One of the prelims at UFC Fight Night 52 is a three-round welterweight matchup between Hyun Gyu Lim and Takenori Sato. According to the current betting lines available at Several Bookmakers, Lim is a -550 favorite (bet $550 to win $100) while Sato is a +400 underdog (bet $100 to win $400). MMA linesetter Nick Kalikas opened up Lim at -705 and Sato at +435, and there has been surprising action on the dog. I don’t know why anyone is betting on Sato here, as I see Lim absolutely smashing him in a dominant performance. Here’s why. Lim (12-4-1) is one of the up-and-coming fighters in the UFC welterweight division. The 29-year-old South Korean is one of the biggest 170lbers in the world, standing at 6’2″ and having a 78 inch reach, and he uses that size to bully his opponents around the cage. He’s 2-1 in the UFC with knockout wins over Pascal Krauss and Marcelo Guimaraes and a decision loss to Tarec Saffiedine in a five-round war earlier this year. In the Saffiedine fight, he showed that he gets hit way too much, but he also demonstrated he has a huge heart as he took crazy punishment in the contest and nearly came back to win late in the fifth round. He showed in that fight he has some issues with his takedown defence, but if he’s fixed that during his layoff he should cruise against any of the mid-pack welterweights. Armed with extreme knockout power in all of his limbs, Lim is an extremely dangerous opponent for anyone at 170lbs and going up against an overmatched opponent in Sato, he should absolutely roll here. Sato (17-9-7) is 0-1 in the UFC with a TKO loss to Erick Silva. The 29-year-old Japanese fighter attempted a takedown in that fight but was quickly hit in the head with some unorthodox strikes and knocked out in less than a minute. Overall in his career Sato has been knocked out six times and going up against a fighter with devastating knockout power like Lim isn’t a good sign. Sato is a solid grappler and he does have the ability to beat the lower-ranked welterweights in the UFC, but if he can’t take Lim down he’s going to get absolutely destroyed on the feet, and that’s exactly why you see him come into this fight as a massive underdog. I don’t know why the UFC dislikes Sato so much, but they really don’t seem to think much of him. In his first two UFC fights he’s been matched up against two killers in Silva and Lim, which is just a terrible situation for him any way you look at it. Just like silva in his last outing, Lim is a far superior fighter to Sato and he’s absolutely going to win this fight in dominant fashion. I don’t think this fight is close at all. I’m going with Lim via T/KO in the first round and feel confident in parlaying him at -550. I also like the UNDER 1.5 rounds prop at -165 as I don’t see this fight making it out of the first, but the Lim monelyline is definitely safer just in case Sato is somehow able to tough things out. Either way, I think Lim this fight and I’m very much looking forward to seeing what kind of performance he puts on.
