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Shamil Gaziev faces Brando Pericic at UFC Fight Night 275 in Perth, Australia. Gaziev aims to rebound from a recent loss, while Pericic seeks to capitalize on the matchup.
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Shamil Gaziev and Brando Pericic meet on the UFC Fight Night 275 main card Saturday at RAC Arena in Perth, Australia. Check out this quick breakdown of the matchup from MMA Junkie analyst Dan Tom.
Gaziev (14-2 MMA, 3-2 UFC) saw his momentum of back-to-back wins over Don'Tale Mayes and Thomas Petersen halted in his last outing. In November, Waldo Cortes-Acosta handed him a unanimous decision loss, which was the second setback of his UFC run.
So far, so good for Pericic (6-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC), who has won both of his UFC fights by first-round stoppage against Elisha Ellison and Louie Sutherland.
Considering the UFC matchmakers' apparent fetish for force-feeding us heavyweight fights on main cards, a back-to-back big guy offering featuring Shamil Gaziev and Brando Pericic shouldn't shock any of us at this point.
This is a decent step up for Pericic, so part of me feels cautious about siding with him as any sort of sure-thing favorite. That said, Pericic will have home-court advantage in a fight that was booked on shorter than usual notice.
It's hard to know how well prepared Gaziev will be, but if the Dagestani can ground Pericic early, we'll likely get a deeper glimpse into the Australian prospect's game.
Gaziev reminding the masses that experience matters in this spot wouldn't surprise me. I just suspect that Pericic's power and killer instincts will be too much for the former Dagestani national volleyball team member.
I'll pick Pericic, aka the second coming of Mark "Chopper" Read, to survive some early scares en route to a knockout win by Round 2.
Despite the oddsmakers opening the Dagestani fighter as the favorite, public money has flipped the betting line, listing Pericic -142 and Gaziev +116 via FanDuel.
Shamil Gaziev has a professional MMA record of 14 wins and 2 losses, with a UFC record of 3 wins and 2 losses.
The fight is scheduled for Saturday at UFC Fight Night 275.
In his last fight, Shamil Gaziev lost to Waldo Cortes-Acosta by unanimous decision.
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Gaziev and Pericic are expected to walk to the cage at approximately 7:40 a.m. ET. The fight streams live on Paramount+.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC Perth: Shamil Gaziev vs. Brando Pericic prediction, pick, time