Topic: The UFC Info and Prediction Thread - page 418. (Read 97061 times)

Ryan Spann is yet to fight anyone that is legit and when he was faced Johnny Walker he was knocked down in the very first round and his most impressive win is against Misha Cirkunov and fighting against Anthony Smith who is a top fighter in the division and his recent losses are against really tough opponents and you cannot judge him by his losses he had against Glover Teixeira or Aleksandar Rakić. I am betting on Anthony Smith to win the fight.

Yeah the tattoos instill fear on the opponent  . It just shows he is a little childish to tattoo something that is a fantasy and it will make a smile to your face rather than fear  .

But remember...  Crute injured his knee in that match vs Smith and it was stopped between rounds.  Smith was ahead and dominating but who knows what would’ve happened if Crute didn’t injure it.  But between Smith and Spann in a 5 rounder, Smith easy. 

Pretty much that is what I have said but I agree even though Anthony Smith has had a lot of fights in the past I still think that Spann pretty much has the power with his takedown over Smith I really don't want to judge a book by its cover but that is how I am seeing the situation between these two,

but in my case, I am still researching and looking at some Ryan Spann fights and looking at his Tatoo Superman on his chest that really indicate fear, maybe not to his opponent but the people watching him fight.

With over 50 matches played in his career, Anthony Smith is one of the most experienced MMA Fighters In UFC 261, he defeated Jimmie Crute with a brutal leg kick. Jimmie has hardly able to stand after that kick. Although Spann is way less experienced than Anthony, he has really powerful punches and has the spirit of an animal - never giving up . He is also pretty good at submissions. I feel like Spann might win this match.

Anthony Smith VS Ryan Spann

Anthony Smith what I think was the most experience here in his professional MMA career and is pretty sure still active his last fight was on April 24, 2021, against Jimmy Crute, and has the nickname "The Lionheart" because of his great stamina in his durability and never backing down the spirit, Right now he has 19 KO/TKO wins, 13 Submission wins, 2 by Decision and 1 unknown win against Ricky Duvall, While his opponent looks like hungry and dangerous, and most of his wins were with submission, and the 1 notable fight in the UFC that he lost was the Johnn Walker fight were he almost defeated Walker with an elbow but he came back up and then Walker came on a takedown to knock him off with elbow punches, I am very positive about Spann winning this he is still improving while Smith may have a hard time against Spann in my opinion, but will look on even further.

You are right, Adesanya has been a threat to everyone facing him so far but he has not yet faced any tough opponent so far. As you said, Khamzat Chimaev looks like an opponent who would give him some hard time but I have seen that Adesanya has pretty good striking. Specially his punches have a good force from what I have seen so far. Waiting to see, how long he can keep up with the other guys in the division.

He can certainly box and is a power puncher, and from the kickboxing perspective I think he is supreme when he defeated Dustin Jacoby in the Glory 14: Zagreb that was a left hook KO, he surely has that accuracy and power in his strikes, but I think if they would fight again this time in the UFC octagon, maybe Jacoby could have a slight chance because he has more experience with the MMA and even though he doesn't have a takedown or slightly have he is able to beat guys that is well rounded than him.

The problem is that Pereira as starpower has certain weight to it and I doubt he will be matched up with other newcomers to UFC. I think we will see the same situation as Saki, and that is unfortunate. However, I am still interested, let's se what he does.

I am sure having doubts aswell for Pereira if he is able to be on the top five in a short span of time as well, and you are right we surely don't need to expect something big about him when he is just starting into UFC,

And the thing is why I am talking about Alex Pereira, is it because he is new to UFC, and I surely am curious about what he may do and what he may show us, and because of the Contender series of Dana White I am into the newbie's now and what they can show us moving forward into the future of UFC.

Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington are elite wrestlers who won major college competitions during their early days and they transitioned to MMA and then striking and they are good at that and when they fought they never tested their skills in the wrestling department but it was a striking contest and Usman have a heavy punch obviously and Colby is durable and his stamina is off the charts.


Israel Adesanya is a great fighter and his striking game is excellent but he is yet to face any legit wrestling challenge in his division and i still think Khamzat Chimaev would be a great challenger for Adesanya if Khamzat Chimaev figures out which division he wants to stay and he is healthy.

Yes there are many nuances you need to study and these wrestlers will be having a minimum of 100 to 200 competitive matches in wrestling and that is a huge experience rather than just sparring in the gym and you cannot match that with just experiencing them in the gym and it is whole different ball game.

