The second PPV of March for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, UFC 260 will be hosted at the Apex in Las Vegas — the last time a PPV may be there for some time. The card is headlined by one of the most intriguing rematches in UFC history. In that, heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic will look to beat the surging Francis Ngannou for the second time. In a light heavyweight bout, William Knight was supposed to fight Alonzo Menifield (9-2 MMA, 2-2 UFC). Knight had to pull out and now Menifield will fight newcomer Fabio Cherant.
Fabio “Water Buffalo” Cherant
6’1″
Light-heavyweight
26-years-old
Wrentham, Massachusetts, US
Lauzon Mixed Martial Arts
7-1
5 Submissions’
How Cherant will fare in the UFC:
Prior to his fight on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2019, I wasn’t too impressed with Cherant. In that Contender Series fight with Aleska Camur, I thought he had a decent performance prior to losing. Cherant went on to win his next three fights and looked much improved. Where he has impressed the most is no doubt his striking. Cherant now appears to have some solid striking. At times he will throw one shot at a time but when he lets go his combinations are very smooth. The “Water Buffalo” does well at mixing in just about everything, including leg kicks, head kicks, hooks, and knees putting it all together.
While it’s too soon to call him a superb striker, there’s no doubt he is improving. Cherant has a bad habit of letting guys press him on his back foot and putting him against the cage however. He’s been knocked out before but that was to a flush knee to the chin. Apart from that Cherant has taken huge shots flush and has absorbed everything just fine. Cherant does have a dangerous submission game holding six submission wins all coming in a form of a choke. Even though his submission game is strong his wrestling and jiu-jitsu aren’t at the same level. Cherant is only 26 and at this rate, I think he’s going to get better and better. I do think for 205 he’s too small as I think middleweight may be more appropriate, if he can make the weight.
- Striking: B-
- Kickboxing: B-
- Clinch: C
- Wrestling: C+
- Grappling: C+
- Striking Defense: C+
- Takedown Defense: C+
- Cardio: B+
- Biggest Strength: Submission game
- Biggest Weakness: TDD
How he matches up with Menifield:
The Menifield we had in 2019, I’d take him to win this fight. However, when he was finally tested past the first round against Devin Clark he looked subpar. After that, he fought OSP and was very tentative, ending up knocked out for the first time in his career. At this stage, it seems like Menifield is a one-round fighter who has gone gun-shy. In hindsight, some of his finishes were against opponents with compromised chins, and Cherant if anything has an iron chin. I like Cherant for the upset here. Even though Menifield has better wins Cherant has shown more. Cherant is much more well-rounded, he’s more active, his gas tank is better and he’s more aggressive. Menifield winning is dependent on an early knockout but I don’t see it. Instead, I like Cherant by decision
