Topic: The UFC Info and Prediction Thread - page 490. (Read 96959 times)

I really like Blaydes, so I'm gutted for him. Hopefully, he's recovering well after a pretty nasty looking knockout. It seems  the UFC was pushing the narrative that Curtis is the nice guy too, and it was just a shame it went down like that. Lewis deserves the praise though, and even though I'm not a fan of him personally I can respect what he does.

That take down attempt though was so unneeded....that's the annoying part about it. He was conformable on the feet I thought, maybe a few counters to close for comfort, but he was undoubtedly winning up until that point.

Derrick Lewis had a funny response to those punches, Lewis said he does not want to see Curtis Blaydes rising like an Undertaker  . Lewis ate some nasty shots and Curtis punished his leg and he might be waiting to counter and when he got the opportunity he just blasted and added a couple of punches and with the post fight speech that was the game plan Lewis had, to counter with upper cut or knees whenever he shoots and the execution was perfect.
Lewis called out Alistair Overeem next but i do not think Overeem will take that fight.

 
^ This is not Blaydes vs Lewis, they just finished fighting and I doubt will go in octagon again so early

Brazilian fighter Raoni Barcelos tested positive on covid19 and he is out from UFC Fight Night 186, and Marcelo Rojo will be fighting with new opponent on short notice.

With exception of looking the main event Rozenstruik vs Ciryl Gane and fight Magomed Ankalaev vs Nikita Krylov, I will most likely skip the rest of the fights and wait for next UFC 259 and Adesanya.

update: Randy Brown is also and UFC is looking for new opponent for Alex Oliveira.

UFC Fight Night: Rozenstruik vs. Gane



Date: FEBRUARY 28
Main Card: SUN, FEB 28 / 3:00 AM EET
Prelims: SUN, FEB 21 / 12:00 AM EET

Venue: UFC APEX, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States

Main card (ESPN)
Heavyweight: Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs. Ciryl Gane            
Light Heavyweight: Nikita Krylov vs. Magomed Ankalaev            
Women's Flyweight: Montana De La Rosa vs. Mayra Bueno Silva            
Welterweight: Randy Brown vs. Alex Oliveira            
Bantamweight: Pedro Munhoz vs. Jimmie Rivera            
Featherweight: Alex Caceres vs. Kevin Croom

Preliminary card (ESPN+)
Lightweight: Alexander Hernandez vs. Thiago Moisés            
Women's Bantamweight: Sabina Mazo vs. Alexis Davis            
Light Heavyweight: William Knight vs. Alonzo Menifield            
Bantamweight: Vince Cachero vs. Ronnie Lawrence            
Light Heavyweight: Dustin Jacoby vs. Maxim Grishin

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFC_Fight_Night:_Rozenstruik_vs._Gane

There is on the UFC.COM "EARLY PRELIMS" section, but it is empty. Maybe something will be added later.

Main event fight looks interesting. Cant point any other exciting fight to watch. I know only Alex Caceres from the list, he was a TUF fighter and rather flashy personality. However his record of 17-13 shows he is not that good

Lewis addressed this in the post-fight interview and he basically said it was a natural reaction to finish the job until the ref steps in. To be fair to Herb Dean, he couldn't see if Curtis was out after that uppercut because they were too close to each other and he landed on the other side.

He was completely out cold with the uppercut alone.

In the post-fight interview, Lewis admitted that his team knew exactly what Blaydes would do and so he remained patient and waited for the TD.

I wouldn't say he didn't respect the power of Lewis because you can clearly see that in his reaction after the first attempt in R1. To me, his game was a bit off and he looked stiff from round 1 (it could be the nerves).

Well I'm not really shocked that a HW does not want to fight a five rounder XD Especially since his gas tank is not all that admirable. Sure, he might have a nice winning streak behind him, but there's really no reason he would get the JJ fight at this moment, and there is no reason why JJ would want to fight him. Lewis has no PPV draw compared to JJ fighting against Miočić for the title or Ngannou for whatever.



Just rushing in for a TD just confused the shit out of me, It's not like we all don't know that Blaydes is first a wrestler then everything else, so we know it's coming, and so does Lewis. I think Blaydes flat-out just did not respect the power and timing Lewis had, and he thought that he is a better wrestler than Lewis is a striker and that he would get away with just half-assing a TD attempt.


Actually, no one got the fight of the night bonus. Some performance of the night bonuses were awarded to Lewis, Daukaus, Aspinal and Firas Zahabis younger brother, but no FOTN bonus.

