UFC Las Vegas 114 Emmett vs. Vallejos will be held at the Meta APEX facility this Saturday afternoon. The card offers fight fans fourteen scheduled battles in the smaller twenty-five-foot octagon and in front of a quaint APEX crowd.
Four of the fights are comprised of fighters weighing 170lbs. or greater which we track as finish rates for fighters weighing 170lbs. and above are greater than those competing at 155lbs. and lower.
Only ten of twenty-eight athletes are from the US which means many of the athletes competing Saturday travel into Las Vegas from outside the U.S.
In six matchups a domestic fighter has the advantage of competing against a fighter that has had to ship into the States from outside the country. That spells advantage for the domestic athlete.
Favorites continue their torrid 74% rate of winning after going 8-4 in last week’s UFC 236.
My release last week of Max Holloway was never in play as he was dominated by the grappling of Charles Oliveira from the opening bell. That was a big miss, so I’ll react by trying to get back into the win column with this week’s release.
Kevin Vallejos -590 vs. Josh Emmett +460 Featherweight (145lbs.) main event
Vallejos is three fights deep into his UFC tenure and they serve him up a grizzled veteran in Josh Emmett.
Vallejos arrives to this fight a switch stanched fighter with tremendous quickness, speed, and power. The Argentinian athlete will be stepping up in class of opponent aggressively for this his fourth UFC battle.
Vallejos is a forward pressing, aggressive striker who has power emanating from every limb. He is fast, adroit, and finitely focused on engaging opponents immediately for the wide stanched throwdown that he has built his reputation on.
Of Vallejos’ seventeen professional victories he has scored finishes in eleven of them. His sole loss was to fighting nerd superstar Jean Silva a fight he took the barking Silva to decision on. There is great respect in that decision loss to Silva who is one of the bottom-line finishers in the whole of the UFC.
In Josh Emmett we have a profusely powerful fighter who is uber aggressive in walking down opponents in order to plant a wide stance then hurl power hooks, crosses, knees, and elbows with the intent on maiming his adversary then finishing them off in violent fashion.
Emmett’s got twenty-five professional bouts and nineteen wins. He has finished opponents in nine of his nineteen victories but one must review his body of work to understand that Emmett has been in with the elite of the division now for almost a decade.
At forty-one, Emmett is on the downside of his career as evidenced by the fact that since 2023 Emmett’s dropped four of five fights with the sole victory being against Bryce Mitchell in a KO that will live in infamy.
The foundational aspect to this fight is age for Vallejos is twenty-four and Emmett is forty-one!
Vallejos’ youth advantage in this fight is such that it compensates for the vast advantage that Emmett holds in experience and level of competition faced but not so far as to make Vallejos the obtusely priced favorite that he is currently.
This fight is designed to be a changing of the guards fight. The UFC wants younger hungry athletes to do their work of retiring the older set of fighters whose compensation is situated well above the average athlete on the roster.
While Vallejos should be given the title of favorite in this fight, his price is inflated despite advantages that revolve around his youth, speed, and violent finishing ability.
In this battle Vallejos must be respectful of Emmett’s power, might, and will for Emmett’s going to fight like a mother pitbull protecting her young while backed into the corner of the alley.
This is one dangerous spot for Kevin Vallejos especially at a price I handicap to be double what it should be…..
Emmett +460 .50u
Total in this fight: 3.5Rds Pick-em
Jose Delgato -300 vs. Andre Fili +265 Featherweight (145lbs.)
Andre ‘touchy’ Fili is an American mixed martial artist who has accrued a 13-11 record fighting with the UFC since 2013.
Fili’s upbringing and home life was rough, at an early age he found the professional’s at Team Alpha Male who took Fili in, then transitioned him from a frustrated individual from a broken home to a successful, proud mixed martial arts athlete over the course of some fifteen plus years.
Physically Fili is long and tall, and he does possess great cardio which allows him to win fights from attrition often outlasting opponents on his way to decision. Well versed as a fighter but not overly powerful or deft afoot any longer, Fili resorts now to planting and throwing.
Agility, speed, and precision are not terms often used to describe thirty-five-year-old featherweight fighters as Fili is, but he is crafty, beguiling and is able to lure the younger more inexperienced fighter into the pocket where Fili may often hold advantage.
In Jose Delgato we have a fighter arriving to the APEX off his first UFC defeat. That loss to Nathaniel Wood in his most recent fight saw sixteen of eighteen press professionals sitting cage side score that fight for Delgato despite the fact that I believe the decision was a correct one.
From every angle of this matchup, it appears that Delgato is being gifted a welcome back fight. He is taller than Fili despite having a one-inch reach DIS-advantage, but he is also twenty-seven and eight years younger than Fili.
Delgato’s speed, his deft footwork, natural power, and his focus coming off that loss together force me to believe that this is a terrible spot for a thirty-five-year-old athlete in Fili.
Delgado -300
Fight props are not yet released however I will make this release now and accept whatever the price is once it is published:
Delgato KO/Sub or DQ
Price to be determined once released….1u
Total in this fight: 2.5Rds Under -185
Vitor Petrino -250 vs. Steve ‘Concrete’ Asplund +200 Heavyweight (265lbs.)
This fight is the epitome of ‘Styles make fights’ but also of ‘don’t judge the book by the cover’!
In newly turned heavyweight, Brazilian Vitor Petrino, we have a human specimen that looks chiseled out of marble. Petrino is musclebound and versed in Sanda and Chinese boxing.
He is not particularly quick, fast nor light on his feet, despite the fact that he spent time at the light heavyweight division and in fact it is his muscular frame and his body mass that after a round of frenetic competition can sometimes sap him of his energy.
This move to heavyweight has seen Petrino beat two journeymen lower-level athletes in a division where talent is lacking throughout.
Steven ‘Concrete’ Asplund is a fighter from Minesota who has a story quite compelling. Once over 500lbs Asplund’s skin hangs off his frame and he looks quite opposite of Petrino.
Where Petrino has trained in the martial arts, Asplund comes from the street, and his fighting style reflects it. He is a huge man; he has unusual athleticism but more than any physical trait what this Asplund has is a mean streak a mile wide and a belief deep down that he can do anything he sets his mind to.
In a coming out party I believe Asplund weathers a furious first round then in rounds two and beyond takes this fight from Petrino.
Asplund +200 1u
Total in this fight: 1.5Rds Over -175