Topic: The UFC Info and Prediction Thread - page 6. (Read 101315 times)

Prelims are almost finished guys, so you can now tune in and watch the main card live stream if you want.
I am not so excited about this UFC event but there are on or two fights I want to see, that can be a small warm up for next week UFC 311 that looks much better with Prochazka comeback and other top fighters.

I don't think that Aspinall will manage to cut weight and go in LH division. He is very bulky, from his appearance I can say that genetically, he gains fat very easy, it will be a nightmare for him to maintain weight that he needs for LH. When genetically it's hard for you to cut weight, you have to do more extreme way to lose weight. Since burning of fat takes lots of times and many UFC fighters can't eat a untasteful food all the time, they try to cut weight water, which is very easy to cut quickly. They go on low carb diet to cut as much water as possible and as soon as possible but low carb diet makes you very tired and dizzy, the difference between cut and normal state is so huge that I'm 100% sure those who cut lots of weight have very low energy levels and they would have much better performance in the fight if they were consistent with diet and eating habits but I don't know what to say because as it seems, it works very well for Paddy the baddy.

By the way, I still think it will be very hard and very uncomfortable for Tom Aspinall to move down in LH.

Conor isn't who he used to be, money permanently changed him in a very negative thing. I love how Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have all the money but they didn't decline, never, ever, even for a single minute. Both of them were always in their peak but Conor, money changed him, he degraded.

No actual rule but this time around Jones doesn't have an excuse.  If he refuses to fight Tom Aspinall then in Aspinall's next match he'll be officially UFC champion with Jones being stripped off of it.  Why would the UFC keep Jones around as the champ if he won't fight the guy who's next up for the challenge...  The interim champ.

Some guys seem to find ways to complain with what the UFC does..  Like they can't do anything right yet continues to watch it.    Just GTFO bros or just watch and make your bets.  Have fun with it for once.

Anyway, here are the weigh in vids.

Dern vs Ribas 2:  Weigh Ins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl6j0td8Tgs

Dern vs Ribas 2:  Fighter Faceoffs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzAdTM8VQgA

Mackenzie Dern (116) vs Amanda Ribas (116)
Carlston Harris (170) vs Santiago Ponzinibbio (171)
Abdul Razak Alhassan (185.5) vs Cesar Almeida (185.5)
Chris Curtis (185.5) vs Roman Kopylov (185.5)
Austin Bashi (145.5) vs Christian Rodriguez (145)
Uros Medic (171) vs Punahele Soriano (171)
Felipe Bunes (126) vs Jose Johnson (128.5)*
Ihor Potieria (188)* vs Marco Tulio (185.5)
Thiago Moises (155.5) vs Trey Ogden (155.5)
Preston Parsons (171) vs Jacobe Smith (170.5)
Nicolle Caliari (125.5) vs Ernesta Kareckaite (126)
Magomed Gadzhiyasulov (205) vs  Bruno Lopes (205.5)
Viktoriia Dudakova (116) vs Fatima Kline (116)
Nurullo Aliev (155.5) vs Joe Solecki (155)

*Missed weight

My leans...

Amanda Ribas
Santiago Ponzinibbio
Abdul Razak Alhassan
Chris Curtis
Christian Rodriguez
Uros Medic
Jose Johnson
Marco Tulio
Thiago Moises
Jacobe Smith
Ernesta Kareckaite
Magomed Gadzhiyasulov
Fatima Kline
Nurullo Aliev

Aspinall really wants this fight even though Jones has stated several times that Aspinall is not the fighter he wants in title defense fight, no one knows what will happen between them but Aspinall will not be able to get the real belt if he does not fight and defeat Jones.
From what Jones wants is Alex Pereira, clearly that is ridiculous and unacceptable choice because Alex Pereira is also not comparable opponent, in the end maybe the UFC will make Aspinall the mandatory challenger for Jones and they have to really fight.
Or perhaps Jones will vacate the belt and let another fighter fight for it.

$30 million is a huge payday for the UFC. It would be the biggest payday for a fighter in UFC history. I don't know if Jones is asking for that to avoid fighting Aspinall or if he really wants the money and doesn't care about his record. It doesn't mean Jones will lose the fight. I mean it seems like Jones will only take the fight if he has a good chance of winning. Like fighting Gane who is weak on the ground or fighting Miocic who is past his prime. Or maybe Jones will fight Aspinall after he was knocked out by another fighter and use that trauma to beat Aspinall. I think Jones is one of the GOATs in the UFC but he is also a controversial fighter with his cheating.

