Topic: The UFC Info and Prediction Thread (Read 100735 times)

I will not claim that I know more, but, as a Russian language speaker, I can say that I have advantage in searching for info about Ankalaev My wiki has more info than yours For example in the interviews he like to tell that his favourite tactics is to drag down and ground-and-pound, or high kicks. If first can be used against Pereira, than his second favourite is what Pereira expect from him. Also he say that he like to "work as Nr2". I think that is why he is boring and was not given title fight for so long. If he wins, UFC dont want to see a champ who prefer to wait to counter.

And by following Pereira social media, it seems that he spends most of time with Texeira. Texeira will teach Pereira some technics to counter TD or get away from submission. Pereira, as a dangerous striker and huge guy, he does not need to master grappling to elite level imho. Default level with stone hands and grandmaster skills of striking is enough. If they were lightweights or other lighter divisions, having elite grappling will be a must, as punches dont make wifes as widows there

I think that due to beard, name and Dagestan in his bio, people instantly sign Ankalaev into Khabib and his team level of wrestling, but that is not right

P.S. Before Greco-Roman wrestling, Ankalaev trained volleyball in school, should we add this into advantage?

Uuuh sure but if you look at Ankalaev's background, he's not a primarily a striker.  He started as a Greco Roman wrestler who made the transition to MMA.  So even though he doesn't show it on the cage as much, it's always there if you watch the fights.  When it goes to the clinch, he goes for the body lock and then holds his opponent against the cage.  

As for Pereira, he has really bad TD defense...  Prochazka was able to take him down, even Adesanya took him down too.    So easy pickings for Ankalaev at the wrestling part.

But you know more than me, so yeah.  

Nope, I don think that Umar won. Umar was giving a huge discount thank to Khabib. I think it was to early for him to have a title fight. Who did he beat among top guys before Merab? Sandhagen only? No doubt that Umar looked good in a fight against champion (was Merab in p4p rating before that fight?), but did not enough to win.

Put away surname and controversies, just two guys in an octagon. Umar was good in first two rounds, then Merab start to push. Merad had more strength, more stamina. Merab played his game, Umar wasnt tricky enough to outplay Merab. What about Umars stamina? Lots of questions. Primitive review - cardio machine wins in a fight between close styles, strength or skill.

Pereira Vs Ankalaev at the UFC 313? Better late than never.
The UFC owed Ankalaev the title fight for a while now, but his win would be the UFC's worst nightmare. Probably that's why they booked him in during ramadan. A shitty move but it is what it is.

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Apparently, Umar broke his hand during the title fight and says it happened early in the fight. If true, that puts things in a different light and makes the rematch much more likely.
Photo of the hand published by Umar:


Media are confirming he'll be pausing for at least 6 months:
https://www.sherdog.com/news/news/UFC-311-Medical-Suspensions-Umar-Nurmagomedov-Faces-Potential-6Month-Layoff-195966

Yes, I was talking about that fight. Yes, it seems that Makhachev lost his balance. Makhachev is really a good fighter and to be honest, it's one of the very few guys that I love from Khabib's team. Makhachev is very funny and entertaining outside the octagon.

No, you are making a mistake. Nurmagomedovs are wrestlers and Magomedovs are strikers, at least that's my assumption after seeing Ankalaev and Sharabutdin. By the way, this Sharabutdin is a good fighter, has one of the best knockout that I've ever seen but as a human being, he is one of the most terrible one. He has done lots of shady and sneaky things. Overall, these (Nur)magomedovs are humble while they win, when they lose, they show their real face and now I understand some truth that Conor McGregor was really saying about them in press conference with Khabib. No one from Khabib's team congratulated to Merab but that's nothing, Umar says that he didn't lose the fight against Merab.

I'd really love to know, does anyone on this forum thinks that Umar won?

P.S. Before you tell me that Umar broke his hand, I want to remind you that he broke his hand inside the octagon, when he punched Merab, so it's no excuse, if he doesn't know how to punch, he shouldn't punch. Merab was 100% true, they gave this fight to him because of his surname, he didn't deserve it, Merab was furious for a valid reason. Sneaky Dana White hates Merab and that's terrible. I don't understand why he hates him, Merab is one of the most entertaining fighter that I've ever seen.

