Joaquim Silva will look to stay unbeaten, as he takes on Reza Madadi at UFC Fight Night 109 on Sunday in Sweden. Silva comes into this fight at 9-0, including 2-0 in the UFC with wins over Nazareno Malegarie and Andrew Holbrook. Madadi is taking this fight on short notice, as he steps in for the injured Mairbek Taisumov. Madadi is 14-5 in his career, including 3-3 in the UFC with his last fight a loss to Joseph Duffy at UFC Fight Night 107. The fight between Silva and Madadi is one of four on the FS1 portion of the preliminary card, which leads up to a six-fight main card featuring Alexander Gustafsson vs. Glover Teixeira.
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Joaquim Silva (9-0, 2-0 UFC)
Silva started his career in Brazil and went 7-0 in lower level competition before he was signed by the UFC in 2015. Silva defeated Nazareno Malegarie by split decision at UFC 191 and then he took care of Andrew Holbrook in July of 2016. The win over Holbrook was impressive as he knocked out Holbrook in 34 seconds.
Silva has handled all but one of his opponents with relative ease, as only one of his nine fights went to decision. The question is whether or not Silva has faced enough quality opposition to be listed as a solid favorite against Madadi. It is expected that Silva is going to be listed as about a 2-1 favorite in this fight.
Reza Madadi (14-5, 3-3 UFC)
The “Mad Dog” has split his six fights in the UFC, with his last fight a loss to Joseph Duffy just over two months ago. This will be the first time he will have fought twice in the same year since 2012. Madadi is now 38 years old so the clock is ticking on his career. He has had an up and down career, as he won 12 of his first 14 fights including wins over Rich Clementi. His UFC career started in 2012 with an impressive win against Yoislandy Izquierdo. He then fought Cristiano Marcello and lost a controversial split decision. Most people who watched that fight thought Madadi should have gotten the win. Madadi bounced back to defeat Michael Johnson in 2013.
Things changed for Madadi late in 2013 when he was convicted on burglary charges and he was dropped from the UFC. He was brought back by the UFC in 2015 and he lost to Norman Parke. Madadi bounced back to beat Yan Cabral at UFC Fight Night 87 last May. He then had some health issues and was out of action until fighting Joseph Duffy at UFC Fight Night 107 in March of this year.
Fight Notes
The headline bout at UFC Fight 109 is a matchup between Gustafsson and Teixeira. These two were supposed to fight in June of 2015 but Gustafsson had to pull out of the bout due to injury. UFC Fight Night 109 will have a lot of big favorites on the card, as 8 of the 12 bouts should have the favorite listed at -200 or more, including two bouts with the favorite listed at more than -500.
UFC Picks
Silva is relatively unproven but he is on the way up, while Madadi is on the way down. I will lay the price and look for Silva to get the win.
UFC Fight Night 109, also known as UFC Fight Night: Gustafsson vs. Teixeira will be held on May 28 at Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, Sweden. The main card, which features Alexander Gustafsson vs. Glover Teixeira will be shown on FS1, while the six prelims are on FS1 and UFC Fight Pass with four on FS1 and two on UFC Fight Pass.
Main Card (FS1)
Alexander Gustafsson -325 vs. Glover Teixeira
Volkan Oezdemir vs. Misha Cirkunov
Peter Sobotta vs. Ben Saunders
Omari Akhmedov vs. Abdul Razak Alhassan
Nordine Taleb vs. Oliver Enkamp
Jack Hermansson vs. Alex Nicholson
Preliminary Card (FS1)
Pedro Munhoz vs. Damian Stasiak
Chris Camozzi vs. Trevor Smith
Joaquim Silva vs. Reza Madadi
Nico Musoke vs. Bojan Velickovic
Preliminary Card (UFC Fight Pass)
Darren Till vs. Jessin Ayari
Marcin Held vs.Damir Hadzovic
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