Is there actually any rule that would require Tom to fight anyone for the real belt if Jones was stripped out of it? Given he already holds the interim belt (and even defended it once) it would be fair to declare him a champion and make him defend the title as usual.


Conor clearly wasn't physically ready for the fight, he looked like a completely different person than he was in his prime and it wasn't just the age thing. If he stepped into the octagon with Chandler, he would likely embarrass himself and it would be over. And look at him now, he's rumoured to fight Jake Paul or whatever in India for like $250 mills. He knows how to milk his fame even when in massive decline.
Jones has a history of wasting time and taking long breaks, but he seems to be aware of his position and hopefully realises he doesn't have much time to waste if he wants to get fat paychecks before riding off into the sunset.

Agree that it would be stupid of Aspinall will waste his career if he keep on waiting for Bones, who, like Conor did I think, will held title for years, and then vacated it I dont feel like Bones is going to have a long career.

Btw, where did Marvin "Uruk Hai" Vettori disappeared? I think we havent seen him for a year? What injury could make someone disappear for a year?

https://youtu.be/l0t-ON1fwD8?si=rPlACcXxNrPhLrfn video uploaded month ago. Take a look on Merabs leg injury. UFC 311 is in 8 days. Think he will be 100% ready?
(lol from reddit comments "Probably tried to kick a chainsaw or something. Standard Merab goofiness." )

No, don't think so.  Aspinall already said that he doesn't care who the champ is.  He just wants to get that belt and officially be the UFC heavyweight champion.  If Jones holds the division and refuses to fight then Aspinall is automatically made real champ in his next fight.  At least that's what I saw happen in the past.

As for Aspinall weight cut to 205..?  Dunno.  He weighs in at 265 lbs in most of his matches, so I doubt it. 

Anyway Chris Curtis vs Brendan Allen will be an iiinteresting match up.  And Curtis at 2.80 is good value imho.  Not sure why the line is so wide.

UFC Free Fight:  Chris Curtis vs Joaquin Buckley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj30zkNAjDI

UFC Free Fight:  Roman Kopylov vs Josh Fremd
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eexNjFDkquc

UFC should organize Bones vs McGregor fight in catchweight Or dont bother about the weight at all. Make it happen in Sphere or in Vegas so that fighter wont pay any tax. That would motivate them to sign contracts. Than the winner fights Lesnar same evening, and if Conor get lucky to win both fights, Khabib announces his one-fight return to make 30-0. That will be an event that worth the same as boxing heavyweight championship fight

The UFC could play it safe, offer him a lower guaranteed payout but give him a higher portion of the PPV sales or gate income etc, to take a bit of financial risks of themselves and give Jon an incentive to promote the fight (something he was never good at, but he would make up for it with good performance).
Quick research tells me they make around $60 millions in revenue (not profit) on average on each PPV event, if that's correct, the $30m is quite a big demand. Although I'm sure they'd squeeze out much more than the average amount out of it.

And what are Jones' options right now? He can't fight outside of the UFC, so he can either take the best offer they can make or walk away into retirement with whatever he saved up so far, which is probably less than what he can earn from the Aspinall fight.

Jones shouldn't wait for another year for this fight to push through but UFC might keep this deal going until the price is cheaper while Jones turns older. It would be a raise against time for Jones since he is already 37. He'd not wait to turn 40 but would accept the price of probably less than $10M, or worse $5M. Demanding his fuck you money while Dana also will bide to waste Jones's time. Chandler waited so much for the huge payday and ended up wasting his prime days.

Did they plan to fight in LH? Aspinall is not an interim in LH but Jones vs Poatan will be fun to watch.

With the fight rate of 1 fight every 1.5-2 years, how long do you think Aspinall would wait for Bones? Will he turn into Chandler-waiting-for-Conor or he would accept other challenges? We only havent seen Aspinall vs Gane. Other guys either not even close to level of Aspinall, or havent survived a round with him which means a re-match would be a bs. Aspinall is in dangerous situation when he need to wait and waste talent due to Mr.G.O.A.T whims. Theoretically, do you think Aspinall is able to cut to go down to LH?

^  I guess if we see the fight push through then the UFC and Jones might have had an agreement on the money side of things.  I don't think it will be the 30m USD that Jones was asking for.  It will be slightly lower but prolly enough for him to sign the dotted line.

