Topic: The UFC Info and Prediction Thread - page 318. (Read 97193 times)

I'd say worst year ever for MMA At least it feels like that. Besides a couple of meaningful fights, it seems that there's no excitement that existed in previous years and it all feels really watered down. You can see that with prominent MMA news outlets like Bloodyelbow where there has been an increase of stories regarding pro boxing, celebrity boxing, and what one fighter said to another. When Paddy Pimblett is in the news every other day, than you know how bad the situation is XD

With Liverpool losing the Champions League final, I really needed UFC to cheer me up this weekend. Worst weekend ever .

I'd be all for that. I'm sick of Conor just rocking up, and getting a top 5 or title shot. Nick Diaz probably does get pieced up by Conor mind, but I think it's a decent level for a comeback fight especially after that snapped ankle. I'll be honest, I thought Conor looked good in that fight against Poirier up until that ankle break. I thought Poirer took the round, but Conor was in that fight. Him pulling guard was a bad idea, and probably showed he felt the pressure. However, he wasn't awful that a lot of people claim.

Here is the latest UFC lightweight ranking:


1. Did Makachev really ducked RDA? The only reason Makachev isn't getting the title shot is because he hasn't beat a top 5 yet. And he cannot fight for that vacant belt either. He just entered top 4.   

2. Right after stripping Oliveira's belt, the UFC also said that the guy still becomes number 1 ranked in the lightweight should he beat Gaethji. So I guess the next Oliveira fight is for the vacant belt? Connor might get the title fight if this happens but it doesn't make any sense IMO. A huge mismatch. Connor is inactive for a year now and his last two fights he was stopped. If Connor is still Dana's cash cow then he won't be thrown into the lions den without a tune up.

3. Iirc, Dariush was ranked number 5 few weeks ago? This should be the best fighter Makachev is facing if this really happens. Maybe a win over Dariush might move him to number 2.

4. Everybody should want a fight with Poirier since he is ranked 2nd. If there's a guy that has a valid claim for the vacant belt without going thru Oliveira first, it's Poirier. Maybe Poirier-Gaethji for the vacant belt with Oliveira as its mandatory. After this maybe Makachev is next in line. Still, I believe that Makachev needs to fight a top ranked opponent first to earn a title shot.   

I have heard rumors about both fighter going to the UFC, of course the fight between these two will be very impressive because they have the same way of fighting for Knockout, I hope the rumors about the dream match will come true in the future, although I hope for the return of Khabib but Islam Makachev had represented himself to fight against Charles Oliveira.

Well, I'm including the fights of Blanchfield from cage fury and Invicta aswell, but yeah she just got 2 fights from the UFC, but yeah I have included her fight outside the UFC on her experience, that is why for sure this will be a great fight and you know a women's fight is not that kind of like in the men's fight it sometimes unpredictable so yeah we can expect many things to happen from here on out.

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Right now I am very excited to the future of the lightweight division even though Charles Oliveira was Strip off his belt many still consider him as the champion, and right now most fights that may happen in the future in the lightweight division,

1st Charles Oliveira VS Islam Makachev - this is the anticipated by fan on what to happen and I really want this aswell, but for now there are just rumors because Makhachev wants a title match but instead the UFC might be giving to him a Beneil Dariush fight

2nd Charles Oliveira VS Conor McGregor - Now this will be a non title match because Oliveira is not the champion and particularly will need another win before a fight for the belt, which is I really don't like to happen,

3rd Islam Makhachev VS Beneil Dariush - a fight that I don't really like to see because I really want a fight between Oliveira and Makhachev but this is a talk of the town that it may happen so let's wait and see,

4th Nobody wants to fight Dustin Poirier but maybe a rematch with Justin Gaethje, or maybe a Michael Chandler fight, or a Conor McGregor fight. I really think that a Conor McGregor can be a great fight for Poirier, and not a Charles Oliveira, but let's just see what may happen,

I disagree. JJ Aldrich has much more experience in the UFC than slight. She has been fighting there since 2016 with a positive record, Thicc Blanchfield has only 2 fights in the UFC. This would make anyone assume that Aldrich is more than 35 years old, however, she is not. She is 29 years old. Also, Blanchfield is very young, she is only 23 years old. I reckon young fighters in the UFC will need to experience their first UFC loss to develop and improve. This is also a women's MMA fight where the winners and losers are unpredictable hehehe.

