The strength of UFC 327 can be found in its depth, and there’s a lot to like about the latest Ultimate Fighting Championship undercard on Saturday at the Kasey Center in Miami. Bellator MMA lives on in the featured slot, where Patricio “Pitbull” Freire and Aaron Pico square off in a cross-generation featherweight scrap. Meanwhile, a welterweight clash between Kevin Holland and Randy Brown should be a wild one. Deeper into the prelims, wrestlers Mateusz Gamrot and Tatiana Suarez draw interesting tests against more violent opponents. Plus, Chris Padilla and MarQuel Mederos should make for a neat scrap between two quietly successful lightweights, and Charles Radtke has emerged as a reliable knockout threat at 170 pounds.
Now to the preview for the UFC 327 “Prochazka vs. Ulberg” prelims:
Featherweights
BETTING ODDS: Pico (-345), Freire (+275)
Few UFC bouts will ever be as Bellator-coded as this one, particularly now that the promotion is under the Paramount banner. Freire (37-8, 1-1 UFC) looks like he won’t get his due as a historical great, winding up in the UFC just a little too late. A former lightweight and featherweight champion for Bellator and the promotion’s consensus greatest fighter of all-time, Freire did well to survive in the first place at a stocky 5-foot-6 and adapted even more impressively over time. Late-career Jose Aldo is an obvious comparison, with Freire showing an elite level of ability in terms of picking his spots and landing hard offense to continue neutralizing his opponents. However, the UFC threw him into the deep end with a debut against Yair Rodriguez about a year ago. Rodriguez’s combination of size and speed left little for Freire and his counter-heavy approach with which to work. His sophomore effort against Dan Ige was a bit softer of a touch, even if it showed the struggles that Freire and other Bellator alumni have had to navigate. Even if there’s not much of a skill gap, the UFC has a much higher baseline of athleticism that even Freire struggled to contain against someone his own size in Ige. Freire looks for his second UFC win against Pico, whose high expectations continue to weigh down his professional career.
Pico’s on the shortlist of most hyped prospects in mixed martial arts history—an elite high school wrestler and talented boxer who was signed by Bellator at 18 years old and given over two years to develop ahead of his promotional debut. Naturally, Pico’s career started with his getting submitted in just 27 seconds, but he was still knocking out talented veterans like Leandro Higo just four fights later, emblematic of both the highs and lows that the Californian is capable of. Pico (13-5, 0-1 UFC) has as much natural talent as anyone in the sport, particularly when things get humming offensively, as he can string together some brutal combinations to lead into his wrestling. However, he has far from elite durability, an issue exacerbated by Pico’s inability to balance offense with defense. When Pico gets flowing, he abandons all thought of what his opponent might bring back in return, resulting in his eating some brutal knockouts. That’s exactly what happened in his UFC debut against Lerone Murphy in August. Pico put together three minutes and change of strong work against one of the UFC’s best featherweights, only to charge into a spinning elbow that immediately put his lights out. There’s a fairly clear dynamic here, as Pico figures to storm Freire early, either finding a quick finish or getting shredded apart once the Brazilian starts to settle in. At this point, the lean is that Pico is enough of a powerhouse to get the jump on a now 38-year-old former champion. The pick is Pico via first-round knockout.
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Pico vs. Freire
Brown vs. Holland
Gamrot vs. Ribovics
Suarez vs. Godinez
Padilla vs. Mederos
Gastelum vs. Luque
Radtke vs. Prado
Welterweights
BETTING ODDS: Brown (-122), Holland (+102)
Holland’s rollercoaster of a UFC career continues. He came to the UFC in 2018 as a late replacement and made a name for himself as an entertaining undercard fighter, but he had his true breakthrough in the back half of 2020. Holland’s willingness to keep an active schedule and talk trash as much as possible were a perfect fit for the time. The UFC was scrambling to fill spots that Holland (28-15, 15-12 UFC) was more than willing to step into, with the added plus of providing his own commentary in a mostly empty warehouse. Holland racked up five wins in seven months to enter 2021 as one of the promotion’s rising stars but instead wound up winless on the year, mostly thanks to his opponents exposing his lack of takedown defense. Rather than try to shore up those weaknesses, Holland instead decided to drop down to welterweight. Holland found some success at 170 pounds, though he did seem to regress as a fighter. There were less flashes of his prior technical craft, as Holland was now more than content to lean on his massive size advantage to try and swing for the knockout. Holland has spent the last few years bouncing between weight classes, with 2025 providing the whole of the Kevin Holland Experience. He managed to squeeze five fights into the year, got out-grappled handily by Reinier de Ridder, looked sharp against Gunnar Nelson and Vicente Luque, lost an exciting but shockingly sloppy war against Daniel Rodriguez and then coasted to a loss against Mike Malott while suffering the aftereffects of a brutal low blow. After taking a rare six-month break, it’s unclear what form Holland will turn up in for this fight against Brown. That’s part of the fun.
