UFC Paris: Who is Manolo Zecchini?
The UFC returns to the City of Love for the second consecutive year and it's headlined again by its countryman, Ciryl Gane, who will challenge Serghei Spivac once the Octagon cage is locked. UFC Paris involves a lot of European fighters on the card, particularly highlighting the talent in France, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, and Switzerland, and one of these prospects is Manolo Zecchini (11-3).
Zecchini will make his first walk as a UFC fighter on Saturday and he faces another warrior who is making his debut, Morgan Charriere (18-9-1). Coming into enemy territory, he is currently riding a two-fight winning and finishing streak with the expectation to extend to three. Zecchini by way of his record is a fighter who looks to finish or gets finished, but to his favor has a 91 percent finish rate with nine KO/TKO and one submission win.
He previously fought late last year when he defeated Abou Tounkara via a flying knee in the second round for Venator FC 12. Zecchini has lost before with the most recent being against a formidable opponent, Karomatullo Sufiev, whom he went the distance with. At 26 years of age he fights with explosiveness and aggression early on but on occasion fades away after the first round.
The former Cage Warriors featherweight champion, Charriere is currently coming off a third-round TKO last month and got the call from the UFC to fight in front of his people. He is currently on a three-fight winning streak capped off by two finishes.
Charriere is a prospect coming into his own with a 73 percent finish ratio including 10 KO/TKOs and three submission victories. On the downside, he has been submitted once before and lost via decision eight times. Charriere is well-rounded fighter who stays composed in the fire, but when he hurts you with his weapons he won't hesitate to finish.
According to DraftKings, the betting odds favor the countrymen, Charriere at (-310), meanwhile, Zecchini is against the betting line at (+250).
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