Topic: The UFC Info and Prediction Thread - page 21. (Read 93751 times)

Jiri is huge, he could try TD but has to be ready to receive the blow he'd get. It's not easy to do when Alex has also trained for it, it's his weakness he has to make himself not vulnerable to TDs.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C8sxuXKvaia/


The two have become enemies even in the spirit world actually lol I wonder who they will consult after the fight. This is a battle of whose spirit has more magic tricks. Alex isn't denying it too so both are crazy which I think we could expect the worse in the cage.

Jiri only got that 1st round because of scoring a takedown when he managed to stay on the top, but didn't do much damage and Pereira escaped eventually. Before that, he was getting punished with powerful leg kicks.
That was a 5 round fight, so I wouldn't be putting too much weight on the 1st round. Usually fighters would just use it to "feel" their opponents etc.
And I think Pereira lacked a bit of confidence back then. That was his 2nd fight in the Light Heavyweight, he won his debut against Blachowicz, but it was unconvincing split decision and, before that, he got KO'ed by Adesanya.

So if we are to make predictions based on the first fight, Prochazka's best bet is to try to take it to the ground, but that's just not his style. And outstriking Alex will be hell of a task, but not impossible.

However Jiri took the first round in their first fight. And it was Jiri first fight after year long pause and injury. He might havent "got in the flow" in that fight. Now he has tested himself against Rakic, he might be able to get the fight into full distance. Pereira has a left bomb, but Jiri was knocked out only one during almost last 10 years, and fought against strikers often. I think Jiri has a strong chin and have chances to survive bombs. Anyway, we will see it in few days. But I really doubt that he does not know about Pereiras left hand and would go whole fight with hand low.

The only ones I'm betting on are:

Alex Pereira
Diego Lopes
Ian Machado

The rest don't interest me and I don't know much about the fighters. In fact, I really believe in Diego Lopes and everything he's bringing. Since he joined the team, he's only lost once, and that loss was practically a victory because he gave it his all and has been doing so since the very beginning. I hope he can prove himself.

Odds for the main card:

Alex Pereira x1.73 vs. Jiří Procházka x2.12      
Brian Ortega x2.33 vs. Diego Lopes x1.66
Anthony Smith x2.20 vs. Roman Dolidze x1.67
Mayra Bueno Silva x1.86 vs. Macy Chiasson x1.94
Ian Machado Garry x1.73 vs. Michael Page x2.12

The main event looks promising but I don't expect Jiri to win the belt back. His striking style of keeping his hands down all the time is all Pereira could ask for. But this is MMA, so anything is possible.
I find Garry insufferable so wouldn't mind seeing him getting KO'd. Page is probably technically better, but we already know oddsmakers tend to favour younger fighters.

^
Among the funniest to compile is Jahamal Hill knocking Walker. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/w-HoWX7C568

Arlovski is already ancient but they still manage to slip him there.  Without Conor, I think they managed to make the 303 acceptable.
Alex and Jiri saved the event and then there's MVP and Diego Lopes for the hype. They have been looking forward to this man smashing ranked fighters comparing him to Olivera, the odds say so too. Ian Garry is the bookmaker's favorite by the way against MVP. I think this is potentially an upset fight in which MVP could KO Garry.

The worst part of all is that he has a huge wingspan, bigger than most, and he simply doesn't use it to his advantage. Even when fighting seriously, he can't find his feet or put up a good fight.

Yeah..  Before seeing him vs Aspinall, I thought he could be next to go fight vs Jon Jones...  But after Aspinall and an Aspinall at short notice, I think yeah you're right.  He kinda lacks the skill to beat some of the top guys at heavyweight.  I mean not taking away anything against him.  I still think Pav is a tough dude like all Russian fighters are in the UFC, just needs a little bit more experience.

Here's another Embedded vid.

UFC 303:  Embedded Episode 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JogJB55sH0

And yeah funny how Walker's body goes straight when he gets starched.

4 days till UFC and we have a silence here I guess you guys are chilling on the beach with cocktails, while I am working

On UFC 303, 4 fights from main card looks worth not missing. First of all we have a title fight. Pereira vs Prochazka rematch is the fight you should not miss. Last time they met, some said it was an early stoppage. It wasnt a dominance by champ. Jiri has all chance to return his belt. Co-main event - Lopes, a new hyped guy by UFC. Smith - huge mma veteran. Ian Garry with 14-0 against a taunting kickboxer from kickboxer family

In addition we have crystal chin Arlovski in early prelims (never seen him fighting so early). A guy with most time spend in octagon, most fights in heavyweights, most wins by decision. This is going to be 60th fight in Arlovski career.

