Soriano at welterweight has suddenly become an interesting
proposition. A thudding power puncher with a solid wrestling
background, Soriano came to the UFC in 2019 as a middleweight
prospect who looked ready to cause some damage. He certainly lived
up to the hype with knockout wins in his first two trips to the
Octagon. However, Soriano then suffered a loss to Brendan
Allen, at which point his momentum never really recovered.
Soriano still seemingly had all the tools to compete with anyone at
185 pounds, but his tendency to lean on brute force kept leading to
opponents outworking or outmaneuvering him. A 2023 loss to Dustin
Stoltzfus seemed like a clear sign that things wouldn’t work
out for Soriano at the UFC level, but he wound up getting another
fight down at 170 pounds. Since then, he has looked like a terror.
Soriano’s straightforward approach suddenly works much better
against smaller competition. He put on a well-rounded mauling of
Miguel
Baeza for three rounds in his welterweight debut, then quickly
obliterated Uros Medic
in his most recent outing. Up next for Soriano: Kazakhstan’s
Veretennikov, who’s coming off his first UFC victory. Veretennikov
has very much been a jack of all trades and master of none at the
UFC level. He has generally been a solid athlete with an effective
range striking game as a regional fighter, but neither of those
skills stood out at the start of Veretennikov’s UFC career.
Veretennikov finally got in the win column against Francisco
Prado, the type of undersized athlete that his approach figured
to work against, but he did look much sharper on the feet, even
when accounting for the advantageous style matchup. With that said,
his wrestling defense does still look like a clear liability.
Veretennikov might be tough enough to stick around, but Soriano
figures to be enough of a powerhouse to grind him down successfully
for three rounds. The pick is Soriano via decision.
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