UFC Jacksonville, the middle card of the three-event week for the promotion, is headlined by a pair of former light heavyweight title challengers and Cageside Press has its picks set.
| Staff Writers | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryan Fortune (38-13) |  |  |  |  |  |
| Michael Lynch (15-6) | | | | | |
| Joe McDonagh (35-16) | |  |  | | |
| Keith Shillan (35-16) | | | |  | |
| Justin Gibbons (10-5) | | | | | |
| Jason Payne (30-16) |  | | | | |
| Mike McClory (17-10) | | | | | |
| Jay Anderson (32-19) | | | | |  |
| Eddie Law (15-9) | | | | | |
| Paarth Pande (15-9) | | | | | |
| Josh Evanoff (29-22) | | | | | |
| Dan Doherty (26-20) | | | | | |
| Gabriel Gonzalez (25-26) | | | | | |
| Ryan Jarrell (4-1) | | | | | |
Top-10 light heavyweights Glover Teixeira and Anthony Smith clash in the main event of UFC Jacksonville. Smith has had an exceptional run since moving up to 205-pounds in 2018. The former middleweight has gone 4-1 since then, earning Performance of the Night in each of the wins and only losing to Jon Jones. Texeira has won four of his last five with three stoppages. All but two writers picked Smith.
The co-main event features Ovince Saint Preux’s move up to heavyweight. Greeting him there will be Ben Rothwell, who recently snapped a three-fight losing streak with a stoppage against Stefan Struve. Saint Preux is also coming off a streak-snapping performance, halting a two-fight skid with a Von Preux finish of Michal Oleksiejczuk. All but two writers picked Saint Preux.
Drew Dober looks to continue his impressive streak against Alexander Hernandez. Hernandez bounced back from his one-sided loss to Donald Cerrone with a less than exciting win over Francisco Trinaldo. Dober, on the other hand, looks like a new man after his loss to Beneil Dariush. Since then, he’s knocked out Polo Reyes and Nasrat Haqparast in just over two minutes total. Cageside Press is split down the middle at seven picks apiece.
Ray Borg looks to make it three in a row by handing Ricky Simon his third straight loss. Borg has had issues making weight, missing at both flyweight and bantamweight in two of his last three fights. However, he’s been able to win his last two fights despite that. Simon won in his first three UFC appearances, but has since lost to Urijah Faber and Rob Font. Borg was picked by nine of 14 writers.
Opening up the main card is a middleweight scrap between Karl Roberson and Marvin Vettori. Both men are on two-fight win streaks coming into UFC Jacksonville. All but three writers picked Vettori.
