Zach Reese

Picked with the analyst rating him the more skilled fighter overall but explicitly framing this as a coinflip, not a confident read.

A fighter the analyst calls more skilled on paper than his opponent but frustrating to watch because he doesn't consistently make the best decisions in the cage. Good striker who brings real power, puts punches and kicks together well, and has a good body kick, particularly off the front kick and roundhouse. The real weakness is range control -- despite being tall and lanky, he struggles to keep people at distance and can over-close, giving up the range advantage his frame should provide.

He calls this his toughest read on the card, ultimately siding with Pereira almost reluctantly while admitting the recent-form momentum clearly favors Reese.

Reese has been winning, but the analyst isn't fully convinced by the level of competition behind those results. His striking has real power and solid combinations, with a body-kicking arsenal (both front kicks and roundhouses) that stands out as a real weapon, but his central flaw as a tall, rangy fighter is that he simply doesn't manage distance well. On the mat he's dangerous with powerful slams, heavy ground-and-pound, and submission attempts of his own, but his willingness to work off his back has burned him before, including one instance of being scooped up and slammed while going for a triangle.