Preview: UFC Fight Night 235 ‘Dolidze vs. Imavov’

Welterweights

Randy Brown (17-5, 11-5 UFC) vs. Muslim Salikhov (19-4, 6-3 UFC)

ODDS: Brown (-245), Salikhov (+200)

This pairing was a late scratch from the UFC 296 card at the end of 2023, and it was nice to see the UFC keep an interesting fight intact two months later. Brown came to the UFC back in 2016 as an obvious talent. A 6-foot-3 welterweight, Brown had less than two years of pro experience under his belt ahead of his promotional debut, and hopes were high that “Rude Boy” could turn impressive potential into effective production. Brown has certainly improved during his eight years under the UFC banner, but it has been a frustrating path. Even as Brown appears to be firmly in the peak of his career, he still has not found much consistency to his approach. Brown is almost hurt by the number of options that his talent affords, tending to cycle through ideas rather than lean on something effective. It speaks to Brown’s ability that he has found success much more often than not, but even his wins are often much messier than they need to be.

Salikhov makes for a particularly dangerous opponent against someone prone to slipping up, as the Russian is one of the more dangerous challenges Brown has faced to date. A multi-time world champion in wushu sanda, “The King of Kung Fu” came into the UFC with some considerable hype in 2017, though some of that fell by the wayside after a one-sided debut loss to Alex Garcia in which Salikhov’s takedown defense appeared to be a liability. However, Salikhov quickly patched that hole in his game and settled into a successful groove, rattling off a five-fight winning streak before hitting a ceiling at the fringes of the Top 15. Owing to his background, Salikhov favors a style built around accurate single strikes that sometimes struggles to win rounds, but—much like Brown—it still takes an excellent fighter to actually take advantage of his issues, and recent losses to Jingliang Li and Nicolas Dalby have aged quite well. Salikhov is nearing 40 years old, which does raise some worry heading into each of his fights going forward, but it seems guaranteed he will blast Brown at one point or another. It is just a question of whether or not that is enough to score a finish against an opponent much more capable of throwing out effective volume. Brown is historically quite durable, so he gets the nod, even if this figures to be a tense affair throughout. The pick is Brown via decision.

Jump To »
Dolidze vs. Imavov
Carneiro vs. Dober
Brown vs. Salikhov
Silva vs. Araujo
Khizriev vs. Muradov
Urbina vs. Radtke
The Prelims