Topic: The UFC Info and Prediction Thread - page 48. (Read 96909 times)

^  I think it's gonna be really close and I lean Aldo because it's in Brazil.  As for the other stuff you're saying, no...  I don't think he'll be going for the belt again.  He prolly asked the UFC to be in this event to fight one last time in front of the Brazilian crowd.

And at 2.31, I think it's a tad short but prolly fine if you're betting anything small.

Here's the Embedded vid...

UFC 301:  Embedded Episode 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rouyhXQJ1mk

Do you really think that Aldo is still able to do same magic with his legs as he used to ? Martinez imho is not kid for beating. 19-4 and series of 6 wins. Against guy who retired 1.5 years ago and is not in his prime for a long time. Bookies see Martinez as a favourite in this fight. Dunno if this Aldo still has ambitious to give everything in the octagon. What if he wins, what would he do next? Continue mma fighting? Join belt race?

Here's UFC 301's roster...  

Date:  Saturday, May 4
Main Card (PPV):  10:00pm EST
Preliminary Card (ESPN/ESPN+):  8:00pm EST
Early Prelims (ESPN+/Fight Pass):  6:15pm EST
Venue:  Farmasi Arena, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Live Streams:  




Main Card (PPV)
Flyweight:  Alexandre Pantoja vs Steve Erceg
Bantamweight:  Jonathan Martinez vs Jose Aldo            
Light Heavyweight:  Anthony Smith vs Vitor Petrino            
Middleweight:  Michel Pereira vs Ihor Potieria            
Middleweight:  Paul Craig vs Caio Borralho   

Preliminary Card (ESPN/ESPN+)
Featherweight:  Jack Shore vs Joanderson Brito            
Women's Strawweight:  Karolina Kowalkiewicz vs Iasmin Lucindo            
Lightweight:  Elves Brener vs Myktybek Orolbai            
Featherweight:  Jean Silva vs William Gomis   

Early Prelims (ESPN+/UFC Fight Pass)
Lightweight:  Joaquim Silva vs Drakkar Klose            
Lightweight:  Mauricio Ruffy vs Jamie Mullarkey            
Women's Flyweight:  Dione Barbosa vs Ernesta Kareckaite            
Lightweight:  Ismael Bonfim vs Vinc Pichel            
Flyweight:  Alessandro Costa vs Kevin Borjas

Here's the countdown vid...

UFC 301:  Countdown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSz7-_5Ue7I

And here are my picks at first glance.  Could change as we go closer to the event, esp after weigh ins.

Pantoja
Aldo
Petrino
Pereira
Borralho
Brito
Lucindo
Brener
Gomis
Klose
Mullarkey
Barbosa
Bonfim
Costa

Edit:  jeremypwr's Multi Master is up.

UFC 301:  Multi Master Challenge
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/sportsbetio-ufc-301-multi-master-challenge-4-may-5494701

Damn you made me feel sad because I remember I've got a yellow belt And I think I still remember some kata moves. But from my childhood I have learned well, that if does not matter what belt color you have, how many years you have trained or which martial art. If you are about to have a fight, then while you still argue and push each other, the best thing to do is to land a good hook to the jaw. Many people are afraid to fight and to punch others. Your first punch shocked opponent and often the fight ends with it. Or if he has balls, you start a real brawl


I think I went to those karate "schools" only because it was one of few available activities near home for boys. Anyway I barely used all what I have learned. At least when I had fights in school or on the street, they all ended quickly within 1-3 punches to the face (and not always I was a winner lol). The thing with kimono and blood - I think it was more not because it was blood on it, but because at the time, it was hard to get it, and if you buy it, you usually get a bit oversized that it would last for 1-3 years. Plus they were expensive. I remember that we had to get with two busses to other part of the city to get it. And as it was a former Soviet country and 90s, a lot of goods were hard to get.

