Preview: UFC Fight Night 194 ‘Dern vs. Rodriguez’

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Welterweights

NR | Randy Brown (13-4, 7-4 UFC) vs. NR | Jared Gooden (18-6, 1-2 UFC)

ODDS: Brown (-235), Gooden (+195)

Brown has become a reliably entertaining fighter in his five-plus years on the UFC roster, perhaps to a fault. “Rude Boy” came to the UFC as an obvious physical talent, thanks to his massive 6-foot-3 frame for the welterweight division. However, while Brown has shown a lot of skill in individual phases of his fights, there is not much connective tissue putting all the pieces together. The end result? A lot of wild momentum swings that provide a lot of excitement in Brown’s bouts. Brown has improved over the years, but that core issue has not resolved itself much, save for a range-heavy 2019 win over Bryan Barberena that serves as Brown’s most complete performance to date. Otherwise, most of the progress has just come in the form of Brown becoming more dangerous, particularly with the submission game that has earned him his last two wins. That makes Gooden an interesting next opponent for Brown, as “Nite Train” is a limited fighter who could present quite a bit of danger for Brown.

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A large welterweight in his own right, Gooden has traditionally been consistent to a fault, as he is an upright boxer who looks to get into a middle range and trade with his opponents. In his first two UFC bouts, all of the flaws in that approach came to the forefront. Alan Jouban and Abubakar Nurmagomedov just stayed evasive enough to prevent Gooden from getting much done and managed to take advantage of his lack of defense. Still, Gooden’s win over Niklas Stolze in July provided some cause for optimism. Even beyond the fact that Stolze was the right kind of opponent to test the Alabama native and get knocked out in a shade over a minute, Gooden pressed a few new things like kicks and takedowns during the brief time the fight lasted. Brown’s formless style could put this fight in some phases where Gooden has a knockout punch available, particularly with the former’s reach advantage not being quite as pronounced as usual. However, Brown just has too many weapons at his disposal to pick against him, particularly since his speed advantage means he is more likely to clip the much more defensively open Gooden. The pick is Brown via second-round knockout.

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