Topic: The UFC Info and Prediction Thread - page 335. (Read 97291 times)

For any UFC fan I am suggesting everyone to watch great documentary movie called Bisping: The Michael Bisping Story, I watched it today.
I knew some parts of his life with eye injury, I watched his fights, listened his great commentary in UFC, but this story is just mind blowing.
Check out official trailer and search for full version of documentary movie online:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmQyd8G17gc


https://bispingdoc.com/

Usually at the Apex, we see some quickly fights ending up in a finish. Honestly, I quite like not having much of a crowd, I find the crowd annoying most of the time. Booing when there's highly technical wrestling going on, and boring whoever is basically losing. For example, the other night with Chimaev, basically Burns was getting prior to the fight for whatever reason, and then suddenly after the fight Chimaev was getting booed. Infuriates me at times.

Andre Fialho vs Miguel Baeza, I've always liked the look of Fialho, very dangerous maybe a bit of a problem with the gas tank in previous fights. Although, definitely is a pressure fighter. I'm thinking the co main event will be a decent one too, undefeated fighter going against a solid opponent. Think it'll be close. I'm not much of a fan of Belal, so I'm thinking Vicente Luque gets the finish. Pat Sabatini is always fun to watch, although I expect him to find the finish, don't see too much competition in that fight. Chris Barnett being a larger guy is surprisingly agile, you might remember him getting a round house KO then doing either a backflip or front flip on the mat. Probably going to be one hell of a night. William Knight also a dangerous fighter, he'll either find the knockout or gas out.

I don't know there's a few decent fights. I don't think its a completely no namer. Decent card I say.

Yeah they ran out of money for this event. It is at the apex so the smallest venue i think the ufc has. Tbf the small cage, limited crowd and prospects that need that fight bonus i expect to see some knockouts. Belal will need to steal the show to stay relevant coming of his first loss in the UFC. Some big guys on this card all with wrestling credentials, so I expect to see some stand and bang action in order to make some real money this weekend. Let's go uncle dana

Can someone point in good fights at UFC Fight Night: Luque vs. Muhammad 2. I am not familiar with any fighter in the card. I think I am going to skip that and instead smash eggs on Easter 

Muhammad fought Luque in 2016. Their fight was in prelims and Luque won by KO in first round. Looks like a regular fight in 2016. Dont know why would they have to fight for second time. See no drama between those two.

Same thoughts, who you got in that match up? Personally have Andre Fialho winning it. Although, I definitely agree on it being a night for underdogs, usually you see that when there isn't as many big names. Then betters tend to bet for favourites since they like betting, but don't have too much information on the fighters. My predictions are probably mainly going to be underdogs.

Should still be a good night, I see some decent match ups there. Expecting the Andre Fialho fight to be absolute chaos at a high pace.

 

Wikipedia tends to be a tad late in updating their info.  Use Taplology, it's a more reliable source.  Sports betting sites are a reliable source of roster info too.    As they should.

https://www.tapology.com/fightcenter/events/85814-ufc-fight-night

^  That's the Tapology link for the weekend's event.

At first glance it's another chalky card with low level match ups but there's a couple of underdogs that I like...  Mostly looking forward to the main event and Baeza vs Fialho.  Those two should be good.

Edit:  Typo

You must have mistaken Khabib with Conor who is a Brown belt Khabib is technically a white belt. The point I am making is that doesn't matter because Khabibs grappling pedigree is way above the regular BJJ belt system. Chimaev is not only a purple belt but also a high-level wrestler, I doubt he isn't proficient at grappling, not to the level of his wrestling, but let's not make him out to be Ghokan Saki. And to bring my point home, I will refer to a grappling match between Chael Sonnen vs Leo Vieira and Renato Sobral and also Sonnen's MMA match with Oleinik. Even though those fighters are on paper far better grapplers than Sonnen is, his high-level wrestling was enough to shut them down. Of course, he lost numerous grappling exchanges as well, but I wouldn't say that Chimaev was apprehensive about stepping into grappling with Burns. Oh, and I forgot to mention, check out the fight between Chimaev and Aliskerov who was a SAMBO champion. Chimaev was wrestling with him the whole time and that tells me that he wasn't afraid of grappling with him once the fight hits the canvas.