And regarding the whole Blaydes not wrestling, I disagree on that. I hate when wrestlers get to thinking that they are top level strikers and decide to bang it out for the whole fight. Remember how he implemented that against Volkov? If not for that it would be hard to think he would outpoint Volkov in a striking match. this is me the armchair analyst talking, but more wrestling would be just the right mixing up for Lewis not to have that uppercut ready as he would be much more confused on whether Blaydes tactic is to take him down or to fight him standing out. And it would drain Lewis's gas tank even more if (unlike the Volkov fight) Blaydes implemented some ground and pond, not to TKO him but just to keep his mind of of his next move.

Just wow! This was probably one of the scariest KO's I ever saw in UFC.
Blaydes had more significant strikes in main event but Lewis was just waiting for him to come and then he unleashed the animal and made him unconscious for several minutes with extra strikes in the head.
Lewis also got a bonus for performance of the night, people who made a bet on him just made a lot of money, and I hear him speak after the fight that he would like to fight Jon Jones next and not five round or title fight.
He would fight anyone except a women 

^  Blaydes knew Lewis had that upper cut ready cos he almost got starched with it in the first round.  I’m not sure why he went for a TD that way without mixing it up first.  Maybe he should’ve faked it a couple more times with some over hand rights mixed in just to give Lewis something to think about?  Dunno.. 

Derrick Lewis even when he is gassed out and in last seconds of the fight where he is completely dominated will look for a knockout punch, remember the Alexander Volkov fight where he was completlely dominated the fight and with only 15 seconds to go for a dominating victory for Alexander Volkov, somehow Derrick Lewis who was gassed out completely produced a knockout victory. The same against Travis Browne where he was hurt badly and could not stand straight he was able to find a knockout punch and then produced his famous in ring line 

Amanda Nunes is on a tear for several years and for Megan Anderson to defeat Amanda it will be a huge upset and the odds are tempting  Maybe i will wage a bet on all the underdogs as we will see some upsets.

I've had a few terrible weeks of predictions. I expected a few knockouts, and I still decided to bet against that. It was a very entertaining card honestly, and I don't think there was one boring night. Who got the fight of the night bonus?

Shame about Curtis, I really like him, and he was definitely in control. He was actually winning the stand up, and he didn't actually need to use his wrestling. Lewis was looking to catch up whenever he tried to level change, which meant he was cagey in the stand up which is what gave Curtis the edge. He should of kept going as he was, and I think he might have put Lewis down or force Lewis to stop thinking about catching him, and start trading more which would of naturally opened it up for a takedown.

2 more weeks for the big Adesanya card which is going to be a absolute banger of a card. Maybe, not the best card for us bettors, but a brilliant card for entertainment.

Well, I will admit it, I shat the bed on this one., Tokeweed was right on this one, I was able to get everything wrong but one thing, and that is that HW is a cointoss. It only took one punch on a failed TD and by Curtis. And I officially give up on Blaydes, he will never fight for the title. I thought he had potential, but at this point, it's over.

As for Oleinik, I think Dayne Fox from Bloodyelbow sums it up quite nicely 'Is Chris Daukaus that good or is the 43-year old Aleksei Oleinik past his expiration date? An argument could be made for both – and probably is a combination of both — but until further evidence comes in, let's say Daukaus is a badass. Six months after his UFC debut, he has three first round finishes. Those fast hands make up for his less than imposing frame.'. I might have ridden that Oleinik train a bit too long.

And regarding the Kunitskaya and Vieira bout, I don't think I'm sold on the decision, but it is what it is.

Blades was looking sharp and had clearly won the round 1 but in heavyweight division, 1 mistake is all it takes. That uppercut and the followup was massive. I personally dont think Herb did anything wrong. Initial viewing, I thought the upper cut didnt land properly and Blades would be able to recover..but the followup completely killed any chance Blades had.

This card had some upsets and i had a bad day with all of my picks, usually we will get some good fights that are easier to predict but this card had some upsets .

Lewis is funny and yet a punch could sleep anyone  . I did not follow the build up to the fight, did Curtis Blaydes talk trash, if not there is no need for those extra punches.



Image Credits to Wiki

Bad card for me as Tom Aspinall is the only fighter that won  .
 

