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Preview: UFC Fight Night 241 Prelims
By Tom Feely,
17 days ago
The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday will return to the UFC Apex with a preliminary slate replete with competitors looking to sort out various situations. Victor Martinez and Tom Nolan get the featured spot in a lightweight affair that should be quick and violent, especially with the latter looking to rebound from a rough promotional debut earlier this year. The first Octagon assignment for light heavyweight Oumar Sy represents another point of interest, as does the middleweight clash between talented but inconsistent veterans Abusupiyan Magomedov and Warlley Alves . Meanwhile, strawweights draw the attention at the bottom of the undercard, where the UFC has paired powerhouses Piera Rodriguez and Ariane Carnelossi with one another, along with putting together a well-matched affair between Vanessa Demopoulos and Emily Ducote .
Nolan gets a second chance to make a first impression in this assignment. The young Australian was one of the more promising prospects on the 2023 edition of the Contender Series. Large for the division and a potent offensive threat, “Big Train” looked poised for success in the short term even if there were wrinkles to be ironed out. Defense was purely optional for Nolan, but he figured to be able to beat opponents to the literal punch up to a certain point, which made it a surprise when he got quickly knocked out by Nikolas Motta in his UFC debut in January. Nolan gets a softer touch for this sophomore effort against Martinez, who has struggled to find his footing in the UFC since earning a contract on the Contender Series in 2021. A steady if unspectacular striker, it took “The Brick” about a year and a half to make his UFC debut, and it went surprisingly poorly. Jordan Leavitt is primarily a grappler, but he was able to knock Martinez out in a shade over two and a half minutes. Nolan should be able to get off to his usual hot start, and Martinez isn’t nearly the one-shot knockout threat that Motta is. The pick is Nolan via first-round knockout.
Light heavyweight newcomers go at it here. France’s Sy looks like a prospect to watch. If nothing else, he should be able to move quickly through the bottom half of the division before he might have to start figuring some things out. Massive for the division with a particularly large reach, Sy takes a fairly simple approach, usually looking to quickly take his opponents to the mat and either pound out a stoppage or find a submission. Some of Sy’s regional fights have seen him get stalled out at times, which suggests he’ll eventually hit a ceiling where he needs to round out his game, but that wrestling-heavy style should be enough to make hay in a division low on wrestlers. Sy has had a few opponent changes leading up to this UFC debut, and it appears things have finally landed on Tokkos, who has been on the UFC radar for a while now. Tokkos’ big shot to date was a 2022 bout against Mingyang Zhang as part of the Road to UFC series, which saw him quickly get knocked out and showed the issue with his game. He’s a solid wrestler and kickboxer but can get overwhelmed by high-powered and aggressive athletes in a division full of them. Sy should find success as long as he pushes the pace. The pick is Sy via first-round submission.
If nothing else, Gatto has already overachieved in her UFC career. A 2019 signing, Gatto showed little on the Brazilian regional scene that figured to translate up a level. She showed some skill as a submission hunter but looked lucky to keep her undefeated record intact. Her UFC debut wound up getting delayed by about two years, so Gatto was an afterthought once she finally made her first trip to the Octagon. However, she looked surprisingly solid, cutting down to flyweight and showing off a sharp striking game to go along with her grappling skills. A come-from-behind win over Sijara Eubanks kept her momentum going after a successful UFC debut, but things have stalled out for Gatto in the last few years. There have been some long stretches between fights, and Gatto got outwrestled by Tracy Cortez and lured into a slow-paced striking match by Ariane da Silva. Given how much Gatto’s cut down to flyweight seemed to unlock some athleticism, it’s a surprise to see her up at bantamweight for this fight against Vidal, even though it’s unclear if this is a permanent change or a one-off as she steps in as a late replacement. As for Vidal, she’s a raw prospect who’s still mostly potential at this point. She has some horsepower and enough confidence to keep trying things, but her fights tend to turn into low-output grinds, even though she did manage to land a flying knee to knock out Ramona Pascual in her 2022 UFC debut. Gatto’s approach makes a lot more sense, but with the move up in weight class, Vidal might just be able to play bully and grind out a win, particularly if her counterpart is content to hunt for submissions from her back. The pick is Vidal via decision.
When Magomedov got the call to headline a card against Sean Strickland in July, he was one of the more unlikely main eventers in UFC history. Plagued by injuries and visa issues during his two years on the roster, Magomedov’s entire UFC career to that point consisted of a 19-second knockout victory over Dustin Stoltzfus . However, there was at least some logic in throwing Magomedov into the deep end. Already a well-traveled veteran prior to his signing, there was little sense in waiting for the Russian-born German to work his way up the ladder. Magomedov got off to his usual hot start against Strickland. Tall and lanky for the division, Magomedov’s usually able to catch his opponents unawares when he starts throwing out offense at the beginning of his fights. Yet he also fades. That was eventually the case against Strickland, and his loss to Caio Borralho in November followed a similar pattern. Magomedov looks to get back in the win column against Alves—one of the UFC’s most frustrating talents during his decade with the promotion. Alves won the third season of “The Ultimate Fighter Brazil” and looked like a future champion while doing so, only to have some of that hype die down with his first UFC fight proper against Alan Jouban . Alves earned a decision victory but only after gassing terribly in a manner that suggested his ceiling was as a one-round fighter. Still, Alves was really good for that one round and even scored a submission win over Colby Covington before his record finally came back to earth. Alves has put some obvious work in to try and attempt to pace himself, but he has never quite found a consistently winning formula. When he’s patient, he loses his effectiveness, and when he’s aggressive, he often just burns himself out. Alves still shows enough flashes that he’s still worth being regarded as dangerous, and a full-time move up to middleweight might help some of those cardio issues. With that said, he looked physically overmatched in his first fight back up at 185 pounds against Ikram Aliskerov , enough so that he might not survive Magomedov’s usual early barrage. This fight could go any number of ways if it lasts any length of time, but the pick is Magomedov via first-round knockout.