Brown (20-7, 14-7 UFC) came to the UFC in 2016 as a 6-foot-3 ball of potential who was capable of anything, which has been a blessing and a curse over the last decade. Brown has often suffered for his wealth of options, cycling through ideas that few fighters can pull off while failing to focus on a winning game plan. That cost “Rude Boy” a lot more in the first half-decade of his UFC career, as he has been on a sneakily consistent run of success over the past few years, with his win over Nicolas Dalby about a year ago serving as the clearest example of the corner he has turned. Brown formerly would have been taken apart by a dogged and durable pressure fighter like Dalby, but he instead effectively played sniper before landing a particularly brutal knockout in the second round. Brown’s last fight against Gabriel Bonfim showed that the Queens native still has a ceiling. Bonfim effectively shredded the former Ring of Combat champion’s legs before laying down the hammer, but even playing a range game against Brown and his lanky frame is far from a guaranteed success as a strategy—as evidenced by his obliterating Muslim Salikhov in short order near the beginning of 2024. Brown’s comparative lack of durability is a worry, but with Holland increasingly aimless, the lean is that Budokan Martial Arts Academy product is sharp enough at this point to eke this out, particularly since he’s one of the few welterweights who can match “Trailblazer” in terms of length. The pick is Brown via decision.
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Pico vs. Freire
Brown vs. Holland
Gamrot vs. Ribovics
Suarez vs. Godinez
Padilla vs. Mederos
Gastelum vs. Luque
Radtke vs. Prado
Lightweights
BETTING ODDS: Gamrot (-180), Ribovics (+150)
Gamrot (25-4) looks to get back on the proverbial horse in this well-made match. A dominant champion on the Polish scene, Gamrot was a much-hyped signing ahead of a 2020 UFC debut that went poorly. His wrestling-heavy attack failed to control his fight against fellow newcomer Guram Kutateladze, leading to a nip-tuck affair that saw him lose on split scorecards. “Gamer” was able to bounce back in impressive fashion with four straight wins. He showed a bit of pop in his hands to knock out Scott Holtzman, and the rest of that winning streak saw Gamrot show off his relentlessness and effectiveness on the mat, breaking his opponents’ gas tanks and finding some submission victories in the process. A fairly controversial decision win over Arman Tsarukyan in 2022 launched Gamrot into some high-profile fights, and while he has mostly held his head above water, some of his losses have made him look completely ineffective. Beneil Dariush shut down his wrestling and outstruck him handily, and Gamrot’s last fight saw him get outclassed and tapped by Charles Oliveira. Gamrot’s other major defeat was a decision to Dan Hooker where he showed some willingness to brawl and still got some solid work done but also demonstrated how much his game can fall apart against an opponent willing to ignore his wrestling and just keep attempting to throw out offense. That could be some foreshadowing for this fight against Argentina’s Ribovics, who has made a reputation for himself as a particularly violent lightweight.
Argentinian prospects can be a bit hard to parse, as the best athletes tend to run through the circuit with little trouble, and Ribovics’ first two UFC fights were a bit of a mixed bag. He consistently affirmed his aggression and tenacity but struggled at times to control his fights against physical opponents looking to outwrestle him and slow him down. Ribovics’ last handful of matchups haven’t particularly addressed those concerns about his defensive wrestling, but he has rounded into a much sharper brawler and proven that his aggression continues to work at a high level. Nothing about Ribovics’ approach is particularly smart, but his athletic gifts and love of violence have allowed him to outpace anyone willing to dance. There’s a decent chance that Gamrot can just grind this to a halt and walk away with the decision, but his scramble-heavy style figures to give Ribovics (15-2, 4-2 UFC) a lot of opportunities to get to his feet, where he’s going to continue pouring on damage until he gets taken down again. The lean is that the Argentinian can win this on output while Gamrot focuses on control. The pick is Ribovics via decision.
