UFC Fight Night: Lemos vs. Jandiroba Predictions

UFC On ESPN 60 takes place on Sunday (AEDT) at the UFC Apex facility in Las Vegas  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 60 Predictions

Amanda Lemos vs. Virna Jandiroba Prediction

Former strawweight title challenger Amanda Lemos beat Mackenzie Dern on the scorecards last time out and now fights Virna Jandiroba, who is on a three-fight winning streak.

Lemos is getting up there in years at 37, but so far she’s aging relatively gracefully. She’s primarily a striker who can be aggressive on the offensive with damaging punching power, has good accuracy too and attacks well in combination. She can also fight from the clinch, has judo-based takedowns and the occasional opportunistic submission attempt, but she doesn’t have the best takedown defense and at this stage in her career cardio is becoming more of a factor.

Jandiroba is no Spring-chicken either at 36, but that doesn’t appear to be a concern as she has been performing well in recent times. She’s a fairly scrappy, unrefined striker, but that hasn’t held her back as she’s a tough, gritty fighter who is really just looking to close the distance in order to initiate her strong wrestling game and suffocating top control. Jandiroba has also had good success with submission for much of her career, but while she did get a couple of finishes early in her UFC run it’s been almost 4 years since her last sub.

So for the most part this is a striker vs. grappler match-up, and while I could see Lemos enjoying some success on the feet if given the opportunity, I think it’s more likely that Jandiroba is able to implement her stifling wrestling ability to grind out a decision win.

Prediction: Virna Jandiroba to win by decision.

Brad Tavares vs. Jun Yong Park Prediction

Brad Tavares has lost three of his last four fights as he now prepares to fight Jun Yong Park, whose four-fight winning streak came to an end last time out with a split-decision loss to Andre Muniz.

14 years into his UFC career Tavares is a true veteran and has fought pretty much everyone who’s anyone in the UFC’s middleweight division. It’d be wrong to call the 36-year-old a middle-of-the-road fighter given that he’s stuck around in the UFC for so long, but while he’s reliably consistent he hasn’t quite had what it takes to make a serious push towards title contention or become a notable star during his UFC run. He’s primarily a striker who sticks to technically competent fundamentals at a steady pace. He lacks stopping power in his strikes, has never really been much of a submission threat and prefers to use his good takedown defense to keep the fight upright where possible, leaving him to focus on outpointing his opponents over three rounds. He’s had decent durability for much of his career, but he’s been stopped a few times and that’s becoming more frequent with age as he’s suffered two TKO losses in the past year.

The 33-year-old Park is a robust fighter who, like Tavares, doesn’t necessarily have an aspect of his game that really stands out, but he does a good job of mixing his capable counter-striking with wrestling and grappling yand has proven to be a gritty competitor who is well-conditioned and not easily beaten.

Given that Park has only been stopped by strikes once in his career by the heavy-handed Gregory Rodrigues I don’t see him being threatened by Tavares relatively mild punching power. Park also has good cardio, so Tavares won’t be able to simply attempt to outlast him, and with the South Korean being more willing to mix in his capable ground game I think he will press the action more and be rewarded with a decision victory.

Prediction: Jun Yong Park to win by decision.

Steve Garcia vs. Seung-Woo Choi Prediction

Steve Garcia is heading into this fight off a three-fight winning streak, while Choi Seung-Woo just got back to winning ways last time out after suffering three losses in a row prior to that.

The 32-year-old Garcia’s UFC career didn’t get off to a good start with two losses in his first three fights, but since then things couldn’t have gone better, racking up three two TKO wins and a KO victory last time out. Garcia has demonstrated that kind of finishing power throughout his career with 12 wins via strikes from 15 victories, but he’s doing it against better quality opposition now and his offensive weapons are more refined than in the past. Garcia can also wrestle and his ground-and-pound is dangerous.

Garcia is used to being the taller, rangier fighter at 145lbs, but that won’t be the case against the 31-year-old Choi, who matches up similarly to him in both height and reach. He’s a muay thai style striker who does like to fight at distance, but is also capable operating from the clinch. He’s not as active as Garcia offensively as Choi prefers to pick his moments to attack or seek out counters, but he has respectable power.  However he does also leave holes in his defense at times. Like Garcia he can function on the mat, but he’s been submitted a couple of times in the UFC and tends to want to manufacture a way back to his feet.

Garcia has more momentum heading into this one and while I’m not convinced his winning streak is going to continue indefinitely I think he’ll be able to find a home for his strikes against Choi and extend his run of finishes with a 2nd round TKO victory.

Prediction: Steve Garcia to win by TKO in Rd2.

Kurt Holobaugh vs. Kaynan Kruschewsky Prediction

Kurt Holobaugh is currently on his third stint in the UFC thanks to winning TUF 31 last year, but is coming off a loss in March. Now he’ll fight Kaynan Kruschewsky, who arrived in the UFC last year with a 15-1 career record, but suffered a 1st round KO loss in his promotional debut.

