UFC on ESPN 40 co-main event
The fight will take place on August 7 in Las Vegas (Nevada, USA) at the UFC Apex complex and will become the co-main event of the UFC on ESPN 40 tournament. The estimated start of the fight is 07:00 Kyiv time. The fight will be broadcast live on Setanta Sports.
In the second most important match of the tournament, two welterweights from the top 15 rankings will fight: No. 6 Vicente Luque (21-8) and No. 13 Jeff Neal (14-4).
Luque was on a four stoppage streak until his last fight, which included submissions from Tyron Woodley and Michael Chiesa. However, in April, Belal Muhammad fairly confidently outplayed him in five rounds.
Neal hasn’t fought since December, when he defeated Santiago Ponzinibbio by split decision at UFC 269. With this, Jeff closed the streak of defeats to Stephen Thompson and Neil Magny.
Prediction for the fight
Fans are likely to see a stand-up fight in this fight, as each of its participants prefers to fight on their feet. In terms of technique, Neil is inferior to his counterpart as a drummer, and given that Jeff has difficulties with the “techies”, we assume that Luke will still be in the lead on the judges’ maps. As for if it comes down to the ground, then in this component, Luke’s BJJ skills should give him an advantage.
Each of the fighters has enough punching power for a knockout, so it cannot be ruled out that the fight will end with someone’s KO, but since both Neil and Luke take punches well, there is good reason to believe that the fight will go all three rounds.
Luke win on points
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