Preview: UFC 314 Prelims

UFC 314 provides a strong main card, but the prelims are also packed with plenty of interesting action on Saturday at the Kaseya Center in Miami. It looks to be an important night for the featherweight division, and that includes the featured undercard battle pitting Dan Ige against Sean Woodson, as the latter attempts to make a major move toward contention at 145 pounds. Speaking of contenders, Xiaonan Yan and Virna Jandiroba square off in a bout that could give women’s strawweight champion Weili Zhang her next challenger. Meanwhile, two of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s hardiest veterans return to action, as Jim Miller and Darren Elkins continue their long careers in separate matchups.

Now to the preview for the UFC 314 “Volkanovski vs. Lopes” prelims:

Featherweights

Sean Woodson (13-1-1, 7-1-1 UFC) vs. Dan Ige (18-9, 10-8 UFC)

ODDS: Woodson (-170), Ige (+142)

Woodson has had a particularly slow rise through the featherweight ranks, but it’s finally time to see if “The Sniper” can start breaking through to championship contention. Woodson is certainly a unique prospect, owing to his reedy 6-foot-2 frame that has few comps at 145 pounds. That alone would make Woodson a tough puzzle for his opponents to crack, but he also brings some surprisingly slick boxing skills to the table, even if that comes with some defensive weaknesses. Despite his size, Woodson seems to be at his most comfortable exchanging with his opponents, though at the very least, he doesn’t go out of his way to concede a winning fight. If an opponent doesn’t know exactly how to deal with what Woodson brings to the table, he will coast things out from range, but if an opponent also wishes to start a brawl, he rarely turns down the invitation. Woodson’s frame can limit the level of his defensive slickness, at least in terms of what would seem to be his deal, and that can leave him open to getting cracked in some faster-paced exchanges. For now, though, he has mostly bent and not broken, proving capable of either hanging onto leads or staging comebacks. It will be fascinating to see how that all interacts with Ige, who finds himself at a near-comical size disadvantage but also more than enough knockout power to make up the difference.

Ige has clearly settled in as a gatekeeper to contender status in one of the UFC’s better divisions, but he did manage to raise his reputation in 2024 despite some middling results. His most notable performance of the year wasn’t his lone win over Andre Fili, but instead, it was his stepping in on hours’ notice to take on Diego Lopes at UFC 303, becoming a late replacement for the co-main event while the card was taking place. Ige lost a hard-fought effort while achieving legend status. That, along with a subsequent loss to Lerone Murphy, re-affirmed the strengths and weaknesses of Ige’s game. He’s ridiculously durable and one of the hardest hitters in the division, but he can be frustrated by opponents who can take advantage of his lack of range weapons. Woodson could play this safe enough to win, but it does seem like Ige will force the issue if he can’t get much done early; and he has the level of power where he will only need to land one big blow to close the show. The pick is Ige via second-round knockout.

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Ige vs. Woodson
Jandiroba vs. Yan
Hooper vs. Miller
Erosa vs. Elkins
Oleksiejczuk vs. Dumas
Mudaerji vs. Raposo
Tulio vs. Gore
Cornolle vs. Cowan