Magomed Ankalaev was always asking about the belt match and was saying it wasn't given.
When people started wondering what would happen between Perreria and Ankalaev, they decided to have this match after more interaction, it's good that it's one of the matches.
I'm very interested in. Ankalaev is a completely complete fighter so it's good for him to have more moves. Perreria's standing strikes are probably the cleanest and best in UFC, I think it will be difficult for Ankalaev.

To bad that Ankalaev is more striker than wrestler (but who would have though that when guys name is Magomed and he is from Dagestan. probably bug in Matrix code) Not a single victory via submission, and he has lost only once via submission. https://www.ufc.com/athlete/magomed-ankalaev even his stats shows that he is using wrestling skills only for defence. What I think that he would give Pereira more challenge in striking duel before being knocked out.

Money has always been the strongest motivator.  I think he was give  a slight bump in pay or he knows this is the time.  If he waits, he'll prolly miss the opportunity and would wait for a couple more years.  Anakalaev has always been asking for the belt but for some reason the title shot wasn't given to him..  It's now he's chance.

It's an intriguing fight imho.  A couple of years ago, I would say that Ankalaev got this but seeing how Pereira has developed under the tutelage of Teixeira, this could be a coin flip.  We'll see how good Pereira is at defending against Ankalaev's wrestling.

Are you talking about that moment on 2:50-2:52 of the fight ( found only this https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-UG5GvkJsUw) ? When Moicano connected punches and Islam felt back. If you find it on slow motion and from different angle, then you would see that none of Moicano punches really connected Makhachev lost his balance and felt back. I cant find that video at work, but yesterday I saw that detail and explanation that Moicano missed, when everyone though he dazed Islam

Found only such version https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFCuiGaob7H/?igsh=MTE4cTgxaWhxYWdwYg==  not the best, but enough to notice there was no hit.

Moicano had a moment where everyone thought that he rocked Islam. Yes, there was a huge difference, Moicano was nothing against Islam and it was shown within minutes. Islam vs Topuria will be very interesting fight to my mind because Topuria seems to be overconfident but it's clear that Islam is the king of his devision. I can't wait to see this match, I think it will happen in 2025.

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Guys, what do you think about Umar? Khabib posted on Instagram that now he and Umar have a lot to work. I can't imagine in what kind of hell Umar will go through right now, he will send Umar to Georgia for 2-3 years, one time he can call Khabib will force Umar to run over the mountains to improve his cardio, I won't be surprised if he vomits after every training session He reaped what he sow, disrespected Merab, lost against Merab, now there will be no mercy from Khabib and his every day before rematch with Merab will be a hell. If he loses again, then I don't want to imagine what happens.
By the way, Khabib's team should really act as a man and congratulate winning to Merab instead of cowardly defensing their loss. Everyone thought that Khabib was humble but I think they are humble before they lose, now they aren't humble.

Should we switch into discussing new event or continue with UFC 311 ?

I like how Jiri finished Hill. Seemed that it wasnt a hard fight for Jiri at all. Or he has learned to keep hands up What with Hill now, 2 KOs in last two fights. Hill does not have good perspectives here. Either UFC will give him an easy opponent from the top, or he will face someone like Rountree, gets KOed and send to pension.

Continuing LH discussion - Pereira vs Ankalaev on UFC 313 March 8. Another win for Alex by KO, or Ankalaev finally will show what he promised everyone? I remember Ankalaev was talking about not fighting during Ramadan, and that is Feb 28 to March 29. Plans have changed suddenly? Found a spot in his timetable for Pereira?

I don't think he went thru a whole training camp just to fake an injury.  And I don't think Tsarukyan is that kind of a guy.  At least I don't think so.  But yeah, he's at the top of the heap at 155 so pretty sure he'll get another title shot.  And if anything, he prolly was hiding the back injury.  Lol.

Anyway here's the next event.  Love the co main for this...

Date:  Saturday, February 1
Main Card (PPV):  2:00pm EST
Preliminary Card (ESPN/ESPN+):  12:00pm EST
Venue:  ANB Arena, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia



Main Card (ESPN/ESPN+)
Middleweight:  Israel Adesanya vs Nassourdine Imavov            
Middleweight:  Sharabutdin Magomedov vs Michael Page            
Heavyweight:  Sergei Pavlovich vs Jairzinho Rozenstruik            
Bantamweight:  Said Nurmagomedov vs Vinicius Oliveira            
Middleweight:  Ikram Aliskerov vs André Muniz            
Featherweight:  Muhammad Naimov vs Kaan Ofli

