Preview: UFC 322 Prelims

Featherweights

Pat Sabatini (20-5, 7-2 UFC) vs. Jose Mariscal (18-6, 5-0 UFC)

BETTING ODDS: Sabatini (-142), Mariscal (+120)

Mariscal looks to continue his undefeated streak in the UFC in this outing. Mariscal figured to have some enjoyable fights in the UFC upon his late-notice signing in 2023, but his ceiling had also seemingly been clearly established. A professional since 2014, Mariscal had a few wins over eventual UFC vets but typically fell short against his better opposition. That has made his success a bit of a shock, as Mariscal has consistently stayed ahead of top prospects and divisional stalwarts. Mariscal hasn’t shown one standout skill, but he has been seemingly impossible to outwork, absorbing offense as needed and continuing to set a hard pace, working his way through grappling exchanges to just keep pouring on punishment. There have been points where it seems like Mariscal should be clearly outgunned—most notably in a close 2024 win over Morgan Charriere—but he has managed to persist and has now racked up five straight wins to kick off his UFC career. Mariscal’s latest challenge comes in the form of Sabatini, a former blue-chip prospect who’s looking to build on the biggest win of his UFC tenure.

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A 2021 signing, Sabatini was a clear standout as a wrestler and grappler, and he seemed to be developing an effective striking game to fully round out his skills. However, only the first part of that equation has held, albeit to an impressive degree. Given the chance, Sabatini has been able to stifle or eventually submit his opponents without much difficulty. Sometimes, though, Sabatini just doesn’t get out of the starting gate. Damon Jackson and Diego Lopes stormed and knocked out Sabatini within 90 seconds. Mariscal isn’t that type of fast-starting pressure fighter, so this looks on paper like Sabatini’s type of fight. However, there’s the interesting wrinkle of this being a rematch from 2018—a narrow Mariscal decision win that was probably his best victory outside of the UFC. That fight serves as a tantalizing appetizer for this second encounter, as it had plenty of the entertaining grappling exchanges that figure to also take place here, and this should follow in its footsteps as an exciting but close three-round affair. Given that this is a toss-up, there’s no reason to think that Mariscal can’t pull this out again. The pick is Mariscal via decision.

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