Preview: UFC Fight Night 190 Prelims

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Featherweights

NR | Charles Rosa (13-5, 4-5 UFC) vs. NR | Justin Jaynes (16-7, 1-3 UFC)

ODDS: Rosa (-170), Jaynes (+150)

Jaynes has managed to turn his willingness to take as many fights as possible into a five-fight UFC career, but he could badly use a win here. The “Guitar Hero” sprang one of the bigger upsets of 2020, stepping in on a few days’ notice and blasting Frank Camacho in just 41 seconds for a successful UFC debut. However, that has been about the extent of Jaynes’ UFC success thus far. His style is mostly built around shocking his opponents early, and that just has not happened in his last three bouts. However, with Jaynes willing to step in on short notice, he has gotten a longer leash than most; the vast majority of fighters in his position would not get the chance to break the three-fight losing streak Jaynes carries into his matchup with Rosa. Thus far, the highlight of Rosa’s UFC career was a late 2019 win over Manny Bermudez, which saw him come back from a career-threatening injury and score an upset submission win in his hometown of Boston. That is far from Rosa’s only successful moment inside the Octagon, as he has alternated wins and losses on the back of an unorthodox and often frustrating style. Rosa’s approach mostly centers around pecking at his opponents with low-powered strikes from range and neutralizing their ability to gain any sort of momentum as he continually attempts to evade them. If his opponents look to close the distance and pursue some wrestling, Rosa has typically been able to rely on his grappling chops to either survive or turn the tide in his favor. With that said, his approach has completely fallen apart lately against stronger grapplers in Bryce Mitchell and Darrick Minner. Jaynes does not really look to wrestle and Rosa only uses his grappling when forced to do, meaning this fight should take place mostly on the feet. Between Rosa’s durability and ability to stay out of trouble, this could wind up as three ugly rounds of Jaynes trying to chase him down. In general, Rosa figures to avoid early trouble from Jaynes and should coast to a win after that. The pick is Rosa via decision.

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