P.S. I will share some more of my "IRL achievements" Just remembered that I was in love with one girl in second grade and to impress her, I told her that I do karate. Damn, right now, when I remember that story, I nearly laughed. To impress her, I showed that I can do a leg split and spinning kick that landed... Well, my coach would be proud for my accuracy lol

Pretty decent event. 4 out of 6 fights of the main card were finished by KO/TKO.
Nicolau will have some bad memories from this one, but I think Perez was a bit underrated. Perez gave a really decent fight last time against a lower-ranked Mokaev and lost, but Mokaev is young, undefeated, and is just climbing up the ranks to get his title shot soon. It was no shame to lose to him by decision.
Yesterday Perez really went for it, he was much more dominating and aggressive. He pressed the gas pedal hard and it paid off.
I wonder how the UFC will update the ranking. It's possible that Nicolau could get dropped down by 3 places.

I am definitely not interested about the UFC 301. Especially compared to the last UFC event, I mean UFC 300, this UFC 301 is not going to be more interesting. Actually, this next UFC event, UFC 301 is actually not going to be even 50% interesting as the last one was. Maybe I am wrong and maybe it is just a personal bias because I was really interested to see Alex Pereira, Charles Oliver, Max Holloway, Justin Gaethje, etc. maybe other people will find the next UFC event interesting.

Results for the event...  It was a parlay buster as there were 6 underdogs getting the W.  Lol.  The biggest pie shtter of the night was Nicolau.  

Alex Perez   def Matheus Nicolau  KO R2
Bogdan Guskov def Ryan Spann  TKO R2
Karine Silva def Ariane Lipski  UD
Jhonata Diniz def Austen Lane  KO R2
David Onama def Jonathan Pearce  UD
Uros Medic def Tim Means  TKO R1
Victor Henry def Rani Yahya  TKO R3
Austin Hubbard def Michal Figlak  UD
Don'Tale Mayes def Caio Machado  UD
Ketlen Souza def Marnic Mann  UD
Chris Padilla def James Llontop  SUB R1
Ivana Petrovic def Liang Na  SUB R3
Maheshate Hayisaer def Gabriel Benítez  SD

Nicolau vs Perez:  Post Fight Press Conference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hl20y1SEz0

UFC 301 is next!  Not as good as the last PPV event but there are some good match ups in there.  Can't wait!

Edit:  Typos

I think the meta on Ankalaev has changed after seeing how he fought Johnny Walker twice.  Lol.  It wasn't the slow starter what we got used to.  And Pereira himself isn't a pressure fighter too.  He'll start slow vs a guy like Ankalaev who could either get a quick TD or even get KO.  Pereira is low key chinny.

Here are the weigh in results.  I changed my mind on the main event...  Perez could win as the underdog but staying away.  Staying away from Medic too as a huge favorite.  If he doesn't finish Tim Means early he could get in trouble at late R2 and at R3.

Matheus Nicolau (125.5) vs Alex Perez (126)
Bogdan Guskov (204.5) vs Ryan Spann (205.5)
Ariane da Silva (126) vs Karine Silva (125.5)
Jhonata Diniz (255) vs Austen Lane (254.5)
David Onama (148.5)* vs Jonathan Pearce (146)
Tim Means (171) vs Uros Medic (171)
Victor Henry (135.5) vs Rani Yahya (136)
Michal Figlak (155) vs Austin Hubbard (156)
Caio Machado (251.5) vs Don’Tale Mayes (264)
Marnic Mann (115.5) vs Ketlen Souza (115.5)
James Llontop (156.5)* vs Chris Padilla (154.5)
Na Liang (126) vs Ivana Petrovic (126)
Gabriel Benitez (155) vs Hayisaer Maheshate (155.5)

*Missed weight

Nicolau vs Perez:  Weigh Ins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDej7GKircQ

Nicolau vs Perez:  Face Off
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UrnaxCkcGU

Edit:  Typos.

