The UFC's famed Octagon returns to Abu Dhabi on Saturday for a UFC Fight Night event headlined by former light heavyweight champion Magomed Ankalaev taking on Bogdan Guskov.
Guskov is stepping in on relatively short notice after former title challenger Khalil Rountree Jr. was forced to withdraw from his planned fight with Ankalaev. Rountree vs. Ankalaev was an intriguing meeting of proven 205-pounders, but Guskov has been on a solid run of late and will be looking to make his name off of a win over Ankalaev.
Guskov was submitted by Volkan Oezdemir in his UFC debut, but bounced back with a four-fight winning streak that included a TKO of Ryan Spann and knockout of Nikita Krylov.
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Those wins set Guskov up for the biggest fight of his career, a showdown with former light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz at UFC 323. Guskov nearly finished Blachowicz in the second round, scoring a crushing knockdown in the frame, but Blachowicz stormed back in the third round, resulting in a draw.
Guskov and Blachowicz were set for a rematch on Aug. 1, but Guskov's call to save Saturday's main event scrapped that idea. It is good news for Guskov that he was already in training camp and his timeline only shifted by a week, so he should be ready to fight.
Ankalaev has been out of action since last October, when he lost the light heavyweight title in his rematch with Alex Pereira at UFC 320. That night, Ankalaev was stopped in just 80 seconds, a much different result than his title-winning performance in the first Pereira fight, where Ankalaev largely dominated the action.
The loss to Pereira snapped a 13-fight unbeaten streak for Ankalaev that began after he lost his first UFC bout.
UFC Fight Night fight card, odds
- Magomed Ankalaev -550 vs. Bogdan Guskov +410, light heavyweights
- Steve Erceg -112 vs. Ramazan Temirov -108, flyweights
- Islam Dulatov -1000 vs. Wellington Turman +650, welterweights
- Magomed Zaynukov -298 vs. Damian Rzepecki +240, lightweights
- Rizvan Kuniev -340 vs. Tyrell Fortune +270, heavyweights
- Abubakar Vagaev -250 vs. Saygid Izagakhmaev +205, welterweights
- Valter Walker -166 vs. Thomas Petersen +140, heavyweights
- Dustin Jacoby -185 vs. Muhammad Saidov +154, light heavyweights
- Sam Patterson -500 vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio +380, welterweights
- Axel Sola -192 vs. Ismael Bonfim +160, lightweights
- Magomed Tuchalov -850 vs. Brendson Ribeiro +575, light heavyweights
- Nurullo Aliev -225 vs. Mike Davis +185, lightweights
- Abdul Hussein -535 vs. Cody Gibson +400, bantamweights
Prediction
Ankalaev has proven himself an elite light heavyweight, grinding away for years and years to finally get -- and make good on -- an opportunity to become champion. While he lost the title in the rematch, Ankalaev has said he ignored his team's advice to pull out of that fight due to injury and paid for it with the loss.
Guskov is a dangerous fighter, but he hasn't shown himself to be quite at Ankalaev's level. Still, it's notable that Guskov has beaten some good fighters and went to a draw with Blachowicz.
It's concerning that Guskov had such a dominant second round against Blachowicz but was knocked down and lost the third. Ankalaev is a fighter who will take advantage of a fading fighter and has the skills to make Guskov work for everything. Pick: Magomed Ankalaev via UD
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