Nicolas Dalby vs Saygid Izagakhmaev - AI generated fight pick

Saygid Izagakhmaev is making his UFC debut but comes from a dominant grappling background and is a protégé of Khabib Nurmagomedov, indicating a very high-level wrestling and sambo skill set. Historically, debuting Russian fighters with strong wrestling backgrounds in the welterweight division have had a high success rate against aging, volume-based strikers like Nicolas Dalby, especially when the latter is 40 years old. Dalby, while experienced and durable, has shown vulnerability to strong wrestlers and grapplers—his takedown defense (59%) is only average, and he’s been controlled by better wrestlers in the past. Dalby’s striking is steady but not particularly dangerous, and his offensive wrestling is limited (28% accuracy). Given the age gap (Dalby is 40, Izagakhmaev is 31) and the historic win rate for younger, debuting high-level Russian wrestlers against older veterans, the stylistic matchup heavily favors Izagakhmaev. However, the lack of UFC data for Saygid and Dalby's proven durability lower the confidence slightly, but the trend and style edge are clear for the Russian newcomer.