Former flyweight title contenders meet on Saturday night at UFC on FOX 29 in Arizona, as Wilson Reis takes on John Moraga. Reis is 22-8 in his career, but he is coming off two straight losses, while Moraga is 18-6 and coming off two wins. Reis is listed as a slight favorite in this matchup. This fight is one of four on the FOX portion of the preliminary card, leading up to a four-fight main card, also on FOX, featuring Dustin Poirier vs. Justin Gaethje. Let’s look at Reis vs. Moraga and UFC picks.
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Wilson Reis (22-8, 6-4 UFC)
Reis was rolling along winning five of six until he ran into Demetrious Johnson last April. Reis was submitted in the third round of that fight and Reis didn’t fight again until last September. It didn’t go well for him in that fight, as he was knocked out by Henry Cejudo in the second round. This is a huge fight for Reis to prove that he can rebound from two straight losses.
Reis has been a pro since 2007 and he has ten wins by submission and a total of seven first round finishes.
John Moraga (18-6, 7-5 UFC)
Moraga got his title shot early in his career, but he lost to Johnson in the fifth round in 2014. He lost three straight fights from 2015 to 2017 but he has rebounded to win fights against Magomed Bibulatov and Ashkan Mokhtarian. Moraga said recently to the media that he is not worried about getting another title shot. “I’m not really too worried about that [second title shot],” Moraga said. “Just worried about Wilson at the moment. You know, he’s a tough opponent and I’m not looking past him. So, whatever comes after that, you know, comes. But, I’m not in a rush to get back into the belt [conversation]. I think I gotta build some momentum and build my spark a little bit, and then we will think about that kind of stuff.”
Moraga has been a pro since 2009 and he has eight wins by submission and he has a total of six first round finishes.
UFC Picks
This is an interesting matchup between two fighters that would prefer to decide the action on the mat. Reis has really not proven he can handle top notch fighters, but the question is whether or not Moraga falls into that category. I would say that Moraga is not a top fighter, as he hasn’t really shown he is a title contender. Moraga doesn’t seem motivated to even get back into title contention. I think this is a key fight for Reis if he wants to get some marquee matchups in the future. I think Reis will win this fight and I also think the fight will go the distance, so I will take the rounds to go over the total.
UFC on FOX 29 takes place on Saturday, April 14, 2018 at Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona, with a lightweight match between Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje as the event headliner. There are a total of four fights on the main card on FOX and a total of 10 on the preliminary card with four on FOX and six on UFC Fight Pass.
Main Card (FOX)
Lightweight – Dustin Poirier -145 vs. Justin Gaethje
Welterweight – Alex Oliveira -210 vs. Carlos Condit
Middleweight – Israel Adesanya -260 vs. Marvin Vettori
Women’s Strawweight – Cortney Casey -125 vs. Michelle Waterson
Preliminary Card (FOX)
Middleweight – Antonio Carlos Junior -270 vs. Tim Boetsch
Welterweight – Muslim Salikhov -165 vs. Ricky Rainey
Flyweight – Wilson Reis -140 vs. John Moraga
Middleweight – Brad Tavares -140 vs. Krzysztof Jotko
Preliminary Card (UFC Fight Pass)
Lightweight – Gilbert Burns -500 vs. Dan Moret
Women’s Flyweight – Shana Dobson -115 vs. Lauren Mueller
Welterweight – Dhiego Lima -115 vs. Yushin Okami
Heavyweight – Arjan Bhullar -365 vs. Adam Wieczorek
Bantamweight – Matthew Lopez -130 vs. Alejandro Perez
Bantamweight – Luke Sanders -420 vs. Patrick Williams
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