Topic: The UFC Info and Prediction Thread - page 355. (Read 100100 times)

Burns should absolutely be more of a challenge. If it ends in a similar way to the last fight I'll be really suprised, especially as quickly as that. Burns should prove to be a challenge. Especially, if he can avoid a takedown, I don't see him being threatened too much in the stand up.

I wouldn't read too much into that. A lot of fighters do it, in fact I've seen a lot of Youtubers do it too. I don't know if it adds to your "coolness" scale or what. Apparently, it's quite the trend to not see indoors.

Looks like there's gonna be a ceremonial weigh in for UFC London.  It's gonna be live in a couple of minutes.

UFC London:  Ceremonial Weigh Ins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SKtDNFEb_Y

And here are the weigh in results.  Everybody made weight so good.  After losing Wood vs Morales,mwe can't afford to lose more matches.  Wood was one of my most confident picks for this event.  It sucks losing that match up.

Heavyweight Bout: Alexander Volkov (253) vs Tom Aspinall (252)
Featherweight Bout: Arnold Allen (146) vs Dan Hooker (145)
Paddy Pimblett (155) vs Kazula Vargas (155)
Gunnar Nelson (171) vs Takashi Sato (170)
Molly McCann (125) vs Luana Carolina (125)    
Jai Herbert (155) vs Ilia Topuria (156)
Mike Grundy (145) vs Makwan Amirkhani (146)
Shamil Abdurakhimov (258) vs Sergei Pavlovich (254)
Nikita Krylov (205) vs Paul Craig (206)
Jack Shore (135) vs Timur Valiev (136)
Cory McKenna (115) vs Elise Reed (115)
Muhammad Mokaev (125) vs Cody Durden (126)

Didn't watch the official weigh ins so I'm not really sure how Hooker looks on the scale.  I've seen pics and saw that he was wearing sun glasses...  Hmmm.  What is he hiding?  :/

Yeah I'm excited for April 10th as well. I wouldn't say this is the first serious fight for chimaev as Li was an up and coming prospect that looked like a real threat until he stepped in the cage with khamzat. I feel with burns this will go the same way. Khamzat and Gilbert both know Usman destroyed Gilbert. With a less than convincing win against wonderboy I just feel this will be a mental affect and as soon as they are both in the cage and chimaev starts his game plan, Gilbert realises he can't stop the game plan then it's game over. Looking forward to UFC 273 the rematch between Yan and sterling is what I'm most excited for ha let's see if it's gonna be at least competative this time.

Since when did Mcgregor go to jail for throwing a chair at the bus? Any normal person doing that would have likely been locked up. The thing is, it was likely staged to a degree. I do believe there is some animosity there, but I think that's more competitive than anything really malicious. We have to remember that every organisation likes to do this, WWE openly does it, boxers have admitted faking beef in the past just to sell fights.

Dana talks through his arse on the best of days, so he can't really take his word for anything. The amount of lies he comes up with on a weekly basis post fights is pretty ludicrous, especially when he's talking about fighters wages, and the treatment of them.

Paddy, and Topuria are some of the best prospects in MMA. Of course, creating a beef between them hypes them up even more. This is show business, I think we have to remember that. Even Conor in his prime was selling fights, his words definitely probably did annoy his opponents, but at the end of the day they know that it was to sell fights. I mean, that's one of the arguments fighters have countered Conor with, is he's all talk, and is just trying to make money by selling the fights. More often than not in his prime he delivered on that smack talk though.

^ Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Connor McGregor was absolutely a genuine beef. I remember Dana White saying in Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show,
^ I don't think Khabib and Connor will ever be friends. There's no way that is going to happen. Khabib taught Connor that he is not at the same level as him. And Connor got humbled.
Paddy vs Topuria might not happen because If a fighter drops or gains weight, it will obviously affect his skill. So that will be a big barrier to the fight.

The Jack Shore fight is going to be a close one definitely. I'm just hoping Jack wants it more on the night. Think we might see a round of stand up, with one of the fighters just edging it, thinking Jack. Then we'll see a grappling/wrestling match for the rest of the rounds.

We do see that a lot though with new fighters, their debuts are usually quite the cagey affair, and I suspect he'll settle down with more experience. The thing is with his fighting style as soon as you bring in a little bit of anxiety, and the feeling of being rushed, it'll start to look a little sloppy. He isn't on Mcgregor's level that a lot of people like to compare him with, but he looks a decent enough prospect, although I do believe his mouth will get him big fights, rather than his ability.

I think Allen won't be able to withstand Hookers pressure and is just not on Hookers level. It's a good test nevertheless and boy this will be a grueling distance fight if there ever was one. It's good that Allen ditched Tristar, things there have not been all that great the last few years.



