The UFC is back after a brief hiatus and we have a cracking card of fights ahead of us in Sunday.
Our full UFC Fight Night: Grasso vs Araujo Tips & Preview can be found below.
Alexa Grasso is the fifth ranked UFC Women’s Flyweight with a record of 14 wins and 3 losses in her professional career.
She comes into this main event fight having won her last three against Ji Yoen Kim, Maycee Barber and Joanne Wood.
Viviane Araujo is the 6th ranked UFC Women’s flyweight with a record of 11 wins and 3 losses.
She has three wins from her last four and her only losses in the UFC have come at the hands of Jessica Eye and Kalyn Chookagian.
Her last six fights in a row have gone to a decision and all have been unanimous.
Araujo is an exceptional boxer in this division and she throws plenty of feints and moves really well.
We saw her grappling prowess in her last fight against Andrea Lee, a fight in which she won by decision.
Because she has so much power and is continually on the move, her gas tank is her biggest weakness especially in a main event five rounds.
Araujo has the ability to end this fight early in the fight but if it goes into the later rounds I think it favours Grasso who can get a TKO late.
Jonathon Matinez comes into this fight off the back of three wins in a row, all by unanimous decision.
He will face UFC stalwart Cub Swanson in the co-main event who has won three of his last four.
Swanson is now 38 years of age having competed in WEC before it became the UFC.
His first professional MMA fight was in July 2004 and he fought on WEC 26 which was headlined by Carlos Condit and John Alessio and had Urijah Faber vs Dominick Cruz on the card.
He’s such a dangerous prospect for anyone whether it be on the feet or on the canvas and he seems big odds for such a versatile fighter.
Askar Askarov suffered the first defeat of his professional MMA career back in March when he lost a unanimous decision to kiwi Kai Kara-France.
Every one of his first 11 fights were wins via a finish but his last five fights have required the judges decision.
He faces Brandon Royval who has bounced back from two losses in a row with a two fight win streak.
He won a close split decision against Rogerio Bontorin before submitting Matt Schnell with a guillotine in May in Arizona.
Askarov is one of the best prospects in the flyweight division and I think he can get his title aspirations back on track with a finish in this fight.