Elizeu Zaleski will open up the main card when he takes on Randy Brown at UFC 302.
Elizeu Zaleski Road to UFC
Zaleski started up in MMA Professionally back in 2009 when he took on Douglas Jandozo. Elizeu Zaleski was able to get the victory that day and was the start of a 7 fight-winning streak. During that streak, he was able to get victories over Wellington Bruno, Christian Squeti, Dyego Roberto, Misael Chamorro Ortellado, João Paulo and Jackson Pontes.
However, Zaleski would then suffer back-to-back defeats to Jose Gomes and Viscardi Andrade. Zaleski would be able to get back to winning ways. This was when he took on Misael Chamorro Ortellado once again. He was able to get his hand raised once again. However, he would suffer another defeat against Franklin Jensen before signing a deal with SMASH Fight.
In his SMASH debut, Elizeu Zaleski took on Gilmar Dutra Lima. It was a debut to remember for Zaleski as he was able to get the stoppage victory in the first round after only 27 seconds. Elizeu would follow this up with another first-round stoppage against Ricardo Tosko before moving to Jungle Fight.
While he was able to get off to a good start over in SMASH this wasn’t the case with Jungle Fight when he suffered a defeat due to a rear naked choke against Guilherme Bomba. However, Zaleski got back to winning ways with first-round stoppages against Josenildo Ramalho and Itamar Rosa in the first round. In between these victories, he secured a 2nd round stoppage victory against Rodrigo Souza. These fights set up a match against Eduardo Ramon. Zaeski was able to get the victory due to a 2nd round rear naked choke and this earned him a contract in the UFC.
Elizeu Zaleski UFC Career
Elizeu Zaleski had his UFC debut in 2015 when he came up against 13-0 prospect Nicholas Dalby. However, it wasn’t to be that evening when Zaleski found himself on the wrong end of a split decision. However, Elizeu would respond by being able to get the 3rd round stoppage due to knees against Omari Akhmedov.
Zaleski would then follow up this finish with unanimous decision wins against Keita Nakamura and Max Griffin with a split decision victory against Lyman Goodman in between. These victories set up a fight against former UFC Middleweight champion Sean Strickland. This was during Sean Strickland was a welterweight before Strickland would move to middleweight 2 fights later. Zaleski would be able to get the stoppage victory over Sean Strickland in the first round due to a spinning hook kick and punches.
Zaleski kept the good times coming with a flying knee and punches finish over Luigi Vendramini in the 2nd round before submitting Curtis Millender in the 1st round due to a rear naked choke. However, the good times would come to an end when he came up against Jingliang Li. Li was able to get the stoppage in the 3rd round by punches to stop the winning streak at 7. However, he would be able to come back stronger being able to secure a unanimous decision victory against Alexey Kunchenko. However, would fall to a split decision defeat to Muslim Salikhov. Since that victory, he has been undefeated in his last 3 fights. Zaleski would be able to get a unanimous decision victory against Benoit Saint-Dennis, a split decision victory against Abubakar Nurmagomedov and a majority draw against Rinat Fakhretdinov last time out.
Match Up
Elizeu Zaleski is coming up against Randy Brown who is a very well-rounded fighter. Looking at the match-up on paper both men have very similar striking abilities. This is due to Zaleski being able to land 4.52 strikes per minute at an accuracy rate of 42% compared to Randy Brown who lands 4.37 strikes at 47% accuracy. Both men have a high output of strikes and will be looking to use this to their advantage. While defending strikes these fighters are even more similar as both fights absorb 3.33 significant strikes per 15 minutes. However, Zaleski does have a better percentage of strikes defended as he defends 57% of strikes. This is compared to Brown who defends 54% of strikes. While it is only a 3% difference that 3% could be the difference from a unanimous decision victory to a knockout defeat depending on the strike.
However, Randy Brown does take advantage in the grappling aspect. This is due to him being able to land a takedown with an accuracy rate of 39%. This is compared to Zaleski’s 14%. However, Zaleski prefers to keep the fight on the feet and is successful at that being able to defend against 69% of takedowns he has faced so far in his UFC Career.
While Zaleski prefers to keep on the feet he will have to try and work his way into range. This is due to Randy Brown coming into this fight with a 5-inch reach advantage. Zaleski will have to be prepared for Randy to shoot for a takedown and have to hope he is able to defend them as well as being able to get into range to be able to output the damage to get him the victory.
Featured image credit to Embed from Getty Images
