The match between Curtis Blaydes and Derrick Lewis will serve as a headliner at the UFC Fight Night 185 in Las Vegas. According to many, the winner of this one should give the name of the next title challenger, following the bout between Stipe Miocic and Francis Ngannou.
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Blaydes (14-2-1) -400
The Razor is fired up before this event, with him having four straight wins, against Justin Willis, Shamil Abdurakhimov, Junior dos Santos, and Alexander Volkov. It is now time for him to take a step forward and to start playing with the big fellas.
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Blaydes is arguably the best wrestler in the heavyweight division, and he uses his fantastic cardio to wear down the rivals, before eventually finishing them with hard ground and pound combinations, or simple strikes that put them to sleep.
He knows how to handle big guys, and beating Volkov is something that backs up this opinion. It would be interesting to see how he attacks Lewis, who is powerful and knows how to stop takedowns.
Lewis (24-7-1) +330
The latest match against Aleksei Olynik saw Lewis winning via second-round TKO, which would make him the fighter with the most knockouts in the UFC heavyweight history. Prior to that fight, he had two wins in a row, beating Blagoy Ivanov and Ilir Latifi, both via decisions, the first a split one, and the second unanimous.
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Lewis is a ferocious puncher with a lot of experience, and having big names in his resume. He is one of few who defeated Francis Ngannou, he would KO Alexander Volkov and Marcin Tybura.
For one brief moment, everybody believed that his UFC career would blow up, once losing to Daniel Cormier in the title-fight, and after that against Junior dos Santos, yet the Black Beast returned stronger than ever.
Pick
Lewis isn’t a good wrestler, and if one of Blaydes’ attempts to take him down passes, the former challenger will be in seriosu trouble. The Razor is very nasty once dragging the opponent into a clinch, and his previous opponents all saw that. He also knows what it is like to be hit by a train, suffering the only two losses to Ngannou, and that experience should be heavily used in this bout.
-->Lewis is one-dimensional, relying too much upon his dynamite strikes, which is why betting on Blaydes would be a smart choice.
