Topic: The UFC Info and Prediction Thread - page 499. (Read 96946 times)

It's crazy what Ottman Azaitar did with breaking the rules and jumping in and out the bubble, that resulted in him now being released from UFC as confirmed by Dana White in this interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGP02KGLAME

After all removed fights this is final fight card for UFC 257:

https://twitter.com/ufc/status/1352994498876334081

This is first Michael Chandler fight in UFC after coming from Bellator and I like him against Hooker but not sure how he is going to handle transition and first fight presure.

Poirier is the same as he was when he faced  McGregor before? Absolutely NO. He is more experienced and tougher.
But  McGregor's strength of TKO in the early stages of the fight will play a crucial role here. The combination of speed, power, and precision of attack favors McGregor.
But once Poirier can take the fight to later rounds, then as history shows that  McGregor has lost when the fight has reached the later rounds and I think Poirer's toughness ability has the power to do so.

It's going to be a tough fight but odds favor McGregor and my personal favorite McGregor too. So, I hope he wins.

Ottman Azaitar was also removed by Dana from the UFC for violating safety protocols. It appears that he does not care for this sport or his career in MMA.



As reported by Farrah Hannoun of MMA Junkie, Azaitar and his team cut their wristbands and handed them off to individuals who were outside of the safe zone, who were then snuck past security members. The entire ordeal was caught on camera.

Source https://www.mmanews.com/2021/01/ottman-azaitar-released-by-ufc-for-violating-safety-protocols/






On more lighter news, Conor donated to Dustin Poirier’s The Good Fight Foundation. Similar to how good and entertaining it is to watch the bad Conor, the good Conor is also not bad to watch hehehehe.



Dustin Poirier has confirmed Conor McGregor has donated to his charity, the Good Fight Foundation.

In the making of this fight, originally, McGregor and Poirier were arranging their own exhibition bout with the Irishman donating to Poirier’s charity. However, the UFC ended up making the fight, but “The Diamond” revealed McGregor kept to his word and donated to the charity.

Source https://www.mmanews.com/2021/01/dustin-poirier-confirms-conor-mcgregor-has-donated-to-the-good-fight-foundation/

Nothing stood out to me in the weigh ins, except both fighters are looking ready. Honestly, if I were to bet on it this fight probably does end via a TKO. Just because of the energy coming into this fight, Conor has a lot to prove after some justified criticism, and Poirier will be looking to make up for last time against Conor. Conor doesn't usually play a slow fight, and Poirier with something to prove sticks out to me as a potential open fight, which will lead to one of the boys getting knocked out.

I'm still sticking with chandler against Hooker, but I'll change to a decision rather than a TKO. I'm also changing to a Conor TKO, just because of the mentioned energy coming into the fight from both sides.

Dustin Poirier VS Conor McGregor


This is the fight that we are all been waiting for and it will be tomorrow and in my opinion, I really like to see how McGregor improves here and against the Cowboy Cerrone that he beat in just 4 Mins 20 Secs, but he can not ignore Poirier's toughness and in his fight against Dan Hooker it end up in a bloody decision both men never giving up, it was a mess but Dan Hooker is one tough guy to crack open, my bet is on Conor McGregor.

I haven't seen the weigh ins yet, but I think Connor might prove that his cardio has got better. This has always been a criticism of his, and arguably you could say that's why he lost against Mayweather, and he wants to fight Pac which is going to take some cardio to even compete. I know that Connor has been pushing a fitness app recently, surely he can't show the same fitness issues while pushing this app out there?

That being said I'm not even sure this is going to reach the later rounds. Conor knocked out Poirier very quickly last time out, but Poirier has looked like a stronger fighter ever since, and looks like the real business. Although, you just can't count Conor out. He's just an incredible athlete.

Here's my predictions pending changes, depending on anything stand out ish that happened during the weigh ins. I usually tend to look out for signals of a bad cut rather than anything like not looking in the zone etc. Weigh ins don't usually overly influence my predictions though.

Albazi (Decision)
Evloev (Decision)
Rountree (TKO/KO)
Antonio Carlos Junior (Decision)
Pena (Decision)
Tsarukyan (Decision)
Ribas (Decision)
Muradov
Calderwood (Decision)
Chandler (TKO/KO)
Mcgregor (Decision)

I can't see a lot of upsets going on this weekend, but I might be wrong. I've got Mcgregor by decision, but its entirely possible this ends in the first couple of rounds. However, I kind of want to see these two put a show on, considering I'm going to be staying up to watch it. I think we'll see Poirier being a little more cautious against Mcgregor this time out.

The pressure on this fight to end in a "spectacular" way is massive though, and I'm not sure if we are going to see Conor go in all guns blazing, gas out, and then get caught. I hope not, as there's definitely a story arc to him winning.

This is exactly the sole reason i am going with Dustin Poirier to win the fight, if McGregor cannot catch him early in the fight especially in the first two rounds it is going to be a difficult fight for Conor McGregor as Dustin Poirier will gain momentum as the rounds increases and his stamina and endurance will prevail and that is what i am expecting and with the level of respect both fighters are showing which is unusual for Conor McGregor, i am confident on my bet .

^  McGregor has bad cardio.  Early rounds are for him.  If it goes to the later rounds, Poirier could win.

It’s fun to have the ceremonial weigh ins again.  

UFC 257:  Weigh ins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SnkcDn3nrE


A spot I really like is Chandler at 2.15 at Stake and his KO prop at 4.6. 

I just saw the weigh-in of Gregor and Poirer and I must say that McGregor is looking way more ripped than the last time and you can clearly see this on his body and legs that are huge since the last time. Also his abdomen and neck muscles are more trained so I really can't see how Poirer can win this fight. I saw him in his last fight , I saw him now and I think he improved a lot until this fight but for me , McGregor has a huge advantage.

