Among the most interesting bouts slated in the main card of UFC Fight Night: Gane vs. Volkov is the showdown between bantamweights Raoni Barcelos and Timur Valiev. Both are coming off huge wins, but only one can come away with a victory in Las Vegas this coming weekend. Check out our preview of this fight below.
It’s been over half a decade since Barcelos last tasted defeat, though he’s rarely fought over the past years. He’s only had five fights after 2016, with the last one being a unanimous decision win over Khalid Taha back in November 2020. Barcelos is an exciting fighter who won’t run away from a strike fest. Against Taha, Barcelos extremely dominated the fight, landing 120 strikes to just 49 by his opponent. On top of that, he had two takedowns and a submission attempt. Barcelos is not much of a ground fighter, but he’s got a couple of wins by way of submissions and records 2.23 takedowns per 15 minutes, so far in his career in the UFC. He is averaging 5.59 significant strikes per minute on 52 percent striking accuracy. At 34 years old, Barcelos can’t afford to lose if he wants to soon challenge for a title, so expect him to lay it all out on Saturday.
Valiev is someone you could consider as an up-and-comer fighter in the UFC. He’s flashed brilliance in the only two fights he’s had so far in the company. He lost via TKO in his UFC debut back in August 2020 against Trevin Jones, but that fight was later declared a No Contest after Jones tested positive for marijuana. Valiev was having success in that fight before Jones had his temporary victory. Valiev almost finished the fight in the first round and had 66 strikes landed to just 26 by Jones. Valiev rebounded after that by scoring a unanimous decision win over Martin Day on February 2021. The Russian absolutely smoked Day, as he outlanded him, 55-4, and even had four takedowns to just zero by Day. He will have to be careful against Barcelos, but Valiev has what it takes to score a mild upset on Saturday.
