UFC - UFC Fight Night
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by Devesh Jaganath | in UFC Predictions
UFC Fight Night heads to Baku this weekend, and the preliminary card brings us an intriguing women's Bantamweight bout with Daria Zhelezniakova set to take on Melissa Mullins. Iron Lady has a pro record of 9-2-0 while No Mess is 7-1-0. Let's get into the match prediction.
Daria Zhelezniakova will be making a return to the Octagon for the first time since September 28, when she suffered a first-round defeat to Ailin Perez in her second UFC fight.
Iron Lady was evidently removed from her comfort zone against Perez, who did not allow her a moment's rest, producing take downs from the off and choking her out inside four minutes.
Zhelezniakova has shown that her strength lies in her standup game during her time with Ares FC and the Open Fighting Championships, where she racked up six KO/TKO wins in nine bouts. The big question is, has she managed to improve her grappling game since her disappointing loss last time out?
Meanwhile, Melissa Mullins bounced back superbly from her defeat to Nora Cornolle with a big KO/TKO victory over Klaudia Sygula in round two at the start of November.
No Mess, akin to her nickname, doesn’t hang about. She is a relentless forward presser and uses attack as her best form of defence.
In terms of the tale of the tape, Mullins lands 3.43 significant strikes per minute, marginally better than her opponent. However, she is four years older and the shorter fighter in this match.
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Daria Zhelezniakova - Melissa Mullins Key Points
- Melissa Mullin has won seven of her eight pro fights.
- Four of Melissa Mullins’ seven pro wins have come by KO/TKO.
- Melissa Mullins beat this opponent in November 2022 at Ares FC 9.
- Daria Zhelezniakova has lost two of her last four fights.
- Daria Zhelezniakova has a significant strike accuracy of 44.27% compared to Melissa Mullins’ 59.00%.
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Our Daria Zhelezniakova vs Melissa Mullins Prediction
There is no need to guess the sort of strategy that Melissa Mullins will bring into this bout. No Mess’s game plan revolves around walking down her opponents and putting them to sleep.
Daria Zhelezniakova has the benefit of having faced Melissa Mullins a couple of years ago, but she is coming off a very poor showing against Perez last time out, and it remains to be seen if she has made the necessary adjustments to deal with fighters who start strongly. Our Daria Zhelezniakova vs Melissa Mullins prediction is Melissa Mullins wins the match.
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