Preview: UFC Fight Night 193 ‘Santos vs. Walker’

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Welterweights

NR | Niko Price (14-5, 6-5 UFC) vs. NR | Alex Oliveira (22-10-1, 11-8 UFC)

ODDS: Price (-152), Oliveira (+132)

Violence is a sure bet in nearly every Price fight, since that is the main focus of what “The Hybrid” brings to the table. Price’s game is not particularly impressive, as it is mostly built around unstructured aggression. However, it is a perfect example of a style that fully maximizes Price’s physical gifts. The Floridian possesses a long and lanky frame with giant fists, allowing him to generate an amazing amount of natural power into everything he throws. Even over three years later, Price’s victory over Randy Brown remains stunning, as he was somehow able to knock out the former Ring of Combat champion with hammerfists while lying on his back. To his credit, Price has done well to improve over his five years on the UFC roster, but that has mostly come in the form of adding new weapons to his arsenal rather than any sort of refinement of his approach. Price is such a well-established action fighter at this point that he should remain relevant for years to come, but he is also surprisingly in need of a win, as his last victory came against James Vick nearly two years ago. Price’s fights since have been a war against Vicente Luque, a draw overturned to a no contest against Donald Cerrone and a frustrating loss to Michel Pereira.

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Price will look to turn things around against Oliveira, who is also in need of a win. Brazil’s “Cowboy” was a pleasant surprise in his 2015 UFC debut against Gilbert Burns, taking apart the much more highly touted prospect before falling victim to a third-round submission. From there, Oliveira was a bit hard to pin down. He showed obvious talent, but he would bounce between lightweight and welterweight while flashing different skills at different times. Sometimes his wrestling would click and sometimes he would appear to be a slick striker, but it was rare when everything clicked at once. Still, Oliveira managed to rack up a bunch of wins while moving up the ladder, only getting overwhelmed when the UFC threw him into a main event against Cerrone solely for the “Cowboy” versus “Cowboy” angle. Oliveira eventually settled in as a bit of a physically strong bully who could wilt under pressure, but a three-fight losing streak has caused him to retool that approach. Now it seems that Oliveira would rather use his length to keep his opponents at bay when given the chance, eventually relying on his physical strength in the clinch when he starts to feel any sort of danger. That has not worked out in his last two bouts, as Oliveira has suffered submission losses to Shavkat Rakhmonov and the aforementioned Brown. Being concerned with getting hit is a bad trait to have against Price, as his combination of length and power means he figures to connect hard with Oliveira at some point. There is a chance that just motivates Oliveira to go after a clinch- and wrestling-heavy approach through which he can control Price without much issue. However, Price remains so dangerous that it seems more likely that he can eventually send the Brazilian careening off the rails, even if it takes a while. The pick is Price via second-round knockout.

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