Andre Fili

Picked against, though the analyst explicitly warns not to count out a grizzled veteran on short notice and credits a real chance to win rounds.

A grizzled veteran whose recent form isn't great, though the analyst attributes that more to accumulated fight miles than to genuine decline. Rated good virtually everywhere -- a good striker who uses his length well, maintaining forward pressure while keeping opponents right at his punching range, with a good kick arsenal and a favored jab-to-lead-hook combination. His defense leans entirely on maintaining that range, which becomes a real liability when an opponent gets past it with multi-punch combinations. Good grappler who mixes in opportunistic takedowns, scrambles well, and uses his length for control and choke setups on the mat, but takedown defense itself isn't great -- a real weakness.

Picks Delgado as simply the more dangerous striker in what's expected to be mostly a stand-up fight, adding that he already felt Delgado deserved the nod in his last outing.

Fili is a rangy, technical striker who pressures forward while keeping his distance managed rather than smothering himself in close, mixing in good kicks and a jab-to-lead-hook combination he leaned on heavily last time out. His defense can lapse, though, since he's shown a willingness to trade damage for damage rather than avoid it, which is risky against a live threat. His grappling is solid when he commits to it, with opportunistic takedowns he doesn't always follow through on and good scrambling that uses his length, but his takedown defense is only average.