Topic: The UFC Info and Prediction Thread - page 97. (Read 100833 times)

I think it depends on the fighter he is fighting sure if his fighting a pure striker then the level of concentration is just limited so he can surely play mind games over them but if the fighter is somewhat of Khabib Nurmagomedov level of a wrestler and grappler that is a different story, as for sure he can not trash talk over Khabib when Conor McGregor is on the ground, it will not surely help to get inside Khabib Nurmagomedov's head, because he will just make you drown even deep into his grappling that is for sure,


I trust Robert Whittaker more than Paulo Costa, that is for sure, but if Paulo Costa does back down or cancels the fight again and Robert Whittaker gets a different opponent then it is going to be difficult because depending on the change fighter I may change my judgment regarding the fight, will have to surely looked thoroughly with the fighters stat and record for sure,


Well, the Sean O'Malley VS Marlon Vera fight is definitely a banger of a fight, and just like you I surely love to see these two fight again and for Marlon Vera to prove that he really defeated O'Malley, or for Sean O'Malley to prove that it was a clear injury and a coincident why he lost to Marlon Vera,

Pereira almost fighter of the year. But Strickland grabbed it. There may be some of us who wouldn't agree with being Strickland as the fighter of the year.

One insane fight fact was the Shout It Out Loud as Aguilar had to shout out to tap as a verbal submission in the UFC. Didn't see the fight but found out his hands were bound.

Founds some nice year 2023 in review for you guys https://www.sherdog.com/news/articles/Fight-Facts-UFC-2023-a-Year-in-Review-192123. Some interesting data to be found there. Just drop a look when you have free time.

"Mayra Bueno Silva landed an incredibly rare ninja choke on Holly Holm and earned a POTN bonus. After Silva failed her post-fight drug test, her win was overturned, and her $50,000 check was rescinded." this one looks interesting. Fighter got a bonus, and later that bonus was given away, even though it is never officially announced anywhere.

Yeah! he couldn't be any serious about it since all he has been doing throughout this year was fighting in the UFC and parties, he has nothing to do with the politics but the guy always wanted to have a share of popularity whenever there is a new topic in the world of MMA and he couldn't help himself but still always have something to say about others or mocked them even after they win a fight especially the digital guys. This is just his another way of getting some attention and they shouldn't take it seriously because it doesn't really benefit them.

On UFC.com you can vote for various "... of the year" results. This can be found @ https://www.ufc.com/honors/fans-choice (to bad they dont offer a short video before voting). Since he have not much to discuss and plenty of time till next event, we can devote our time on KOes, submissions, fights, events of the year discussion. We can add a disappointment of the year to the list of discussion. I would say that Strickland vs Izzy is the first thing that comes to my mind as disappointment (for Izzy) of the year. Or maybe Jamahal Hill can be a disappointment of the year, he has lost his belt without defending it.

It more like McGregor was a breath of fresh air at the time with his style of getting people more excited during the build up of the events he was in.  But it kinda got old really fast after he fought Nate Diaz and lost.  That's when he started being more annoying than funny.  I mean it was still entertaining, but I could do away without it tbh.

Now it's like when somebody tries to copy McGregor's style, it's sooo cringe.  Like Ian Garry Machado for example...  Lol.  :/  They should come up with their own style and be themselves up there.  They can't just copy somebody else's personality and project it like it's theirs.

Exactly. Covington is a great example. He went overboard with his trash-talk but didn't deliver in the octagon, now he's looking pretty pathetic and, I'm guessing, he has lost a lot of fans.


People who would be willing to vote for him won't expect him to act the same way "normal" politicians do. He would have to show he's capable of acting responsibly, but he would be excused from any occasional trashtalk-like episodes.
Take Javier Milei, for example. He made a lot of radical statements and harsh language and acted unhinged, but that didn't stop people from voting him in as the president of Argentina.

What McGregor is lacking is a clear political ideology. The "current politicians are bad" is not good enough, people need to know what they are voting for. He'd also need political structures, he can't do it alone.

I take his tweet as more of a trolling though.

Since Conor has joked about running for 2025 president, then he has lost one of his weapons - trashtalk. If he has real intention to stand for election, then he should carefully watch what he talks about. One careless statement and his political career will end before it begins. Even if he just wants to get a position of minister of sports.

I dont think that he has won fights only because of trash talk, getting in the head. There were trash talkers in UFC before. Take Covington recent trash talks with Edwads, lost the fight, even though he got in the head. Or Chael Sonnen. One of the guys who has black belt in trash talk. Lost all most important fights in his career.