This should be a solid litmus test for two strawweights looking to get back in the win column. Carnelossi’s pre-UFC footage wasn’t the prettiest, but the Brazilian’s approach has translated surprisingly well to the UFC level given that standard. A muscular tank, Carnelossi gets by on pressure, physicality and durability, all of which have held up against better opposition. However, that hasn’t always resulted in a win. Angela Hill simply poured on enough offense until a cut triggered a doctor stoppage, and Lupita Godinez had the technique to outwrestle Carnelossi handily. Wins over Na Liang and Istela Nunes have shown that Carnelossi can succeed as an absolute powerhouse, and after a two-year layoff, she returns to take on Rodriguez. Venezuela’s “La Fiera” is at a similar point in her career, as most of her results in the UFC have depended on her physicality. Another short and muscular fighter, Rodriguez handled two solid challenges in Kay Hansen and Sam Hughes with surprisingly little trouble, but that just made it all the more surprising when she suffered a dominant loss to Gillian Robertson in a wrestling-heavy affair. This fight is basically a coinflip on paper that could be one-sided in practice. It’s unclear who has the physical advantage, but whoever does has a solid chance at blowing this fight wide open. Carnelossi reads as the stronger fighter, on top of being much more willing to pressure and press her advantages, so she gets the nod. The pick is Carnelossi via decision.
A well-matched fight should help sort out this piece of the bantamweight puzzle. Rodrigues was a fascinating flyweight prospect at one point, particularly after his contract-earning win on the Contender Series in 2021. A bit of an unknown at the time, the Brazilian looked like an absolutely electric athlete while shutting down his opponent. Rodrigues’ style was and is quite athleticism-dependent, as he tends to try single dynamic techniques rather than anything consistent, but he looked like the rare level of athlete who could make that work even in the deep flyweight waters. However, Rodrigues dropped his UFC debut to C.J. Vergara , who absorbed the Brazilian’s offense and dragged him into a tough fight, and after rebounding with a quick knockout over Shannon Ross , weight cut issues eventually forced him into a full-time move up to bantamweight. His first fight at 135 pounds didn’t go particularly great—he looked fast and dynamic for a few moments up until the point that Farid Basharat quickly took him down and submitted him—and Rodrigues gets a difficult rebound assignment against Alateng. China’s Alateng is an underrated fighter in a deep division, as inactivity and poor card placement have kept him under the radar relative to his successful results. “The Mongolian Knight” makes his hay as a hard hitter, even if he struggles to pick up the pace at times. While 2022 saw him shell Kevin Croom and Chad Anheliger , Alateng accomplished little against dedicated neutralizer Chris Gutierrez in his lone fight of 2023. This one might stay at a simmer as these two pick each other apart from range. Rodrigues’ athleticism may carry him to a victory, but the Chinese fighter is proven enough as a power puncher—and his opponent is enough of a question mark at 135 pounds—that Alateng gets the benefit of the doubt. The pick is Alateng via decision.
Two strawweights look to keep the momentum going. The hope was that Ducote could move quickly through the UFC’s strawweight division ahead of her debut in 2022. Formerly an unspectacular grappling specialist as a flyweight, “Gordinha” did an impressive job of reinventing herself as a pressure striker while moving down to 115 pounds. Ducote has done well enough in her four UFC fights, splitting them in terms of wins and losses, but it does looks like she’s already hit a clear ceiling after losses to Angela Hill and Lupita Godinez . Ducote can pour things on when given a clear advantage, but she hasn’t shown much of a second gear to dig herself out of a hole. After rebounding from those two losses with a win over Ashley Yoder in October, Ducote now takes on Demopoulos. The 35-year-old Demopoulos is coming at things from somewhat of an opposite angle, as her game is built around tons of physicality but little in terms of consistency. Demopoulos’ striking isn’t pretty, but she can hit like a truck, though the core of her skill set is a surprisingly flexible grappling game given her muscled-up frame. Demopoulos can usually lean on her horsepower to take some messy wins over the bottom reaches of the UFC roster, though there are times when it feels like she has snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Beyond her sudden comeback submission of Silvana Gomez Juarez in 2022, Demopoulos got a surprising decision win over Kanako Murata in a fight where the Rizin Fighting Federation veteran controlled most of the action. The main question here is whether Demopoulos’ wild but powerful striking can scare Ducote off of her consistent pressure. The read is that Ducote can coast this one out well enough to win on the scorecards. The pick is Ducote via decision.
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