Preview: UFC Fight Night 180 Main Card

Light Heavyweights

Jimmy Crute (11-1) vs. Modestas Bukauskas (11-2)

ODDS: Crute (-345), Bukauskas (+285)

Young guns at light heavyweight face off in this one. Crute was essentially gifted a contract on Dana White’s Contender Series—his opponent was coming off of a loss to Matt Hamill—but the Australian has made good on the shot, proving to be a surprisingly consistent prospect despite his youth and lack of experience. Crute was exactly the type of blank slate as a prospect that figured to fail IQ tests against the likes of Paul Craig and Sam Alvey, but “The Brute” showed a smart approach, avoided trouble and eventually earned two finishes. The issue with Crute is more athleticism and depth of skill. Faced with someone who had both in Misha Cirkunov, he quickly found himself on the worse end of some grappling exchanges and got tapped without much issue. Crute rebounded fine enough with a win over Michal Oleksiejczuk in February and should managed to keep his footing for years to come. While he does not have the type of athletic upside that typically thrives at light heavyweight, he has a high floor since he can dispatch obviously flawed opponents without much trouble. In the other corner is Bukauskas, the UFC’s first Lithuanian-born male fighter and an odd prospect in his own right. Bukauskas came to the UFC with some hype after a successful campaign in Cage Warriors Fighting Championship, but his regional career felt like he was walking a bit of a tightrope. He had a patient approach and a solid jab, but he was often content to lose rounds and let his opponent control the fight until he suddenly turned things around with a burst of offense. However, Bukauskas’ UFC debut in July showed some promise, as he was a lot more willing to throw out offense on his way to a first-round stoppage of Andreas Michailidis. It will be interesting to see how much of that was due to Michailidis’ lack of defense, but a higher-volume Bukauskas could have some success keeping Crute at range and frustrating the Australian. With that said, everything comes back to Bukauskas’ wrestling and grappling defense, which might be the weakest parts of his game. While Bukauskas does seem to be difficult to actually get to the mat, his opponents have typically found success pinning him against the fence and banking rounds, even without much to mix up their approach. If anything, Crute looks to wrestle too much, so he should be able to take the initiative early and often. This could just wind up as a grind, but the pick is Crute via first-round submission.

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