UFC Fight Night 252 Picks for Cejudo vs. Song and Other Fights

Looking for UFC Fight Night 252 picks? If so, we’re your guys! Last weekend, we did great with our UFC predictions, with just one of our picks losing. This time around, we have a feeling we’ll do even better.

Our optimism is based on the fact that we know a lot about the fighters going into the Octagon on February 22 in Seattle – Henry Cejudo, Song Yadong, Brendan Allen, Anthony Hernandez, and others.

Don’t trust us? Keep reading and you’ll see what we’re talking about. We’ll start our fight previews with the main event of the evening – Henry Cejudo vs. Song Yadong.

Will Song Yadong Retire Henry Cejudo (Again)?

Five years ago, Henry Cejudo decided to retire. He was in his prime at the time, with two championship belts in his possession.

He got bored with the life of a retiree, so he decided to return to his job as a UFC fighter in 2023. His comeback did not go as planned – Aljo Sterling beat him by a split decision.

A year later, he fought again, this time against Merab Dvalishvili. While Cejudo did do okay against Aljo, he really got rag-dolled by Merab. For his fans, the fight was hard to watch as the Georgian beat him up and landed 5 takedowns – no one before did that to Cejudo.

Everyone thought Cejudo was going to retire for good after that loss, but no. He wanted to give it another go. Next Saturday, he’s fighting Song Yadong, who’s 11 years his junior.

The Chinese fighter is an incredible striker who lands almost 5 significant strikes per minute. Plus, three of his last four wins happened by KO/TKO.

We think he’s gonna get another win by this method, which (unfortunately) will force Cejudo to retire. And this time, his retirement won’t be temporary.

Brendan Allen vs. Anthony Hernandez – Someone’s Getting Chocked Out on Saturday

Even though UFC Fight Night 252 odds suggest Hernandez is more likely to win, we think it’s more of a coin toss when it comes to who’s going to win the co-main event in Seattle.

What we are certain is that whoever wins will do it inside the distance. The thing is that both are incredible finishers.

Brendan Allen is 24-6 with 14 wins by submission and 5 by KO/TKO. If you do your math, you’ll see that his finish rate is 79.16%. The finish rate of Anthony Hernandez is even better at 84.61% – he’s 13-2 with 8 wins by submission and 3 by KO/TKO.

They’re pretty similar fighters, but if we absolutely had to pick one, we’d go with Allen.

UFC Fight Night 252 Picks for Remaining Fights

• Jean Silva (-575) vs. Melsik Baghdasaryan (+400) – Jean Silva
• Ion Cutelaba (+115) vs. Ibo Aslan (-135) – Ibo Aslan
• Rizvan Kuniev (+218) vs. Curtis Blaydes (-258) – Curtis Blaydes
• Adam Fugitt (+210) vs. Billy Goff (-250) – Billy Goff
• Ricky Simon (+250) vs. Javid Basharat (-300) – Javid Basharat
• Mansur Abdul-Malik (-700) vs. Nick Klein (+500) – Mansur Abdul-Malik
• Modestas Bukauskas (-350) vs. Raffael Cerqueira (+285) – Modestas Bukauskas

This isn’t going to be a great event for underdogs. In most cases, our UFC Fight Night 252 picks are favorites with minus-money odds. In fact, the only underdog with a realistic chance of winning is Brendan Allen.

When it comes to big favorites like Mansur Abdul-Malik, Jean Silva, and Modestas Bukauskas, we think they’ll get the job done easily. Javid Basharat is the only major favorite on the preliminary card who we think will struggle.

He will probably beat Ricky Simon, but it could easily happen by a split decision. We expect no controversies in other fights.