Even though we are talking about fixed fights we surely can not determine if it really is a fixed fight, even though we are seeing a fight I really think it is really hard to determine if it is fixed or not if it is not exposed by someone or by the one that attempted that fixed game, well they can surely act the fight, but in making it a legit fight they need to hurt each other in terms of MMA, and by making some assessment on how to determine a fixed fight to a legit fight we can not determine at all we are just guessing,

But in a recent fight, can say if I would pick 1 fight that I think might be fixed I would say the recent fight against Rose Namajunas and Carla Esparza, many are saying that it is a fight that is the worst in the history, yes I know that it is not a fixed fight but because it was the worst fight that I saw from that fighter it must be a fixed fight, knowing how great Rose Namajunas and she can Knock out Esparza, and Esparza as well can take the fight to the ground, we didn't see anything like it,

OK it is not a Fixed fight but in my own perspective maybe it is a fixed fight just because of how bad the fight is and there is not much contact between both fighters inside the octagon, and people are surely booing Namajunas for doing shit like that and I surely feel frustrated just watching the fight,

I think Dana is busy trying to make comeback fight for Connor McGregor and Nick Diaz might be perfect opponent for him, if both of them agree and make some deal.
Both of them are not deserving to come anywhere near championship contender, but they could make profit in pay-per-view and bring crowd in arenas.

Ah, that's just reminded me of that one night of cage grabs. Three different fights, multiple cage grabs, and only the one fighter was warned. I can't remember who it was now, but it left me infuriated at the time, his opponent basically held onto the cage, and remained on top from a sweep because of it. Nothing said, not even a warning.

Most eye pokes are accidental to be fair, so maybe worth not being so harsh on them despite them being quite dangerous. However, cage grabs should be punished you can't accidentally do it. Obviously, you can reach out instinctively, but still I'd class that as somewhat intentional as it usually helps the fighter from getting taken down. Even, if they don't take points, and make them reset with the fighter on top, that's not the greatest solution though.
 
Yeah, the backflip while they're on the ground is the one that annoys me the most. It doesn't look great, isn't effective, and well a bit pointless. The flips he does while closing space I'll be honest I have enjoyed at times, though he's opening himself up to get knocked out. Usually, when fighters try the wild stuff, they aren't closing space whereas Michel is the first fighter I've ever seen do it effectively.



Yeah, I know every fighter tries it on directly after the fight, but even in the post conference, and interviews she was acting like he did enough. To be honest like I said I personally don't think either did enough, and would've probably scored it 0-0 or 10-10 however they do it.

Yeah, Pereira clearly won it IMO, but I gotta say his fights just aren't the same without some wild shit thrown in. I think he can do without the backflip thing he does. As entertaining as it is it's mostly useless and too reckless anyway but some of the other street-fighter moves he does wouldn't have gone amiss. The ones where he kinda runs onto the cage walls like Neo from the Matrix style and propels himself off usually seem to work and look cool too. Maybe it's a good thing he's moving away from the antics though in terms of wanting to be taken seriously as a fighter but it was those crazy moves that got many people interested in the first place and his fights seem to be missing something without that extra element.


Fighters often do that when it goes the distance regardless of how the fight went to try signal that they thought they won it to the judges. If you walk off exhausted and defeated it could sway some judges so they gotta show the bravado of someone who is confident that they've won, but yeah, Rose lost that fight and that's the price you pay for trying to coast it and she deserved it. She probably thought the judges would be more likely to give the belt back to the reigning champ (as is usually the case when it's close and goes the distance). Her corner/boyfriend is also to blame telling her she was winning the fight during it and that she was doing the right thing and was seemingly happy for her to just coast it and hope to win it on points. Hopefully she's actually give it her all and show some hunger trying to win it back which I think she can easily do.


Yeah, cage grabs are getting more common now and all the ref does it tell them to stop it and I've seen them happen multiple times in one fight with no consequences. Happened last week multiple times in one fight. It should be a point deduction for sure. As for the eye pokes it depends for me. I've seen some fighters complain of eye pokes/low blows and it didn't go anywhere near their eye/balls. Some fighters just like a break when they can get it, but for sure at other times eye pokes can be pretty nasty but most of the time they're purely accidental. Fighters need to keep their fingers back when they're throwing hands as there's no reason for them to be there really so just retract them, otherwise if it is a blatant and verifiable eye poke then yeah, deduct a point.


Nick is past it now. His last fight was pretty bad and Usman would kill him. Maybe stick him on the undercard with some bum when Nate is fighting as having them both on the card might make it a big draw.


Nate should probably do the trilogy with Connor. I think that might be a good return fight for Connor. He can't and shouldn't be going for a title shot. Not only does he not deserve it but he'd get embarrassed by someone like Oliveira. Tony Ferguson might be a good one for Connor as well as he's on the tail end of his career and on the back of a bad knock out. Connor needs a win desperately as his stock is diminishing and people need a reason to give a shit about him again and look past all the bollocks he's been doing the past 5 years. I'd like to see him against Poirier again as they obviously have unfinished business and whilst I think he would be the underdog he's capable of winning that.

If we speak about fixed fight in general, I never heard about fixed fight in UFC. But I have seen such fights in Pride and in a small local US organization Extreme wars.

