Topic: The UFC Info and Prediction Thread - page 33. (Read 96871 times)

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.

Yup, I think it was the biggest disappointment of the night, with Walker being 2nd. He must've known he was losing the fight but either didn't bother or was just too gassed out to make a final push and go all out in the final round.
It was his first UFC fight that lasted longer than one round though, so maybe that was just a lack of experience in fighting full distance.

Shara Magomedov delivered big time in my opinion, despite the controversy of him grabbing the fence and avoiding takedown. He was fighting a much bigger guy with a decent record and pulled up a very entertaining performance finished by a KO. I think he might get a chance to fight someone from the top 15 next. But he could struggle if he's matched up against any wrestler.

Another big win by Robert Whittaker. Aliskerov was a late replacement but I did not expect an early stoppage. I thought the fight would've been close and an upset was very possible. So it seems like Whittaker still has enough time to fight for the third time this year.

I don't know if Chimaev was just having a string of bad lucks but it's really disappointing. Chimaev turned from being a very active fighter when he entered the UFC to just fighting once a year. I hope he fights Robert later this year and maybe the winner faces the loser of DDP and Adesanya.

Boo to Pavlovich. This fight he not only did not show anything, but acted disrespectful by pushing Volkov and saying fcuk yourself. Pavlovich lost fairly. He only showed few punch combo, mostly relied on one heavy punch. Pavlovich used to look like a guy who would beat top guys, but ran out of stamina quick, walked all the time and got countered by high kick. If there were 5 rounds, in 4th Volkov would finish him.

With a hint from reddit, found something that wasnt around recently, but we have to have it previously. Try to guess what we have been missing on weigh-ins and in between rounds recently. Its ring girls or girls that were on stage during weigh-ins. Just realized that I havent seen them for a while. In fact, I cant remember when I saw them last night. When have you spotted that there are no girls? Why do you think we dont have them anymore? Or I am just blind and focus on other? And I just cant remember them?

His fight is over, He won by KO but a controversy in the part where he grabbed the fence when he could have been takedown. Johnny as careless as he is just playing around with Volkan, and as a result, he lies helpless to the ground.

I can't remember who I watched during the Price, I think it was Vanderlie, and Fedor I think was the best, fans consider him a god. Right now, PRIDE just doesn't fit to be a name for an MMA promotion. This sport is too manly to be linked to something else.

What's "best" is always subjective. If we look at the biggest attendance for example, the biggest UFC event is only on the 6th place:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mixed_martial_arts_attendance_records
Back in the days, Pride events were really big, and that was in times when mma was still relatively unknown and often frowned upon by fans of other combat sports.

I don't think there's any risk of him pulling out. He made the weight and showed up on ceremonial weight-ins, so unless he trips and breaks his arm in a hotel room, the fight is guaranteed to happen.
That being said, according to tapology website his last 3 fights were cancelled. No idea if it was his fault or the opponents'.

As long as Shara can add to the excitement, I guess UFC wouldn't care about the commission and Saudi also enjoys unique fighters like him. He dominates mostly with his kick, he is a striker.  Dana seems to keep Shara despite his opponents pulling out. I read Trocoli is the 3rd option.

Trocoli is 12-3 is not a weasel record. I don't follow both but his last fight was Nov 2021. Yet he is matched to a dangerous Shara. Looks like Trocoli is the only guy who can make this card crumble is he pulls out at the last minute.

Nope, that's not totally it.  I mean sure the UFC has first mover advantage but they still organize the best events in MMA, the rest are just the B leagues imho.  You just see it when you watch the UFC then watch Bellator or the PFL.

The organization that I love watching besides the UFC is ONE FC.  But then again, still not as good as the UFC.

As for the event later, my leans are Xiao, Gadzhiyasulov, Kang, Dalby, Lima, Haqparast, Walker, Magomedov, Gastelum, Volkov, Whittaker.

As for the weigh ins, everybody made weight...

Robert Whittaker (186) vs Ikram Aliskerov (184)
Sergei Pavlovich (260) vs Alexander Volkov (258)
Kelvin Gastelum (184.5) vs Daniel Rodriguez (184)
Shara Magomedov (185.5) vs Antonio Trocoli (185.5)
Volkan Oezdemir (206) vs Johnny Walker (206)
Jared Gordon (156) vs Nasrat Haqparast (156)
Felipe Lima (145.5) vs Muhammad Naimov (145.5)
Nicolas Dalby (171) vs Rinat Fakhretdinov (170.5)
Muin Gafurov (136) vs Kyung Ho Kang (136)
Magomed Gadzhiyasulov (205) vs Brendson Ribeiro (205)
ChangHo Lee (136) vs Xiao Long (136)

Should they be fast-tracking promising, unranked guys straight to the top, without them having to really prove themselves?
That wouldn't be a good deal for anyone really. Fans would quickly lose track of who is who, if new names would be popping up too often. And the UFC and the fighters wouldn't be earning as much as they do when there's a clash between the top fighters with established brands.
It's not like the top is outside of the reach of the new and prospective fighters, they'd still get their chance eventually. Look at Aliskerov, he's currently outside of the top 15, but he was given a chance to fight a former champ and a number 3 guy. If Aliskerov wins, he will be trampolined to the top.

I'm talking more in the sense of having new people to shake up the category. If you look at the fights, they're always with the same people, facing the same champion and there's little vision for the most recent ones, who have to prove themselves a lot before going for the title.

Could it be that the Athletic Commission has no say in the events outside the USA as that's outside their jurisdiction?
Shara made his UFC debut in Abu Dhabi and now he's fighting in Saudi Arabia.

Anyhow, he's a massive favourite, with odds at around x1.16. Whether that's fair, I don't know, as I don't know much about his opponent. Trocoli is 12-3, is on 3 wins streak (4 if counting a no-contest fight which he has originally won) and looked like he might have a height/reach advantage over Shara, as he looked bigger during the weight-ins.