Montel Jackson vs Raoni Barcelos Prediction & Picks - UFC Fight Night

Prediction published on 4/25/26, 4:20 PM  by Bill Christy | Modified on 4/27/26 at 8:50 AM in MMA Picks

Both Montel Jackson (15-3-0) and Raoni Barcelos (21-5-0) have had success over their last 5 fights. Each fighter is 4-1 during their last 5 fights, but Jackson’s one loss came in his last bout.

Montel Jackson went the distance with Deiveson Figueiredo but lost a tough split decision. The fight only featured 53 significant strikes, and Deiveson led control time by 2 minutes on his 2 takedowns to Jackson’s single takedown. Jackson is a striker by nature, and this one with Barcelos is likely to be a banger. We don’t foresee the small number of strikes that we saw in the Figueiredo bout.

Barcelos lost by unanimous decision to Kyler Phillips back in August of 2023. Since then, he picked up a win over Cristian Quinonez in early 2024 before rattling off 3 straight wins in 2025. The 38-year-old veteran went the distance to pick up unanimous decision victories in all 3 of those wins in 2025.

Here against Jackson, going the distance may not be so easy. In 9 of Jackson’s 15 career wins, he has won via finish. His southpaw stance and massive 75.5in reach is going to pose a real problem for Barcelos in this fight. Barcelos may even need to try turning this into a grappling match.