Topic: The UFC Info and Prediction Thread - page 20. (Read 97129 times)

Another thing about the ticket prices, at 306 the cheap seats in the Sphere go for 1.5k before discount, the cheap seats at the T Mobile Arena which is also at Las Vegas for UFC 300 went for 700 bucks.  So yeah...  They had to slash the price to get people to buy the cheap seats at the Sphere.  Maybe if the main event is Jones vs Aspinall, co main is O'Malley vs Merab then with Grasso vs Shev and put in a BMF in there with Holloway vs some bad dude...  Pretty sure those cheap seats at 1.5k would fill up fast. 

Here are the weigh in results for this week's event.

Gilbert Burns (171) vs Sean Brady (171)
Jessica Andrade (124.5) vs Natalia Silva (125.5)
Steve Garcia (145.5) vs Kyle Nelson (148.5)*
Cody Durden (135) vs Matt Schnell (135)
Yanal Ashmouz (154.5) vs Trevor Peek (155)
Chris Padilla (154) vs Rong Zhu (155.5)
Isaac Dulgarian (145.5) vs Brendon Marotte (145)
Felipe dos Santos (124.5) vs Andre Lima (125.5)
Gabriel Santos (146) vs Yi Zha (144.5)
Jaqueline Amorim (115.5) vs Vanessa Demopoulos (116)
Dylan Budka (188.5)* vs Andre Petroski (185.5)
Nathan Fletcher (145) vs Zygimantas Ramaska (145.5)

*Missed weight

So Nelson is 2.5 lbs over the limit.  It looks to me like he didn't try to lose the last couple lbs, which also looks like he'll be fresh for the match.  Getting worried with Steve Garcia now. 

Schnell's original opponent backed out.  So Durden is taking over than the fight is gonna be at 135.  I think Schnell has a good chance to win here as an underdog as the higher weight class could help with his chin and durability issues.  Hmmm...

Elon replied to his x thread with "Awesome".
Conor already has his theme which is "Make Ireland Great Again'. I think he is serious. He has been involved in some commotions I think last year related to immigration in the country. The only qualification required to win a presidency these days is popularity. If we talk about brand, Conor has it, he just has to walk the walk.


I think because that was the first MBF title, 2 hours of waiting seemed okay yet only to be disappointed by stoppage. But both are the most popular during that time while Omalley despite how he looks great in every fight, his rainbow attacks haters.

What I think is that they are trying to bring hype in every way possible to fighters who don't have a large fan base or simply don't want it. It seems that they, the fighters, don't understand that they are a brand. And because of that, they need to take care of their image and have a fan base to earn even more, get sponsorship, etc., etc.

But 90% of fighters can't understand this and end up living one day at a time and spending it all.

^  Would be a waste if the seats aren't filled for people to get into the whole experience.  I watched Cirque Du Soleil a couple of times and I could imagine it to be the same in the Sphere, but with fighting.  Dunno tho, but the walk ins could be interesting.

And those ticket prices that were reduced, they're prolly the cheaper seats as last I've heard the cheapest ones for 306 were around 1.5k USD or something.  Those should fill up pretty quick at 800 imho.

Anyway weigh ins in around 4 hours...

UFC Fight Night Burns vs Brady:  Live Weigh Ins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHE8l2nB1Vg

I remember there was a case (or maybe these were just rumours), that when Canelo fought Kovalev at the same night when Nate Diaz was fighting Masvidal, they had to wait for 2 hours for Diaz vs Masvidal fight to over, so that they can start their and grab attention of viewers back. https://www.instagram.com/p/C-BIxtPpgr5 that is that case. Now the story turned 180 degrees and UFC had to do something to get attention back.

Ladies and gentlemen - meet the next president of Ireland:



https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/mma/article-13817591/Conor-McGregor-ireland-president.html

McGregor has hinted before he would run for president one day and 7h ago he confirmed his plans on X:
https://twitter.com/TheNotoriousMMA/status/1831676863334273494


Is he serious or trolling? Who knows...

The Contender Series is precisely to bring in new talent, because it comes at a time when fighters don't want to fight, or they want more money, among other things. Among other reasons, this ends up making the cards weak, and they don't change all the categories and leave many fighters idle. While others fight several times a year. So the Contender Series is precisely to avoid this kind of thing, to bring in people with energy who accept a lot and who knows, maybe they'll find a new star.

The timing of him being funny these days however can be interpreted differently like what MMA guru was saying about Merab just few hours ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIcsFKVjdQ0&t=8s People just have different views to what is happening. But MMAA guru is doubling down to Omalley by KO.

Its fun watching this guy especially because he always has takes to everything what Dana does even in this Sphere while this is for Mexican Independence day and Mexican fighters are prioritized, Dana held this in Sphere Las Vegas when he should be doing it in Mexico.

Must have really flopped that they reduced the price to 800USD. Probably due to the Canelo boxing match in Tmobile Las Vegas as well.

Remember how I told that UFC got into trap after making so cool UFC 298-300 events? Now with each next event fans expect only better cards, but got decent. They are in huge troubles every time they make numeral event, and outside UEA I have seen multiple times how Dana said that he wants UFC to be first sport event to be held in Sphere, how cool that venue is. And we get only few big fights in main event. While previously there were events, where all fights in main card and most of prelims were worth not missing.

Rosas Jr., a guy with charisma and a increasing hype around. Why he is in early prelims? Who was in charge of matchmaking? 2 women fights in prelims. People will watch Rosas, then go away and return on Ortega vs Lopes fight.

^  Yeah...  About 306.  Lol.  Looking at it now, the roster kinda looks weak for an event that's touted to be one of the best ever by Dana White in post fight press conferences.  I'm gonna lower my expectations for a bit on that one...

