Light heavyweight, Freddy Vidal (3-0) vs. Felipe Franco (8-0)
- Vidal is taking this fight on short notice
- This will be the third different opponent scheduled for Franco
- Franco hasn’t fought in a year
- Vidal started his pro career and fought his three fights while Franco has been away
- Franco has never fought outside of round one
- Vidal doesn’t have a win over a guy with a winning record
- Franco has fought seven guys with a losing record.
Six of those don’t even have a win - Vidal is 1-0 to the decision
Freddy Vidal
-Physically strong
-Good ground and pound
-Questionable submission defense
-Reaches
-Advances in straight lines
The Contender Series should limit the number of fights at middleweight and above. When late pullouts happen, we often end up with underdeveloped fighters stepping in—sometimes with records as thin as 3-0. That’s exactly the case here, and it feels like a disservice to Vidal to bring him in this early.
It also doesn’t seem like the matchmakers had much tape to evaluate, since footage of him is extremely scarce. From what I was able to find, he looks exactly like you’d expect from someone with only three pro bouts: raw and inexperienced. His main approach is to crash forward, pin opponents to the fence, and hunt takedowns to work from top position.
The problems are clear: he’s uncomfortable at range, doesn’t use striking or footwork to close the distance, and even his wrestling isn’t particularly sharp. On the mat, his positional awareness is lacking—he often fails to transition or secure dominant positions. None of this is surprising given he’s only been competing for about three years, but it highlights just how premature this call-up is.
Felipe Franco
-Explosive
-Credible ground game
-Heavy ground and pound
-Submission threat
-Untested
-No setups
Franco looks the part—undefeated, only 24, and with a 100% first-round finish rate. On paper, that sounds promising. But when you look closer, this feels like yet another soft pull from the Brazilian regional scene.
Unless a Brazilian prospect is coming out of proven pipelines like LFA, Shooto, Jungle Fight, or occasionally SFT, there’s little point in bringing them onto a stage like the Contender Series. Franco may have dominated, but it’s easy to do that when you’re fighting chubby, part-time opponents. Every one of his wins has come against opponents with losing records—except for one, a 45-year-old journeyman sitting at 19-18. That’s not development; that’s record-padding.
From what’s available, Franco appears to be a grappler—an aggressive finisher who ends fights with ground-and-pound or submissions. But beyond that, we know nothing. His striking is a mystery, his cardio is untested, and there’s zero evidence of how he responds to adversity.
Sure, he could turn out to be something. He’s young, in shape, and clearly has finishing instincts. But the people around him did him no favors—this is a fighter who’s been protected, not prepared. And now he’s walking into a real test with no idea what it’s like to be in a real fight.
Prediction: One thing I can predict with 100% certainly is nobody is confident on a prediction here. How could you be when there is so little known on both guys. I’m gonna side with Franco for a few reasons. He’s been training for this date for a while unlike Vidal. He has more experience than Vidal. Not to mention, Franco is the faster more athletic guy. Franco by first round TKO I guess.
