UFC Fight Night 201 main card preview & best bets – 19/2/2022

Kyle Daukaus and Jamie Pickett will clash in the co-main event of this Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 201 in Las Vegas. Here’s a look at that bout and the other main card fights leading up to Johnny Walker vs Jamahal Hill at the top of the bill.

Catchweight: Kyle Daukaus (-260) vs Jamie Pickett (+220)

Kyle Daukaus (10-2-0) entered the UFC with plenty of hype with a perfect 9-0-0 record that included eight submission wins. But he has struggled to find his footing in the promotion with two decision losses to Brendan Allen and Phil Hawes, a decision win over Dustin Stoltzfus and a no contest due to a clash of heads with Kevin Holland.

Jamie Pickett (13-6-0) has won back-to-back fights over Joseph Holmes and Laureano Staropoli since losing his first two fights in the UFC to Tafon Nchukwi and Jordan Wright. Despite Daukaus’s underwhelming results with the promotion thus far, he is still a far more promising prospect than Pickett. This fight figures to be one that was booked to help get Daukaus back on track; look for him to do just that.

Heavyweight: Parker Porter (-260) vs Alan Baudot (+220)

Parker Porter (11-6-0) has bounced back from a knockout loss in his UFC debut to Chris Daukaus to go 2-0 over his last two bouts in the promotion with decision wins over Josh Parisian and Chase Sherman. Alan Baudot (8-2-0) has been knocked out twice in his first two UFC fights against Tom Aspinall and Rodrigo Nascimento, but the Nascimento loss was scratched from his record after his opponent failed a post-fight drug test.

This feels like a good spot to take a shot on the underdog. Porter is the better fighter between the two and will win this fight more often than not. With that said, both of these heavyweights throw and absorb a ton of significant strikes. It’ll likely be a race to a knockout finish, and at this price we’ll take Baudot and hope he lands one before his suspect chin fails him again.

Lightweight: Jim Miller (+155) vs Nikolas Motta (-180)

This will be a very intriguing fight between a veteran submission specialist in Jim Miller (33-16-0) and a young striker making his UFC debut in Nikolas Motta (12-3-0). Motta earned this contract with a win over Joseph Lowry in Dana White’s Contender Series 2020, which also moved Motta to 3-0 over his last three fights. Miller snapped a two-fight losing streak with a knockout win over Erick Gonzalez in October to improve to 5-4-0 over his last nine fights. A win for the talented young Motta wouldn’t come as a surprise, but we’re rolling with the experienced veteran to catch Motta in a timely submission for the upset win.

Middleweight: Joaquin Buckley (-155) vs Abdul Razak Alhassan (+135)

Joaquin Buckley (13-4-0) has had his last seven fights have end by way of knockout; he was on the delivering end of five of them and on the receiving end of two. Abdul Razak Alhassan (11-4-0) knocked out Alessio Di Chirico with a head kick to snap a three-fight losing streak. All 11 of his professional wins have come by first-round knockout. In what figures to be another who lands the knockout blow first type of fights, we’ll once again take the value the underdog provides on the betting line.