UFC 264: Sean O’Malley vs. Kris Moutinho Picks and Predictions

Sean O’Malley and Kris Moutinho face off on Saturday in a main card showdown at UFC 264 in a bantamweight match at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. O’Malley was originally supposed to fight Louis Smolka, but he had to withdraw. 

Sean “Sugar” O’Malley comes into this fight with a 13-1 record overall with his only loss coming two fights ago. O’Malley bounced back in a big way in his last fight against Thomas Almeida. O’Malley outstruck his opponent 86-25 and in the third round he was able to win that fight by knockout. O’Malley is averaging 6.31 significant strikes per minute while absorbing 3.28 significant strikes per minute. O’Malley is averaging 0.79 successful takedowns every 15 minutes, and he is successful on 50 percent of his attempts. O’Malley is also stopping 50 percent of his opponents takedown attempts. O’Malley is also averaging 0.8 submission attempts every 15 minutes. 

Kris Moutinho will be making his UFC debut on Saturday when he steps into the octagon to fight O’Malley. Moutinho comes into the fight with a 9-4 record overall and he has won two fights in a row. His last fight came against Andrew Salas in the Cage Fighting Championship. In that fight Moutinho locked in an arm choke and that led to the submission victory. This is going to be a big step up in competition for Moutinho, and his best chance to win this fight will be to try and finish the fight early. The longer the fight goes on, the harder it’s going to be for the underdog to pull off the big upset.