Topic: The UFC Info and Prediction Thread - page 59. (Read 99779 times)

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.

Wups really?  Lol.  I think Ankalaev can't wait to get his hands on Pereira.  The guy couldn't defend a TD even if his momma depended on it.  I think Ankalaev will mop the floor with Pereira and I really hope the books will get it wrong and line Ankalaev as a huge underdog now that everybody is convinced that Pereira is like the second coming or something.  

As for the coming event, from a betting perspective I like Austin Hubbard at 2.33, Medic and Nicolau parlay at 2.00 and thinking about if I gamble on Guskov at 2.50.

Edit:  Here's a fight replay.

Perez vs Formiga
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRTVayIIWag

I haven't checked this thread for a week or two and I missed the announcement of McGregor vs Chandler fight. I accidentally discovered a video about it today on Youtube and I was kinda surprised. It was already visible from 30 second that something exciting (for Dana White) was about to be announced, he can't hide his wicked smile, he can't hide his love for money. This smile directly told me that Conor's and Chandler's was about to happen.
Here is the video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h76WONPAYA&t=30s

By the way, I think that Conor is washed up. A drug addict that wants to return to the MMA, that doesn't happen. He hasn't been consistent since he fought Floyd.

I have to agree with it, absolutely everyone would love to see his fight, he is amazing!

For now, Alex Pereira doesn't have any trouble with the guys that have a Khabib Nurmagomedov level of wrestling we can all say that Sean Strickland, Israel Adesanya, Jiří Procházka, or Jamahal Hill doesn't have the mentality of getting into the ground in the early fight and would still consider a stand-up fight that is why they are all Clobbred by Pereira's devastating left for sure Jan Błachowicz is the only fight that has a decent performance that Pereira had some trouble but the rest most of that fight Pereira won via KO.

But for sure Tom Aspinall is a different build because he is a heavyweight but still have the speed of a Light Heavyweight, so pretty sure Alex Pereira will have a problem against him.


I think that Stipe Miocic is not begging for a fight but Jon Jones wants to fight Miocic which for me he should just get another fight rather than fighting Miocic because some say that Stipe Miocic is too old to return inside the octagon, in my opinion, he should now fight Tom Aspinall so we can know if he is worthy of the title as a pound 4-pound fighter which many have a doubt even though he has already beaten Cyril Gane, so he should move into Aspinall instead.


Good Suggestion! For sure the only way he could beat Jon Jones is for him to have a baseball bat, that would be an awesome thing to see, but seriously Stipe Miocic has had enough if he returned to UFC I really think that would be a boring fight, and just like the Jon Jones VS Ciryl Gane fight that would be a fast fight because Jone Jones would likely just pulverized him but the level of likely that he wants a fight against Stipe Miocic is just outstanding.

As Miocic is good at baseball, and he wants to fight Jones, then the only way I see that he could win is to take a bat with him Make some homeruns on Jones chicken calfs and be the first to KO him But yeah, what does Stepe really expect from his next fight? I would suggest him to look on Arlovski. He is aged fruit as well. If Stepe also wants to go to win average young guys with experience and and fights with boring UD, then go ahead, follow Arlovski path and fight till 45.

Absolutely everyone in the light heavyweight would love to fight him. He's the best opponent out there. He built a solid brand and will bring in a lot of views which converts to good money for both sides. And he's the champ, so not much shame in losing to him and it won't affect the ranking place of the losing fighter too much.

If Pereira doesn't fancy moving up to the heavyweight, he will almost certainly be matched up against Ankalaev, who, in my opinion, would have a big chance of beating Alex due to him being an all-rounder with Sambo as his base sport (which includes a lot of wrestling), so he would pose the biggest challenge to Alex in terms of defending takedowns etc.
My money would be on Ankalaev, even though I don't like his style too much.

I’m really looking forward to seeing Conor fight again. I worry a little bit that he is not going to be the same fighter and the fight won’t be exciting, but it’s hard to count him out without seeing him in action. If Ryan Garcia can pull off an upset win then maybe McGregor can as well. I’m definitely excited to see it no matter how much of a train wreck it is.

