Preview: UFC 315 Prelims

Middleweights

Marc-Andre Barriault (16-9, 5-8 UFC) vs. Bruno Silva (23-12, 4-6 UFC)

ODDS: Barriault (-148), Silva (+124)

Barriault and Silva look to rebound from rough 2024 campaigns when they square off at 185 pounds. Heading into last year, Quebec’s Barriault had seemed to turn the corner after an expectedly rough UFC start. “Power Bar” was one of the most successful fighters on the Canadian scene when the UFC picked him up in 2019, but he made his moves with a mashing style that figured to work much worse against UFC-level athletes. Indeed, Barriault mostly marched his way into trouble for the first few years of his UFC career, but a change in camp and game plan saw him slowly shift from brawler into a more patient striker with a bit of craft. Barriault still didn’t seem like enough of an athlete to have a championship-level upside, but after a strong 2023, he had shown enough to potentially break into the UFC’s middleweight rankings—an impressive bit of business given how his run with the company started out. Barriault lost a close decision to Chris Curtis to kick off 2024, and it wasn’t necessarily a shock that he got knocked out by Joe Pyfer in his next bout. No, the real stunner was Barriault’s November loss to Dustin Stoltzfus, who figured to be a walkover opponent. Instead, he knocked Barriault out in the type of brawl where the Canadian has been at his most comfortable. It’s a result that puts Barriault on a bit of a red alert. Perhaps he will be able to turn things around on home soil against Silva. After over a decade of regional competition, Silva figured to hit the ground running in his UFC debut and did so, racking up knockouts as an entertaining brawler during his first year of fights. However, as soon as “Blindado” got a step up into fighting the top half of the middleweight roster, things quickly fell apart. The scouting report seemed to be out on Silva’s wild style, and he found himself getting some combination of outwrestled and outmaneuvered in loss after loss. That lack of success seemed to weigh down Silva more and more with each subsequent fight, to the point that he clearly mentally broke in an October loss to Ismail Naurdiev. In fact, it’s a bit of a surprise that Silva is still on the UFC roster, whether due to the promotion’s decision or the fact that he seemed set to retire after the Naurdiev bout. With that said, he has a chance to crack Barriault’s chin before things start to go south and possibly even later on, as Silva is still managing to survive until the final horn in most of these losses, even if he’s clearly hating life at times. Even if it requires a lot of mashing and making this a bit of a slog, Barriault should be able to eventually break this fight open once Silva fades. The pick is Barriault via decision.

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