Topic: The UFC Info and Prediction Thread - page 15. (Read 102241 times)

There are also info here and there news appear, that Ilia Topuria plans to move to next division. On thing that is always cool when someone challenges himself and goes up to fight bigger guys. The other thing is that you have to be naturally huge to be able to gain enough and show same level of performance. I doubt that Topuria plans to come to lightweight to fight anyone and not aiming to fight Makhachev (or Tsarukyan ). Against them, he will look like a dwarf.

^  As much as I would like to see DDP vs Chim, it's only fair that the UFC give Strickland his rematch.  Their first fight was so close that it deserves a rematch which didn't happen the last time as the UFC wanted DDP vs Adesanya first then the rematch.

But yeah...  Wouldn't mind to watch those two throw leather again.  

Here are some replays to watch...

Joaquin Buckley vs Stephen Thompson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlp3SdZWc80

Colby Covington vs Jorge Masvidal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkSs625ppSI

Some weird stuff happens in UFC ranking that I dont understand. Asakura had a debut which he has lost, and was given a #14 rank in flyweight ? Wtf is that ? Since when loosing means advancing in ranking?

Jamahal Hill and Alex Pereira nearly had an unofficial rematch in gym. Hill is acting strange lately. In some interviews he says that he wasnt knocked out, was conscious and was ready to continue. Lol.

UFC 312: DDP vs Strickland 2. I though DDP was preparing for Chimaev.

Re Shavkat Vs Garry, it was a win-win in a way. Shavkat has won, kept his undefeated status and secured his title shot. Garry has lost, but it's a kind of loss that he doesn't have to be ashamed about (a bit like Michael Chandler, who gains in popularity despite losing most of his UFC fights). He made Shavkat look human and fought a pretty close fight to what anyone expected, so it should positively impact his career. I dislike him a little bit less after that fight.

Now, given the hard time Shavkat had trying to take Ian down, the question arises whether or not he has what it takes to take the belt of Belal. I'm sure he won't be as strong of a favourite as he was initially.

Shavkat had a hard time against Garry. I expected him to have a clearer win but he struggled a lot. There was a moment when he gave his neck to Garry and he could have lost the match. Garry lost but he deserved respect for his performance in this match. I think Khamzat will finish middleweight first and then welterweight... :)

Since Garry and Buckley are still in thier prime, whichever Covington fights, he will still be beaten badly. Covington is Dana's pet and if Covington is the one picking Buckley, Colby must have some advantage despite inactivity.

Covington doesn't look so washed especially if you think about his cardio. It's his big advantage if he just wants to make his chances. He lasted twice against Usman.

Originally Covington was planned to fight Ian Machado Garry as far as I know, but Garry saved UFC 310 and Buckley saved last years main event On one hand it is Covington that comes after a huge pause, and Buckley who comes on 1.5 month notice. Really dont know who is going to win. Either Colby thanks to wrestling and stamina, or Buckley will shut him down, which seems to be more real. I think that Colby will go for the cheque, Buckley for the skull. Anyway, I wish to see more of Buckley in future than Colby, who should retire in year or two.

This is gonna be the last event of the year...  Some unknown guys peppered in there but there are also some good match ups in there.  So, what do you guys think of the main event?  I'm back and forth here as Covington might already be washed but if he shows up in this fight fully motivated, he'd prolly drown Buckley with his volume and relentless TD attempts.

Here's the roster...

Date:  Saturday, Dec 14
Main Card (ESPN/ESPN+):  11:00pm EST
Preliminary Card (ESPN/ESPN+):  7:00pm EST
Venue:  Amalie Arena, Tampa, Florida



Main Card (ESPN/ESPN+)
Welterweight:  Colby Covington vs Joaquin Buckley            
Featherweight:  Cub Swanson vs Billy Quarantillo            
Flyweight:  Manel Kape vs Bruno Gustavo da Silva            
Light Heavyweight:  Vitor Petrino vs Dustin Jacoby            
Bantamweight:  Adrian Yanez vs Daniel Marcos            
Light Heavyweight:  Navajo Stirling vs Tuco Tokkos   

Preliminary Card (ESPN/ESPN+)
Lightweight:  Michael Johnson vs Ottman Azaitar            
Lightweight:  Joel Alvarez vs Drakkar Klose            
Featherweight:  Sean Woodson vs Fernando Padilla            
Featherweight:  Miles Johns vs Felipe Lima            
Women's Flyweight:  Miranda Maverick vs Jamey Lyn Horth            
Bantamweight:  Davey Grant   vs.   Ramon Taveras            
Women's Strawweight:  Josefine Lindgren Knutsson vs Piera Rodriguez   

It should be 100% Belal. They had to fight on this event, but Belal withdrew due to injury. They even had a funny stare dawn on UFC 310. So Belal vs Shavkat is 100% next. I suppose they would meet in spring. And Shavkat would push on making it as quick as possible. He already told that he wasnt happy that he had that one year pause. The fight against Garry was a good warm-up and dragged Shavkat from sky to land, as many and he himself probably, thought that he is untouchable. Garry spoiled his perfect-perfect record, as he had 18 fights, 18 wins and all of them were early finishes. Now he as 1 win by UD, and first time in his pro career fight went full distance and 5 rounds.

Kamaru Usman would probably be a good opponent for Shavkat, especially since he wants to fight Usman since he feels Usman is better than all four fighters, and if he beats him it could raise his profile. but I myself prefer Belal to be his opponent, even though he is still recovering from his last fight, but I believe that Belal can be a tough opponent for Shavkat.

