Topic: The UFC Info and Prediction Thread - page 162. (Read 93468 times)

I am excited about future fights Dana White recently announced. Bellal Muhammad vs Gilbert Burns on UFC 288 on May 8 and Charles Oliveira vs Beneil Dariush on UFC 289. A bit shocking to see Burns in co main event, as he fought just few weeks ago. And finally we gonna see Dariush in action. Strange to see Dariush so high on top, when he did not fight any ranked opponent since 2020. 

It was also a very much similar occurrence in Sergei Pavlovich vs. everyone's favorite fighter, the Black Beast hehehe. Also, Curtis Blaydes has a glass jaw, everyone should watch how Derrick Lewis knocked out Blaydes with 1 punch. Pavlovich will certainly be a good underdog bet. Another good underdog bet might be Bruno Silva. I speculate that he is presently being underestimated because of his loss during his last fight.

I would not say Holloway would win this fight so easily, but he would be slight favorite.
Both of them lost from Volkanovski last year and Korean Zombie has nice few inch reach advantage, he only lost three times since 2018 from top fighters.
I was not impressed by Holloway win against Arnold Allen and I think he is to much damaged from his previous fights, but maybe he is mentally better now.
I would give this fight 55% for Holloway win and 45% chance for Korean Zombie.

It will be very important for Curtis Blaydes to be able to pull down and make takedowns. I remember what happened in the Pavlovich vs Tai Tuivasa match, and within minutes Pavlovich started attacking and destroyed Tai Tuivasa. I know it's her general style and it has real finishing power. In the first moments, I think he will defend himself much better than Curtis Blaydes Tai Tuivasa. Curtis Blaydes will be more advantageous if he can play later. Maybe even with a counterattack on the defensive, Pavlovich can finish him off. I don't know, even if I feel closer to Curtis Blaydes, I'd say it's too risky.

Henry Cejudo is a coach and training fighters and he has a sharp mind picking out the weakness of the opponent and find a way to win the fight and he is a genius in breaking down the tendencies of the fighters. The way in which he was able to defeat Demetrious Johnson who everyone considers to be a GOAT in the second outing was incredible and they train together whenever Demetrious Johnson is having a fight camp.

Even Jon Jones had a camp with Henry Cejudo when he returned, so his skill level even though he is not active gives him the advantage as he is a Olympic winner and any opponent who faces him will fear the takedowns including Aljamain Sterling.  

Ah...  Didn't expect that the UFC to offer Emmet another tough opponent just a little over a month after his loss to Yair Rodriguez.  And I wonder why Emmet signed up for the fight.  It's prolly his age.  He' like almost 40 amd he needs to a couple of good wins to get a crack at the title again.  Don't think he'll win tho.  Topuria is good at wrestling, grappling and his hands have powerrr.

Anyway, who you guys got in the main event this weekend?  I'm going back and forth but I think Blaydes has the slight edge with the wrestling and it's 5 rounds.  He needs to get past the first couple of rounds vs Pavlovich tho.

Sergey recently posted in his media accounts, that he has had a camp in Dagestan. Imho, having a camp and being training wrestling for years are two different things. I think Pavlovich gonna push full throttle and try to finish Blaydes in first round. His stats shows that he mostly finish opponents in first rounds. Blaydes has a good experience against heavy strikers. Volkov, Rozenstruik, Overeem. He is ready to survive, and long fight is a bad sign for one-dimensional Pavlovich.

I agree Sergei Pavlovich is one-dimensional he will surely keep on brawling until the other fighter is down, for me that is not entertaining anymore but if for some this is entertaining for me it is different, if Sergei Pavlovich has a ground game that is but if all he knows is like Derrick Lewis then he can not certainly win against Curtis Blaydes,


Paddy the Baddy is now Tabby the Bubbly for Ilia Topuria for sure Pimblet is not ready for the big game in the UFC and it is likely seen in his previous game so for me the hype train was really derailed in that one fight against Jared Gordon, and that should be a win for Jared Gordon it was a close match but a win for Jared Gordon for sure,

Now back to Ilia Topuria, against Max Holloway, I really want to see that fight but 1st Ilia Topuria will face Josh Emmett for UFC Fight Night 226, on June 17, 2023, let's see how well can he really do, a great match because Emmett is on top 5, so this will approach Topuria likely facing Holloway,

Pavlovich also does not have a good defense to take down in my opinion. If he is on the ground and his opponent is on him, he is probably not going to do it for much. So the best bet for him is going to be a stand-up fight and find his range from a distance. So that he does not even give his opponent the chance to take him down.

But we all know that those people who are pro wrestlers will actually find a way to get close and take you down. After that, it is just ground and pound. And I am going, to be honest, whenever I see someone who is very vulnerable against takedowns, and his opponent is a guy who is someone that attempts takedowns, I don’t personally think that the boxing style is going to win in that fight.

Oof Topuria, yes please.  That guy is a beast.  And to think Paddy Pimblet was trying to pick a fight vs the guy.  After Topuria's solid win again Bryce Mitchell who is a good prospect himself, I don't think Topuria's name will be coming out of Pimblet's mouth again.  Lol.

...  I just checked the rankings at 145...  With all the fighters above Topuria having an L at their latest bouts, would the UFC really match Topuria with Holloway?  That's a huge jump from 9 to 2.

What I dont like about Pavlovich, that he is a predictable fighter so far. Maybe his opponents does not allow us to look on him from different angle, but we all know that he will go to close distance and try to knockout with punches. He is like a Ngannou with a bit different skin and stats. It even look like he would better fit in like a boxer or bare knuckle fighter. With all that weight, if Curtis drags him down, Pavlovich would drawn in ground game imho.

