UFC Fight Night Predictions: Yan and Figueiredo to Bring Fireworks to Macau

If you’re after some UFC Fight Night 248 predictions, you’re at the right place! We’ll now share our top picks for all the fights from the Macau event on November 23.

We’ll start with an analysis of the main event, which is a bantamweight fight between two former UFC champs, Petr Yan and Deiveson Figueiredo.

Petr Yan vs. Deiveson Figueiredo – Who Will Win the UFC Macau Headliner?

Petr Yan is a former UFC Bantamweight champion whose overall record is 17-5. However, he lost three of his last four fights. Sounds bad, right, but there’s a caveat. Each of those three losses happened by decision, with two of them being split-decision losses.

In fact, four of his five losses happened by decision, while the fifth one was a disqualification loss (for an illegal knee) against Aljamain Sterling that cost Yan the title.

Knowing this, it’s obvious that the 31-year-old Russian is a real warrior with plenty of experience fighting elite bantamweights. His UFC Macau opponent also has plenty of experience, but not in the 135lb division.

Instead, 25 of Deiveson Figueiredo’s 28 professional MMA fights were in the flyweight division. He moved to the bantamweight division 12 months ago and is 3-0 since.

Figgy defeated Rob Font by decision on his divisional debut, followed by a submission win over Cody Garbrandt, and another win by decision, this time against Marlon Vera.

He’s been doing fine in this weight class, but we don’t think he’s got what it takes to beat Yan. Sure, he might give him a real war in Macau, taking the 5-round fight to distance, but we doubt he can win.

Yan Xiaonan’s Resurrection Starts on November 23

Yan Xiaonan had a chance to win the UFC Women’s Strawweight title last April against fellow Chinese fighter Zhang Weili. The title bout lasted for the full 25 minutes, with the fighters trading strikes and takedowns.

The defending champ won the fight by unanimous decision, but Xiaonan needs to be congratulated for her resilience. She got hit 106 times and got taken down six times, with Weili making two submission attempts – Xiaonan survived all that!

She’d love to get another shot at the title, and many think such a thing would be deserved. But for that to happen, she needs to get a few more wins against other potential contenders such as Tabatha Ricci.

Winning by a spectacular KO could be a shortcut to another title bout, which is exactly what we predict she’ll aim for. Given that eight of her 18 wins happened by that method, we wouldn’t be surprised if she pulled it off.

Muslim Salikhov Loves Fighting in China

UFC Fight Night 248 will take place in China’s special administrative region of Macau. Knowing this, you’d assume that Chinese fighter Song Kenan will have the crowd on his side on November 23, but his opponent Muslim Salikhov is loved in China.

Born and raised in Dagestan, the 40-year-old is an expert in Sanda, a Chinese martial art that combines kickboxing with wrestling. He practiced Sanda – both professionally and at an amateur level – from 2003 to 2017, winning all sorts of awards along the way (e.g., gold at the 2008 Olympics).

His record in mixed martial arts is 20-5, with two losses in the last three fights. In his most recent fight, though, he beat Santiago Ponzinibbio by a controversial split decision.

Now, he’s got an even tougher task on his hands, but he needs to deliver. Otherwise, it could be the end of his UFC dream.

UFC Fight Night 248 Predictions for Remaining Fights

• Wang Cong (-520) vs. Gabriella Fernandes (+395) – Wang Cong
• Volkan Oezdemir (+215) vs. Carlos Ulberg (-255) – Carlos Ulberg
• Zhang Mingyang (-310) vs. Ozzy Diaz (+260) – Zhang Mingyang
• Xie Bin (-120) vs. Zhu Kangjie (+100) – Xie Bin
• Baergeng Jieleyisi (+122) vs. You Su-young (-142) – You Su-young
• Kiru Singh Sahota (+130) vs. Choi Dong-hun (-150) – Choi Dong-hun
• Shi Ming (+240) vs. Feng Xiaocan (-300) – Feng Xiaocan
• Lone’er Kavanagh (-340) vs. Jose Ochoa (+265) – Lone’er Kavanagh
• Xiao Long (-110) vs. Quang Le (-110) – Xiao Long
• Maheshate Hayisaer (-206) vs. Nikolas Motta (+176) – Maheshate Hayisaer

There you have it, our top UFC Fight Night 248 predictions for all the remaining fights. As you’ll notice if you look closely, we picked favorites to get the job done in all of those fights. The reason behind this is that favorites almost always win in Fight Night events.

For example, in the most recent Fight Night event – UFC Fight Night: Magny vs. Prates – the favorite won in every single fight on the card. We think something similar might happen in Macau.

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