I like Pena and Jojo

I even like Jojo via KO at over 7


That is my short write up

Ottman Azaitar and Matt Frevola could have been a great fight but the rest of the main cards are intact and the match up i am looking forward is how Michael Chandler performs in the UFC, Dan Hooker clearly has the height advantage and he is good in take down defense and how Michael Chandler could perform during adversity is what makes this fight interesting.
For the main card i am going with Dustin Poirier as i feel like he is much established in the division and have gone through great strikers and came on top while McGregor is having his third fight.

I'm not so sure. I think the first fight of the undercard is on at 11:30 and McGregor is looking like it'll be at 5am. I doubt I'll stay up for that and just watch the replay in the morning: https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/mma/13774465/ufc-257-mcgregor-poirier-card-prelims-uk-start-time-chandler-hooker/


I don't think he will be troubled in this fight.


I wonder if this will effect the times of the other fights and they're all bumped up.

Bad news... fight Ottman Azaitar vs. Matt Frevola and Nasrat Haqparast vs Arman Tsarukyan are canceled and removed from UFC 257 fight card
Ottman Azaitar was one of my UFC picks this time but he missed to show up for weigh-in, and similar thing happened with other mentioned fighter Nasrat Haqparast.

Good thing is that main and co-main events are confirmed!

Yup, Poirier def was.  He looked deflated and I guess it’s an energy or vibe thing cos you could tell McGregor could sense it as he was projecting himself a lot more.  That face off tho..  Poirier is ready.  Don’t you guys forget he fought Gaethje and won.

We are only two days until UFC 257 start and I just watched pre-fight press conference and Conor with new glasses and his proper attitude when he suggested that Khabib should be stripped from his title  

Put that aside, I am really interested watching co-main event and for fight Ottman Azaitar vs Matt Frevola.
Azaitar is undefeated with 13-0 score and most of his wins are KO or TKO, so it will be interesting to see him against Frevola who is good with submissions and has only one lost fight with score 8-1.

If you are asking about watching a live event in the arena, the last event i was able to watch was UFC 242 when Khabib Nurmagomedov faced Dustin Poirier and it was a crazy experience because prior to that all of my experience were going to  OneFC and Brave events which is a different experience altogether and more over there were fighters personally known to me especially Bala Shetty who competed in OneFC in the past and Rahul Raju who is still competing in OneFC.

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After watching the pre fight press conference i felt like Dustin Poirier is nervous even though both Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor praised each other and we are seeing a completely different McGregor.

Really crappy odds for Conor. I just went for McGregor-Hooker parlay.

This business on top the MMA promotion and his own gym? He's trying to do a Shaq but yeah he'll most likely come back if the cash starts drying up from over investments. It's good for us though if that happens. Fighting Conor again would most likely generate more money.

Yeah I did indeed know that. Generally, its a good indicator if someone has the last name "Jones" . I'm rally excited for his future though, he's only going to grow, and learn from these experience, and honestly I'm kind of glad he's removed that 0 losses from his record, because now he can focus on training, and not worrying about losing it. Mason will be rise up the occasion no matter the opponent, at least that's what I think.

Anyhow, I'm going to watch a few more past fights for some of the lesser knowns on the up, and coming card, and I can chuck my predictions out there again if anyone wants too.

I wasn't a million miles away last time, and chucking an accumulator (parlay) on the fights always spices things up.

^  It was fight if the night.  And yeah..  I was rooting for him too.  He’s Welsh in case you didn’t know.

Anyway, time for some McGregor PPV!  Watch this pre fight press conference.  It’s nice to see the UFC getting this format back again.  It still needs a couple more fighters in there but it’s still good.

UFC 257: Pre-fight Press Conference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4KdyXrvB3w

Here are the preview and countdown vids.

UFC 257 Countdown:  Full Episode
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uvTGWaK_yI

Edit:

Date:  Saturday, January 23
Main Card (PPV):  11:00pm EST
Preliminary Card (ESPN/ESPN+):  9:00pm EST
Early Prelims (ESPN+/Fight Pass):  7:30pm EST
Venue:  Fight Island, Abu Dhabi
Live Streams:  http://crackstreams.com/mma/2/



Main Card (PPV)
Lightweight:  Dustin Poirier vs Conor McGregor            
Lightweight:  Dan Hooker vs Michael Chandler            
Women's Flyweight:  Jessica Eye vs Joanne Calderwood            
Lightweight:  Matt Frevola vs Ottman Azaitar            
Women's Strawweight:  Marina Rodriguez vs Amanda Ribas   

Preliminary Card (ESPN/ESPN+)
Lightweight:  Nasrat Haqparast vs Arman Tsarukyan            
Middleweight:  Brad Tavares vs Antônio Carlos Júnior            
Women's Bantamweight:  Julianna Peña vs Sara McMann            
Light Heavyweight:  Khalil Rountree Jr. vs Marcin Prachnio

Early Prelims (ESPN+/UFC Fight Pass
Middleweight:  Andrew Sanchez vs Makhmud Muradov            
Catchweight (150 lbs):  Movsar Evloev vs Nik Lentz            
Flyweight:  Amir Albazi vs Zhalgas Zhumagulov

I'm gutted for Jones as I really thought he might have stolen it. Although, what a fight it was I didn't catch the end so not sure if it was awarded fight of the night?

This was a decent card which had some decent fights. I know many aren't a fan of the midweek fights, but it definitely made my Wednesday more entertaining. I purposely didn't put out my picks for this one though as i had a lot of doubts about them. I'll probably have some more input this Saturday! I don't care if you don't like Connor he definitely brings the hype with him!