Preview: UFC Fight Night 153 ‘Gustafsson vs. Smith’
Hadzovic vs. Giagos
Lightweights
Damir Hadzovic (13-4) vs. Christos Giagos (16-7)Advertisement
It has been a bit of an odd career path for Giagos, if only because it is puzzling why the UFC cut him and then chose to bring him back. Giagos was initially signed back in 2014 and showed some potential as a solid athlete with an unstructured game, but he was cut loose after losing two out of three bouts. While he was fighting outside of the UFC, not much changed. Giagos remained a fighter with some athletic talent and some solid skills, but he lacked a coherent gameplan. Despite not evolving much or even knocking down the doors for a return -- Giagos lost two of his six bouts in between UFC runs, even if one of those was to Josh Emmett -- the promotion picked him back up for a fight against Charles Oliveira in September. Giagos was outmatched there but recovered well with an impressive win over Mizuto Hirota, and now he finds himself in a main card clash with Hadzovic that figures to be a fun war.
Hadzovic has been a pleasant surprise over the last few years. Through the first few rounds of his UFC career, “The Bosnian Bomber” looked like the latest prospect that the promotion simply threw into the deep end, as he was overmatched against Mairbek Taisumov and got taken down at will by Marcin Held. However, in the third round of his fight with Held, the leg lock specialist rolled for a takedown and was immediately kneed in the head, giving Hadzovic an upset win that kept his UFC career afloat. From there, Hadzovic has been a fun action fighter and evolved from fight to fight. He showed the ability to pick apart Nick Hein in a slow-paced bout in 2018, then showed some solid offensive wrestling against Marco Polo Reyes in February. Hadzovic is already ahead of expectations, but a victory here would give him a three-fight winning streak that few could have foreseen.
This is a close one -- just a few months ago, this would have firmly been a pick-’em brawl -- but with both men showing off surprisingly effective wrestling games in their most recent appearances, it adds another dimension to the mix. This could just come down to which man winds up being more effective with his takedowns, but without much of a feel for how this fight is going to go, the safer pick is Hadzovic, if only because he has shown more impressive knockout power, along with an ability to stick to a game plan. The pick is Hadzovic via decision.
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