Jefferson Nascimento

Picked with the least amount of confidence the analyst says he has, given real uncertainty about how much of a size disadvantage he's actually facing moving up a weight class.

Undefeated, and would be rated a notch higher on the feet if not for one recurring flaw. Good forward pressure with real power, decent head movement, keeps his hands up, and wades into the pocket. Really heavy kicks for a fighter who is more of a boxer, worked well to the legs and body (rarely the head), and he works the body effectively with both kicks and punches, going wherever the guard is down. The recurring issue is getting caught on entries -- being shorter makes closing distance against longer fighters difficult even with good guard and head movement, though it hasn't cost him yet given his unbeaten record. Decent, clearly secondary grappling: decent takedowns via an untechnical body-lock drag-down, good ground and pound once there, occasional submission attacks, and a genuinely good killer instinct.