Preview: UFC Fight Night 223 ‘Song vs. Simon’

Featherweights

Julian Erosa (28-10) vs. Fernando Padilla (14-4)

ODDS: Erosa (-150), Padilla (+130)

The third time has been the charm for Erosa in the UFC, to say the least. He made it to the UFC separate times through “The Ultimate Fighter” and Contender Series, with each run essentially going the same way; "Juicy J" fought behind an aggressive style with just enough built-in defense to avoid trouble on the regional scene but kept getting knocked out by UFC-level competition. Still, Erosa's willingness to take fights whenever possible made it unsurprising when he got a third chance with the promotion; with matchmaking in chaos during the COVID-19 pandemic, Erosa figured to be near the top of the list in terms of late-notice replacements. Erosa took advantage of his latest shot with a complete performance and late submission victory against Sean Woodson, which has essentially set the tone for his career in the years since; he's now proven more able to buckle down and lean even more on his aggression, and while he'll still eat the occasional quick knockout - as he did against Alex Caceres in his last fight this past December - he's able to drown opponents in volume more often than not. After what was overall a successful 2022 despite the Caceres loss, it's a bit disheartening to see Erosa fall all the way back to prospect-testing duty here against UFC newcomer Padilla. Padilla's UFC debut has been in the works for about two years, and he's a prospect with potential in a familiar form; he's gigantic for the division, has some knockout power and is mostly figuring out the rest. There's clearly the risk of Erosa eating another quick finish, but this is the type of fight that the UFC vet wins more often than not at this point - in fact, it's not all that dissimilar to the Woodson matchup from 2020. Padilla's historically durable which could make this a bit of a tougher ask than some of Erosa's recent wins, but the pick is Erosa via decision.

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Song vs. Simon
Borralho vs. Oleksiejczuk
Vieira vs. Brundage
Erosa vs. Padilla
De Lima vs. Cortes-Acosta
Quinlan vs. Waters
The Prelims