Is this for real?
I hope it won't upset you but I think that karate is bullshit. I liked it during my childhood and I am glad my father didn't pay for my karate classes and took me into boxing and wrestling for a while. I never continued any of them but their knowledge helped me during bad moments.
By the way, mothers are very panicky. I mean, c'mon, it's a small nose bleed, kids had a small sparring, it's okay and to my mind, necessary to man up but mothers are always afraid. That part of blood on Kimono and then being forced to wash it and remove blood from it really made my day

If he uses any of his favorite drugs during the show, I think there will be a serious problem. Yes, coke and speed will help him to fight very well, those will significantly increase his self-confidence, charisma, reaction speed, strength, power, absolutely everything but I think that public will not miss Conor with dilated pupils and that can turn into a scandal.

Atleast you still are not that late to know that Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler will be having something like this for sure Dana White is excited and announcing this to the public he can not hide his bias for money, for sure he is expecting this fight to make huge revenue for the UFC and for me, he is not wrong about it as this is expected to have a huge pay per view for sure I will not be surprised if after this fight there could be another like this, but it will depend on the two fighters performance.

I agree Conor McGregor could be a washed-up fighter but what if the drug will give him a strength boost that would be insane for Michael Chandler who is now catching up in weight but still has an amount of time to make it this could be a great fight or a something McGregor will regret aswell as it could ruin his career.


If Magomed Ankalaev had not gone with the wrestling immediately that fight could have favored Alex Pereira as we all know Magomed Ankalaev wants to start slow and he would surely get his momentum with the striking first which is Alex Pereira's playing field, we could say that it is Pereira's Bread and Butter but if Magomed Ankalaev would immediately go beyond that and finish this fight with wrestling this could be his win, but as Alex Pereira now has trained with his ground game this is still going to be an interesting fight to see as anything can surely happen if this two fights.

This can be seen very clearly in the Oliveira vs Tsarukyan fight at UFC 300. Arman is a wrestler with abilities that are said to be on the same level as Islam. And Oliveira is the fighter with the best Jiujitsu skills in the UFC right now, IMO. Wrestling has the advantage of attempting Takedowns, takedown defense and the ability to control the ground match. BJJ has the ability to land deadly strikes on the ground. It would be very dangerous to take a BJJ practitioner to a ground match even if you are an NCAA division 1 wrestler.

Many say wrestling is better than BJJ because Arman won against Charles Oliveira. But what not many people know is that Arman's team knew that there was no way Arman would not be locked by Charles and therefore they did breath holding exercises and did several simulations to be able to "survive" from submission. You can see when Arman is in Guillotine choke and D Arc Choke where it is very deep and maybe the other fighter will faint.

^  Lmao.  Those 'schools' were made to make you think the training you get is useful...  Aka scams.  But sparring is very useful tho.  You can't learn how to fight for real without sparring, except in those 'schools', you're taught to fight in one way and one way only.  So it won't really make you much of a fighter vs somebody who also knows what he's doing.

If I were to bet between a black belt karate guy and a division 1 wrestler in a street fight, I'd bet on the wrestler.


Yeah it should be good defensively vs good BJJ specialists...  But then again Ankalaev doesn't wrestle to transition to BJJ on the ground.  This Russian bro takes you down and drops bombs on you.  Lmao.  And with Pereira's suspect chin, he could go out.  :/  But dunno.  He has to be taken down first.  Very intruiging match up.

The story with belts in any sport is funny. While in some sports you need to participate in competitions and win there, to get new belts, when in some you can do sports for ages and/or show kata to get new belts. Many, many years ago, in far galaxy, when grass was much more green, little boy under the name TopTort777 attended karate trainings. We had to spar during training and once coach put me against blue belt. I was white that time and a total newbie. My opponent stood in stance, while I was more like a newbie that stand still. If I am not mistaken, with first punch I made his nose bleed If not mistaken that was first and only punch in that spar. I clearly remember how that kids mother scolded me and forced to take his kimono home to wash it from blood I remember my mother scolded me because it was impossible to wash it and we had to buy that kid a new one, but father gave me thumbs up lol It was my third week of training, but that kid attended karate for 5 years, each year passed kata exam and got a new belt. He is probably now black belt, but I am on a crypto forum

It's just a belt nothing more to it and it's been proven that BJJ doesn't work when the opponent doesn't engage in BJJ as well.  So many of the videos on YouTube about these where a striker just beat down a BJJ upon attempting.  But I think Wrestling vs BJJ will be a battle on who's going to control the fight.