Imho it looks that Volkov deserves to be #3 more than Pavlovich. The more I look on Pavlovich performance, the more he reminds me of a Lesnar who could only push forward and have strength. What we saw from him last fight? Majority of attacks were straight. 2 punch combo of jab and overhand. Even his team between 2nd and 3rd rounds pause told him that he must do at least 3 strike combos. If Pavlovich faces a technician fighter next, lets say Gane, he would be beaten easily. Volkov on the other hand has advanced from base karateka, to showing grappling. Also social media noted, that Volkov fough all 3 rounds as a southpaw, when he was orthodox previous 47 rounds

About Walker - soon we could make a compilation of Walker being knocked down and fall in strange and weird stance 

^  I had an inkling that Volkov could win the match.  Wasn't confident enough to bet on it tho.


I was leaning on Walker to win too.  He's faster, bigger, stronger, has the powerrr to starch most guys at 205.  But that chin...  Lol.  From a betting perspective you just can't trust it.

For the coming event, here are some vids to watch...  Enjoy.

UFC 303:  Countdown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BgEJU6mqJU

UFC 303:  Embedded Episode 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKU8n9_k8WA

Edit:  Oh and here's an appetizer the day before 303...  Power Slap with Paige Van Zant at the co main event.    It's gonna be hilarious.

Power Slap 8 Live
https://rumble.com/v52hxqd-power-slap-8-da-crazy-hawaiian-vs-van-heerden-june-28-2024-at-9pm-et-6pm-pt.html

As a Russian speaker, I will try to shed light on the situation between Volkov and Pavlovich. Your social media probably dont air that so much, but Russian buzz on it a lot lately.

1. They once agreed to never fight against each other, to never fight against other Russian. Or try maximum to avoid that. They also trained in each other camp and exchanged experience.
2. Pavlovich did not want to fight Volkov, because he was lower on top and victory wont give him anything.
3. Now interesting part: turns out there is a little number of tries, when you can skip your opponent, turns out that Volkov has run out of such tries and he was forced to accept any next opponent.
4. The manager told Volkov, that Pavlovich picked him, so he was forced to sign contract and fight.
5. Pavlovich was given several opponents (Volkov was among them), but he hasnt decided who to fight next.
6. Both fighter managers did not understand each other. One told that Pavlovich selected Volkov, even though he was on the list of opponents also. Other told that he cant cancel any opponent.

That is why during weight-ins, they had a talk why you pick me? Why you accepted to fight? And etc.

About that push after the fight. Pavlovich should not be excused for that, but he was disappointed he has lost, his nose was broken, he was tired, he did not wanted that fight, he has lost in rating, second loss in a row. Long story short, he wanted to spend time on his own, alone, but his opponent comes and bothers... Volkov said it right - Pavlovich needs to get more experience of loosing.

Long story short, it was managers misunderstanding, or they clashed Russians on purpose. Btw, Pavlovichs manager is Ali Abdelaziz, who has a controversial reputation.

In this last card I lost big bets on Walker, he is not playing with a good strategy and this is leaving him vulnerable in all the confrontations all the time. I hope he can change this soon.

I haven't seen/heard him calling him out, but that's what one reporter said during the post-fight interview with Shara and asked him about that.
That wouldn't be a bad match-up from Bo's perspective. He's still making his way to the top, and Shara is one of the biggest names among the unranked fighters. Plus, calling someone out and actually signing a contract are two different things 

On the topic of Bo Nickal, he allegedly received a call to replace Khamzat but didn't respond on time: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_u2S-Sh2tfw
If that's true, that would mean the UFC thinks he's ready for a real test against the top guys.

^ Everyone should be on short notice in UFC so that they can just pick anytime. Or else they could just give reasons. Hill wants to rematch Alex when he found out he wasn't the one but Jiri, he suddenly got injured.


In short Sharaputin cheated. Trocoli as exhausted as he is tried this best to takedown Shara but grabbing on to the fence prevented it. He must have been discouraged the fact that the ref didn't bother to even give a warning this one eye. I think Trocoli realized it quickly he really meant to lose this fight. Can't say its rigged but because they wanna showcase Shara, he is more favored most probably.