Brown And he had participated in grappling competitions. He is surrounded with wrestling and grappling guys. I even think he and fighters around him first do some wrestling matches, and only then go for a breakfast or brush teeth in the mornings

I am familiar only some fighters from Allstar Training Center, where Chimaev trains. Alexander Gustafson has never been an elite grappler. Anyway, I dont really know why he did not use wrestling. Maybe not because he was afraid of Burns, but because Burns is a master of BJJ. One tiny mistake, one small loss of concentration and you are done. So that is why relied more on reach advantage and power.

I wouldn't really say that's an issue. For example, what BJJ belt is Khabib? Chimaev is a wrestler first and foremost and wrestlers at one point of their career like to prove to others and themselves that they can stand a bang, or in other words, that they are good in standup fighting, and honestly, Burns was a perfect choice for something like that. In some contrast, if he did that with Colby, he would just get outworked, and if he did that with Usman, he could get his head blown off.


I watched the fight, talked to an actual MMA judge (numerous smaller organizations fights judged, is an MMA coach, and went to seminars with the likes of Marc Goddard) that is a huge Yan fan (he thinks Yan is one of the best fighters not just in his division but in MMA in general), and he explained how he saw nothing wrong with the judging. The first round was a stinker to judge, but Aljo just slightly outdid Yan (but was really close), the second round was a 10-8 for Aljo, the third was more or less the same as the second but not so effective by Aljo and not scored that high, and in the last two he cost, but did enough to stay active and lose those two rounds but not by a huge margin like the second one was. I am not sure how to look at this and see a robbery rather than a solid split decision that it was?

Let me point you to another conundrum. The fight was judged by Sal D'Amato and Chris Lee, both of whom have been criticized before in their judging. Now let's say both of them were wrong (especially as it was Lee's third fight in a row) and we flip their decision, now we have D'Amato going for Yan and Lee going for Aljo, it still leaves us with the third judge that gave it to Aljo, and we can't really play the ol 'Well all the judges were wrong on that night' card now can we?

Petr Yan just waste his opportunity down the drain, he underestimated his opponent which Aljamain Sterling is the opposite of Yan, he didn't underestimated Yan a single bit, in their first fight Sterling really was aggressive and all out in their fight and he actually has some style points on the 1st rounds, but when in the last of the rounds Petr Yan has capitalize the situation he already know the distance, and he eventually excels Aljamain Sterling in all aspect I think because Sterling has already gas out from what he did in the 1st rounds of the fight, so in their 2nd fight Sterling did show some progress in his stamina and Yan was overwhelm by it.


Sterling did a great job in the 1st round, he is more explosive on that round, having jabs and medium strikes effective, and he surely have heavy strikes as well, while Yan is still calculating Sterlings movement and analyzing and testing the distance while Sterling is very explosive on that round. But I really wish Petr Yan did KO Sterling, but it was really impossible and missed the chance again to take the belt.


After the Gilbert Burns fight Khamzat Chimaev is already training; that is, how determined he is after that fight with Gilbert Burns. I don't really see Colby Covington as a threat to Chimaev; more likely Covington is just there to trash talk; well, he can say all that he wants to say but I think Khamzat Chimaev will enjoy their fight.

Agreed. Also, similar to what @TopTort777 has said, the round was indeed very close and it was arguable for both Petr Yan and the Oscar winner hehe. I think if Dana watches the replay he might change his opinion.

Max Holloway also made a good suggestion before, and this is to post the judges' score cards publicly after each round. This might cause the judges to think more carefully before scoring a round.

I am starting to think if this decision made by judges was influenced by some other factors, maybe it has something to do previous fight of this two fighters, or with current political situation.
Anyone who looks statistics and reply of that fight would give 3-2 win to Yan, except if you are part of Aljo team or you place a bet on him to win.
I think that something seriously needs to change with MMA judges

No, but I watches press conference after this event and I heard clearly what Dana White said.
One more thing he said is that new fight between this two fighters is pretty much guaranteed, and we are going to see them again in octagon.

Just because Dana disagrees with the judges doesn't mean there needs to be a change. That's the whole point of judges, they're there not to represent the organisation, but to judge the fight without bias. Obviously, there's going to be issues, I think boxing is even worse, but there are definitely some judges in the UFC which have questionable takes on the fights, although I completely disagree with Dana, I don't think it was called wrongly, and even if it was it was marginal, so really its down to interpretation on the night, in real time. That means without the official significant punches etc.

