UFC on ESPN 28: Kyung-ho Kang vs. Rani Yahya Picks and Predictions

Kyung-ho Kang and Rani Yahya face off on Saturday in a bantamweight bout for the co-main event of UFC on ESPN 28 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. 

Kyung-ho Kang comes into this fight with a 17-8 record overall and he has won three fights in a row. Kang has had a bit of a layoff, with his last fight coming all the way back in December of 2019 against Pingyuan Liu. In that fight, Kang had three takedowns, and that was enough for him to win by split decision. Kang is averaging 2.52 significant strikes per minute while absorbing 2.42 significant strikes per minute. Kang likes to get the fight to the ground and is currently averaging 2.53 takedowns every 15 minutes, being successful on 56 percent of his takedown attempts. Kang also stops 71 percent of his opponent's takedown attempts. In this fight look for Kang to try and get to the fight ground early. 

On the other side of this matchup is Rani Yahya who comes into this fight with a 27-10-1 record overall but coming into this one he has lost two of his last three fights. The one win during that stretch did come in his last fight against Ray Rodriguez in May of 2021. Yahya locked in an arm triangle, and that led to the submission victory. Yahya is averaging 1.57 significant strikes per minute while absorbing 1.70 significant strikes per minute. Yahya is averaging 2.89 takedowns every 15 minutes, and he is successful on 33 percent of his takedown attempts. Yahya only stops 24 percent of his opponent's takedown attempts. Yahya also likes to go for submission averaging 2.0 submission attempts every 15 minutes.