Dan Ige and Movsar Evloev face off on Saturday in a featherweight showdown in the co-main event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Ige is ranked 10th in the division while Evleov is ranked is 13th. This is a huge fight in the featherweight division rankings.
Dan “50K” Ige comes into this fight with a 15-5 record overall but he has lost two fights in a row. In his last fight against Josh Emmett in December of 2021, he actually outstruck Emmett 70-60, but he still lost by unanimous decision. Ige’s last win came three fights ago against Gavin Tucker in March of 2021, and it was 21 seconds into that fight, that he won by knockout. Ige is averaging 3.9 significant strikes per minute while absorbing 3.47 significant strikes per minute. He is averaging 1.35 takedowns every 15 minutes and he is successful on 25 percent of his takedown attempts. Ige also stops 55 percent of his opponent's takedown attempts. Ige is averaging 0.4 submission attempts every 15 minutes. Ige is going to need to have strong cardio in this fight.
On the other side of this fight is Movsar Evloev who comes into this fight with a 15-0 record overall and he has won five fights since coming into the UFC. In his last fight against Hakeem Dawodu in June of 2021, he dominated the fight with nine takedowns and secured the victory by unanimous decision. Each of his five wins in the UFC has been by unanimous decision. Evloev is averaging 4.32 significant strikes per minute while absorbing 2.79 significant strikes per minute. He has four takedowns every 15 minutes and is successful on 47 percent of his attempts. He also stops 71 percent of his takedown attempts.
Ige shouldn’t be this big of an underdog, but he is still in a tough fight here. Evloev is elite at getting the fight to the ground, and he is going to dominate the fight once he gets it there. Evloev doesn’t get have success finishing fights, but this is going to be a very comfortable victory. Back Evloev to win by decision.
AUTHOR: Shane Mickle
