Preview: UFC on ESPN 12 ‘Poirier vs. Hooker’ Prelims

Featherweights

Youssef Zalal (8-2) vs. Jordan Griffin (18-7)

ODDS: Zalal (-115), Griffin (-105)

Outside of the main event, this might be the fight on the card most guaranteed to bring excitement. Griffin is 3-for-3 in terms of having fun fights in the UFC, and it was nice to see him finally get in the win column against T.J. Brown in February. The Milwaukee native is all about aggression, usually in the form of taking things to the mat and initiating scramble after scramble. Sometimes Griffin has his opponent in trouble and sometimes he is trying to get out of trouble himself, but something is always happening while the “Native Psycho” is in the cage. He will take on Zalal, who is looking to build on an impressive UFC debut against Austin Lingo four months ago. Zalal did not look quite UFC-ready in his previous fights, but everything clicked in a career-best performance against Lingo. While he is a bit overconfident on the feet, he managed to show off a quick and effective range striking game and back it up with his wrestling, which has traditionally been the best part of his repertoire. This is a difficult fight to call, but it should be all action. Griffin should be the harder hitter, but it remains to be seen if he can track down Zalal on the feet; and at any rate, this fight looks guaranteed to devolve into wrestling and grappling exchanges before long. The pick is Griffin via decision, but Zalal is quite capable of overachieving once again.