UFC Fight Night: Ankalaev vs. Guskov has a heavyweight-adjacent puzzle buried on the undercard, and it's the kind handicappers love to argue about. Rizvan Kuniev and Tyrell Fortune bring two clean, opposite game plans into the cage, and the fight will likely be decided less by who's "better" and more by whose plan gets to run uncontested. That's the kind of matchup where a mispriced line can hide, which is exactly why Bones has this one rated as an informational lean rather than a pass.
Rizvan Kuniev
Kuniev's path to winning fights runs through range and output — he wants distance, clean entries, and a pace that keeps him upright and dictating where the exchanges happen. Fighters built this way tend to be comfortable as long as the fight stays a kickboxing match, using length and footwork to pick spots rather than absorb a phone-booth firefight. The question marks show up when that plan gets interrupted. Against pressure wrestlers who are willing to eat a shot or two to close distance and change levels, strikers of this archetype have to answer a different question entirely: not "can I win the exchange" but "can I keep the fight standing at all." That's the profile Kuniev steps in with here, and it's the one part of his game that hasn't been fully tested against a live grinder in recent memory.
Tyrell Fortune
Fortune is a wrestling-first fighter in the truest sense — the blueprint is entries, control positions, and a pace built to erase rounds rather than steal them with a highlight finish. He's shown that identity most clearly in his decision win over Tybura, a fight built on takedown volume and top control rather than volume striking, and it's part of a live current run that has him arriving with real momentum. The appeal of that style is durability: it travels well against just about any kind of opponent, because a fighter who can consistently put you on your back controls the terms of the fight regardless of what you do best on the feet. The risk, as always with control-based wrestlers, is finishing. If Fortune can't turn top position into damage or a stoppage, he needs the judges to see the grind the way he does.
How the fight plays out
The framing here is simple even if the outcome isn't: this is a fight between a striker who wants a clean, standing kickboxing match and a wrestler whose entire identity is making sure that never happens. Kuniev's recent form to sit inside range and pick his moments only holds up if he can keep Fortune on the outside — stuffing entries, circling off the fence, and making the takedown attempts expensive rather than free. Fortune's blueprint, meanwhile, is built to be persistent rather than clean; even unsuccessful shots can drain a round if they force constant sprawling and defensive reaction. There's a documented pattern worth weighing here — strikers with Kuniev's profile have found themselves on the wrong side of decisions against exactly this kind of pressure wrestler before, the same shape of matchup that's shown up in results against fighters like Blaydes and Willis. Whether that pattern repeats or gets broken is the entire fight. Cardio, cage generalship in the mid-to-late rounds, and how quickly either man's corner adjusts if their primary plan stalls will matter as much as anything either fighter does in the first five minutes.
The verdict
This is exactly the kind of style-clash card fight that can get priced off name recognition rather than what actually happens when a clean striker meets a live-streak wrestler. Bones has run the numbers on both directions of this matchup and has a rated pick logged ahead of first bell. The full breakdown, including which side of the wrestling equation Bones landed on, is available with a free members account.