Drew Dober

Admits upfront he's personally close with Dober and would pick him regardless of who's actually better, explicitly framing the fight itself as one that could go either way.

A pressure fighter with heavy volume, real power, and clean combinations who's excellent at cutting off the cage, but his striking defense is about as bad as it gets and he simply eats a lot of clean shots as a result. He's generally been durable outside of one clear knockout loss, and his grappling defense is solid enough for this level, helped by the fact he makes opponents pay when a takedown attempt fails. He's dangerous off his back too, working actively to return to his feet and making it genuinely hard for opponents to advance position, and he's shown he can raise his pace late when needed. The pick here is explicitly acknowledged as driven by a personal relationship rather than pure film study.