IMHO Paddy completely shat the bed in his first UFC fight. He looked terrible, and that type of bar fighting IQ can get him only so far in the fighting business. I never really got the Paddy hype train. I mean, for a hype train to work, he has to show something in the UFC, not just outside of it (previous fights) and so far there is nothing to get excited by.

The difference between Pimblett and Topuria fighting weight categories is about 5kg only.

But in real life, Pimblett is quite a donut



We dont know what will be his real weight in octagon.

I think I am going to skip this weeks event and see a review on Sunday. I am more excited to watch the event that will be after it. Coz of Matt Brown, Blaydes, Daukaus, Oleinik and Borschev.

At first Petr Yan has lost his team and corner guy due to visa problems, but not it turns that Henry Cejudo is going to be in his corner. That is rather shocking, because both of fighters were trash talking and making laugh of each others.

Although Khabib and Connor can show to the public they are friends, I doubt any of them will trust each other. For all we know in the back of their heads, they will kill each other if given the chance in private. You can compare it to yourself when you have once put a fight with someone. I have my brother-in-law that I can't talk with despite mother in law and my wife wanting us to be what it was before the fight.

Paddy and Topuria hype or not, someone will have to chase the weight in order for this fight to come. The audience is already eager to see what they are made of.

Well, we can really never know what is real or what is not, maybe gaining access to their private life would we have known for sure, but I think the Khabib and McGregorr fight that is a genuine beef, that they have for each other, and I can surely say because Khabib Nurmagomedov doesn't like any kind of hype outside the octagon, or doesn't really need to hype their fight but with that kind of exchange I think it added up to the Fuel of the Hype,

And while the case of Paddy Pimblett and Ilia Topuria may look just like a hype, in my opinion I say it looks legit, well this is just what I see regarding these two they are in a different division so one should gain or lose weight for them to fight and to hype a fight, and regarding the Ilia Topuria Georgian descendant I really think that he has some beef to throw something at Paddy on what he is saying but I guess he doesn't need to result in hurting Paddy regarding that, but still Paddy shouldn't post it on the first place, but regarding these two I am on the middle on the issue, but I think their difference will surely be settle inside the octagon and if it continues Paddy Pimblett is one strong dude Topuria will surely have a hard time, but Topuria has the skill and technique to counter Paddy, but let's just wait and see.

Thoughts on some of the match ups.

Dan Hooker vs Arnold Allen

Dan Hooker has had issues with COVID travel restrictions negatively affecting his last two or three performances. Each time he travels to the united states it has taken him 2 months to arrive back home. It was enough of a problem that his team of city kickboxing (Israel Adesanya, Alexander Volkov, Kai Kara France, etc) considered leaving new zealand to migrate to the united states.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, it appears Arnold Allen is not training at tristar with Firas Zahabi for this fight. As he did for previous bouts in the UFC. Tristar has not dominated of late the way they did when GSP and Rory MacDonald were top contenders.

I think Dan Hooker has the advantage, if the weight cut down to 145 lbs doesn't negatively impact him too much.

Paddy Pimblett vs Rodrigo Vargas

Paddy loses focus when he has his opponent hurt. Might be worth a small bet on Rodrigo Vargas who has 7 KO/TKO finishes in 12 wins. The UFC has seen many hype trains derailed since its inception. Paddy Pimblett isn't as good as the hype surrounding him IMO.

Jack Shore vs Timur Valiev

Timur Valiev is yet another dagestani in the UFC. The gym affiliation listed under his sherdog profile says JacksonWink MMA. Valiev's instagram shows him training at Nick Catone MMA and Ricardo Almeida.

Jack Shore appears to train in europe. Unfortunately, I can't remember enough of Timur Valiev's fights Or Jack Shore's to remember how good they are. Jack Shore appears to have a good height advantage.

I want to lean Valiev off him having the more established trainers and gym. A lot of these fights come down to who wants it more, especially at lighter weight classes.

Here's my predictions for this event:

Tom Aspinall
Arnold Allen
Ilia Topuria
Jack Shore
Cory McKenna

Avoiding the rest of the card like the plague. To close to call, so these are the ones that are going into my accumulator. Good odds on both Jack Shore, and Tom Aspinall. Think both are probably underdogs going into this, but think they'll pull it off. Topuria should be the most confident performance on the night, not expecting too many problems for him. Cory Mckenna is decent, and looks to be the favourite, expecting a dominant performance. To be honest, I didn't think she lost last time out, but that might be the Welsh bias kicking in .

jeremypwr's multi master is up just a few minutes ago guys.  I've been lucky for winning free money from sportsbet.io for the last couple of events straight.  

UFC Fight Night 204 Multi Master Challenge
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/sportsbetio-ufc-fight-night-204-multi-master-challenge-saturday-5390165

Here's my full card parlay for the event.