In the past, McGregor could really play his role as the antagonist in every story in the UFC. And he also had a very good skillset in his prime. As you said, trashtalk and the ability to win fight after trashtalk really made McGregor a big star. People who hate him for his trashtalk hope the big mouth will lose. And the people who support him really like Conor's confidence and intimidation. So that would bring in a huge PPV with whoever Conor fights. That's why some say that fighting against Conor is a jackpot.

But that's just a story from the past. I think the current Conor is no longer The Notorius we know. His long absence from the UFC after winning the championship belt and his tragic defeat against Khabib made Conor with his trash talk truly become trash.

Chandler is also capable of playing a good role in the UFC as well. But unlike Conor, I think Chandler is really able to build enthusiasm from the fans with his extraordinary literary abilities. This can be seen how Chandler is able to play his role as a villain and a good guy at various times very well.


It could be that Dustin cares because Conor is expected to be able to build hype. But the problem is, is Conor still the same person? As I said, trash talk without a win will only make a fighter's reputation very bad and belittled.

Yup! Many are just too excited with UFC 300 while we have a great set of cards coming this year, January 13, 2024, UFC Fight Night Ankalaev vs. Walker, even though the undercard is not that great it is not bad aswell the Main event is just juicy Ankalaev and Walker will have their chance, UFC 297 Strickland vs. Du Plessis now this is just a banger of a card main event is such a treat as we got an early press conference for the main event, and now we will see a champion for the UFC Vacant Women's Bantamweight Championship, Raquel Pennington VS Mayra Bueno Silva, for the Co-Main, and the Main Card with Arnold Allen VS Movsar Evloev, then February 3, will be UFC Fight Night Dolidze vs. Imavov as the Main event is against Roman Dolidze VS Nassourdine Imavov, I really think that is  just a great fight to see, Co-Main is special as Renato Moicano will go up against Drew Dober, the UFC 299 O'Malley vs. Vera 2 will be on March 09, 2024 and the UFC 300 is on April 13, 2024, that is a long wait in my opinion,


I think I will maybe I was just not interested in those cards but the Sean O'Malley VS Marlon Vera will be a banger, we will see if Marlon Vera will win again, or if that 1st win was just a fluke because of the injury, or if Vera can win again so for sure both fighters reputation is on the line, for sure I am really excited to see this but we will got a couple of months before we could see it,

He gave some interview before the fight got cancelled, saying that doctors told him he should be able to recover before the fight, but things didn't go as planned. If he was to pull out of fear, there was no reason to wait for the last moment, he could've notified UFC as soon as he knew that surgery was required. Waiting that long  indicated that he really wanted to fight. But maybe I give him too much credit. I have no doubts Khamzat would run him over easily.


I know Conor believes that. You could tell that from how he changed his approach by 180 degrees between his 2nd and 3rd fight with Poirier. But it didn't look like reverting to the trash talk helped him too much. If anything it made him look weak, as if he was mimicking his past self hoping this would magically turn back the time and put him back into the good-old Conor mode.


Oh, I'm sure Dustin would not refuse to fight him for the 4th time if the UFC made him an offer (but they won't). Much easier rival than anyone from the top 10 plus a massive payout - a dream fight.


Probably edited, but I don't suspect Costa has any Photoshop skills himself. Likely he has someone to help him with promoting himself on social media, and they've been doing a pretty good job so far.

^  That pic really him or is it just a meme or something?    If that's really him, he looks like he's not been letting go and has been keeping is weight n check.


As always, it will depend on line value.  If the books line Whittaker at 1.50 or lower, could we really trust him at that price tag and after he was exposed by DDP?  I think there will def be better spots in the event esp if you can't or won't take the underdog.


That's not gonna work anymore tho.  Lolol. 

The reason Conor McGregor become successful is that he was winning fights after his trash talks. He was trash talking but was backing up his words every time, that attracts lots of attention. By the way, trash talk was helping him. I remember, Dustin Poirier said in one interview that it was easy to fight Conor when he wasn't trash talking and was calm. By trash talking, Conor goes into their head and makes them nervous, pressures more on them, it's a huge psychological advantage, that's why he won against Jose Aldo.

He wanted to fight Dustin Poirier again but Dustin doesn't give a shit about Conor.

