T.J.
Brown's UFC career has been a pleasant surprise thus far. When
"Downtown" earned a contract on the Contender Series in 2019, he
figured to be a fun but flawed fighter whose weaknesses would hold
him back at the UFC level. And through four fights, most of those
criticisms of Brown have held true; he's a well-rounded offensive
threat with admirable persistence, but almost always leaves himself
open defensively. Brown dropped his first two UFC bouts, but has
managed to string together two straight wins to get some momentum
going; and while he was far from a technical wunderkind against
Charles
Rosa in January, he did put together a more balanced approach
than usual in earning a clear decision victory. Brown looks to make
it three straight against China's Shayilan Nuerdanbieke, who's also
attempting to figure some things out. A talented athlete,
Nuerdanbieke was able to rely on pressure and wrestling on the
Chinese scene, which made his debut loss to Josh Culibao a rude
awakening. To his credit, "Wolverine" is relentless even in the
face of failure, which was enough to outlast Sean
Soriano over three rounds in November, earning Nuerdanbieke his
first UFC victory. And there's a chance it works here; again, Brown
tends to give up a lot with his lack of defense, and Nuerdanbieke's
clear power advantage may allow him to find something big over the
course of fifteen minutes. But the inverse seems like it's just as
true - with Nuerdanbieke's usual insistence on taking things to the
mat and Brown's tricky grappling ability, it wouldn't be a shock if
the American is able to score the win by catching Nuerdanbieke
unawares. The pick is Brown via second-round submission.
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