Fares ZiamvsNazim Sadykhov

Nazim Sadykhov is on an absolute tear right now, and fans are hyped to see if he can keep it rolling against Fares Ziam at UFC 323. The Black Wolf just knocked out Nikolas Motta back in June in front of his home crowd in Baku, landing 102 strikes before finishing it in round two. Before that, he got a doctor's stoppage win over Ismael Bonfim in February. That's two straight finishes for the Azerbaijani southpaw training out of Longo-Weidman. Ziam's no pushover though - the Smile Killer is riding his own hot streak with back-to-back wins.

He just beat Mike Davis by decision in February, controlling over seven minutes of that fight, and before that he landed a nasty knee to finish Matt Frevola in Paris. That knockout in front of his home crowd was wild, coming in round three after Ziam went 4-for-4 on takedowns. This matchup is all about Sadykhov's finishing instinct versus Ziam's ability to mix it up. Sadykhov's been cracking guys with his hands lately, landing at a crazy 63% clip against Motta. Ziam's more of a grinder who can wrestle when he needs to - he hit 70% striking accuracy against Davis while mixing in those takedowns.

The southpaw versus orthodox angle adds another wrinkle here. Both guys are trying to crack into that lightweight top 15, and a win here would be huge. Sadykhov's got the momentum, but Ziam's proven he can hang tough in three-round battles and find ways to win.