How Will ‘Super’ Sodiq Yusuff Fare in His New Weight Class?
Not too long ago, Sodiq Yusuff was thought of as the next exciting title challenger in the Featherweight Division. After joining the UFC in 2018, Yusuff won his first four fights before losing to Arnold Allen. He bounced back with back-to-back wins, which earned him a headline fight against Edson Barboza. That fight was supposed to propel him to the top of the division, but a vintage performance from Barboza stopped his hype in his tracks. After concerns with his weight cut and his recent knockout loss to Diego Lopes in the first round last year, he made the jump to Lightweight in hopes of reaching his full potential. Will ‘Super’ Sodiq be a new contender in a wide-open division, or will his downfall carry over to his new division?
The Lightweight Division has completely turned on its head this week with current dominant champion Islam Makhachev vacating his title as he looks to move up to Welterweight and claim his second title. Ilia Topuria vs. Charles Oliveira will take place at UFC 317 to crown the new Lightweight Champion. So with all the movement happening in the Lightweight Division, a guy like Yusuff can quickly make some noise and earn himself a right in the mix for a title shot. This Saturday, he takes on recent TUF winner Mairon Santos. Yusuff has tremendous kickboxing and lands a little over five significant strikes per minute. He defends 53% of the strikes coming back his way. When the Nigerian is moving forward and mixing up his targets and combinations, he is electric. Santos is coming off a head-scratching decision victory in his last time out, where he struggled throughout. I think Yusuff will overwhelm Santos in this fight, and if his chin is better in this decision, he could be a real force.
When you break down the current trajectory of the Lightweight Division, there are a lot of fighters that won’t be in the rankings soon and a lot that are on the backend of their career. If this new weight class can help his shaky chin, which he has had in his last couple of fights, I think Yusuff is going to make the climb through this division. There are a lot of potential fights that would be extremely exciting for fans to witness, and striking battles that could easily win fight of the night on any given card. Matchup-wise, I think this is the perfect fit for ‘Super,’ and I believe he could be a real contender sooner rather than later.