I like to include Curtis Blaydes's shin leg and tight were made of metal that when Tom Aspinall kicked on it causes him to be injured, just joking, but I could see Curtis Blaydes being more durable than Sergei Pavlovich but I could see some strength on Pavlovich so he surely got some fight for Curtis Blaydes, for sure, I will look ahead on Curtis Blaydes on this he surely got some technique in the ground game, for me Heavyweight is evolving now because of what Jon Jones have did to Cyril Gane, and because of Cyril Gane the heavyweight have become more technical right now, not just plain I can knock you out in one punch,


So that means that Song Yadong VS Ricky Simon will be the main event for the UFC Fight Night 223, after the UFC Fight Night Pavlovich VS Blaydes, yeah that will be just anime filler that you skip for the main story of the anime, but for me, there is one worthwhile the fight to watch and that is the fighting kitten Polyana Viana fight against Emily Ducote, look at her only fans, just joking but for sure I know some will likely want to watch a hot fighter inside the ring because I do,


For me, the top 8 in that Division doesn't really stand a chance against Max Holloway if the fighter is not much technical as Volkanovski then he doesn't stand a chance against Holloway's boxing, I just thought that Allen could be faster and aggressive enough to beat Holloway, but because Arnold Allen Idolized Max Holloway so much there is not a chance for him winning, for me if Ilia Topuria can make it on the top 5 he could surely make a chance against Max Holloway for sure,

This is just gonna be a mysterious box-like event and they will gonna fix this one no matter what because they are already spent some huge cash just for this fight and to cancel the main event just like that is such a waste. It's really not that good event but if they can find someone who is fit and available to fight Arman, they will gonna get back some of their expenses on this fight and it might gonna turn out well. But if they just totally cancel the main event, then this is not worth watching for the same price anymore.

Yeah Holloway's camp prolly thinks that a spectacular win against TKZ, somebody he can finish, would give him another shot at the title.  And it's good from the fans' perspective...  Two vets of the game fighting each other.  But really it doesn't make sense as TKZ is ranked lower than the top 5.  Yair Rodriguez is the interim champ at 145 but Holloway already beat him a tad over a year ago and it would be unfair for Rodriguez if he wasn't given the title shot next.

So yeah it's either that or Holloway just wants to fight somebody he hasn't fought before.  He already fought the top guys at 145 and lost only vs Volk.

Here's a replay of Pavlovich...  Enjoy.

UFC Free Fight:  Pavlovich vs Tuivasa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LVxKEjebaw

I am gonna jump a bit further, over Pavlovich vs Blaydes event, and say that the event that goes after starts to look boring (you can plan free-from-ufc holidays right now ) as its main event Arman Tsarukyan vs Renaito Moicano is cancelled due to Moicano injury. Without that main fight, whole event look like a huge anime filler I really doubt that UFC gonna fight someone good on two week notice to fight Arman.

The Pavlovich vs Blaydes fight was the ultimate heavyweight bout that pitted two monsters who were third and fourth in the heavyweight division.
Of these two fighters, it seems that Pavlovich has more of an advantage and in his last five matches Pavlovich has never been beaten but Blaydes is also quite good because previously he had three consecutive wins with 2 TKOs, only Blaydes is still below Pavlovich's position.
After all, Pavlovich also has a record of 17 wins with 14 TKOs and has only lost 1 time so maybe in tomorrow's fight he can add to his record with 18 wins.

They have same weight, but Pavlovich is 10cm higher. I would not say that he is stronger. We just got used to Pavlovich knocking people out, but to se Blaydes more as a wrestler, when he has also a solid number of knockouts Even though Pavlovich is from sambo, that might not be enough to counter NCAA wrestling level.

Btw, bookies see Pavlovich as an underdog here. I think this is due to Blaydes being more universal fighter, but Pavlovich looks like more like a puncher. Take a look on his record. If he wins by KO, then this is thanks to punches. If Blaydes manages to keep him on distance, he would win by points, or he will catch Sergey and choke him.

We could not say Henry Cejudo might be inactive inside the octagon but he could be active outside the ring with sparring or even a live fight with someone else and as a coach himself he surely teaches many UFC and MMA fighters and Triple C or Henry Cejudo have a list of them and 1st on the list is Zhang Weili, and as we can see Weili retain her belt when she fights Carla Esparza, next was Deiveson Figueiredo that has lost his belt to Brandon Moreno but when he trained with Triple C he retained his title on the trilogy fight against Moreno, Demetrius Johnson a former UFC fighter have taken an unusual fight on the ONE Championship against Rodtang Jitmuangnon and then after that to fight Adriano Moraes to retain his title so he also trained with Triple C, and lastly Jone Jones getting back in the Octagon but in the Heavyweight Division against Cyril Gane and you all know what happens Jon Jones because the new Heavyweight champion,


I agree For me The Korean Zombie is not the same anymore, it is likely he doesn't have a tough chin anymore but there is an improvement in his technique, and likely he now is more on a technical approach with his opponent now, and yeah he is not the same Korean Zombie now 1 punch and he will likely be out that quite easy,

Sportsbet.io - UFC Fight Night 222 - Multi Master Challenge - (Saturday)
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/sportsbetio-ufc-fight-night-222-multi-master-challenge-saturday-5449189

Main event at first glance and by just looking at the match up at Tapology, I pick Blaydes.  But then remembering how he got slept by Lewis a year ago, I'm thinking Pavlovich could be live here.  Not gonna bet it tho.  

In the other match ups in the roster, I think Song Yadong vs Simon is interesting, Green vs Gordon, Wells vs Semelsberger and Rani Yahya vs Montel Jackson...  The rest are not really that good.

UFC Free Fight:  Blaydes vs Daukas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcD3UON9zo0