I remember Mark Coleman, the ground and pound beast was caught in a heel hook by Takada in Pride. Coleman could have smashed Takada numerous times, and as a wrestler, showed weak defence on the ground and got caught as a child in heel hook. Later Mark admitted this was stages, because he has financial troubles.

And I think you know Dan Severn, big beast. Against an average guy (Severn had numerous wins, title defence and etc that time). First round he was pushing, throwing barely punching his opponent. Like in movies, when villain prefer to throw main character and talk, instead killing him in a second, like he did to rest 100 people.

While googling fixed fights in UFC, I have found rather weird fight - Shamrock vs. Severn 2nd fight. Shamrock is famous for leg locks and injuring people, Severn for smashing people. During the fight they showed little action, little violence because on of senators was among the crowd and UFC wanted his approval or support to get into TV. Can this be counted as fixed?

Erin Blanchfield is really Thicc and yeah she is a thing to behold and pretty much a favorite one to win for this event, I think JJ Aldrich just has a slight experience advantage over Erin Blanchfield it will always go down to the fighters style and technique on who's going to win, and in my opinion and this is my hunch, but I really didn't the in-depth for these fighters yet, but Erin Blanchfield, has some advantage for now,


It's really hard to say, but for me, I think it is really hard to make a fixed fight in the UFC, it will surely depend on the fighters if they only want cash what if they really want the belt and the glory, but I think it will really depend if both fighters will have an agreement that they will fix their fights, so the association wouldn't know it, or the association to fighters as well, but for me, it is really hard to fix a fight in the UFC,

I'd be shocked if Dana gave Nick that fight. Diaz brothers are losing their following quite fast, and I think we all know the result of that fight before it even happens. Wouldn't do big numbers for the UFC, wouldn't rise the stock of either fighter. So, I don't see it happening. I'm not sure who's the most logical fight for Diaz if he wants to fight. Probably someone at the tail end of their career, just to keep it somewhat interesting.

Nick Diaz wants to return fighting in UFC this year and he is aiming big calling out Kamaru Usman for title shot, but I doubt Dana White will give him this directly.
I am not sure how UFC ranked him but I can't find him listed on any position in Welterweight category top 15 fighters.
He is 38 years old and he lost three of his last fights, so I am not exactly sure what he expects, but maybe he smoke more weed than usual

Ah, yeah I forgot about the judges . I was thinking that the fighters themselves are unlikely. However, there's a obvious bias in certain fights. While, I don't consider the bias to be fixing itself, there's definitely bias. Again, I don't want to throw too much shade Boxing's way, but the judging there can be absolutely awful, just look at the first fight between Fury, and Wilder.

Back to the UFC though. It does seem like every weekend there's a questionable decision on the card. Some are absolutely mind boggling, but I do have to admit they don't get the significant strike statistics like we do, and they don't get the best view either. Us fans get the best view. I do believe the judges don't get the TV view we do, and just watching from the sides right? All from different angles?

Yes, I love English boxing for the same reason. The hours always coincide with the hours I am available. Actually, if the UFC organization increases their events in Paris and Abu Dabi, it will be my business so I can watch the matches live. I usually have to watch the replay and I know the results, it's killing me.

While I don't think there are any fixed or rigged matches in the UFC but there's this one judge named Chris Lee who seems to be under some wise guy's payroll.  I was starting to notice him during the covid era.  The guy would always give the score to the loser, the loser at least to my eyes, if given a chance to do it.  That's why...  If you're a fighter and Chris Lee is around, better be sure to finish the other guy. 

Nah, I don't think there's any fixed fights. I tend to believe that most high level sports doesn't have fixed games. The only thing I would say is a fighter could take a dive secretly without the commission or UFC knowing, but again seems pretty unlikely.

I do think I've seen some questionable dives in Boxing, but never in the UFC.

Don't get me wrong, if we had more events in the UK or Europe I'd be all for it. They just aren't as often as in the US, which is fair enough being a US company. I'm not complaining too much. It's why I like British boxing events, not because they tend to have more British boxers, but it's just more comfortable to watch them.

Lets count that loss as a stress from war between Ukraine-Russia. This was sort of a beginning of it, start of sanctions and athlete bans everywhere. Lets say, first performance under heavy conditions...

English mafia - you mean these guys ? I would not be that much afraid and just wait before they injure each other.



Btw, this is a good topic for discussion. Do you guys think there are fixed fights in UFC? Hard to believe there are such. Guys are kicking shit out of each other quite naturally

Erin Blanchfield is someone Jake Paul might describe thicc hehehe.



She is presently the favorite against JJ Aldrich, however, she might be very overestimated for this because of her unanimous decision victory vs. Miranda Maverick. JJ Aldrich also has more experience than Blanchfield in the UFC.


It might be because Volkov was fighting in Aspinall's home country and it might also be the English mafia told Volkov that they do not want their countryman to lose hehehe.