The uppercut by Lewis knocked out Blades as he tried to take him down and then followed by two more bombs. He then said "That's Herb Dean's fault"  after Blade's team confronted him for the punches he threw to an already unconscious opponent

Can't blame Curtis for trying but it looks like he rushed in on that takedown attempt.

It's Fight Day and only few hours left for start of main card!
I am not much interested to watch or bet on this prelims, and main event is Blaydes win against Lewis but odds are very low and I don't see any value there.

Phil Hawes vs Nassourdine Imavov is one more from main card worth watching, and both of them didn't lose a fight since 2017.
Hawes is KO specialist and I am going for him to win against Imavov, with odds set at fair value I think.

Luis Pena and Drakkar Klose are removed from this fight card because one of the cornermen tested positive for covid.


https://twitter.com/ufc/status/1363173084904054787

I'll be honest, I find that the "smaller" cards in terms of well known fighters are usually some of the more entertaining ones. Often with bigger names, against other big names its a cagey fight due to the person not wanting to make a mistake, as the margins are much smaller against the top fighters. However, with the smaller events we get some exciting matchups, and a few knockouts to kick off the evening. I might not predict many knockouts usually, but I think there could be a few tonight.

Despite that, here's my predictions:

Jared Vanderaa vs Sergey Spivak (to go the distance).
Drako Rodriguez (points)
Chas Skelly vs Jamall Emmers (to go the distance)
Casey O'neill (points)
Nate Landwehr vs Julian Erosa (To NOT go the distance)
John Castaneda (points)
Drakkar Klose (winner)
Danny Chavez vs Jared Gordon (To go the distance)
Rafael alves (to miss weight by 11 lbs..........) (void)
Tom Aspinall (By TKO)
Phil Hawes vs Nassourdine Imavov (Fight to go the distance, and fighters blowing out of their arse)
Curtis Blaydes (TKO)

Israel Adesanya did not fight anyone who could take him down and test his ground game even though there were wrestlers they were either not successful in taking him down and keeping him on the ground

The favorite submission move for Jan Błachowicz is the rare naked choke and Israel Adesanya is the master of distance and i am expecting the fight going 5 rounds.

Khamzat Chimaev is yet to recovery fully after he was infected with corona virus and he was taken to hospital multiple times during light training sessions because of breathing issues, so it might take a long time for him to return and sure he was exciting for the division.

Kelvin Gastelum and Yoel Romero are great wrestlers but their game plan does not revolve around keeping them down and whenever they tried the ground game Israel Adesanya was able to defend them and the only fighter that can test him on the ground will be Jon Jones but i doubt the ego of Jones neglects the ground game and wants him to defeat Adesanya on the feet .

Hello, New Guy hope you stay and enjoy all prediction and speculation that everyone here has to offer, Well a small event but it is surely a worth to watch but I am waiting for the UFC 259 Jan Blachowicz VS Israel Adesanya will be the main event and I think that Adesanya could win it,

but with the Fight Night that is happening Tomorrow, I will go with Curtis Blaydes I think he will focus on the TKO but apparently, I think he will surely use all his skill set in this fight to take on Derrick Lewis, with Lewis huge proportion I think he is one tough fighter to crack, so Blaydes will sure take out all of his known moves and can throw out a ground takedown on Lewis,


For Ketlen Viera VS Yana Kunitskaya I am sure that Viera has the potential to throw a good fight and give Kunitskaya a hell of a beating and unanimous pick top fight and one of the favorites on betting sites.

Hey, I didn't say there wasn't any boring fights I think its almost expected to have bad, and good fights. Honestly, a lot of the "bad" fights are sometimes entertaining with the technical side of things. For example, watching fighters know how to distance themselves, and when or not to engage can be entertaining.

Israel usually delivers just because of the nature of the way he fights. Stand up is often fun to watch, but honestly I think if someone can take down Israel it might be either really interesting on how he deals with it, or a complete chink in his armour.

^  That’s if Oleinik can take him to the ground.  He has only 48% take down accuracy:  https://www.mmaformguide.com/oleynik-vs-daukaus/

I guess if Daukas could defend it a couple of times, Oleinik’s gas tank gets a big hit.  Then again we haven’t seen Chris Daukas’ TD defense get tested yet.  I lean Daukas but I do agree that Oleinik is live.

From a betting perspective, no way I’m betting Daukas at the current line at 1.5.  I looked at the over 1.5 rounds at 2.20, I kinda got interested cos of what you said, Oleinik’s experience, but Daukas has some good hands...  I could also imagine this as something like Holland vs Jacare.