UFC Fight Night: Makhachev vs Moises- Gabriel Benitez vs Billy Quarantillo: Prediction and Analysis

UFC Vegas 31 takes place this Saturday with a lightweight bout between Islam Makhachev and Thiago Moises as the five-round main event. The rest of the card, as always, is stacked with several interesting fights. Gabriel Benitez vs Billy Quarantillo is one such fight. 

The two featherweights will open the main card at UFC Vegas 31 in a three-round fight. Benitez goes into the fight on the back of an impressive win in his last outing. Quarantillo, on the other hand, suffered a loss the last time he stepped into a UFC octagon. 

Ahead of the intriguing featherweight clash, we inspect the strengths and weaknesses of both men.

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Gabriel Benitez vs Billy Quarantillo will be a cracker of a fight at UFC Vegas 31 

Gabriel Benitez made his UFC debut in November 2014 with a submission win over Humberto Brown. He has since fought nine times in the UFC with a record of 6-4. Benitez, currently 1-2 in his last three fights, most recently secured an impressive TKO win over Justin Jaynes in December 2020. He will aim to build on that this weekend. 

Billy Quarantillo, on the other hand, made his debut on Dana White’s Contender Series in July 2019. He then went on to win his next three fights in the UFC. Quarantillo succumbed to a loss in his most recent outing in December 2020 against Gavin Tucker. The loss against Tucker put a halt to an eight-fight win streak. He will be aiming to get back into the win column this weekend against Benitez. 

‘Moggly’ has secured an impressive 45% of his career wins via submission. Over the course of his UFC career, he has landed an impressive 4.23 significant strikes per minute while absorbing just 2.6 in return. Furthermore, he averages 0.23 takedowns per 15 minutes and 1.6 submissions in the same time frame. 

Quarantillo has secured most of his wins via T/KO (40%). An excellent striker, he has landed 5.28 significant strikes per minute in his UFC career and absorbed 4.08 in return. Furthermore, he has averaged 1.93 takedowns per 15 minutes and 4.51 submissions in the same time period. 

Quarantillo is the more versatile fighter of the two and has more ways to win the fight as compared to Benitez. This should allow him to bounce back into the win column this weekend. 

Prediction: Billy Quarantillo via round 2 T/KO.