Nikita Krylov vs Volkan Oezdemir Prediction: He Wants to Settle Down

On October 22 in Abu Dhabi (UAE), the most high-profile UFC tournament of the year will take place. In one of the preliminary card bouts Russian fighter Nikita Krylov will meet the representative of Switzerland, Volkan Ozdemir.

The fight will take place in the featherweight category. Nikita Krylov is the tenth in this division's ranking of pretenders, and Volkan Oezdemir is the eighth. In the bookmaker's betting odds, the favorite is the Russian.

Oezdemir is a formidable and experienced fighter. But everybody has his peak, and everybody has his slump. Fighters like Oezdemir are just tired. Not working hard, not motivated enough. More thoughts not of title fights and great victories, but just a job that gets paid decently. When you don't have the motivation to dominate and rip, beating those who have that reason becomes hard.

Nikita has that motivation. He's in good shape. He has a decent camp, and he approaches his fights correctly. I think he's found his inner motivation. He is generally on the move if you compare him with Oezdemir.

If Krylov does not concede any evident punches from Volkan in the first round but works calmer, more confident, and cold-blooded, he will take Ozdemir apart on points. It's going to be hard to beat him. More so, his opponent always had dynamite hands. The question is how much pyrotechnics he has left. If Nikita keeps his hands up in the first round, he'll take the fight if he doesn't yawn.