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Rough week for the UFC this one, leading up to the last numbered event of the year for Dana White's promotion. Why? Well, there are always delays and re-scheduled fights due to injuries and such things, but in the span of mere hours last Tuesday the promo lost three fights due to COVID reasons. Ugh. At least some of the fighters could be replaced... and hey, we gotta cheer up because UFC 256 is happening for real and it is the second-to-last showdown before we flip the calendar page to 2021. Time flies!
Oh, and just in case you don't know, we're back on the belt-on-the-line track this weekend! Yessss! UFC 256 will put Deiveson Figueiredo's flyweight gold up for grabs as contender Brandon Moreno will try to snatch it from the Brazilian. That's the headliner, sure, but before we reach that point we'll get to watch the likes of Tony Ferguson, Jacare Souza, and a monster-bout between two great HW in Junior dos Santos and Ciryl Gane. Christmas came earlier this year, folks!
In this article, I will be providing you with my daily fantasy MMA, UFC lineup picks for DraftKings for UFC 256: Figueiredo vs. Moreno on 12/12/20. You can check out our FanDuel MMA DFS picks as well. These DFS lineup picks can vary from higher-priced players and elite options to lower-priced fighters and value picks on DraftKings. Give me a follow on Twitter @chapulana. Good luck!
DraftKings MMA Flyweight (C) - UFC DFS Lineup Picks
Deiveson Figueiredo, $9000- vs. Brandon Moreno
It took Figueiredo two fights, but the Brazilian finally got to raise the flyweight belt after defeating Joseph Benavidez in back-to-back bouts in which Figueiredo first KO'd him and five months later submitted his foe inside the first round. It's been three title fights for Figueiredo already, with the last one being a title-defense against Alex Perez as he dispatched him in under two minutes with another submission.
Brandon Moreno, after a good 2-0 start to his UFC career, had to wait two years and a half after that to score himself another W after going 0-2-1 in his next three bouts. He is now in much better shape and enters this Saturday's affair carrying a three-win streak that helped him reach that challenger status as the no. 1 contender in the FW division.
Figueiredo is a quick-closer. He's finished opponents in seven of his nine UFC fights, including the last four. Moreno, on the other hand, just got his first KO this past November (in the same event in which Figueiredo defended his belt), but other than that is a long-run fighter. It's not a lock to expect Figueiredo to close this one early given the high-stakes, but he's the clear favorite for a reason, short or long fight ahead.
DraftKings MMA Light Lightweight - UFC DFS Lineup Picks
Tony Ferguson, $8600- vs. Charles Oliveira
You know you're about to watch a great even when someone of Tony Ferguson's caliber is not the headliner of the main card. But here we are. Tony had a shot at getting the LW belt to rest around his belly back in May, but he could do nothing against Justin Gaethje and ended KO'd in the lats round of that fight. That's just a minuscule blip on Tony's resume, who is a freak of nature carrying a 12-2 record since his UFC debut and having won 11 straight prior to that loss.
If Ferguson's fight long looks awesome, Oliveira's is also good and as long as one can get. Charles is entering the octagon for the 25th time since debuting in the UFC. He's more than a veteran these days, with his first fight all the way back in August 2010. Not that he's rusty, though, currently on a seven-win streak and looking to get into the title picture in which would ultimately give him his first shot at a title in his career.
We never got to watch Ferguson fight Khabib, and with the "former" champ now retired and Tony as the no. 3 contender, he's much closer to the belt than no. 7 Oliveira. Charlie would make a hyper-leap if he gets the W here, but odds are he doesn't and Tony gets closer to a second chance at the gold down the road come 2021. Tony is a monster striker and although Oliveira finishes opponents with gusto, Ferguson seems to be on another level and out of Oliveira's reach.
DraftKings MMA Lightweight - UFC DFS Lineup Picks
Rafael Fiziev, $8400- vs. Renato Moicano
Fiziev had a rough start to his UFC career when he was KO'd by Magomed Mustafaev before he could even realize (1:26 minutes), but Fiziev went on to right his wrongs and won his next two fights via decision, his last one taking place this past July. This is the first time Fiziev has been called up to a "numbered" UFC event, so if you're thinking he must be doing something right, that's precisely the case.
Moicano, on the other hand, had his first fight in 2014, was part of UFC 198 in May 2016, and is a career 6-3 fighter since that first bout. Things don't look that rosier when looking at recent history, though, with Moicano being 1-2 in his last three fights (all from 2019 on) as he dropped bouts to Jose Aldo and Chan Sung Jung before defeating Damir Hadzovic this past March.
These two are relatively close in terms of striking volume, but the truth is that we haven't seen Maicano fight past the second round in three of his last four fights (and the other one lasted one round plus 44 seconds). Takedowns worked nicely for Fiziev in his last two fights (2 landed, 3 attempted) while Moicano doesn't look like using them a lot these days. I have to go with the younger Fiziev here getting his third win in a row and getting Moicano's back to the wall in which would turn into a 3-1 record for him in the 2019-20 span.
DraftKings MMA Middleweight - UFC DFS Lineup Picks
Kevin Holland, $8200- vs. Jacare Souza
Not even two weeks ago, Souza was expected to face Marvin Vettori this weekend in UFC 256. If you anything about 2020, that's the presence of COVID in our lives, and Vettori's now too. He was kicked out of the event and replaced by Kevin Holland, who will take on Souza on two-weeks notice come Saturday. Holland was ready and had been training, though, as he was expected to fight on Dec. 5 but couldn't do so thanks to testing positive himself back then.
While Souza has a clear edge on experience, he's also into more of a downtrend lately having lost three of his last five fights, all since the start of 2018. Souza is currently on a two-fight losing streak and trying to getting back to the W column against Holland. Holland, on the other hand, has fought almost twice times as Souza in that same span and is 6-3 in the UFC, having won his last bout this past October.
This looks like a 15-minute fight waiting to happen. Both men have gone to decision more often than not lately, and they tend to rely on the ground game to complement their striking, which also leads to longer bouts. Jacare has won his last two fights via KO and got defeated only via decision. Holland has 2 KOs, 2 submissions, and 2 decisions in favor, and 1 submission and 2 decision losses. I'd bet on the fresher Holland to get the W here, pretty much letting Souza know his days might be over.
DraftKings MMA Heavyweight - UFC DFS Lineup Picks
Ciryl Gane, $9200- vs. Junior dos Santos
It doesn't get much wilder than this one. Gane fought for the first time as a UFC fighter a little over a year ago, in August 2019. All of his three fights inside an Octagon ended in Ws and happened in a four-month span.
Junior... well, let's say he's been around for a while. UFC 90 (October 2008) graced him and that marked the first of nine wins in a row (seven of them via KO), but Junior is now on a three-fight losing streak (all of them by getting knocked out in under 9 minutes at most). Far away are the days of HW champion Dos Santos, as it seems we're now living his pre-retirement run.
Gane has looked fantastic in his three pro-UFC fights. He's thrown strikes in bunches, landed more than half of the significant ones, and pulled off a 3-for-3 TD night against Don'Tale Mayes in his second fight. Dos Santos is a kill-or-get-killed career fighter. He doesn't use the mat, and it's either KO or die-KO'd. I have to go with the four KO-loss in a row for Dos Santos, who should reconsider (once more) if he's still capable of putting on winning efforts or he'd be better off watching from home.