Holobaugh’s overall UFC over the years makes for grim reading, with just one win (in the TUF finale) from five fights and he’s also now just a couple of months shy of his 38th birthday.
Despite all that Holobaugh isn’t a bad fighter. He’ll take the fight to his opponent on the feet with his fairly high-output, aggressive boxing to the head and body and has decent power, and he’s also a significant submission threat too. He’s a flawed fighter though as while he can finish fights and is hard to finish himself, he can put too hittable on the feet, can be taken down, and is too willing to work for submissions off his back for extended periods on the mat. As such he doesn’t have a good track record of winning fights that go to the judges scorecards.

The 33-year-old Kruschewsky’s UFC debut didn’t go well as it was a tough KO loss, and that’s now the 2nd 1st round knockout defeat of his career. Still, it was an extremely short-notice fight, which is never ideal for a debuting fighter, so at least now he has a chance to show what he can do with a full training camp behind him. He’s a fighter who looks to pick his shots on the feet, but he might be a bit gun-shy after that last Octagon outing. As such I could see this one playing out on the mat as that’s typically where Kruschewsky most dangerous anyway, having won a considerable amount of fights by either rear-naked choke or guillotine choke over the years.

This is potentially a winnable fight for Holobaugh, but I think Kruschewsky’s going to be more eager to to operate on the mat, and with his opponent being overly comfortable working from his back I think we could end up in a situation where neither man can find a finish, but Kruschewsky’s work on top plays better with the judges, leading him to a decision win.

Prediction: Kaynan Kruschewsky to win by decision.

Cody Durden vs. Bruno Silva Prediction

Cody Durden’s four-fight winning streak was snapped last time out with a submission loss to Tagir Ulanbekov and now he’ll attempt to get right back on track against Bruno Silva, who has won three-in-a-row since he was also beaten by Ulanbekov back in 2020.

The 33-year-old Durden is a reasonably sturdy striker with good punching power and he’ll have 3″ in height and a couple of inches of reach over Silva on Saturday night. His strongest suit is undoubtedly his wrestling though and that’s something he’ll pursue frequently. He has good ground-and-pound and can grapple offensively, but he can be less convincing defensively and has been submitted several times.

The 34-year-old Silva is also a fighter who will mix things up between his striking and ground-game. He too has power on the feet, but while he can wrestle he’s not as solid as Durden in that regard and his cardio is a little suspect. However, as a BJJ black belt Silva does pose a submission threat and he might fancy his chances of locking one in given Durden’s past record.

I have a feeling this one will be won or lost on the mat and I’m going to go with Durden to get the better of it thanks to his wrestling. He’ll have to be wary of getting caught in a submission of course, but it tends to be high-calibre grapplers that catch him out and I’m not sure Silva is quite at that level, I’ll take Durden to be the fresher fighter going into the third round and emerge with a decision victory.

Prediction: Cody Durden to win by decision.

Doo-Ho Choi vs. Bill Algeo Prediction

Doo-Ho Choi looked like a force to be reckoned with early in his UFC run, holding a 14-1 record by 2016, but he then suffered three losses in a row, spent the next three years on the sidelines and  fought to a majority draw in his comeback fight in early 2023. Now he returns again to fight Bill Algeo, who headed into 2024 off back-to-back wins, but suffered a TKO loss in March.

Still known as ‘The Korean Superboy’, Choi is actually now 33-years-old and it’s remarkable to think that in the past eight years he’s only fought four times and hasn’t earned a win. He always had a risky but exciting style in the past as he was fast, athletic and offensively-minded with knockout power, leading to a series of fast KO and TKO victories. However he was also reckless in his approach and careless with his defense, which soon started to catch up with him in the UFC. With only one fight to go on in almost four years it’s hard to accurately assess him now, but while he still looks youthful he’s not as fast as he was and seems more measured in his approach as well as mixing in some ground work along with his striking.

The 35-year-old Algeo will have a 2″ height and 3″ reach advantage here. He isn’t the most technical fighter, but he’s a tough, determined and well-conditioned all-rounder and uses that to apply constant pressure whether on the feet or on the mat. As such even if things don’t always go his way early in a fight he has a knack for going on to gradually wear down his opponent and outlast them.

It’s very unfortunate that much of Choi’s prime years were spent on the sidelines as he does have natural talent, but while there’s still potentially fights he can win in the UFC I think this is a tricky one for him given his inactivity. Algeo is durable enough to withstand some early punishment and his more grinding approach and consistent pace will likely pay off in the later rounds to secure a decision win.

Prediction: Bill Algeo to win by decision.

UFC On ESPN 60 Prelims

(Predicted winners in bold)

Lee Jeong-yeong vs. Hyder Amil

Brian Kelleher vs. Cody Gibson

Miranda Maverick vs. Dione Barbosa

Loik Radzhabov vs. Trey Ogden

Luana Carolina vs. Lucie Pudilová

Mohammed Usman vs. Thomas Petersen

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