Preliminary Card (ESPN/ESPN+)
Heavyweight:  Shamil Gaziev vs Thomas Peterson            
Lightweight:  Terrance McKinney vs Damir Hadzovic            
Lightweight:  Fares Ziam vs Mike Davis            
Women's Flyweight:  Jasmine Jasudavicius vs Mayra Bueno Silva            
Featherweight:  Bogdan Grad vs Lucas Alexander            
Heavyweight:  Hamdy Abdelwahab vs Jamal Pogues

Makhachev vs Moicano showed that there are level in this game Champ vs top10 and such a huge difference in skills. When Moicano was on the ground and Makhachev was close to choking him, I have noticed so many possibilities to use elbow and cut Moicano face. Many other fighters would have started throwing elbows and the fight would have ended by TKO. I think Islam also would have done that, but prefer to gently put Renato to sleep.

Not only that but also getting lot of negative sentiment and even ridicule from some other fighters, Dana also mentioned that Arman Tsarukyan will not get fight in the title fight and he must take another queue, I think Arman Tsarukyan must go through several more fights to get another chance to fight for the title.
And related to the fight in the title fight I also read that Charles Oliveira and Ilia Topuria gave challenge to be able to fight with Islam Makhachev but UFC chose Moicano and the fight between the two took place with an imbalance, Makhachev made Moicano lose in the first round.

If Jiri likes the 3rd chance for Pereira  fight Ankalev I think he had which I think he could win against Anka being a big fighter.

Jahamal looks easy for him. If it weren't for Merab wining against Umar it would have been a great win for me. I thnk the next fight would be Umar vs Omalley and winner wil fight a rematch to Merab.

I was spot on with my main predictions for this UFC event, but it was not hard for anyone to know that Islam Makhachev is going to win easy against Moicano.
My main prediction was Jiri Prochazka to win against Jamahal Hill, and he did win with great style KO win.
This means we could see another Pereira vs Prochazka fight, unless Ankalaev gets into some combination with UFC.

I'm very happy too if Merab is so beloved on Bitcointalk. I don't watch UFC but I woke up early yesterday to watch his fight in live stream, it was streamed for free in Georgia. At first, I got scared because Umar was dominating him and I thought that the hype around him was really true but after 2 rounds, Merab dominated him. He could barely breathe, and Merab made him tired.

I believe that we will see a rematch because he is Nurmagomedov. Merab told him to be the man first but he didn't act like a man, he was saying that he didn't agree with decision, he will rewartch the fight, he also said that he broke his hand and that's why he didn't perform well. I think this was excuse from him and he can't say as a man that he lost against Merab. Even if it's true and he broke his hand, it happened inside the octagon and it's not an excuse, he broke it when he tried to punch Merab, so it's his mistake, he shouldn't fight if he can't punch without breaking his hand, he should go home.

That would be sad if he really faked his injury. But tactically, that is correct. Now there is a possible chance for him to face Islam. If he would go with extra weight, the fight will be in a catchweight and not a title fight, meaning he would lost his chance. What if he would win, he would not be a champ, but would meet Islam again without 100% probability Now I think maybe 2 fights and he would have a title fight again.

Congratulations on your win ! 

Dana White's plan was not implemented yet. The Nurmagomedov family suffered a defeat today, they are a team that works very hard, most of their fighters are unbeatable.
Merab lived up to his words in the fight. He said that he was only fighting for the belt because his last name was Nurmagomedov, and he was right in what he said.
No one can handle Merab's endless cardio, he even made fun of him in the last round, he did a few takedowns, he left him, he was playing a game

If it's true that he faked an injury to cover for his weigh-cutting failure, then yeah, Dana will not be happy about it and there surely be some consequences.


Congrats and well done.

Merab delivered big time. His cardio was simply amazing and he's got that entertainment factor many fighters are missing. It could be heard by the support he received from the fans, who were cheering him super loudly whenever he was successful.
Very good fight overall, I think we'll see a rematch, maybe not immediately but at some point in the future.
I'm not sure what's next for Merab though, there aren't many worthy opponents for him in the bantamweight at the moment. Maybe a rematch with O'Malley or Yan? I don't know.

I expected Moicano to last a bit longer, but Islam is just that good. Props to Moicano for stepping up and saving the show. To his credit, he did a nice left and put Islam down, but I think it was more of a lost balance that a proper knock down, as Islam did not seem much affected by that.
For those who missed that, here's the full fight (2.5 mins video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn0jt3LN8G8