Full Video: https://youtu.be/vEvyhO7upk8?si=4QKcA97ekgnkc8SG

Well, this is interesting. Connor McGregor is going to fight after three years I believe. Let's see how he does and let's also see if he can actually increase the current popularity of the UFC. We all know that he has a lot of crazy fans. But is he still that much relevant? we all know he lost his motivation the day Khabib Nurmagomedov announced his retirement. Maybe he finally understood that him getting his rematch against Khabib is never going to happen. And probably he also understood that he finally needed to move on and stop letting Khabib live rent free in his head.

Strickland's fight is also going to be very interesting as well. Recently he has been putting a lot of effort into the social media side. let’s see if he has also been putting work into his fighting as well.

I don't see anyone interested in fighting Pereira at LHW either. I don't think Ankalaev has a chance against him or any other else in the LHW that will challenge Pereira. These guys will just waste time until Pereira turns 41 and infirmed. It's the usual game already even in boxing. Pereira wants to fight as he is already 36, it is just a race against time, he'd got to go to the topmost to dominate all the ranks and retire so beating the big guys would be his last act.

I think he already expressed this in an interview and probably the last fight will be Jon Jones if he wins against Tom.

Well give Miocic an offer he can't refuse and an assurance that he'll be in the hall of fame.  So it's either that or wait for Jon Jones which might not even materialize judging from how Jones is taking his time in getting his shoulder sorted.

And lol...  What does Miocic really expect at this point?  He's like over 40 and hasn't fought in two years.  Lol.  He should feel lucky the UFC is still giving him his due.

As for the event this weekend, the more I look at the match ups more closely, the more I'm liking it.  Most if these match ups won't go the distance me thinks.

Replay...

Nicolau vs Schnell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8IkU3YK8EQ

Pereira, Prochazka rematch and a title fight? That will be unfair towards other guys in LHW division. And what if Prochazka wins? He will become champ, but there will be 1-1 between them. So they need to make a third fight? That is like 1 year stolen from other LHW competitors. It will be unfair to have fighters rotation between top1-3 and a champ, just because they are more worthy to take a title fight.

Not gonna happen because he wanted a championship fight, or a rematch against Pereira. This means that if Pereira were to lose his fight and Prohazka win his, you'd see Prohazka vs Hill next.
Now that Prohazka and Pereira both won and there was supposed to be a rematch between them, plus Prohazka is going to get a title fight after that last win, there's about 90% chance that the next fight is going to be between these two. So, the fight would make sense if Hill had the belt, but he doesn't.

That's logical, but the whole problem is that Stipe won't fight Tom. I believe it was Tom who confirmed that in one of the interviews, freshly after Jon's injury was announced.
Frankly, from Stipe's perspective, it would be a stupid move to make. He's effectively (but not officially) retired so will only go for a huge money fight, meaning Jon Jones. Not a bad plan: step into the octagon, dance around, get KOed, get paid, announce retirement and live happily ever after.
But if he were to accept a fight with Aspinal and lose, there would be zero chance of him getting to fight Jones. So it was either Aspinall or Jones for him, and a Jones fight obviously pays incomparably better.

Now, some could say that UFC could force Stipe (or Jones) into certain fights, but the truth is, they don't have much leverage on fighters who are already secured financially and on the verge of retirement. If the UFC put their foot down and said "You have to fight X or you won't fight ever again", they'd just say No and move on to other things, and the UFC would lose a lot on potential income.

I think what the UFC should do then is give the Miocic fight to Aspinall and not wait for Jon Jones anymore.  I think it's what's fair for everybody concerned.  Aspinall doesn't to wait  Miocic gets his retirement money and Jon Jones is given more time to recuperate.

As for Aspinall vs Pereira, sure why not...  Would love to see these guys throw leather but it doesn't really make sense.  Just let Pereira fight at 205 and let Aspinall take on all comers of he gets the title from Jones.

I would love to watch Prochazka vs Hill, but not as a title fight I am not cheering for Ankalaev, for wrestling or Dagestani boys, but I find it unfair how many times Ankalaev was so close to have a title  fight and still someone else fight for the belt later. 10 wins in a row, and still not even close to a title fight. As to Jan, it is indeed a good time for him to retire. I dont remember him winning lately. The fight against Rakic he has won due to injury, then in was a draw and not impressive performances. The worst thing Jan can do now is to accept fight against top of the top and turn into Fergusson slowly.