UFC Fight Night: Pavlovich vs Blaydes Predictions, Fight Card, and Odds (Apr 22)

• Sergei Pavlovich looking for a KO/TKO win against Curtis Blaydes in the main event.
• Bobby Green is fighting his last-ever fight on Saturday evening.

The UFC is coming back to Vegas this weekend. UFC Apex is the place where the event dubbed UFC Fight Night: Pavlovich vs Blaydes will take place on Saturday, April 22. There are six fights on the main card, each of which we’re going to analyze now, sharing our top picks along the way.

Schedule and How to Watch

• Where: UFC Apex, Vegas, Nevada
• When: Saturday, April 22, 2023, at 10 p.m ET
• How to Watch: ESPN/ESPN+

UFC Fight Night: Pavlovich vs Blaydes Predictions

It’s no surprise that Curtis Blaydes (12-3-1) is the favorite. He’s a fine fighter with plenty of weapons in his arsenal. Still, we do think his opponent Sergei Pavlovich (17-1) can stage an upset.

Blaydes is a great wrestler who’s an expert when it comes to takedowns. However, to take Pavlovich down, he needs to get close to him. The problem is that the Russian is a great boxer with an 84-inch reach (4 inches longer than that of Blaydes), so it’s incredibly hard to get to him.

Plus, he lands a lot of strikes 8.07 significant strikes per minute. In comparison, Blaydes lands just 3.54. And Pavlovich’s strikes are incredibly powerful as evident from the fact that he’s got a knockout-to-win ratio of 82.35%. In fact, he won every single one of his last five fights by KO/TKO and we think the same might happen on Saturday.

Prediction:

Song Yadong vs Ricky Simon

Song Yadong (19-7-2) and Ricky Simon (20-3) are two very well-rounded fighters with great stamina. They both also have decent experience fighting at a top level, which explains why their odds are relatively close.

Anything can happen in a fight like this, but we think the most likely scenario is Simon winning by decision.

Prediction

Brad Tavares vs Bruno Silva

Here’s another fight which we think is going to be very close. Brad Tavares (19-7) is the favorite against Bruno Silva (22-8), but we think an upset might happen. It’s just that Silva is the kind of fighter who can go from losing to winning with a single strike. This guy is a knockout expert who’s won 19 of his 22 wins by KO/TKO.  

He is coming to Vegas after back-to-back losses, but they happened against real elite fighters – Alex Pereira and Gerald Meerschaert.

Prediction:

Bobby Green vs. Jared Gordon

This is going to be the final professional fight of Bobby Green (29-14-1). The 36-year-old is retiring after the fight with Jared Gordon (19-6), and we think he’s going to go out with a bang. Green lost his previous two fights, each by KO/TKO, but that only means he’s going to be more careful this time. That said, we think he’s going to win by decision.

Prediction:

Iasmin Lucindo vs Brogan Walker-Sanchez

Iasmin Lucindo (13-5) made her UFC debut last August and lost to Yazmin Jauregui by a unanimous decision. Eight months later, she’s determined to make it even in the promotion with a win over Brogan Walker-Sanchez (7-3). She too is 0-1 in the UFC, and we think she’ll remain winless after this weekend.

Lucindo is younger, faster, and more powerful than her, which is why anything but a win for the Brazilian would be a surprise.  

Prediction:

Jeremiah Wells vs Matthew Semelsberger    

Betting odds suggest this matchup is a coin toss – anything can happen. We agree because Jeremiah Wells (11-2) and Matthew Semelsberger (11-4) are two very similar fighters. Semelsberger might be a better boxer, but Wells has more skills in his collection. We think it’s very likely this fight will last full three rounds, after which the judges will score Wells as the winner.

Prediction: