Siyar Bahadurzada will return to action for the first time in more than a year, as he takes on Rob Wilkinson at UFC Fight Night 115 on Saturday, September 2 at Rotterdam, Netherlands. This middleweight bout has Bahadurzada coming in with a record of 22-6-1, while Wilkinson is unbeaten at 11-0. This fight is expected to be placed on the undercard on FS1, leading up to the main event which features Alexander Volkov taking on Stefan Struve. Let’s look at Bahadurzada vs. Wilkinson and UFC picks.
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Siyar Bahadurzada (22-6-1, 2-2 UFC)
We haven’t seen much of Bahadurzada recently, as he hasn’t fought in more than a year and he has only one bout since December of 2013. He split his four UFC fights at welterweight and now moves to middleweight. He defeated Paulo Thiago in his UFC debut in 2012, as he knocked out Thiago. Bahadurzada then lost to Dong Hung Kim by unanimous decision in March of 2013and he lost to John Howard by unanimous decision in December of 2013. Bahadurzada finally saw action in March of last year, as he submitted Brandon Thatch in the third round.
Bahadurzada has 12 wins in his career by KO or TKO and six wins by submission. He has been a pro since 2002 and has gained attention for his MMA work in his home country of Afghanistan.
Rob Wilkinson (11-0, UFC debut)
Wilkinson will be making his UFC debut at UFC Fight Night 115. He has won all of his 11 fights with 10 coming by stoppage. He won the Australian Fighting Championship title and he also won the Brace tournament championship title. He has not fought since last October when he defeated Alexander Poppeck.
Wilkinson is from Australia and trains at the VT1 gym in Sydney. He is a late replacement for the injured Abu Azaitar in this middleweight bout. Wilkinson has four knockouts in his career and six submission wins.
The last three wins for Wilkinson were against Daniel Schuardt at AFC 14, Jamie Abdallah at AFC 15 and Alexander Poppeck at Euro FC1.
UFC Picks
This is an interesting middleweight fight between two fighters who both like to win on the mat. There are two main questions to answer for this fight. First, what type of shape is Bahadurzada in considering he has not fought in more than a year? Second, is Wilkinson good enough to take the step up from the lower levels of MMA and win in the UFC?
In answering those two questions, I would say that Bahadurzada will be in excellent shape, as he is known for being an extremely disciplined fighter and coming into a fight in less than perfect shape would be unacceptable to him, so the layoff should not be an issue. I am not so sure that Wilkinson is ready to beat good competition in the UFC. Wilkinson has fought no one in his career, so this is a huge step up in competition and it is on short notice. I will take Bahadurzada to get the win, probably by submission, so going under the rounds total could also be worth considering.
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UFC Fight Night 115 takes place on Saturday, September 2 at Ahoy Rotterdam in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The feature fight is a matchup between Stefan Struve and former Bellator heavyweight champion Alexander Vokov. There should be five or six fights on the main card on FS1 and four on the preliminary card, also on FS1, plus two on UFC Fight Pass.
Fight Card
Stefan Struve vs. Alexander Volkov
Germaine de Randamie vs. Marion Reneau
Rustam Khabilov vs. Desmond Green
TBA vs. Saparbek Safarov
Bojan Mihajlovic vs. Abdul-Kerim Edilov
Francimar Barroso vs. Aleksandar Rakic
Bryan Barberena vs. Leon Edwards
Nick Hein vs. Zabit Magomedsharipov
Mairbek Taisumov vs. Felipe Silva
Darren Till vs. Bojan Velickovic
Siyar Bahadurzada vs. Rob Wilkinson
Mads Burnell vs. Michel Prazeres
Andrew Holbrook vs. Thibault Gouti
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