Anyway, it looks like jeremypwr's Multi Master is back.  It's nice to have one even if it's not a PPV event. 

UFC Fight Night 249:  Multi Master Challenge
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/sportsbetio-ufc-fight-night-249-11-january-free-for-all-5524653

I haven't looked into all the match ups tbh.  I'll post my picks itt later or tomorrow.

This.
Not everything is about money and some fights just have to happen. It's almost like a movie script, those two must meet in the octagon at the end, otherwise fans will be massively disappointed and might turn their back on the UFC and take their money and attention elsewhere.

The UFC can't be too cheap all the time and they will have to start pocketing out big money for super-fights. It's not a good look when much smaller organisations can offer top fighters better deals. And we also have boxing making a big comeback thanks to Saudi's money + there are freak fights like Paul brothers Vs pensioners etc. It's all also a direct competition for the UFC in many ways.

It's a gamble for Jones. True to his words because $30M would make him win whether he loses or not, it wouldn't matter as he said.
This wasn't the first time as it was said that Jones was also asking the same amount back with Francis Ngannou. He wasn't paid that time but this time with Aspinall, it may be possible.

If he is paid $30M, Dana will need to extend his contract to fight more even at his age. He risks his relationship with Dana.

Whenever you see a falling star... 

Found an interesting topic for discussion since we are waiting for new not-very-exciting-event. Weight cutting is worst than peds. What do you think about it? Putting outside unique fighters like Belfort, who was cutting and on peds What do you think about it? Does extra weigh (not stupid mass/fat) during fights give more advantage in fighting than being jacket with quicker recovery, strength, stamina during training?

^  I don't care if the UFC goes broke.  I just want to watch Jones vs Aspinall.  


I don't care what he says cos if he thinks Aspinall isn't an able and worthy opponent then he'll prolly just ignore the guy or fight him with whatever decent money is being offered to him right now.  But asking for 30m USD?  That signals that he knows he could lose and if so, he's prolly thinking of retiring.  And it does feel like Jones is losing his edge after the long lay off.  Dunno tho...  It's just what I think.  I guess a fight vs Aspinall will show where he's really at.

Btw...  Here are some replays.

UFC Free Fight:  Amanda Ribas vs Luana Pinheiro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTOZzFzIquU

UFC Free Fight:  Mackenzie Dern vs Loopy Godinez
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX7p2uMqTgk

For UFC it will be a disaster and worst investment They should have invested in a fighter that will continue and bring them more in future, than a guy who is about to retire. Bones can get in the cage, injure his toe again or on a first second, stop the fight, walk away with 30 millions and still claim that he is unbeaten, because such lame stoppage does not count as a fair and clear win for Aspinall Did not we had recently situation when prices for seats were so high, that venue was starting to look empty or like head of a balding man, so the reduced prices. That was a first call that financially UFC isnt perfect today, and throwing away 30 million on Bones... They will never get profit from that fight

He's in a good position to ask for that much, especially if this is the price he is asking to start the negotiations with. He might end up with a bit less but probably will get a cut from the PPV on top, so won't be at a loss.
Whether or not it will be his last fight largely depends on the outcome. If he were to defeat Tom, then why would he retire rather than go for another super-fight against Alex Pereira, which would be much easier for Jones (he would just need to take it to the ground).

From the UFC perspective, it's a bit tricky. Having Jones beat up Aspinall and retire straight after would be a bit of a disaster. They would be left without any dominant champ. Defeated Aspinall would not be half as exciting as he is now. But I think it's pretty clear we'll see that fight happening this year.

Jon Jones is not Dana's boy, Dana is his GF. It will be very strange from Dana White if he agrees to pay 30 million dollars to Jon Jones because despite all of that what Dana has ever said, he doesn't like to give money to his fighters and 30 million is a good amount of money to pay an UFC fighter. Even if Dana agrees to pay, I think it will increase the appetite of other fighters and Dana doesn't want that. I don't know, it's very strange that Joe Rogan pushes him to pay that much money.

I think that it's clear from Jon Jones's recent talks that he doesn't care about his legacy as much as he cares about his financial status. Life changes, he is not a 20 years old boy anymore, he has family, responsibilities and he needs money for that, to create a good future for himself and his kids. So, he chooses money and it's logical. I think he knows that there is a high chance that Tom will beat him and why the hell should he ruin his legacy if they don't pay him a good amount of money?