Topic: The UFC Info and Prediction Thread - page 38. (Read 96871 times)

Yes, and it was literally with the basics that Strickland became the champion of the category against many people. You can say what you want about him, but the way he fights, attacks and defends is unique, literally.

Strickland proves a simple defense works well while always ready to throw punches in return.
But it's not just that. People see the difference about Costa as he isn't the same after he lost against Izzy. He used to be a finisher. The confidence is just not going back easily and maybe one would be very careful already when the fighter experienced the same level of punishment.

I don't know if your confidence would still be back if someone did this to you publicly. LOL

That's because Strickland has this rather boring style where he covers up and uses quick jabs and low kicks all the time to soften up opponents. He's mainly a boxer and used to endure long fights, which is not what people in MMA are used to. They expect a lot of kicks to the head, flying knees and takedowns and none of these are what Strickland is known for.
Anyway, I'm happy for him. In my previous comment I said it's his fight and it turned out to be like that.

I agree with you. When I first saw this poster shared by my friend, I wondered if he was trying to trick me by editing the UFC 304 poster using Microsoft Paint. But after seeing the official UFC 304 page I thought oh my god, it turns out this is real! Is this the work of interns at the UFC? This isn't even worthy of a standard UFC event. I'm trying to see a reasonable reason and I think it's because UFC 304 had a lot of problems and they had to make this poster in a hurry. I can't find any other reason for this joke.

Here's one of the fight vids of a prospect who's fighting this weekend.  This guy could either finish the match within 1.5 rounds or get finished in the third round or lose via decision.  Some guys think his opponent Stoltzfus could eek out a win but dunno...

UFC Free Fight:  Ferreira vs Hawes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6HOU1b3huI

But yeah, you guys prolly don't have an idea what I'm talking about or don't care.  Lolol.

And it looks like there isn't gonna be a Multi Master for the event but here are my leans at first glance.

Jared Cannonier       
Dustin Jacoby           
Raul Rosas Jr       
Brunno Ferreira         
Julian Marquez
Punahele Soriano
Ludovít Klein           
Charles Radtke       
Andrea Lee           
Brad Katona         
Daniel Marcos           
Denise Gomes           
Taylor Lapilus           
Rayanne dos Santos

Lets wait for official announcement. So far we got only this from his Instagram:


This could mean anything, from a minor injury to a regular check-up. If there is a real injury, he would not be so smiling on the picture. And it would be useless for him to return to MMA. 3 years on a pause already, one or two years of inactivity and he could forget about serious competition. He is not Bones who comes from 2 years pause and finish top opponent in two minutes. It the fight will be truly cancelled, then I feel sorry for those who have bought tickets.

I think we can not compare the past and the present as that is not comparable at all but if we compare Khabib to Makhachev there are certain similarities but there is still a distinctive difference between the two for me Islam Makhachev is slower than how Khabib Nurmagomedov execute a more on the ground and how Dustin Poirier has said that he surely has trained with his ground game for sure his Takedown defense has improved a lot for him to be ready with Islam Makhachev as for sure the Main Event have save the entire event in my opinion, As for me Dustin Poirier's performance has given the underdog an edge and that this fight is not one-sided at least Dustin Poirier gave his all and surely he deserves that $50,000 USD bonus while Islam Makhachev got $100,000 USD.


Now That Islam Makhachev has proven that he is the Pound for pound as Jon Jones is not around anymore he is now aiming for the Next belt and the Welterweight is the nearest one that comes in sight for me I would surely think that the winner on the Leon Edwards and Belal Muhammad fight will be a great fight for Makhachev as both fighters have a heavier stature than Islam so that will be a great fight to see.


Interesting Event the Belal Muhammad VS Leon Edwards is really promising but I think I will side with Leon Edwards as he has the skill and the technique to get on Belal Muhammad again as we all know that these fighters have already faced each other inside the Octagon and an unintentional eye poke on Belal Muhammad's eyes that bring the fight to a stop for sure it may happen again as we can all see it was on March 13, 2021 when they fought.



And lastly, the rematch for Tom Aspinall VS Curtis Blaydes is great aswell because Jon Jones doesn't want to show up but for sure we all know we don't really need this rematch but because Curtis Blaydes won their 1st match where Aspinall's Leg because of Blaydes iron metal shin! This could again repeat on Aspinall's other leg, which I hope is not the case.

I'm sad about his injury, I wanted to see him fight again after so long. It would be really cool. I hope he comes back this semester



This post is one of the worst I've ever seen, it's not completely understandable and it doesn't convey the information in a cohesive way. My God, who approved this?

^
You can't find a source of that info until the date draws closer. But because it's been talked about, you can assume there is a little truth to it.

Anyway, here's the official poster of UFC  304 lol Hope yourr not gonna have stiff neck after looking at this.
The match is not so intriguing but they all deserve the 2nd fight. Hope Tom going to win this time so we can now have that Jones fight. Bad enough that he has to defend this interim belt.

Source?

I can't find anything confirming this.
But if true, that's likely the end of McGregor's career. Unless it's some minor injury, in which case they could just push it back by a month or so.
If the fight doesn't happen, Chandler will be the biggest victim.

