Tyson Pedro and Harry Hunsucker face off on Saturday in the main card in a lightweight bout at UFC 278 at Vivant Arena in Salt Lake City.
Tyson Pedro comes into this fight with an 8-3 record overall bu coming into this fight he has lost two of his last three fights. In April of 2022 Pedro faced off against Ike Villanueva and he looked better in that fight. Pedro outstruck Villanueva 22-4 and late in the first round he finished the fight by knockout. Pedro is averaging 2.89 significant strikes per minute while absorbing 2.36 significant strikes per minute. Pedro is averaging 0.66 takedowns every 15 minutes and she is successful on 25 percent of the takedown attempts. Pedro is stopping 52 percent of his opponent's takedown attempts. Pedro is averaging 1.3 submission attempts every 15 minutes.
On the other side of this matchup is Harry Hunsucker who sits with a 7-5 record overall and a loss in this fight could mark the end of his UFC career. Hunsucker has lost all three fights during his UFC career and each of the three losses has been by knockout. Hunsucker’s last start came against Justin Tafa in December of 2021 and it was 1:53 into the fight that he lost by a knockout kick. Hunsucker is averaging 3.83 significant strikes per minute while absorbing 6.70 significant strikes per minute. Hunsucker wants to keep the fight on the feet and he has only been taken down once in his UFC career. He is averaging 2.4 submission attempts every 15 minutes, and there is no doubt that he is going to try to finish the fight that way here.
Hunsucker has been knocked out in each of the first three fights of his UFC career and it’s going to happen again here. Pedro is an elite knockout artist and he was quite impressive in the last fight. Pedro is going to land the big punches against Hunsucker and that will be the difference as this fight gets over early. Back Pedro to win this fight by knockout.
AUTHOR: Shane Mickle
