Preview: UFC Seattle Prelims

The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s long-overdue return to Seattle on Saturday was hit hard by injuries, but the remaining UFC Fight Night 252 prelims look quite fun on paper. Four of them take place at middleweight and above, and they almost exclusively feature finishers, led by a light heavyweight clash between Ion Cutelaba and Ibo Aslan that should be quick and violent. However, the two gems of this undercard slate each shine the spotlight on fighters born in the Pacific Northwest. Versatile veteran Andre Fili takes on Melquizael Costa in a featherweight scrap, and Ricky Simon looks to snap a recent skid against fellow underrated bantamweight Javid Basharat.

Now to the preview for the UFC Fight Night 252 “Cejudo vs. Song” prelims:

Light Heavyweights

Ibo Aslan (14-1, 2-0 UFC) vs. Ion Cutelaba (18-10-1, 7-9-1 UFC)

ODDS: Aslan (-175), Cutelaba (+145)

The UFC might have something in Aslan, and this matchup goes a long way towards figuring that out. A rare top prospect out of Turkey, Aslan’s approach mostly consists of one idea—hit his opponent as hard as possible—but so far, so good. After scoring a quick finish on Dana White’s Contender Series, “The Last Ottoman” did well to avenge his lone career loss against Anton Turkalj in his UFC debut. Their first fight on the regional scene saw Aslan tire himself out through his success, but the rematch saw him effectively pick his spots before finding a knockout in the third round. There are still some things to iron out—even a patient Aslan tired himself out somewhat—but there are worse tools to build on than three rounds worth of consistent power. After running through Raffael Cerqueira in October, Aslan’s next test comes against Cutelaba, who might be figuring things out to an extent. Cutelaba made it to the UFC at 22 years old nearly a decade ago, and the Moldovan seemingly had all the skills to become a title contender. When things click, Cutelaba is an absolute terror. Unfortunately, that’s happening less and less often, as he has decided to live up to his “Hulk” nickname. Cutelaba has simply not been able to keep his aggression in check for most of his career, pressing things until he implodes. The good news is that Cutelaba has seemingly finally learned to take his foot off the gas a bit in his last two fights. The bad news is that those showings still weren’t particularly impressive, with him losing a decision to Philipe Lins and beating Ivan Erslan in fights where he still didn’t show a great gas tank or understanding of defense. The version of Cutelaba from 2022 or so would have marched directly into a knockout loss, so at least this figures to be a tougher fight for Aslan in 2025. Still, it’s hard not to see Aslan landing a knockout blow at some point over 15 minutes. The pick is Aslan via second-round knockout.

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Aslan vs. Cutelaba
Costa vs. Fili
Abdul-Malik vs. Klein
Basharat vs. Simon
Ruziboev vs. McConico
Bukauskas vs. Cerqueira
Veretennikov vs. Vanderford