Topic: The UFC Info and Prediction Thread - page 551. (Read 99590 times)

One more bad news for July 15th UFC Fight Island!
Brasilian fighter Pedro Munhoz tests positive for covid19 and UFC is now looking for new opponent to fight with Frankie Edgar.
https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2020/07/ufc-fight-island-pedro-munhoz-tests-positive-coronavirus?taid=5f042478621aa70001d03812


Back to main event Masvidal - Usman.
Win or lose, Masvidal secured future for his family with this fight, as he made a great deal with Usman and UFC.
Odds suggest that Usman is heavy favorite in this fight, and best odds are in Nitrogen for now:
https://bitedge.com/odds-comparisons/ufc/

It is official, Dana White posted a promo video for the main event between jorge masvidal and kamaru usman in twitter, the fight might not go the full distance and i saw an interview from jorge masvidal that he was not training but rather keeping his fitness and he was not training for months which is not a good sign but we can expect him to finish the fight and jorge masvidal will not go down without a fight.

A few bookies opening their lines on it now...  Still no line for rounds betting tho.  I think a decent line on something like under 4.5 rounds could be a winnar.  

And still no official anouncement from the UFC.  I wonder what's the hold up.

Street Jesus?    hahaha anyway good analysis Usman might train so hard and think of a strategy to take down Burns but again the cancelation might just give him a little time to prepare for Masvidal but again Masvidal as well is the same with Usman a sudden fight like this might also give him a hard time, but this kind of fight was kind of a surprise for both of them and they will need to adjust for that and fight with their own will, in my opinion, is a good fight as well, can Jorge Masvidal get a chance to try a sudden move on Usman as he did with Askren well that will be a good one.

Finally street Jesus will be getting his title shot after 17 years in MMA and the numerous street fights he had in his initial days and it is crazy to think that he is still fighting at the elite level and it took a long time to get recognition and i am glad he is getting the shot and it would be great if he could win the fight. Usman was training for Burns who is a elite submission fighter and i guess he might not be training to go to the ground and if the fight does not go to the ground Masvidal does have a chance to win the belt.

Here I am again! been very busy lately because of many projects and work, and pretty much I am out a couple of weeks or so,

But about the turn of events between the UFC 251, Usman VS Burns turns to become Usman VS Masvidal instead the virus really is a true bummer, I think fighters should have a training regime inside the comfort of their home where they will be safe instead of traveling around getting infected, I know they need to go on a training camp or whatever but in this kind of new normal health is still more important than the fight in my opinion, 

But anyway Usman can be big trouble for Masvidal but the looks alone can be very deceiving and Jorge Masvidal can have an ace on his sleeve and I need to look further on their stats to confirm my final decision on putting my bet.

Yeah! What a lucky guy hahaha. Dan seems forced because he got no choice but to grant his demands or else the main event won't happen at all .

Besides I'm sure that Dana will breakeven in no time because the main event become more exciting than the original plan. He can expect this match will generate a lot of money for him. Thus, I'm glad he did the right choice.

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Update: Masvidal passed the covid 19 test. Nice!

It appears that Dana's evil genius plan of ignoring Jorge Masvidal's demands and giving Gilbert Burns the opportunity then infecting him of the coronavirus on the last week before the fight has worked on Jorge hehehehe.

I was expecting Masival to take on Usman for the main event but then the UFC was not willing to pay fighters in the 170 pound division and hence the title shot went to Burns because he was ready to accept any payment to be the main event and the title fight and now the plan of having a title fight and main event with a much lower price tag backfired for Dana and i hope we will see Masvidal and Usman for the title.

Usman vs. Masvidal negotiations are done and they all agreed to terms. Masvidal landed I Las Vegas, and Usman is on the road.
They will all have to pass covid19 test and be in quarantine while they wait for results.
If both tests are negative then they both fly to AbuDhabi.
https://twitter.com/arielhelwani/status/1279842810267656192

Looks like we are near to have our main event 

It is great to hear that Jorge Masvidal was willing to take advantage of the situation and Kamaru Usman was willing to fight any opponent and it is a really great situation for the fans.

The fight is taking place in Abu Dhabi but without any audience and after listening to Ariel Helwani i had a different thought, even if Kamaru Usman did not get the visa nor board the flight to Abu Dhabi and if Jorge Masvidal gets his demands fulfilled they can conduct the fight in Las Vegas in their own facility Apex center and broadcast worldwide as the main event rather than flying to Abu Dhabi while the rest of the fight is taking place in the fight island.

