Manuwa and Diabate are light heavyweight prospects on the way up. Both guys have a couple of stellar wins in recent memory. Unfortunately fights like these determine which prospect moves up to knocking on the door of Top 10 status and who goes back to the shallow end of the pool.
Fight Breakdown – Both guys are hard-nosed sluggers who win fights mainly because they’ve got some good power. Manuwa is coming off a vicious beatdown of Kyle Kingsbury in Nottingham not that long ago. Diabate is 4-2 in the UFC but on a fairly impressive two fight win streak.
Both guys love to throw and hit really damn hard. This is probably going to be a slugfest and whoever connects with a big shot earliest is going to win.
Why it matters – Manuwa is a hot prospect who’s undefeated but without anyone of note besides Kingsbury in his list of scalps. A win here and his legitimacy become closer to being cemented; otherwise people will call him a can-crusher. Diabate has been a prospect for some time and needs to make that next step up.
Prediction – Manuwa
