A pair of middleweights coming off losses will meet head-on this Saturday in the main card of UFC Fight Night: Makhachev vs. Moises. That’s Brazilian Rodolfo Vieira and American Dustin Stoltzfus, who each will look to jumpstart their UFC careers. Read on for more about this intriguing fight below along our pick for the winner.
Vieira is looking to get back to his winning ways after suffering his first pro-MMA loss back in February against Anthony Hernandez via submission. That loss was a taste of his own medicine, as he is a prolific submission specialist. He has six wins by way of submissions. He started his UFC career with a win via arm triangle against Oskar Piechota in 2019. In his next fight, Vieira victimized Saparbeg Safarov while using the same finishing move again. But against Hernandez, Vieira got guillotine choked in the second round. Vieira was having success taking Hernandez to the ground, though, as he recorded four takedowns while not allowing one. Vieira has nine takedowns in five rounds in the UFC to go with a 47.37 percent takedown accuracy. He will be a tough customer, especially on the ground for Stoltzfus.
Stoltzfus is also eyeing to recover from a loss in his last fight. He lost his UFC debut back in November 2020 via a unanimous decision at the hands of Kyle Daukaus. Prior to that Stoltzfus went undefeated in 10 consecutive fights, dating back to his days in the WLMMA. About his matchup with Vieira, Stoltzfus seems to be the better fighter standing up. He is averaging 2.48 significant strikes landed per minute on 74.07 percent accuracy, which is impressive, though based on small sample size. Stoltzfus, however, projects to be a fighter who can keep up and make Vieira a run for his money. The 29-year-old Stoltzfus has five submission wins and has never been submitted so far in his career. He owns a two-inch reach advantage over Vieira, so he can use that to keep the Brazilian at bay. One thing about Stoltzfus is that he’s never been stopped in his career.