Shavkat Rakhmonov is unstoppable at the moment!
19 wins and perfect MMA record means that he could compete for Welterweight championship title soon.
I am not sure who is next for him, Belal Muhammad directly or Edwards and Usman first.
After the fight Belal said that he would walk through Rakhmonov

They fought early this year 2024. Although Cejudo lost he is not even hurt badly, the only reason most of them want to fight Cejudo is because it always makes a huge payout. Merab fighting Umar is different. Although it has been said before that Merab wants to fight Umar, that was before he didn't have a belt. Now he has something to hold on to. Umar vs Merab better be a big payout for him which I guess hyping makes sense.

Now that we see Shavkat didn't make a big win vs Machado I think Belal does have a good chance as well. If Belal was in the position of Machado behind Shavkatm he would make sure he would choke Shavkat. I now remember the name.  

The main card was pretty bad, as was the Cirly Gane and Alexander Volkov match. Cirly Gane tried to leave the cage immediately after the match, they turned her away as you may have noticed.
He spoke to Joe Rogan briefly and said that he was not happy with the result of the match and that he broke his finger in the first round.
The best match of the match was the Shavkat Rakhmonov and Ian Garry match, which Shavkat won by referee decision.
Although Ian Garry found good shots from long range, Shavkat won the match easily, which is what the referees decided anyway.
Shavkat took a lot of low kicks at one point and never threw a low kick during the match. I found it strange that low kicks were not in the game plan.

I have expected as usually: from prospects that are signed to UFC to get a top class performance, instead of dull first round and overall total declass. When someone gets a debut fight as a title shot, I expect that he is really ready to show class. What we got? Another skull on a shelve for Pantoja, and a question who should he fight next. Royval - beaten. Moreno - beaten. Albazy ? Moreno bit him recently. France? Albazy has beaten him, but he bit Erceg only. Erceg also lost to Pantoja. It looks that Pantoja has beaten already anyone who should had a change to fight him

How did Ciryl Gane beat Volkov? Did I watch the same event as the Judges? What are they smoking? Even Dana White thought that Volkov won that easily and he got robbed. Dana also said that he'll talk to Volkov and make things right. I guess that means there will be a rematch with Gane again? That should most likely be the case or give Volkov a title shot and whoever wins, faces Gane next. Which is less likely to happen. 

I mean...  What did everybody really expect?  Some guy itt said Asakura would win via KO before we see the championship rounds.  LOL.

Anyway here are the results.  It was a decent event for me.  But I love MMA so much I could even find a so so ONE FC event and I'd still love it. 

Alexandre Pantoja def Kai Asakura
Shavkat Rakhmonov def Ian Machado Garry   
Ciryl Gane def Alexander Volkov
Bryce Mitchell def Kron Gracie
Choi Doo Ho def Nate Landwehr
Dominick Reyes def Anthony Smith
Vicente Luque def Themba Gorimbo
Movsar Evloev def Aljamain Sterling
Bryan Battle def Randy Brown
Eryk Anders def Chris Weidman
Joshua Van def Cody Durden
Michael Chiesa def Max Griffin
Chase Hooper def Clay Guida
Kennedy Nzechukwu def Łukasz Brzeski

Merab beat shadow of Cejudo Cejudo has been retired from sports in 2020. He was great in wrestling in 2006-2008. And Merab beat him only in 2024. When Jake Paul fights retired or old fighters people make laugh at him. When Merab beats the guy who hasnt been in real action for 4 years, comes after a shoulder injury and has retired, it is considered as a great achievement.

I still think about whether Merab is really afraid of him or he simply tries to hype the fight his way? I don't want to disrespect the guy but he is a not a smart guy and he is also a little strange. Maybe he tries to hype the fight? I don't know what to say I can't believe that he is afraid of Umar so much because he has fought too many strong people and Umar isn't 10 times stronger than them.

This will be a very interesting fight. Merab beat Cejudo like he was nothing while this is the guy who became the youngest American to win an Olympic gold in wrestling. We can all agree that Petr Yan's boxing is one of the most clean and Merab beat him like he was nobody, Merab beat him so much that his eyes got so swollen that he couldn't see anything. I don't know what to say but I'd love to see Merab win this fight.

I didn't watch it because it wasn't interesting for me, only a few highlights from TikTok.

Of course That moment kinda sucks when you are a champion, expect everybody to know you and then the guard doesn't let you to come By the way, moments like this remind me the moment when a Taxi driver asks Messi to take photo of him with Mascherano.

Any thoughts on UFC 310 ? I'll start.

1) Main card was kinda boring. Asakura can go back to Rizin. Have huge questions who should Pantoja face next.

2) Even though Garry has lost, he has surprised me. Nothing changed much in his try-to-avoid-most-damage style, but he was good against Shavkats wrestling, was good in grappling, even managed to throw a rear naked And all that Garry showed with 1 month preparation, because Belal withdrew.

3) Some say that Volkov got robbed, but I would give it a draw. He took third round, first two are under questions. Split decision looks fair. But, Volkov did looked different. In their first fight, Gane was domination and it was a pure striking fight. This time we saw both of them working as first number, ground game.

P.S. Have you heard that UFC security did not let Belal enter the octagon? Because he is so "remember the name" champ, that nobody knows who he is

it wouldn't be a bad idea to build a venue there specifically for UFC, with the view of the mountain caucuses, it could also potentially bring in tourists and bring money to the government. so it's not a bad idea, it's just that it needs careful consideration, such as audience potential, construction costs, and long-term plans for the venue, or else it will be a failed project and further increase their debt. but I think if the Georgian government is smart and good at negotiating with Dana, this will be a good project, especially since the US, EU countries, and some others can enter Georgia without a visa and stay up to 360 days for tourist purposes, this plan could help their economy.