“They both have opponents coming out at short notice,” Storm told the channel Meta MMA. “One of them is out of his weight class for the first time – I don’t remember Kamaru Usman fighting at middleweight. So his advantage of being big, heavy, strong will now be offset by the fact that he’s moved up to a heavier weight.”
“So, for me, the favorites are our fighters – they’ve been preparing, they’re more powerful, they’re stronger, and I think they’re going to win these fights. It’s unlikely that they will win early – their opponents are not weak either, and it’s much easier to hold on for the whole fight than to win, and even easier than to finish. So they’ll have the strength to hold on.”
A lightweight title fight between Islam Makhachev and Alex Volkanovski will headline UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi on Oct. 21, while a middleweight contender bout between Hamzat Chimaev and Kamaru Usman will be the second most important event of the numbered event.