Seeing Ankalev is also a striker so this is going to be a striker vs striker. It's just a wonder why Alex didn't call Ankalev. Maybe becuase he got what he wanted in that division which is the belt and he wants to move up already planning to get another belt and looking for the biggest fight of his career as well.

Blachowicz is a bjj black-belt, although not all black belts are equal. And being skilled in bjj doesn't necessarily makes you great at takedowns or at keeping guys down, as most of it's focus is on fighting on the ground where both guys are willing to do so. Even looking at bjj tournament fights it's not uncommon to see people just starting from the ground. Wrestling or sambo are much better base for takedowns imo.
That being said, Blachowicz was doing good in the first round but just couldn't find that rear naked choke. Then he gassed out badly at the end of the 2nd round and was too exhausted to do anything. Still, one judge gave him a win.
I was disappointed in Jan back then, but now, looking at how Pereira beats everyone up, he's not looking so bad anymore.

But there's also a general trend in how mma has evolved, when jiu-jitsu is just not as effective as it has been before. Now everyone knows the basics of ground game and submission defence.


Lol, I searched for it and it turns out to be true (as per wikipedia). Apparently they gave it to him after his UFC 300 win:
https://jitsmagazine.com/alex-pereira-promoted-to-bjj-black-belt-after-ufc-300-win/?utm_content=cmp-true
I think that's a good evidence that black belts don't mean anything anymore.

Pereira just got his blackbelt in BJJ so I think it's going to be a good fight unless it ends too quickly in just a few seconds of a round. Given that Pereira has been choked in his debut in MMA, I think he prepared for someone to fight with wrestling skills.

Else he goes up to fight in the HW. Jones is almost not in his prime and not in shape already compared to Pereira, I think we wouldn't see this fight happening unless Pereira pushes as early as possible so we could see some Chama in UFC.

^  Check out the rankings at 205 right now...  Who among the top 5 has a grappling background except Ankalaev.  And even then I'm not really sure if he's good at BJJ.  But he is good at wrestling tho.  :/  It's going to be an intruiging fight and one that could gas Pereria out.  By the time he comes out of the third round his arms will be tired from all the holding he'll be forced to do vs Ankalaev.  But dunno...  It's just how I see it play out in my head.

Somehow Pereira has found a cheat code fo UFC that allows him to get two belts, fight top of the top guy and during whole mma career avoid anyone who has a bjj blue belt not from Happy Meal. Really, how come he never faced anyone who knows how to play mma on the ground? Sometimes I catch myself thinking, that Pereira fights are like kickboxing fight that mix card during OneFC events. Guy has billion of kickboxing fight, and keep kickboxing in octagon, calling it mma.

I am not going to lie, I'm hoping for that too (if that fight happens at all).
I don't think Alex is as easy to be taken down as many might think, as takedown defence was most likely his primary focus since he moved from kickboxing to MMA, but any fighter with a solid wrestling/grappling background could do it.
Past-prime Błachowicz managed to take him down 3 times, but couldn't keep him there for too long, and only lost by a split-decision.


Sorry, I missed that post previously.
Who wanted a championship fight? Prochazka? Hi "wanting" something doesn't have much weight on the UFC's match making decisions. He had his shot not that long ago and lost, so have to rebuild his top contender position with at least one more win.

^ Ankalaev is the next in line. They are big names already that are supposedly being discussed after the fight but not a word from Dana or Ankalaev himself.  Ankalaev has been in this division for a long time, never been given that chance to get a title fight.  But him against Alex, it will likely play out like Jan Błachowicz fight. Or it only needs one left hook also.