Preview: Noche UFC Prelims

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The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s latest attraction to bear the “Noche UFC” brand is set to make the best of a tough situation.

The sequel to last year’s multimedia extravaganza at Sphere in Las Vegas had been scheduled to take place in Guadalajara, Mexico, but plans changed when it became apparent that the destination venue would not be finished in time. The move to Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas, was brilliant for an event expressly intended to honor Latin fighters and court the Spanish-speaking fan base: San Antonio’s heavily Hispanic population and deep cultural roots—even by Texan standards—all but guarantee an appropriately festive atmosphere.

Saturday’s nine-fight preliminary slate should weather the venue change just fine. The lightweight feature prelim features San Antonio native Alexander Hernandez against Diego Ferreira, a Brazilian by way of Texas’ Rio Grande Valley who has called the Lone Star State home for nearly half his life. Add in the rest of the undercard, which features a half-dozen Central and South American prospects, Mexican-American strawweight contender Tatiana Suarez, more Texans like Zachary Reese, and a “TUF 33” final bumped from last month, and you have a recipe for a fun night of fights.

Let us get on to the preview for the undercard for UFC Fight Night 259, also known as Noche UFC:

Lightweights

Alexander Hernandez (17-8) vs. Diego Ferreira (19-6)

Odds: Hernandez (-140); Ferreira (+115)

Hernandez and Ferreira find themselves in this high-visibility booking in defiance of where it appeared their careers were headed just two years ago. Hernandez seemed doomed to underachieve, as his obvious talents and frequent lapses in defense and durability conspired to keep him alternating wins and losses, while the 38-year-old Ferreira looked to be on his way out of the promotion entirely, thanks to a three-fight skid in which he had looked to be in serious physical decline.

Both men have turned things around of late, however, and Hernandez will enter the cage Saturday with the momentum of the first three-win streak on his UFC run. Meanwhile, Ferreira, now 40, has won two of three, including his first two knockouts in over half a decade.

Hernandez has always been a plus athlete for the division, and that remains the case at age 32. He has fast hands and good power—cold-cocking Beneil Dariush in his UFC debut saddled him with expectations that he has labored under ever since—and when he’s firing on all cylinders, he uses combinations and works the body well. He is still hittable in the pocket, but it has been a few years since an opponent seriously made him pay for it.

Hernandez can be an effective wrestler, but can deplete his gas tank doing so, to the point that fighters like Billy Quarantillo and Bill Algeo beat him in wars of attrition. His grappling, much like his striking, is effective offensively but also susceptible to his opponents’ offense.

Ferreira seems to have reclaimed some of the surprising athleticism and reliable durability that has carried him for so long in the Octagon. Those qualities seemed to have abandoned him during his 2020-2021 losing streak, where he was bullied and eventually overwhelmed on the ground by three straight foes.

Since then, he has looked more like his vintage self; while he has always been a smallish lightweight, he makes up for it with speed, a good workrate on the feet, and effective wrestling that feeds his still elite jiu-jitsu. The biggest question mark over “CDF” remains, as it always has, his cardio. It is difficult to reconcile the fighter who has won big as a direct result of his pace and endurance, as he did to Mateusz Rebecki and Mairbek Taisumov, with the one who has lost big for the same reason, as he did to Dariush in their second meeting.

This feels like a closely matched fight and the odds bear that out. Hernandez has stopped giving away wins to less skilled foes, while Ferreira has shown himself to still have enough tread left on the tires to be a solid test for much younger fighters. He can still be pushed around a bit by bigger lightweights who have solid fundamental wrestling, as he showed against Grant Dawson earlier this year, but that has never really been Hernandez’s game. The pick here is for Ferreira to pull out one more unlikely-seeming win, disappointing the hometown fans. Ferreira by decision.



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Hernandez vs. Ferreira
Medina vs. Todorovic
Puelles vs. Silva
Suarez vs. Lemos
Aguilar vs. Gurule
Reese vs. Dumas
Costa vs. Coria
Rendon vs. Pereira
Sezinando vs. Donchenko