If you like your light heavyweight bouts short and violent, the UFC Macau co-main is built for you.
Zhang Mingyang has made his name doing one thing exceptionally well: ending fights early. All three of his UFC wins came by first-round knockout — Brendson Ribeiro, Ozzy Diaz, and a genuinely eye-catching stoppage of veteran Anthony Smith. The one time he didn't get the early finish, it got him: Johnny Walker knocked him out in the second round last August. Fighting at home in front of a Chinese crowd, Zhang is the betting favorite, and the logic is simple — he hits hard and he hits first.
Alonzo Menifield is the mirror image, for better and worse. The American is a career knockout threat himself, but at this stage he's as likely to be on the wrong end of one. He's 2-3 over his last five, and both of those recent losses came by knockout — a first-round finish by Carlos Ulberg and, most recently, a first-round stoppage by Volkan Oezdemir in November. In between he ground out decisions over Julius Walker and Oumar Sy, showing he can still grind when the fight stays technical.
That's the whole tension of this fight. Neither man has shown much recent durability — Zhang's only UFC loss and both of Menifield's came by knockout — and both prefer to swing for the fences. When two punchers with questionable chins meet, the fight rarely reaches the judges. Expect the first clean shot to matter, and expect it early.