Israel Adesanya climbed the ranks in a short period of time and he is an elite striker and he is having over 100 professional fights overall and there is no doubt about his striking skills and he proved against everyone and had battles and proved his fighting IQ and if Alex Pereira can do the same good for him and the fans to see a great battle.

Photo Source
I think Connor's angry right now. You know, UFC now started selling a new toy version of Connor , which most likely resembles Connor sleeping after his first knockout. You know what happened? People didn't leave the chance of mocking him now. Even the YouTuber turned boxer Jake Paul made a fun video with Connor's toy. He previously lost to Nate Diaz and Khabib Nurmagomedov via submission and Conner broke his leg while Poirier checked one of his kicks .

Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/mma/conor-mcgregor-dustin-poirier-ufc-b1916214.html

You know I’m bored when I’m talking ahead about future UFC PPV events.  But here’s an event with good name value and really worth your PPV buy. 

https://www.tapology.com/fightcenter/events/81402-ufc-268-usman-vs-covington-2

Justin Gaethje vs Michael Chandler deserves their own Fight Night as a main event imho just for the name value alone...  And as 5 rounder.

Alex Pereira's ability to kickbox is fantastic, however when you add in the threat of take downs, I don't think he's going to be able to perform to his best ability. What's great about Israel is he knows how to avoid being taken down, at least so some extent. The fight against Jan was a little different, mainly the size difference. Alex on the other hand has proven to be a fantastic, and probably an elite level kickboxer, but as we've seen time, and time again you can't just switch careers into MMA, and expect to perform to the same standard. If Israel, and Alex fought in the UFC I'd expect Israel to mix it up, due to losing previously against him.

However, I don't expect Pereira to be a top five fighter, and I have my doubts about him reaching the top ten.

Well, he may not priorities it, and it is just a suggestion if he can have a piece of knowledge with the wrestling or just he can stay with striking and just up his takedown defense he can surely do whatever he wants, but if he has a style like Izzy then surviving is not a problem, I have seen an article that Alex Pereira can KO'ed Israel Adesanya in this division well we can see if does is really true.


I am saying he does a couple of boxing and I think he pretty much does doing good on boxing but yes he had started on MT and BJJ back then and pretty much Silva is pretty versatile when he is in UFC, but again because of that interval time that he stop because of his injury and with his age right now that is why he is not that much of a fighter in the Octagon but I guess it is a different story with boxing, pretty much I really want him to try Paul Logan.

I don't want to cast doubt on Alex Pereira's ability to compete yet just because he's known for his kickboxing. It seems he had some background with MMA prior to signing with the UFC (early career).  He also hails from Brazil where many MMA legends came from. That said, UFC fighters are still of a different level though.

Anderson from Boxing to UFC? Not really, he had a couple of boxing fights at the same time as doing MMA and actually started as doing MT and BJJ at the same time.


Exactly this. Adding something so late in his fighting career is so much harder than just training wrestling. It's not a technique thing, it's a mental thing because you need to start thinking in a completly different way.

Proud of Jack Shore, I know I'm a little late on commenting about him, but this week has been absolutely manic. Anyway, I thought he dominated on the stand up, and showed complete control in the grappling situations. I think he has a bright future ahead of him, however I'm trying to not get too excited about his future, not yet anyway.

I'll probably get my fight predictions for the up, and coming event tomorrow.

I've updated UFC Fight Night: Smith vs. Spann post, and are having some worth watching fight next weekend.

Ion Cutelaba vs. Devin Clark is definitely worth watching. Cutelaba was very good before he joined UFC, and Clark impressed Dana White during "Dana White Looking For a Fighter" that he signed him immediately.

Transitioning can be tough, but it has been done before. But as it was done by a lot of great fighters, maybe they made it look easy than it actually was.
In Usman vs Covington, I will say Usman has better chances of winning because he has a lot of tricks up his sleeve that people often underestimate. His method is often not popular but effective, and Adesanya is in just fabulous form right now, whoever challenges him feels like an idiot inside the ring. Or maybe Adesanya makes his opponent feel like that. I think it will need a great fighter to beat him right now.

It is not that easy as it is said, to add wrestling at a later stage in career will not be easy, if so everyone would be transitioning well who has a striking background, they would spend time wrestling and they will be the best. There are some fighters like GSP who had a striking background but he is known for his wrestling skills inside the MMA community because he was quick to learn them and implement them against the best wrestlers but you cannot expect everyone to be like GSP.

The best they can do is basic takedown defense and if you are against elite wrestlers like Khabib it wont work either.