Battle’s cut to 170 pounds has certainly made things more
interesting. He won the middleweight tournament on Season 29 of
“The Ultimate Fighter” as a raw prospect who was riding a risky
path to success. Battle was essentially a high-paced scrapper who
relied on outlasting and breaking down his opponents, regardless of
how much offense he had to eat in the process. That resulted in
some rough moments even during his eventual wins, and without
appearing to be much of an elite athlete as a middleweight, his
August cut down to welterweight figured to be a smart move to gain
some physical parity. The question heading into his 170-pound debut
against Takashi
Sato was whether the weight cut would sap some of Battle’s
cardio at the pace he likes to set. That question remains
unanswered, as Battle surprisingly knocked out Sato in just 44
seconds. If Battle has suddenly found some finishing ability, that
completely changes the paradigm of his capabilities in his new
weight class, and he can further prove himself against a tough test
in Fakhretdinov. Russia’s Fakhretdinov appeared to be a bruising
slugger based on most of his pre-UFC film, but “Gladiator” relied
on his wrestling to salt away his UFC debut against Andreas
Michailidis in June, which turned into an absolute grind. There
is certainly some power behind everything Fakhretdinov does, but at
the moment, that seems to sum up his two paths to victory. If he
cannot score an immediate knockout, he will need to rely on being
able to control his opponent over three rounds in an ugly fight. It
would not be a shock if this is where Battle finally hits a
physical ceiling, but the American has proven quite durable and
difficult to control, so he should be able to outpace Fakhretdinov
enough to get a win assuming he looks anything like his
middleweight form. The pick is Battle via third-round stoppage.
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