Before they finalized Jiri vs Alex 2. Ankalev called out Alex for Abudabi fight on Oct but Alex said he can fight on short notice, meanwhile he is fighting anyone, I guess they consider Jiri for the 2nd time. And then in the interview, Alex said he will be inactive til the end of the year lol Alex ducking?

Jiri vs Alex 2 I think will still have the same result and Diego Lopes will probably KO Ortega.

About next event - all I can say is that Jiri and Pereira, Smith and Dolidze saved whole event. Two big fights were cancelled, making UFC 303 (an even where tickets were sold out long time ago) look just good, good enough. Conor vs Chandler cancelled. Hill vs Rountree were cancelled, due to Rountree got suspended for 2 months (roinds). Rountree got replaced by Ulberg. Then Hill got injured (lol) and got replaced by Smith. Ulberg withdrew (2x lol) and got replaced by Dolidze. Smith vs Dolidze, to guys on short notice. Such a mess in card. Reminder, tickets cost started from 800+ bucks.

Did anybody watch the match between Shara Magomedov and Antonio Trocoli?  Trocoli won R1 and was grappling with Magomedov who defended well but wasn't able to get away either.  R2 was even but by R3 Trocoli got way too tired and got KO'd by Magomedov.  And if you guys didn't know, Trocoli took the fight on very short notice and performed really well for the first couple of rounds.

Oh...  And at R2 Magomedov fence grabbed which the ref didn't call out.  It would've taken him down for sure.  Now if it's vs Bo Nickal with a full camp I'm pretty sure he takes Magomedov down amd gets it doen via GnP.

Anyway...  On to the next event.

Date:  Saturday, June 29
Main Card (PPV):  10:00pm EST
Preliminary Card (ESPN/ESPN+):  8:00pm EST
Early Prelims (ESPN+/Fight Pass):  6:15pm EST
Venue:  T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada
Live Streams:



Main Card (PPV)
Light Heavyweight:  Alex Pereira vs Jiri Prochazka   
Featherweight:  Brian Ortega vs Diego Lopes   
Light Heavyweight:  Anthony Smith vs Roman Dolidze
Women's Bantamweight:  Mayra Bueno Silva vs Macy Chiasson   
Welterweight:  Ian Machado Garry vs Michael Page

Preliminary Card (ESPN/ESPN+)
Middleweight:  Joe Pyfer vs Marc Andre Barriault
Featherweight:  Cub Swanson vs Andre Fili
Featherweight:  Charles Jourdain vs Jean Silva
Bantamweight:  Payton Talbott vs Yanis Ghemmouri

Early Prelims (ESPN+/UFC Fight Pass)
Women's Strawweight:  Michelle Waterson Gomez vs Gillian Robertson   
Heavyweight:  Andrei Arlovski vs Martin Buday   
Flyweight:  Rei Tsuruya vs Carlos Hernandez   
Bantamweight:  Ricky Simon vs Vinicius Oliveira

Bo Nickal called out Shara Magomedov? Rather strange pick by Bo. Why would he do that? Because he wants to show that he is better in wrestling than Dagestani? Well he has picked a wrong guy to prove that. Even though Shara might be good at wrestling, his is primary a muay thai fighter. That will be an easy win for Bo, and that would not give him any ranking points.

I hear that Bo Nickal called him out and Shara said (in his post-fight press conference) that he would accept that fight, saying his from Dagestan so not afraid of wrestlers. I don't think the UFC would go for it, at least not right now.

I think he did quite good, considering Trocoli is probably the tallest guy in the middleweight at 6'5'' (that's more than Adesanya/Pereira/Jon Jones etc). Nobody will remember him grabbing the fence in a week or two, but they will remember him winning by KO.

Yup, it was obvious Aliskerov was just not focused enough. And you can't get sloppy even for one second at this level. It's a bit of a shame the fight ended so fast and we didn't get to see what the two of them are capable of.

^ Sergei where I put more bets because I'm expecting the HW KO, never happened.  People are not actually impressed with Shara but most probably Dana will keep him, the hype lives.


The short notice didn't help Aliskerov. No head movement so Whittaker smacked him, it made it easy for Whittaker since the Aliskerov was not a moving target and he seemed to assume the guys he previously fought were the kind of Whittaker. He might fight DDP win or lose but Adesanya and him 3 is not happening.

Chimaev has to fight be he has lots of issues. It could be politics, a lot of saying this since it started when he supported Palestine. Chim thinking out loud in an after-fight interview will be igniting the crowd.  Probably not anymore but he was given hope to fight in Saudi but then again.