UFC Austin – New Blood!

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) returns from hiatus this Saturday (Dec. 2, 2023) with a pair of fresh faces set to debut inside Moody Center in Austin, Texas. On this edition of New Blood, the series where my need to browse Contender Series reruns prevents me from ever ditching my ESPN+ subscription, we checkout a super-efficient finisher and a Legacy Fighting Alliance (LFA) champion.

Zach “Savage” Reese

Weight Class: Middleweight
Age: 29
Record: 6-0 (4 KO, 2 SUB)
Notable Victories: Eli Aronov

Five years after losing to Kevin Holland in his amateur debut, Reese returned to notch three straight wins ahead of a 2021 professional debut. After dispatching his first five professional opponents in less than one round apiece, he made the most of his Contender Series opportunity by submitting Eli Aronov in just 74 seconds.

Reese is another of those fighters who wins too quickly to produce much useful tape. Indeed, his longest fight in the last decade was a 5:20 submission finish of Parker Didier in his final amateur bout, most of which took place against the fence.

Just letting y’all know ahead of time what I’m working with.

A striker by trade, Reese fights out of an extremely tall stance that makes the most of is 6’4” frame. He largely relies on roundhouse kicks from either stance, targeting the low, body and head with equal aplomb. What little he’s shown of his hands reveals fairly underdeveloped boxing; for someone that tall and long, he doesn’t seem inclined to throw a jab. He did manage to stop Tommie Britton with a punching flurry, but Britton was 5-10 and had lost seven of his previous eight, so he doesn’t get any credit for that.

It doesn’t help that he’s not particularly fast or that his flat-footedness allowed Aronov to land several heavy low kicks.

As far as his grappling, he’s got decent takedown defense, a strong front headlock, and surprisingly quick transitions. He finished Didier with a snapdown-back take-RNC sequence and put Aaron Phillips to sleep in seconds with a palm-to-palm guillotine. When Aronov caught a teep to put him on his back, Reese kept his composure through some heavy ground-and-pound to regain guard and lock up an armbar for the finish.

He was admittedly helped by Aronov letting go of his own arm to drop an ineffectual punch while defending, but it was still a slick move.

Even with those flashes of competence, I feel like Reese is behind the curve for a 29-year-old. His limited hands and questionable footwork make it hard to imagine him overpowering a high-level striker. He’s got some nice reactive grappling tricks, but outside of a high-crotch takedown on Didier that he failed to complete, he hasn’t shown the ability to proactively force grappling exchanges against unwilling foes. Without some serious improvements, I see him peaking below the middle of the Middleweight pack.

His UFC debut pits him against professional choke artist, Cody Brundage, who was saved from a four-fight losing streak by Jacob Malkoun deciding to hit him in the back of the head. Brundage’s power and offensive wrestling look like a threat to Reese, but Brundage just loves throwing away winnable matchups, so who knows how it’ll play out.

His Fury FC bouts are on Fight Pass.

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Rodolfo “Trator” Bellato

Weight Class: Light Heavyweight
Age: 27
Record: 11-2 (6 KO, 4 SUB)
Notable Victories: Murtaza Talha, Acacio dos Santos

Three years after suffering his first-ever loss to Vitor Petrino, Bellato entered UFC APEX for a rematch on Contender Series, only to once again succumb to “Icao’s” left hook. Two more wins in LFA earned him another shot on Contender Series, where he mauled the favored Murtaza Talha to claim a UFC contract.

“Trator” is a well-conditioned and well-rounded Light Heavyweight with finishing skills wherever the fight goes. Despite being a 6’2” tank of a man, he’s remarkably light-footed, bouncing on the balls of his feet while working behind a steady jab. Beyond his power, solid combination punching, and powerful low kicks, I want to call attention to his defense. He does a very good job of slipping incoming punches and/or bringing up his elbows to intercept them without relying on a static guard.

That said, he seems to be vulnerable to quick single shots he doesn’t see coming and counters; in other words, opponents who go first and third. Both of his knockout losses to Petrino came from getting smashed with a left hook while out of position, first after throwing a naked low kick and then after trying a spinning elbow in the rematch. Petrino also landed several stiff jabs on him (as did Talha) in the early going.

Luckily for Bellato, he also has a strong clinch to lean on. He used it to completely neutralize Acacio dos Santos for five rounds and claim LFA gold, and though he was quite passive in that bout, he was anything but against Talha. Talha found some early success with dirty boxing and elbows, but Bellato absolutely mauled him in the second, beating him to a pulp with a nonstop onslaught of punches, knees and elbows.

It’s worth noting that he still looked plenty fresh after landing 84 significant strikes in that second round.

If neither of those tactics work, Bellato also has a strong BJJ pedigree to lean on. His heavy top game features some impressively slick transitions, from the rapid back take he hit on Petrino after hurting him with a one-two combination to the mounted armbar-triangle sequence that felled Thiago Vieira last year. He’s also shown off some slick sweeps off his back and got reasonably deep on a triangle from guard against Petrino before the latter slammed his way out.

He admittedly leaned more on lay-and-pray against dos Santos, never taking a dominant position or threatening with strikes or submissions, but I’m willing to chalk that up to pacing himself for 25 minutes.

His wrestling is a bit more hit-and-miss. He’s strong defensively, as seen when he easily sprawled on Talha’s shots, but his takedowns aren’t that great. He pulled half guard off of failed shots against both Petrino and dos Santos, and while he did hit some clinch trips on dos Santos with increasing success down the stretch, he had to settle for grinding him against the fence for long periods of the fight.

Overall, though, Bellato looks like a quality addition to UFC’s roster. Impressive physical abilities, a deep arsenal, good overall technique, and a strong gas tank put him above the Light Heavyweight mean. He should be far too much for Ihor Potieria, who sports little more than a puncher’s chance thanks to poor grappling and limited striking technique.

His LFA bouts are on Fight Pass.

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Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Austin fight card right here, starting with the ESPN+ “Prelims” matches, which are scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. ET, then the remaining main card balance on ESPN (also on ESPN+) at 7 p.m. ET.

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