Preview: UFC Fight Night 208 ‘Blaydes vs. Aspinall’

Light Heavyweights

Paul Craig (16-4-1 | 8-4-1 UFC) vs. Volkan Oezdemir (17-6 | 5-5 UFC)

Odds: Oezdemir (-155), Craig (+135)

This can't keep working for Craig, can it? When the UFC signed Craig in 2016, the Scotsman quickly carved out a niche as an entertaining curiosity with an approach built around submission skills and little else. But that quickly hit a wall, and it seemed like Craig was on the verge of sliding out of the UFC until he authored one of the most unlikeliest upsets in promotional history, getting beaten from pillar to post by Magomed Ankalaev until he clamped on a desperation triangle choke and managed to get the tap with just one second remaining in the fight. Craig tread water for a while longer, but a 2019 win over Vinicius Moreira has somehow given way to a six-fight unbeaten streak, with Craig able to either get fights to the mat or find himself against an opponent foolish enough to test his grappling skills. For his latest test, Craig tries to repeat the trick against Oezdemir, who's looking to turn his recent improvements into some actual success. Oezdemir's breakout 2017 came out of nowhere; signed by the UFC early in the year as a late replacement, "No Time" won an ugly decision over Ovince St. Preux and suddenly found himself as a ranked light heavyweight that figured to quickly come crashing back to earth. Instead, Oezdemir knocked out Misha Cirkunov and Jimi Manuwa in a combined 50 seconds, leading Oezdemir to kick off 2018 as then-champion Daniel Cormier's title challenger. Cormier got a one-sided win, and from there Oezdemir's luck has corrected itself - he's gotten some wins, but his improvements as a more diverse striker haven't gotten him past some of the younger and more athletic fighters coming up the ranks, including an October loss to Ankalaev. Who knows what happens here - there's a chance Craig can throw Oezdemir off with his sheer aggression early on, but Oezdemir should be well-trained enough to avoid falling into a submission. But of course, that was true of most of Craig's recent opponents, who somehow managed to get tapped out anyway. The pick is Oezdemir via second-round knockout, but this is a pure coin flip.

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Blaydes vs. Aspinall
Hermansson vs. Curtis
Pimblett vs. Leavitt
Krylov vs. Gustafsson
McCann vs. Goldy
Craig vs. Oezdemir
The Prelims