The UFC is back at the Apex on Saturday, bringing a middleweight catchweight light heavyweight main event to Las Vegas. That main event being Marvin Vettori vs Paulo Costa, with Costa struggling with his weight and requiring the bout be pushed up a full division. Further on down the card you’ll find a few newcomers joining the big show. One of those prospects is Daniel Lacerda (Daniel Da Silva), who will be fighting Jeff Molina in a flyweight bout.
Daniel “Miojo” Lacerda
Standing at 5’6″
Fighting at 125 lbs (flyweight)
25-years-old
Fighting out of Valenca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Training out of ATS Team
A pro record of 11-1
5 KO/TKOs, 6 Submissions
How will Lacerda fare in the UFC:
Lacerda is an explosive diverse fighter that’s not merely a showman. Full fight footage does lack on the Brazilian but there is no secret as to what his style is. Lacerda fights out of a loose karate stance firing from different angles and different patterns. He’s a tricky guy that likes to use spinning kicks, flying knees, head kicks, and chains attacks with lead elbows. Lacerda is a buzzsaw on the feet and even though he can be too wild he’s extremely dangerous.
I’ve not seen enough of his wrestling to determine whether he’s a good wrestler or not. Lacerda does have good jiu-jitsu specifically off his back. Lacerda has fluid hips attacking armbars in the guard and is very good at attacking with the triangle. It’s tough to gauge his ceiling but he has fought at least against decent fighters and his only loss is from an injury. If he’s not legit he will at least be exciting to watch.
How he matches up with Molina:
Molina has an excellent kickboxing base, solid movement, and fights technically on the feet. Molina also has a good overall ground game. He’s capable of wars as shown in his last fight. He got rocked and put in major danger but never folded. It looks good for Molina, because he’s able to take damage and survive. On the other side, taking it from Lacerda may be more risk than reward. It comes down to the fact that Molina has shown a lot more. He has tons of footage, he’s been in wars, trains out of a good team, and has fought much better competition. I won’t be surprised if Lacerda catches Molina but I’m taking Molina.