Outside the main event the matches I like are Ortega vs Lopes if Ortega is healthy and Rosas vs Aoriqileng?    Michel Pereira vs Anthony Hernandez would've been def awesome if it wasn't rescheduled.  But yeah...  What was the event you posted a little while ago?  308?  I think the match ups there are waaay better.

https://www.tapology.com/fightcenter/events/112501-ufc-308

Imagine if Merab and O' Malley would start trash talk and create artificial hate to sell more PPV because of that red jacket Such a kinder garden level conflict. Lol, I have remembered how I got a black eyes after a hit by change shoes (we have to change dirty outside shoes for clean ones to walk in school), because I made fun out of other guys clothes being not original. He had those awful fake Nike sneakers and the 4 stripe logo with addiddas on his trousers. Such a stupid act of me, I was such a fool. Such a shame

Seems that nobody here is interested in Burns vs Braddy event, except for a main event fight. Even media is somehow dead. Those 2 week pauses between events are always bad.

Ok, lets move to UFC 306 (should we?). Have you seen that it is going to held in Sphere and there are already problems with tickets. People are not buying them. Cheapest tickets price was 3k, with a 12k for premium seats. Several weeks till event and there are a lot of seats available. Current cheapest seat price was decreased to 800 bucks. We can discuss that thing right now. Either tickets were way to expensive (anyone knows how much they usually cost for a numeral event?), or bad card, or UFC is loosing popularity.

^  Yup he has a few loose screws in the head.  Lolol.  Remember that time when O'Malley and Sterling faced off and Merab got O'Malley's red coat and wore it..?    I didn't even notice until somebody pointed it out.  But that's not the funny part.  The funny part was when Merab didn't return it.  Lol.  So I think O'Malley had to look for him to get it back a couple of weeks later or something.

But he's a good guy who's prolly loyal to his friends as we saw with how he respected Sterling.  That was nice to see.

Here's a replay of Sean Brady vs a washed Gastelum. 

UFC Free Fight:  Brady vs Gastelum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUpbjNIoBXE

If he is trying to be funny and get some camera star lights (for a better pay check), then it will be hard for him to beat his previous "act of funniness" -->  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8VjcLEHxjY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmcpmKEHB1o first short vid from compilation. Merab really scares fans Went looking for Merab funny video, drawn in youtube watching how crazy this guy is Crazy, but kind and funny guy.

Btw, have you noticed, the smaller and lighter fighters are, the funny, kind and humble they are. We rarely see big guys being Mr. Nice Guys.

Sort of like that. MMA channels are always making more content that will make news. However, Dana said it himself, fighters like Merab showing a cut like that while their fight is 3 weeks away is like trying to get out of the battle. I think this was it https://x.com/MMAJunkie/status/1828417917798519091

Merab knows Omalley is Dana's boy. Omalley would resign from UFC and maybe many of them would resign if Dana resigned as UFC CEO. That's what Omalley said when asked. Dana privileges I think we all know Dana has fave boys.

Usually what they do is post thumbnails so that anyone who sees them can click on them. For example, the Charles Oliveira fight, there is nothing official but there are several people suggesting fights and reporting them as true news. And I have no doubt that the UFC itself sees these posts and makes decisions based on them.

Spot on. No such thing as bad publicity. Journos (or the mma content creators) would use anything that will bring them more clicks/views and the UFC would do the same to hype up the fight. Especially when Dvalishvili is not there yet in terms of being among the most recognisable fighters. There's a chance he will beat O'Malley for the bantamweight title, and the last thing any fighting organisation wants is an unknown guy holding the belt.

And the strategy works. Look at us right here, we all agree that the stitches thing is not newsworthy and yet, we're spending our time to talk about that.

^  He's just trying to be funny and the journos are trying to make something out of it for clicks.  They need to eat too you know...    And the funny thing is the fans eat it up with a fork and a knife.  But it's good for selling the event tho.  There PPV and gate ticket buys they get then the fighter involved in the title fights bring him more money as they are given a percentage of those.

Anyway here's a replay involving one of the fighters in the main event this weekend.

UFC Free Fight:  Burns vs Masvidal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIYlukLZC9o

Why is that story with Merab cutting his stiches with huge scissors so special? When I was a kid, fall down and doctor had to stich skin under my knee, I also after some weeks took of stiches myself. The doc even allowed me to do nothing, because, as he told me, those were special threads, and my body will push them out itself. Fighters got cuts all the time, so they are quite experienced with stiches. The hype is around him using huge scissors to cut stiches? The guy just used scissors that were near If those stiches were bothering me all the time, I would also did not bother much to go to doc to take them out, or go hope to take small scissors for nail to cut stiches

Yeah, I don't buy the story that his not involved in matchmaking or that he doesn't have a significant influence over who gets matched up with who.
They almost definitely have a small team involved, analysing many factors (including profitability) and trying to plan long-term, but he's definitely part of that team and likely has a final say.


You mean this post?:
https://twitter.com/MerabDvalishvil/status/1828628849112084732
I wouldn't say that's taunting.
He did raise some concerns by posting a video of himself partying and drinking two weeks before the fight. But I think it was a one-time thing, there's probably no harm in that, could be  actually a good thing.

Yup, that's what Dana said, he pointed out that the matchmakers decide who the fighters fight. I don't know why he should be defending Jones not fighting Tom, when he could tell everyone to ask the matchmakers why they couldn't let Jones fight Tom. But Dana already told the people, that he promised them a fight years ago but because of the injuries, it was delayed.  It's his decision after all.

Merab acting weirder than usual such as taunting Dana about his cut on x, there must be something happening behind.  Idk, when a fighter defies Dana, they end up like El Cucuy.