Preview: UFC 285 Prelims

Middleweights

Marc-Andre Barriault (14-6, 3-5 UFC) vs. Julian Marquez (9-3, 3-2 UFC)

ODDS: Barriault (-125), Marquez (+105)

This should be a fun exercise. Of course, that is true of most Marquez fights, even if his career feels a bit aimless at the moment. “The Cuban Missile Crisis” earned a UFC contract in 2017 via a win over Phil Hawes on Dana White’s Contender Series. That, plus his UFC debut win over Darren Stewart, mostly told the story for Marquez. He may not be the technically deepest fighter, but he is willing to leverage his durability to win a war of attrition. Marquez did not get much done in a subsequent decision loss to Alessio Di Chirico in 2018, after which his career got derailed for two and a half years due to injury. Marquez was successful upon his return. He picked his spots a bit more in wins over Maki Pitolo and Sam Alvey, clamping on a late submission for the win in each. Then came his knockout loss to Gregory Rodrigues in June, which places the effectiveness of that new approach under scrutiny. It figured to be a fight where Marquez could once again leverage his chin to absorb Rodrigues’ power and eventually find a finish, but instead, “Robocop” simply marched him down and scored a quick win. Perhaps it was just some growing pains of Marquez trying to add more thought to his approach, However, it is a more worrying sign if Marquez’s durability is starting to fade, particularly heading into this fight against Barriault.

Barriault was not too dissimilar to Marquez in his rise through the ranks in his native Quebec. “Power Bar” was mostly content to use his own durability and bruising physicality to lean on and outlast his opposition. Barriault lost some margin for error in his move to the UFC, with his Octagon campaign getting off to a rough start with three straight losses. However, he has added enough craft to his game to find wins at the UFC level, even it is still not via a particularly pretty approach. If nothing else, it has been good to see him rebound from his own worrying knockout loss against Chidi Njokuani over a year ago. These two are likely just going to wind up mashing into each other, and the result probably banks on Marquez’s current level of durability. If Barriault cannot score a knockout, he will probably wind up leaving an opening for Marquez’s potent grappling game. The pick is Marquez via second-round submission.

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