Topuria - McKenna - Wood at 2.07
Add:  Nelson  - Pimblett - McCann at 4.90
Add:   Grundy - Pavlovich at 9.89
Add:  Craig - Aspinall at 44.38
Add:  Shore - Mokaev - Arnold at 203.85

For picking between Arnold and Hooker I think waiting for the weigh ins is prolly better.  But if basing it on momentum I think Arnold got this.  Hooker is in a bit of a rut lately.

If McGregor is just making up stuff like it was all an act before the upcoming fights, they would have shaken hands and embraced each other when he was lost to Khabiib but as we witnessed that night, after the fight there are some troubles that we haven't expected because at the end of the fight Khabib also throws his mouthpiece at Mcgregor's corner. It means they were really getting into each other nerves for real, not just some mere acting. We can't deny that there are some actions in the UFC just before the fight though to further raise their profits but most of the time they were really cursing and taunting each other for real.

Well before their Scaffles on Paddy Pimblett got a tweet on Twitter that was kind of a racist post so many are bashing him because of it, and Ilia Topuria is not happy about it, because back in 2008 Georgia and Russia has a war, and Russia is bombing Georgia so Topuria is very sensitive when it comes to this issue, when related to his country and his family, I really don't know if this is for the hype anymore or we could say it is a grudge match when they meet on the octagon,



And their tweet did progress in a manner that Paddy is challenging Ilia to do what he had said, then the day of the Scuffles happened, Ilia Topuria is raging with Anger, and right now Paddy Pimblett does have said that he doesn't understand their history and his a fighter, not a historian or a politician but doesn't say his sorry to Georgian people at all, I really think he has some Idea with what happens to Georgia and Russia back then and because of what he has said people are bashing him so much right now and Ilia Topuria does have a grudge on him and wants to settle the score against Paddy Pimblett, I know that Ilia Topuria doesn't have to do such things but we can not blame him there must be a deeper scar history have to him to react that way to Paddy Pimblett.


Well, now I know what did happen to Paddy Pimblett and Ilia Topuria Scuffles, and right now Pimblett has many bashers mostly Georgians and Ilia Topuria is not really happy about it, well if Ilia Topuria wants a fight to settle a score against Paddy Pimblett he needs to get to Lightweight and fight with that weight,

Their conflict appear after Paddy Pimblett made a stupid joke on twitter. He said that "Lad how stupid are these Georgians man, no wonder the Russians terrorise their lives". Topuria enraged, because he connects it with Russia - Georgia conflict.

Petr Yans - his trainer did not manage to get visa and not coming to US to be in his corner in his second fight against Sterling on UFC 273. It is unknows who is going to be in his corner, as he will fly to US next week without his team. He needs a Russian speaking fighter (as Petr barely speaks English) or trainer. Someone experienced, someone who was on top, someone with beard, someone from Dagestan

The promotion strategy has actually been around for some time. The talk, the show, it's actually an integral part of MMA whether we like it or not. Think of Helio Gracie fighting Masahiko Kimura and coming into the ring with a casket. The showboating around UFC1 with the art of talking gradually improving, to one of the grates to do it, Chael Sonnen. After that, the quality declined, with Conor being a lesser version of a talker than Sonnen and so on. Pimblet is, ah, a bad fighter IMO that has some of the typical English bravado but that's it.

I heard that in some other MMA organizations they are openly asking fighters to make up stuff, pretend and act all the time to attract more attention for upcoming fight.
There was even one pre fight video of two fighters acting in some roles of detective and criminal, so I believe something like this is happening in UFC but in more subtle level.
Conor McGregor is special showcase for how easy man could change in negative way with lot of money, but maybe he was always a prick even when he was poor like church mouse

Very excited for the Shore fight. Up against a very good opponent too, will put that unbeaten record to the test, but I do have faith. Think he could end up putting on a show.

Burns his largely being underestimated, and up to this point I don't think Chimaev has actually faced anyone that I would give him props for, at least  for the amount of hype that's behind him. He's a great fighter, and very technical don't get me wrong, but it's way too soon to be talking about titles. Burns, would be a massive step up for me, the guy can absolutely bang, and also has some decent grappling skills. I actually fancied Burns against Usman a while ago, we know how that went, but he's definitely the most dangerous opponent Chimaev would've faced up to this point in his career.

I see Chimaev is actually a good fighter and with his good wrestling skills he might be able to become the next khabib in the future, but so far he seems to be having a hard time getting a match fighter him, and of course fighting Burns will be a test of his suitability as one of the best fighters right now, but I personally would probably bet more on burns in that fight because in this case Burns technique and experience would certainly be a lethal weapon against Chimaev.