Darren Elkins and Yadier del Valle meet on the UFC Fight Night 284 main card Saturday at Meta APEX in Las Vegas. Check out this quick breakdown of the matchup from MMA Junkie analyst Dan Tom.
Elkins (29-12 MMA, 19-11 UFC) enters the cage for the final time. His last fight was a first-round TKO loss against Julian Erosa, which took place last April. The 42-year-old won the two fights prior: a third round-submission of TJ Brown and a unanimous decision over Daniel Pineda.
Del Valle (10-1 MMA, 2-1 UFC) aims to rebound from his first UFC loss, which came in February by unanimous decision against Jordan Leavitt. His first two UFC appearances were first-round finishes of Connor matthews and Isaac Dulgarian.
In a fight that I'm semi-surprised even got sanctioned, Darren Elkins returns for one last ride into the damage against the up-and-coming Yadier del Valle.
Although this already looks like a depressing ritual sacrifice at first glance, things get even sketchier when you look at the actual sample size of del Valle.
Aside from his best win being a confirmed fixed fight against Isaac Dulgarian, del Valle's other two UFC samples feature weirdly one-sided fights that went in completely separate directions. Should del Valle dispose of Elkins' already dead body as the betting line suggests, then I'm still not sure we will have learned anything about del Valle's skills or ceiling.
I'm not looking forward to the violent "Weekend At Bernie's" reenactment that the matchmakers have set up for us on the main card, but the pick is for the referee to mercifully save Elkins from himself before the first frame ends.
The oddsmakers and the public heavily favor the Cuban fighter, listing del Valle -750 and Elkins +490 via FanDuel.
Elkins and del Valle are expected to walk to the cage at approximately 9:10 p.m. ET. The fight streams live on Paramount+.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Darren Elkins vs. Yadier del Valle prediction, pick for UFC Fight Night 284