It could be announced in a few weeks before the fight schedule along with the one who will take his place. There are rumors that it could be Max Holloway which also cancels his fight with Topuria as it's not finalized yet. Meaning this UFC 303 could be a BMF title defense for Max. These are just the hints from some interviews, I think Helwani is the only one who kept saying the fight would not be canceled but all signs are just replacements.

Max's win of the BMF belt will make it worth and not entirely disappoint an audience. If it happens, Max winning against Chandler is already set.

Dana White has said that Conor is dropping out of UFC 303 with an injury to his leg that was suffered during sparring. No word of it’s the same shin he broke last time, but it sounds like it. I don’t see how Conor comes back from this. In another couple years when he would be ready to fight again he’ll just be too far removed from the fight game and too old.

So their weight difference is officially 7kg only, when on a fight day it will be less. Regards their possible fight, there is a nice article https://bloodyelbow.com/2024/05/20/islam-makhachev-opens-up-about-secret-sparring-session-with-leon-edwards-as-he-eyes-ufc-double-champion-status/. These two actually have met in gym, when Islam was quite new in UFC and not familiar with Edwards. It has mentioned that Edwards told that Islam never submitted him, but in the interview, Islam never said he did. He only said that they had a good fight. Reporter and article writer faked that (one, two)

Some news: Conor has cancelled UFC 303 press conference. (https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2024/06/ufc-303-daniel-cormier-conor-mcgregor-canceled-press-conference-worrisome) Should we worry about fight cancelation as well?

I feel like Makhachev is a little bit small for 170 tho.  Edwards is 6'2" while Makhachev is at 5'10".  Muhammad is 5'11" but the guy is thick...  I don't think Makhachev could just rag doll Muhammad like he does all the guys at 155.  But all in all sure, would like to see him take a shot at 170 but would rather see him fight Tsarukyan first then move up.  But that's just me, I know there are a lot of guys who looove these double champ stuff.

Here's another free fight to watch before the next event.

UFC Free Fight:  Imavov vs Buckley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax9Gae3pTc8

Some people speculate that Costa slowly repeating Overeem history. When Overeem wasnt clean, he used to be huge, pumped and knock people out. During USADA period (btw who is testing fighters now?), Overeem was different. With Costa it looks similar. We dont know whole drama that happens in the shadows of UFC, but here is what I saw in media. We know that UFC sometimes give green flag to fight for fighters that isnt clean (like Lesnar for example). At the start of career, Costa wasnt clean, was knocking people in first rounds, generate money for UFC and it was ok. When he started asking for a raise, and disrupt fights, UFC warned him about his his dirty past, and now we get more or less clean Costa that ends fights by UD or isnt able to finish opponent.


I have also heard that Makhachev wants to move to next weight division. Imho both Edwards and Muhammad (who used to train with Khabib) wont be a problem for Islam.

It's all really sudden. Both the fight and his injury now, very close to everything. I hope he can recover, because him being away ends up being a bad thing for the UFC, despite everything he's a good fighter and we all lose with him out.

Strickland might be a terrible human being but he is definitely a good fighter. His striking game is definitely one of the best. and in this fight, it definitely looked like he was able to win all the rounds. Maybe it was not convincing enough for some. But I think he was definitely able to win all the rounds. By the way, I did not expect anything less from this fight. Strickland actually got hurt on his leg even though it did feel like nothing happened to his leg. But Costa was definitely landing those leg kicks. Strickland was always going forward and putting pressure on his opponent and was also doing really well to counter when his opponent tried to attack him. Even though it was a split decision,  it should have been a unanimous decision.

I’m still waiting to hear more about it. After seeing recent interviews with Conor I thought his career was already over. He seems like he’s addicted to some bad drugs… I was surprised he was able to make a deal to fight again in the UFC and I’m not surprised it’s already falling apart. As much as I want to see prime Conor (and prime Mike Tyson) fight again, I think it’s time to accept that he is not the fighter or the person he was before the injury.

I'm not saying it was the best fight, but it was decent. I get that some people want to see high-intensity brawls, but this is also a sport, not only a show business, so the primary goal for fighters is to win. And both needed the win. Costa's team knew that going for a brawl will benefit Strickland, so had to come up with a different strategy. The plan wasn't bad but id didn't work.

As for Costa going to the distance more often, it's a general tendency that the higher the level of competition, the harder it is to get a finish. Plus, the more there is at stake, the less risk the fighters are willing to take.


I strongly suspected that the judge in question (Dave Tirelli) simply confused the sides of the scoring sheet and was scoring it the wrong way around. But Strickland without a doubt won the last round and he correctly gave it to him, so I don't know.

^^
I thought Dana wasn't really considering Islam to be a p4p no. 1 despite his win with Dustin. In the ranking, Islam ranked up and Jones moved down to no. 2.  



Must be true the ESPN pulled the marketing down.

There's been lots of marketing on his coming fight but Conor has even partnered with Duelbits but looks like he deliberately trying to make this fight cancelled. He's been partying like crazy and they are saying that he isn't doing training. It could be that he knew already the result of the fight which is him lying on the ground with a broken face from Chandler's front kick.