Sergey Khandozhko vs Dwight Grant: Khandozhko is the favorite if he hasn't lost his form during the downtime

On April 24, another UFC Fight Night tournament will take place in Las Vegas. In one of the preliminary rounds, Russian fighter Khandozhko will take on Dwight Grant of America.

The fight will take place in the welterweight category. None of the fighters are in the top 15 of the official UFC contenders' rankings of this division. According to the bookmaker's betting odds, Khandozhko is the slight favorite to win this fight.

Sergey Khandozhko: Back after a long layoff

Khandozhko is returning to the cage after a serious injury, his previous fight was in November 2019. Sergey has fought twice in the UFC (win and loss) and is well known to Russian mixed martial arts fans for his performances in domestic promotions, mainly ACB.

Sergey is a pronounced knockout artist with twelve wins by knockout.

His last fight was against experienced Rustam Khabilov (24-4), who incidentally, made his UFC debut right after Khabib back in 2012. That fight turned out to be as boring as possible. Khanozhko landed more punches than his opponent but Khabilov was able to land a few touchdowns which were of no use at all. The rest of the fight was spent in a clinch near the net, the referee even had to call them to fight and he brought them back to the center. The unanimous decision gave the victory to Rustam.

Dwight Grant: The perfect opponent for Khandozhko's comeback

Grant also prefers to fight in the standup, suffice it to say that his long career has yet to see a single win by sub-subbing. He comes from a kickboxing background, was once WKA champion, but has now come of age, lost his speed, and hasn't gained much in his parterre skills. In his last three fights, he lost twice, only to be beaten by a split decision by Stefan Sekulic (14-6), the man Vitaliy Slipenko recently decimated in the ACA.

Expert Betting Tips

It's great luck that Sergey has been given such a convenient opponent since his return. If he doesn't yawn and miss a knockout punch he may well outbid him in the standup and take the fight on points, Grant will surely get fit by the end. If it gets tough in the standup, however, you can "rest" in the ground work from time to time, all cards in hand here. That's all assuming, of course, that Khandozhko returns in decent form, at least in the form we saw him in last time.

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