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Pico vs. Freire
Brown vs. Holland
Gamrot vs. Ribovics
Suarez vs. Godinez
Padilla vs. Mederos
Gastelum vs. Luque
Radtke vs. Prado
Women’s Strawweights
BETTING ODDS: Suarez (-155), Godinez (+130)
Suarez (11-1, 8-1 UFC) does feel a bit aimless at the moment despite theoretically being close to a title shot, but it’s at least nice to see the former title challenger keep an active schedule. Suarez came to the UFC via “The Ultimate Fighter” in 2016 and was a readymade potential star. She had a marketable backstory thanks to thyroid cancer derailing her hopes of medaling at the 2012 Olympics, and that Olympic-level wrestling background figured to quickly march her into the title picture. Indeed, Suarez racked up six fairly one-sided wins to earn a shot at Weili Zhang’s championship, but it was far from a quick rise, as that title fight didn’t come until February of 2025. Consistent injury issues kept Suarez out of action, including a nearly four-year layoff between 2019 and 2023. Suarez’s fight against Zhang went well for about a round, until the Chinese superstar adjusted and started to neutralize her wrestling. At that point, it became apparent that Suarez didn’t have much of a backup plan, as she mostly demonstrated her durability by eating damage on the feet. Zhang would eventually vacate the strawweight belt for what turned out to be an unsuccessful title challenge up at flyweight. As such, Suarez’s future now seems to rest a bit on Zhang’s decision. Suarez could make for an interesting matchup against current champion Mackenzie Dern. However, as soon as Zhang comes back down to 115 pounds to reclaim her throne, there’s little appetite for a rematch against Suarez—particularly since the American’s last bounce-back win over Amanda Lemos was another wrestling-heavy performance where she showed little else.
On the other side of things, Mexico’s Godinez (14-5, 9-5 UFC) finally looks for her breakthrough win after a few years of running up against her ceiling. Godinez has shown a high floor as a fighter, as she looks like an absolute terror against a certain level of competition. When her opponent provides little resistance, “Loopy” chains together her striking with a high-volume and high-amplitude wrestling game that completely overwhelms her opposition. However, it has historically taken surprising little to take Godinez off of her game. Against a fellow strong wrestler or grappler, or even just a much larger opponent, Godinez is suddenly much more reticent to apply pressure, at which point her highest levels of effectiveness go out the window. There are flashes of Godinez getting over those issues, but they have appeared as recently as the third round of her March 2025 fight against Julia Polastri—a winnable matchup she nearly gave away at the end. Godinez has a more complete game, but Suarez should be able to take her out of it just by proving herself as the stronger wrestler over and over again. The pick is Suarez via decision.
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Pico vs. Freire
Brown vs. Holland
Gamrot vs. Ribovics
Suarez vs. Godinez
Padilla vs. Mederos
Gastelum vs. Luque
Radtke vs. Prado
Lightweights
BETTING ODDS: Padilla (-180), Mederos (+150)
Padilla (17-6, 4-0 UFC) looks to continue one of the more surprising UFC runs in recent memory. There was little to recommend “Taco” ahead of his late-notice UFC debut in 2024. His regional record was quite middling, as his success mostly took advantage of the weaknesses of a poor level of competition. However, Padilla’s toughness and scrappiness have translated shockingly well, resulting in the Californian going undefeated four fights into his UFC career. It has taken a bit of luck, as he got a cut stoppage win over Zhu Rong and won a split decision against Jai Herbert, but Padilla has consistently answered his opponent’s offense and kept forcing the issue. Padilla’s win over Ismael Bonfim in November was the point that figured to win over any remaining skeptics, as he managed to outlast and finish a much more obviously talented opponent on paper. Padilla goes for five straight against Mederos, an intriguing prospect who might have turned a corner in his last fight.
A 2023 Dana White’s Contender Series alum, Mederos (11-1, 3-0 UFC) was an interesting project as a fighter dedicated to a movement-heavy striking style who just needed to work out some kinks. Mederos won his first two UFC fights, but his issues were more notable than anything else, as he had much more difficulty controlling fights and maintaining his cardio with the step up in competition. However, a change in camp ahead of Mederos’ win over Mark Choinski in June resulted in his sharpest performance to date, as he battered his counterpart’s legs on his way to a dominant win that suggests he’s ready for a step up. Padilla’s willingness to scrap could see him through another ugly fight if Mederos’s cardio starts to fade. With that said, Mederos’ last performance looked consistent enough to earn him the benefit of the doubt as the much more athletically talented fighter. Doubting Padilla is clearly a mistake at this point, but the pick is Mederos via decision.
