UFC on ESPN 13: Kattar vs Ige betting predictions

UFC 251 in Abu Dhabi delivered on its hype with an entertaining night of fights from top to bottom. The second of four events scheduled to take place at Yas Island’s Flash Forum kicks off this Wednesday night as Calvin Kattar (21-4-) faces Dan Ige (14-2-0) in the main event of UFC on ESPN 13.

Kattar bounced back nicely from his November loss to Zabit Magomedsharipov with a TKO win in the second round over Jeremy Stephens at UFC 249 in May. The 32-year-old Bostonian is 5-2 through his first seven fights in the UFC with each of his last four wins coming by way of knockout. Kattar enters Wednesday night’s action looking to improve on his no. 6 ranking in the featherweight division with another decisive knockout win.

Ige hasn’t lost since dropping his UFC debut to Julio Arce at UFC 220 back in January of 2018. The 28-year-old Hawaiian has won five fights since then, although each of his last two have come by split decision and his win over Edson Barboza in May was a highly controversial one. The featherweight is trending in the right direction, however, and will have a chance to silence his doubters with a victory against a solid featherweight contender like Kattar.

On paper, this looks like an extremely tough matchup for Ige. Kattar has clear advantages in height, experience, and power. The path to an upset for Ige is to bring this fight to the ground, but that will be easier said than done as Kattar’s background in wrestling makes him a solid takedown defender. Kattar is an excellent pure boxer that has the striking ability to end this fight early, but Ige has never been stopped and could go the distance for the fourth time in his last five fights.

Look for Kattar to land more than enough strikes while standing to offset whatever offense Ige may grind out on the ground, earning enough points to land him a victory as the big favorite.