UFC Fight Night 265: Abdul-Rakhman Yakhyaev vs Raffael Cerqueira Preview & Prediction
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Light heavyweights throw down in the preliminaries' penultimate offering, with Raffael Cerqueira looking to defy the odds against the heavy handed Abdul-Rakhman Yakhyaev.
Abdul-Rakhman Yakhyaev vs Raffael Cerqueira facts
What time are Abdul-Rakhman Yakhyaev and Raffael Cerqueira expected to walk out?
Where is UFC Fight Night: Tsarukyan vs Hooker? Ali Bin Hamad al-Attiyah Arena, Al Rayyan, Qatar
Where can I get tickets for UFC Fight Night: Tsarukyan vs Hooker? Click here for the latest ticket information for UFC Fight Night: Tsarukyan vs Hooker
What TV channel is UFC Fight Night: Tsarukyan vs Hooker on? UK – TNT Sports / USA – ESPN+
Where can I stream UFC Fight Night: Tsarukyan vs Hooker? UK – TNT Sports subscribers can stream the event online via the TNT Sports website and discovery+ / USA – ESPN+ & UFC Fight Pass
UFC Fight Night 265: Tsarukyan vs Hooker main card
Arman Tsarukyan vs Dan Hooker (Lightweight)
Belal Muhammad vs Ian Machado Garry (Welterweight)
Volkan Oezdemir vs Alonzo Menifield (Light Heavyweight)
Jack Hermansson vs Myktybek Orolbai (Welterweight)
Waldo Cortes-Acosta vs Shamil Gaziev (Heavyweight)
Tagir Ulanbekov vs Kyoji Horiguchi (Flyweight)
UFC Fight Night 265: Tsarukyan vs Hooker prelims
Bogdan Grad vs Luke Riley (Featherweight)
Nicolas Dalby vs Saygid Izagakhmaev (Welterweight)
Alex Perez vs Asu Almabayev (Flyweight)
Abdul-Rakhman Yakhyaev vs Rafael Cerqueira (Light Heavyweight)
Bekzat Almakhan vs Aleksandre Topuria (Bantamweight)
Ismail Naurdiev vs Ryan Loder (Middleweight)
Nurullo Aliev vs Shaqueme Rock (Lightweight)
Marek Bujlo vs Denzel Freeman (Heavyweight)
Abdul-Rakhman Yakhyaev: "Hunter" makes his UFC debut after securing his spot in the promotion via DWCS
Announcing himself with a thunderous first round TKO stoppage over Alik Lorenz on the Contender Series in August, Abdul-Rakhman Yakhyaev (7-0) makes his UFC debut with no small amount of fanfare considering that he's the biggest favorite on the card. Arriving in the promotion as an undefeated 24 year old with a reputation for vicious stoppages, the sky would appear to be the limit for the Turkish prospect. Yakhyaev fights like his opponents owe him money, a state of affairs that has seen the vast majority of his competition crumble under his pressure in the first round.
Raffael Cerqueira: Can "The Lion" score the upset as an enormous underdog?
Arriving in the UFC as an undefeated heavyweight prospect, things have not got according to plan for Raffael Cerqueira (11-3) since his debut. "The Lion" coughed up his "0" in short order as he proceeded to go 0-3 in the space of just over a year. Despite his reputation as a fearsome knockout artist on the regional scene, Cerqueira succumbed to successive first round KO defeats in his first two appearances with the promotion, losing to Ibo Aslan and Modestas Bukauskas, respectively. While the Brazilian survived to see the final bell in his most recent showing, he still ended up dropping a unanimous decision to Julius Walker in August last time out.
Abdul-Rakhman Yakhyaev vs Raffael Cerqueira prediction
There's foregone conclusions and then there's whatever this is.
Cerqueira has been unequivocally proven to not be a UFC level competitor. While he joined the promotion as an undefeated heavyweight, he's 0-3 in the promotion since, losing by brutal knockout on two of those occasions. The Brazilian is clearly not cut out for the big leagues, so the logical response to that state of affairs is obviously to feed him to a young, undefeated KO artist. Building a prospect is all well and good, but Yakhyaev proves nothing by destroying Cerqueira; if Ibo Aslan can do it, the bar is not particularly high.
Furthermore, there's a strong argument to be made that Yakhyaev looks like he has the potential to be considerably better than Aslan. With six finishes in seven fights split evenly between submissions and knockouts, the twenty four year old "Hunter" has only ever seen a second round on two occasions throughout his young career. Despite being the slightly shorter man, he's even got a slight reach advantage over Cerqueira in this one. You can't even make the experience argument in the Brazilian's favour here; he's coming off a loss to Julius Walker, a fighter who was just 6-1 at the time.
As such, it's easy to see where this one is going. Yakhyaev lands something murderous in the early goings, pouncing on Cerqueira to finish with ground strikes or a submission.
Prediction: Abdul-Rakhman Yakhyaev to win by first round stoppage
