UFC 328: Joshua Van vs. Tatsuro Taira Prediction for Saturday, 05/09/26

The Co-Main Event at UFC 328 will see Joshua Van take on Tatsuro Taira. This will be a fight in the UFC Flyweight division and will be for the UFC Flyweight title. Van enters this fight with an MMA record of 16-2 and 9-1 in the UFC. He averages 8.84 significant strikes per minute and has a striking accuracy of 56%. Van absorbs 6.39 strikes and has a striking defense of 57%. His grappling is also decent, averaging 0.84 takedowns every 15 minutes. Van has a takedown accuracy of 63% and a takedown defense of 81%.

Taira enters this fight with an MMA record of 18-1 and 8-1 in the UFC. He averages 2.94 significant strikes per minute and has a striking accuracy of 60%. Taira absorbs 2.44 strikes and has a striking defense of 47%. His grappling has been elite, averaging 3.12 takedowns every 15 minutes and 1.6 submission attempts during the same period. Taira has a takedown accuracy of 46%, and his takedown defense is 45%.

Despite being the title challenger, Taira is the heavy favorite in this fight. That said, we will be looking for this fight to end inside the distance. Van has seen 4 of his last 8 UFC fights end inside the distance, while Taira has seen 6 of his last 8 UFC fights do the same. Because of the high finish rate for both fighters, backing this fight to end inside the distance will be our lean.