This is pretty bad because it would have been a great match and I actually had a bet on Kamaru Usman so yeah I was excited for a 5 rounds high intensity match just like we had a fight with Poirier vs Hooker and what a fight that was, both the guys standing tall and trading blows like animals but as everyone knew, Poirier is a smart fighter and managed to win the last 3 rounds while getting edged out by Hooker in the first 2 and similar was expecting for Usman vs Burns.

I am upset about the cancel of the main event but there are some nice fights including the fight which is not as exciting in terms of odds but I always love to see Paige VanZant in action and actually 6 odds ain't bad either!

Jorge Masvidal has been now tested for covid19 and if he is negative we may see him in upcoming UFC main event facing Kamaru Usman!
This will be epic fight if it happens, and I will still give small advantage to Usman.
Some people think main event will not happen as Usman did not even board the plane from Las Vegas to Abu Dhabi, but lets wait and see results of Masvidal testing...
https://twitter.com/espnmma/status/1279540116126498816

Khabib was very close to father. I reckon it has destroyed all of his desire to fight again. However, he might also have a farewell fight and similar to the show from anger that he created after his fight versus Conor, I also speculate that Khabib might make a speech that Xi Jinping might not like hehehehehe.

Also, Dana is a Trump supporter. He will approve of this storyboard hehehe.

I thought the UFC had time to negotiate for a replacement but since the fight is taking place in the UAE the possibility we could see the Usman fight is very slim and Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway might be the main event. If the fight was scheduled in the US i am sure the UFC will scramble to make the fight happen and Masvidal would have got the money he was demanding.

I do not see Khabib retiring but i hope he will see it as a motivation to make his dad proud and defend his title a few times before retiring.

Just one more week and i do not see any replacement.

Ooooo better match up with Masvidal imo.  But I wish they fought under better circumstances tho...  Like Masvidal going thru a full fight camp?  But who knows.  Some fighters come out better without it.

Edit:  Still..  Sucks with Burns out and Khabib's dad.  You guys think Khabib's really gonna retire?

Edit:  Looks like the main event is gonna be Volk vs Holloway from what I'm reading...  Usman vs Burns will be rescheduled.

Edit:  Seeing some people wanting Covington to step in...  I mean Usman vs him again?  I'd rather see Leon Edwards get in there if not Masvidal.

I'd like him to step up to take the fight but I really doubt Dana is going to step back and give him what he wants. He probably needs to stand firm. Otherwise it will just have a knock-on effect and many more fighters will just go on a protest asking for more money. Hopefully they can come to some compromise as this would be a huge fight for Masvidal and I can't see him fighting any time soon. With a belt on the line he should just take it, do his thing and perform well and maybe even win then he will be in a better position to get the big bucks for the big buck fights. Without a belt this is less likely to happen.

Oh yeah, I heard the news a while ago and it seems that shifting of events may result to a more interesting fight lol. The only thing we need to do is for Dana to say yes. It is a blessing in disguise (is it appropriate to say it? No offense intended).

However, I'm lowering my expectations regarding such possibility since we all knew that there's a bad blood between Masvidal and Dana lately. But I hope Dana will consider this, if were him I'll forget the issue for the meantime because what's more important is getting more money.

Jorge Masvidal was supposed to fight Kamaru Usman in this fight card but it was not scheduled because of payment issues and this is a great opportunity for Gamebred to get the money he is looking for by taking a short replacement fight but i doubt Usman will be willing to take him on a short notice.

It is not that easy as you think, there are strategies you do against an opponent studying their tapes and understanding patterns and if you are training for months for a single opponent and then there is a switch off opponent at the last moment it is not an advantage for anyone.

The prime example is Khabib and Al Iaquinta fight, there was 6 or 7 opponents changed during that fight week and Khabib was willing to fight anyone but it was not that dominating like the rest of his fights and the so called pundits were taking that fight to compare his flaws in taking down Al Iaquinta and his stand up issues even though he dominated Al Iaquinta every round, change of opponents is a major factor for anyone as these are not backyard fights and these are elite of the elite fighters and preparation means everything.

It is much deeper than what is in the surface, Khabib relates everything in his life through martial arts and training, if you can go back and watch his Russian TV interview while he was injured for over a year back in 2015, he said he felt he was in jail because he could not train nor he could fight and that is how he relates life, if he is frustrated or depressed he gets that relief if he trains hard and overcome that state of mind, it is a completely different philosophy altogether.

Too bad for Burns and his team but he'll probably get another shot at the title.

I wasn't expecting Masvidal to volunteer as a replacement fighter. It would have been a good chance to leverage his position to get a higher pay if Dana and UFC would want to keep that title match for the very first event on fight island.