Preview: UFC Fight Night 240 ‘Allen vs. Curtis 2’

Lightweights

Ignacio Bahamondes (14-5) vs. Christos Giagos (20-11)

Odds: Bahamondes (-345), Giagos (+275)

Bahamondes is still a lightweight prospect worth watching, but the Chilean would do well to rebound from a poor performance here. A massive fighter at 155 pounds, "La Jaula" hasn't always maximized that range, instead often preferring a fairly straight-ahead war; that cost him in his UFC debut when John Makdessi was surprisingly capable of standing his ground and trading fire, but the fight was entertaining enough that Bahamondes didn't lower his stock, particularly after he reeled off three straight wins. A decision victory last April over Trey Ogden suggested that Bahamondes would be tough to neutralize despite some consistent defensive flaws, which made it a shock when his August loss to Ludovit Klein was such a flat showing; Klein hit some big shots and scored some takedowns early on, and that was seemingly enough to take Bahamondes out of his game for the rest of the fight. Bahamondes's attempted rebound comes here against Giagos, who's found himself in a gatekeeper role for the second straight fight. Giagos had a three-fight stint with the UFC that ended with him sliding out of the promotion in 2015, though he did eventually win his way back to a return in 2018 and has stayed on the roster since. "The Spartan" has developed into a fairly straightforward but effective fighter; a jack of all trades and master of none, Giagos is content to march forward and try to make something happen, with most of his results typically depending on his ability to out-wrestle and out-grapple his opponent. It's hard not to make comparisons between this and Giagos's last fight, a second-round submission loss to Daniel Zellhuber, another long striker with some underrated grappling skills that quickly found a finish when Giagos went for a takedown; and this might be a rougher matchup, given that Zellhuber is a slow starter while that's not the case here. The pick is Bahamondes via second-round submission.

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Allen vs. Curtis
Hernandez vs. Jackson
Charriere vs. Mariscal
Bahamondes vs. Giagos
Walker vs. Brzeski
Peek vs. Campbell
The Prelims