People like to absolutely trash judges, but its a hard job. I mean some of these fighters are so quick, I'm left wondering what happened sat here in front of the TV, and that's with the best angles possible. Something that the judges don't always have.

The thing is too, Dana has a bias for the UFC at a organisation level, he needs his hyped fighter to stay winning, and Aljo probably doesn't get the pull that Yan does, although to be honest I think I prefer Aljo.

Chimaev did not go wrestling, because Burns is black belt in BJJ, and Chimaev got only purple after this fight (he wore it at post fight conference). Brown belt comes after purple. Even though Chimaev is not afraid to play ground games, his coaches probably warned him to decrease wrestling and focus on striking.

Chimaev is a talented fighter, but I dont like his "I can and want to fight anybody. I can smash or kill everyone". This looks like a straightforward tactics to win by power, stamina and etc. He is to much confident in that. This wont help against tactician fighter. Covington is good at wrestling, has infinite stamina and spam strikes like machinegun. Usman has high wrestling skills also, his sniper jabs makes huge damage, his striking coach is one of the best. Chimaev must change something in his tactics, otherwise these two will find a solution for victory.

If Dana says something that doesn't mean that he's right. That's his personal opinion and it's just that. What he meant to say was he disagreed with the outcome because he was banking on a thrilling fight and it didn't deliver in his eyes. So he doesn't have that much of an issue with judging as he has a fight not living up to his entertainment standards. Also, Dana is the embodiment of the saying 'Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one', except Dana is all those assholes.

Dana can still pull Jones back to the cage for profit and I think Jones will be happy as long as he gets the right fee.
Although Chimaev performance is not very impressive, he won. Rogan certainly have a good point when he said this man comes up quickly with just few fights sweeping top fighters. If its true that Khamzat didn't go to his usual route through wrestling, I guess he really wants to prove he can beat Burns through striking.

He has sportsmanship, they were not really insulting with Burns though. We'll see what Colby can do against him and if they will be insulting each for life like Masvidal.

In mens pound for pound ranking, Petr Yan has lost 4 position, and (you would laugh) Sterling is one position above him

Chimaev has gained 8 positions in welterweight and now is on top3. Only Edwards and Covington are above him. Dana White said that Chimaev next opponent is going to be Covington. But Usman is probably facing Edwards next. Chimaev vs Covington trashtalk is going to be epic. Colby is already calling him not Khamzat, but cumshot, and the closer the fight, the more rude insults would be.

P.S. How this pound for pound ranking is formed? Why Jon Jones is still there?

CMIIW but this is not the first time Dana has disagreed with the judges' decisions. Why hasn't he changed anything yet?

Judges should be independent from the fight organization and cannot be terminated by them. Otherwise, the owners could pressure them and affect how they score a fight.

Regarding the new point system, it doesn't really matter if they score it per round or the entirety of the fight. Judges will still have the sole discretion on how they will interpret and apply the set criterias. Some decisions can become controversial but there is really no better alternative. Unlike in other sports where players can challenge a call/decision, it is impractical to apply that in the UFC or other MMA organizations.

Sterling-Yan was a very very close fight. Sterling clearly took round two and three while Yan was dominating rounds four and five. Round one indeed was the decision maker. It was so close and it depends on how judges may prefer. It was clear that Yan was controlling that round that sent Sterling backpedaling and was like in survival mode. But we cannot deny that Sterling was slightly leading on strikes although soft and insignificant but still they landed. I thought Yan won round one but I am not surprised that two judges gave it to Sterling. Certainly there was no robbery there . Just like that Chimaev-Burns close round three. Chimaev was controlling that round and was landing heavy shots but there was a moment when he was like relaxing with his hands down and Burns made him pay by landing heavy bombs. And stats actually says Burns was landing more significant and the total strikes in that third and final round. I believe Chimaev won round three but also there's a valid case that it may be given to Burns.   

On the other hand, Yan did not made a big damage to Sterling. That can be counted as Sterling has superior defence, compared to Yans attacks. Most important round was first one. It can be considered as draw, but title fight can not be settled as draw, so judges gave discount Sterling for being a champ, and that is why he has won with a 0.01% advantage. Like I've said, dont let judges choose your faith. Yans fault that the fight last all 5 rounds.