspectacular striking style, but does work the basics well with notable punching power and impactful low kicks. He’s generally been quite durable during his career, but he was KO’d by Dominick Reyes in just two minutes a year ago.

The 32-year-old Lopes was a champion in the LFA promotion prior to being handed a Contender Series spot back in 2023, but then suffered what remains the only loss of his career after being KO’d by Brendson Ribeiro in the opening round. Lopes picked up another win in LFA to earn a second chance on the show last year and this time delivered with a TKO victory, before going on to win his official UFC debut in January. Lopes is a fairly slow-paced striker who has respectable enough technique and accuracy, but isn’t the quickest or most active with his offense. Lopes is more of a threat on the mat via submissions than Jacoby, but his wrestling isn’t great.

I’m not convinced by Lopes at this stage, and I think this is a fight where Jacoby can stay more active on the feet to steadily out-strike him over three rounds and pick up a decision win.

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Ramiz Brahimaj vs. Billy Ray Goff Prediction

Ramiz Brahimaj has alternated between wins and losses for his seven-fight run in the Octagon so far and will now take on a short-notice fight against Billy Ray Goff, who has gone 1-1 since joining from the Contender Series in 2022.

Injuries and ailments have held back the 32-year-old Brahimaj during his time in the UFC, so it was good to see him managing to get two fights under his belt last year. Brahimaj’s strong suit is unquestionably his grappling, with 10 of his 11 career victories coming via submission, more often than not via either rear-naked or guillotine choke. However, as is often the downfall with BJJ specialists, Brahimaj doesn’t have the best wrestling to get the fight to the mat in the first place, and while he’s a decent striker he lacks the volume and power to be a significant threat. He’s also yet to win a fight that’s went to the scorecards in four attempts.

The 26-year-old Goff is a striker with a kickboxing style and brawling mentality who leans on his toughness to apply pressure while showing a willingness to eat strikes in order to land his own high-volume offense. 7 of his 9 career wins have come via strikes, and while he might look for an occasional strategic takedown, he’s not a submission threat and will try to work back to his feet if brought down.

I’m not convinced Brahimaj will be able to get this fight to the mat, and on the feet Goff’s aggressive pressure, toughness and volume offers an upportunity to battle his way to a 2^nd round TKO finish.

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Zachary Reese vs. Dusko Todorovic Prediction

Zachary Reese picked up a couple of wins in the UFC last year, but started this year off with a 1st round KO loss. Now he’ll look to make amends when he goes up against Dusko Todorovic, who is coming off back-to-back 1st round TKO defeats.

The 31-year-old Reese is a tall middleweight who will have 3″ in height and reach over his opponent on Saturday night. And he’ll use that to his advantage with an aggressive style punctuated by lengthy kicks and accurate straight punches. He has also had some success landing takedowns and is also offensively-minded on the mat, but his own takedown defense is suspect and last time out he was punished while trying to work for strikes and submission attempts off his back. Reese is only 10 fights into his career, and has only been beyond the first round once (winning by decision). However, both of his losses to date came in the UFC via knockout.

The also 31-year-old Todorovic goes by the nickname ‘Thunder’, and offensively he’s certainly capable of putting opponents under pressure with his hard-hitting offense at striking range and in the clinch, and all three of his UFC wins so far have come via strikes. In fact all but one of his 12 career victories came inside the distance, including a few submission stoppages at the start of his career. The problem for Todorovic though is that his tendency to leave his chin exposed has highlighted problematic durability issues, with four of his five UFC defeats coming via either KO or TKO, though one of those was due to a knee injury.

Both fighters here are used to their fights ending inside the distance and I think there’s a good chance that’s the case here.  In the end I suspect it’ll be Todorovic’s durability that will let him down again, leading to a 2nd round TKO victory for Reese.

UFC On ESPN 68 Prelims

(Predicted winners in bold)

Jafel Filho vs. Allan Nascimento
Ketlen Vieira vs. Macy Chiasson
Trevin Giles vs. Andreas Gustafsson
Kurt Holobaugh vs. Jordan Leavitt
MarQuel Mederos vs. Bolaji Oki
Rayanne dos Santos vs. Alice Ardelean