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Pico vs. Freire
Brown vs. Holland
Gamrot vs. Ribovics
Suarez vs. Godinez
Padilla vs. Mederos
Gastelum vs. Luque
Radtke vs. Prado
Middleweights
BETTING ODDS: Gastelum (-250), Luque (+205)
The past few years have not been kind to Luque (23-12-1, 16-8 UFC), and he looks for a fresh start here. Luque came to the UFC via “The Ultimate Fighter” in 2015 and didn’t particularly stand out as a prospect, owing to a middling regional record. However, “The Silent Assassin” apparently just got all the lumps out of the way early, as he hit the promotion ready to compete as a welterweight. Luque hit the sweet spot as a rising talent, keeping a busy schedule, winning 14 out of 16 at one point and establishing his reputation as one of the most exciting fighters in the sport thanks to his relentless pressure game. Luque was consistently willing to march forward and attempt to win a war of attrition, eating offense to pay his opponent back even harder in return. Add in a vicious submission game—a particularly strong brabo choke that he could snag on opponents who attempted to take him down stood out—and any Luque opponent was in for a tough 15 minutes or less, given his proclivity for finding the finish. A 2022 main event loss to Belal Muhammad stopped the momentum of Luque’s run towards a championship, but his next defeat to Geoff Neal was the one that seemed to permanently alter his career. Neal can be one-dimensional, but that one dimension is marked by some of the fastest hands in the sport, allowing him to continually batter a pressuring Luque before handing the Brazilian the first knockout loss of his career. Luque was out of action for roughly a year, during which time it was revealed that he suffered a brain hemorrhage. It raised a lot of concerns upon his return. Luque has clearly slowed during his comeback, though it’s hard to attribute that to the Neal fight and not just the effects of a decade-long career full of high-level wars. Luque has a bit more patience and thoughtfulness to his game and still has his grappling in his back pocket, but he’s also much easier to dissuade past a certain point if his opponent can build any momentum. After a rough stretch of three losses in his last four fights, Luque moves up to middleweight against Gastelum, whose career feels as directionless as it has ever been.
Gastelum (20-10, 14-10 UFC) came out of nowhere to win “The Ultimate Fighter” in 2013, upsetting Uriah Hall and quickly becoming someone in whom the UFC invested. Then a prodigious talent in his early 20s, Gastelum also checked a lot of promotional boxes as the UFC started focusing on the Mexican and Mexican American markets. Gastelum immediately charged up to the fringes of the title picture before a massive weight miss and subsequently flat performance against Tyron Woodley resulted in his first loss. It also served as a harbinger of things to come. Gastelum continued to prove himself as a blue-chip talent, but his weight misses at welterweight quickly became the narrative of his career, particularly as the UFC continued to try and push him up to 185 pounds. Once Gastelum was forced to give in and fight at middleweight, he once again quickly marched himself into the title picture. A lot of that was built on fighting some veterans at just the right time, but he did particularly lock in for an interim title fight loss to Israel Adesanya in 2019—a fight that still probably serves as his career highlight. Gastelum has rarely found that spark since, coasting on his natural talent and durability more and more as time goes on. Now 34, his general lack of improvement is coming to the forefront as his athletic gifts start to fade away; and lack of discipline is as big a part of Gastelum’s narrative as ever. He tried yet another cut down to welterweight that ended disastrously and even badly missed the middleweight limit for his last win over Dustin Stoltzfus, another uninspiring performance where Gastelum’s natural talent made the difference. It’s hard to feel particularly positive about Luque, but Gastelum continues to atrophy and doesn’t seem to have the will to force the Kill Cliff Fight Club rep to his breaking point. Expect the Brazilian to have a successful middleweight debut. The pick is Luque via decision.
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Pico vs. Freire
Brown vs. Holland
Gamrot vs. Ribovics
Suarez vs. Godinez
Padilla vs. Mederos
Gastelum vs. Luque
Radtke vs. Prado
Welterweights
BETTING ODDS: Radtke (-185), Prado (+154)
This seems to be a solid action matchup, as Radtke (11-5, 4-2 UFC) tries to continue a surprisingly successful UFC career. It’s unclear if the UFC had any expectations for “Chuck Buffalo,” as his signing appeared to be an afterthought. The promotion was struggling to find beatable opponents for Mike Mathetha and tabbed Radtke as what would wind up as the Zimbabwean’s final UFC opponent. Radtke had found most of his success up to that point as a wrestler, which continued in his Octagon debut, but his best weapon during his UFC tenure has been a powerful lead left hook, a tricky punch that has managed to catch his opposition off-guard. Combined with his wrestling, that gives Radtke a solid change-up to serve as a welterweight gatekeeper, even if his UFC losses to Carlos Prates and Mike Malott have been definitive statements as far as his ceiling is concerned. After a matchup on the UFC Fight Night 272 card fell through, Radtke now steps in a week later as a replacement against Argentina’s Prado, who has been struggling to realize his potential.
A standout athlete for the Argentinian scene, Prado (12-4, 1-4 UFC) ran through most of his regional competition to make it to the UFC at 20 years old in 2023. Given his youth and lack of experience, Prado looked decent enough as a straight-ahead pressure fighter during his time at lightweight, but his stocky frame apparently necessitated a move up to welterweight, where he has struggled to impose his physicality to a level that makes up for the rawness of his game. Prado is historically durable, so he could turn this into an ugly grind, but he does seem like exactly the type of opponent who will walk into Radtke’s secret weapon. The pick is Radtke via first-round knockout.
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Pico vs. Freire
Brown vs. Holland
Gamrot vs. Ribovics
Suarez vs. Godinez
Padilla vs. Mederos
Gastelum vs. Luque
Radtke vs. Prado
