Pre-fight Analysis

Dustin Jacoby vs. Ion Cutelaba – UFC Vegas 25 Preview

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Dustin Jacoby will be stepping in on short notice at UFC Vegas 25 to replace Devin Clark against Ion Cutelaba. This fight should be a battle between a very skilled kickboxer and a guy with knockout power in both of his hands. The bout is set to take place right before the co-main event of the night.

Dustin Jacoby vs. Ion Cutelaba – UFC Vegas 25 Preview

Dustin Jacoby

Dustin Jacoby comes into this fight with a professional mixed martial arts record of 14-5. With nine of those 14 wins coming by way of knockout. Jacoby also holds a professional kickboxing record of 10-8 with nine of those ten wins being knockouts. Dustin Jacoby even had a professional boxing match in 2019 where he would TKO Terrence Hodges in the first round. He is currently on a four-fight winning streak in MMA. Those four wins include decisions over Cody East, Ty Flores, Maxim Grishin, and a TKO over Justin Ledet. Dustin Jacoby has been finished in three of his five losses. He was submitted twice by John Salter and Chris Camozzi and his one TKO loss was to Muhammed Lawal in 2014.

Jacoby will also be coming into this fight with a three-inch height and a three-inch reach advantage over Cutelaba. He is great at keeping his opponent on the outside and picking them apart. This will only be easier having such a size advantage.

Ion Cutelaba

Ion Cutelaba has a professional MMA record of 15-6-1 with 12 of his 15 wins being knockouts. Interestingly enough, although Cutelaba is known for his powerful striking, he is also a great grappler. He even won the European Combat Sambo Championships in 2012. He is currently 4-5 in the UFC and desperately needs a win following back-to-back losses against Magomed Ankalaev. The biggest wins of his career are finishes over Gadzhimurad Antigulov and Khalil Roundtree Jr. 

Cutelaba has been finished in four of his six losses, being knocked out twice by Ankalaev and being submitted by Glover Teixeira and Misha Cirkunov. Prior to the UFC, Cutelaba only had two losses. One of them was a disqualification where he punched Michal Andryszak in the back of the head in 2013. The other was right before that when he was finished by Murod Hanturaev, although that loss was turned into a no-contest after the finish was called a referee error.

UFC Vegas Fight Card:

Main Card:

  • Dominick Reyes vs. Jiri Prochazka
  • Cub Swanson vs. Giga Chikadze
  • Ion Cutelaba vs. Dustin Jacoby
  • Sean Strickland vs. Krzystof Jotko
  • Merab Dvalishvili vs. Cody Stamann
  • Poliana Botelho vs. Luana Carolina

Preliminary Card:

  • Randa Markos vs. Luana Pinheiro
  • Gabriel Benitez vs. Jonathan Pearce
  • Kai Kamaka III vs. T.J. Brown
  • Loma Lookboonmee vs. Sam Hughes
  • Luke Sanders vs. Felipe Colares
  • Andreas Michailidis vs. KB Bhullar

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My name is Michael Lynch. I’m originally from Long Island, NY, but I reside in Columbia, Sc. I’ve been covering MMA for almost two years now. I’ve covered events such as Island fights and the PFL. I also have a YouTube channel where I do fight companions and UFC fight previews. I have recently started to train in mma and would like to have my first fight in 2020. I believe that as a journalist I need to experience what these fighters go threw, in order to understand their POV.

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