Sports Reporter | Capper
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The UFC is back at the Apex for a stacked fight night event taking place this Saturday, August 10th. On the prelims, we have a great scrap in the featherweight division between two prospects as Youssef Zalal and Jarno Errens battle it out looking to climb the featherweight rankings.
This fight has the makings of being a great one for the fight fans, so let's take a look at the matchup and our Zalal-Errens prediction and pick.
Youssef Zalal (14-5-1) started his first stint with the UFC with three straight victories looking like a true contender in the featherweight division until he ran into the site of the division.
Over his next three fights with the promotion he dropped decisions to the current featherweight champion Ilia Topuria, Seing Woo Choi, and a close split-decision to Sean Woodson only to fight to a draw against Da'Mon Blackshear.
Ultimately, he was cut from the promotion after three consecutive losses and a draw but then he was able to make his way back to the Octagon two years later after winning three MMA fights, one kickboxing, and one boxing match.
Zalals is now 14-5-1 in his pro career with a 4-3-1 record in the UFC.
In this matchup, Zalal gets to take on a vicious striker Jarno Errens who looked the best he has looked inside the Octagon in his last fight where he outstruck Steven Ngyuen en route to his first UFC victory.
While Errens may be the bigger fighter in there, he is going to have a tough time just walking Zalal down like he did to Ngyuen.
It will be up to Zalal to not make this a straight kickboxing match and mix things up on the feet and on the mat to where he can continue his winning ways and get his second win in a row in his second stint inside the Octagon.
Then he met the current interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall in the Octagon in his return fight and that didn't end well as he was knocked out in just 1:13. However, he got back on track in a big way by choking out Tai Tuivasa in the first round.
Jarno Errens (14-5-1) finally got himself back into the win column after dropping each of his first two fights in the UFC.
He will look to do one better when he takes on Youssef Zalal in an attempt to keep his UFC hopes alive with a win this weekend at UFC Vegas 95. Errens has some slick kickboxing and good pop in strikes as we saw when he dropped both Steven Ngyuen and Seung Woo Choi in his last two fights.
On the feet, we know that Errens is going to want to be the aggressor and push the pace to land his heavy strikes but he is going to need to do a good job at cutting off the cage and trapping Zalal from circling away from the cage.
This should be a fun fight between two featherweight hopefuls. While Errens is a fantastic striker to watch, he is going to have a tough time corraling Zalal on the feet and when Zalal mixes in the grappling he is tough to beat.
Ultimately, Zalal pot shots and outworks Errens throughout this fight getting the nod on the judge's scorecards.
FINAL ZALAL-ERRENS PICK & PREDICTION: YOUSSEF ZALAL (-460)
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