Predicting the UFC Denver Fight of the Night

Denver, Colorado, gets a UFC fight night card on July 13 at the Ball Arena. There have been many pullouts on this card, leading to last-minute replacements being called in and some fights even getting fully scrapped from the card. Despite the work chaos, the UFC worked hard to make this fight card good enough for fight fans attending or watching from their homes. This card will likely be a mix of boring fights and entertaining barn burners. There will be at least one winner of the Fight of the Night bonus.

The fight that will likely take the Fight of the Night bonus will be Drew Dober vs Jean Silva. Styles make fights, and these two fighters are so similar, in a good way, that they can easily put on a war for fight fans. Dober and Silva have great knockout power while possessing granite chins. Wrestling is not their specialty style, as both prefer to stand and bang. This fight likely ends in three rounds of war to a decision or knockout after back-and-forth trading.

Drew Dober vs. Jean Silva is the fight to keep your eyes on at UFC Denver

Dober is a 35-year-old veteran, competing in the UFC for nearly 11 years. He has victories over fun fighters such as Alexander Hernandez, Terrance Mckinney, and Bobby Green. At the same time, he has losses, mainly to top grapplers in the lightweight division such as Beneil Dariush and the current champion, Islam Makhachev. Dober was knocked out for the first time in 2011, long before he came to the UFC, against a random fighter named Ramiro Hernandez. Ever since that time, he not only grew in skill but durability as well. Dober was knocked down recently by only two heavy hitters in Mckinney, who he ended up recovering from to get a first-round knockout win in March 2022, and Matt Frevola, who knocked him out in the first round in May 2023.

Silva is a 27-year-old newly signed prospect to the UFC this year. He is on a 10-fight winning streak, involving one decision, two guillotine submissions, and all the other wins being knockouts. He has two losses by decision in 2017 and 2018, as it appears, he has not been knocked down in his career yet. Silva aced his UFC debut on the first card of 2024 when he knocked out Westin Wilson in one round. At UFC 303, he became the first fighter to knock out Charles Jourdain, a promising prospect who had never been knocked out due to being durable and defensively responsible for most of his career. Silva was previously a featherweight but is stepping in on short notice for an opportunity at lightweight, due to missing weight in his last fight and likely testing to see if this can be a better weight class for himself.

Dober vs Silva is practically a prospect vs veteran matchup. There is a case for either fighter having a chance to win this fight. Silva has more tools, as he could hypothetically mix in grappling to find a submission, which has been a method other fighters used to beat Dober in the past. That is in addition to possessing good enough power to knock out Dober. Silva could knock out Dober, as the damage he has taken over many years likely is catching up to him. Dober could also win as in the end, he may end up being too experienced for Silva, who likely has not faced that competition higher up.

Regardless, this is shaping up to be a fun fight that can give fight fans their money's worth. Either the hype of Silva continues or gets derailed. Dober vs Silva has what it takes to steal the show.