If Robert Whittaker is a guy who doesn't do the same thing all over again or a guy who is learning in his every fight but maybe Paulo Costa can catch his blitz, for sure I will still go with Robert Whittaker, on this fight, as it doesn't really matter if you have a great body like Costa or Vettori as for Whittaker I think I will go with his striking for this fight, and I never trust Paulo Costa at all and if he will not cancel and make some weird excuses again,


I sure hope Paulo Costa will not cancel this fight as he now has the most canceled fights in the UFC if this continues, but yeah huge muscle will not help Costa at all, as Whittaker has great striking so he could win this with a decision and could get a huge output of strikes for this fight, and yeah I am really into Robert Whittaker for this fight if the fight continue that is,

And yeah the number of Cancel doubts was that much that the Alikerov match was canceled because the UFC decided that the hype on the Khamzat Chimaev fight was much better and if Costa lost to Aliskerov then that hype for Chimaev would be gone, as fans is comparing Aliskerov to Chimaev with light setup, but it was canceled again,

Merry Christmas from Paulo and secret juice to everyone Maybe this is just mine vision of Costa, but he looks unreliable for me. There is always an excuse for cancelled fight. Ok, I can accept that there is a serious reason to cancel the fight, but why he cancels the fights weeks or days before it? With that elbow injury for example. He had surgery month before fight, but announce that week before fight, and days before fight he was talking that he is ready, but pulled out 1 or 2 days before fight might really happen. Totally set up UFC match makers. Or all those cases when he asked for a bigger payment.

Costa has been cancelling, avoiding fights, caught by USADA (2 year ban) and fined since 2018. Since then he has won clearly Hall, Romero and Rockhold who retired after. Imho he talks more than fights.

Some sources claim that Costa had two previous fights with Whittaker cancelled, not one, but not sure if that's true.
Some of the pullouts you've mentioned were justified, e.g. Aliskerov, where UFC wanted Costa to fight Chimaev instead. Some other ones were, allegedly, cancelled due to contract disagreements, in such case, it's entirely UFC's fault to announce a fight before a contract is signed. The last one was due to injury, he posted photos, so I don't think he made it up.

The risk of Costa pulling out again is minimal. He needs to fight to stay relevant.
I give Whittaker more chances, but it could be an even fight.

Anyhow, Merry Christmas from Paolo Costa:

https://twitter.com/BorrachinhaMMA/status/1739366911652004275

Big muscled did not help Costa in a fight against Izzy or Vettori. Btw this is the second time Costa and Whittaker are going to fight. First fight was cancelled due to Costa. Costa has also cancelled fights against Chimaev, Aliskerov, Cannonier and if not mistaken, first fight with Rockhold was also cancelled. Does not look like he is a man who UFC could rely on. And if I am not confusing something, he cancels his fight quite late, week or two before the fight. People laugh and say that this is the way he saves his record.

But with Costa as big as he is, he could prolly stop the blitz Whittaker does like how DDP did it.  Dunno but DDP might have exposed Whittaker and showed everybody the blue print in how to bear him.  If the books give something like Costa at 2.75 or something, it's almost forcing you to make the value bet with the underdog as there are are not lots of queston marks about Whittaker after getting totally dominated. 

Whittaker never experienced a loss like that before, I don't think.  :/

But on the other Costa has had a long lay off, so that's prolly gonna work against him.  He's had weight cut issues before.  Lol.  Let's see how he looks a week before 298.

Realistically, if not Chandler, who else can he fight?
It's a simple logic really, he'll either manage to return to a proper shape or not. If he does - he should be able to give a good fight against Chandler and possibly win it, given Chandler represents a style that suits McGregor's counterstriking. If he doesn't, he would likely lose any fight, even against low-ranked fighters, which would probably mark the end of his career (whether losing to Chandler could still be excused).
And given it could be his last fight, he needs to fight some big name to get that PPV sales up and earn decent pay for himself.


Given the long period of inactivity, the injury, and the comedian role he decided to play recently - I find it hard to imagine Costa being laser-focused and highly motivated. Then again, it's hard to say how big of a mental impact the loss to Du Plessis has had on Whittaker. Both will have a lot to prove in that fight, which makes it extra interesting.

Those Trash talks are not going to be helpful inside the Octagon, even if he surely is a great fighter and good at the press conference that could get the fight on hype, it is all that Conor McGregor can do and nothing more, and his strength for sure is all in the past his bulk body is just lie, it is just used to intimidate his sparring and training videos are just for show, you can clearly see all McGregor is after was the hype and money for the UFC 300, he will surely do anything, he is just a fighter in the past but if his opponent would be Michael Chandler I think I will go with Chandler for sure,


I only see Costa as a mindless overgrown fighter who surely is not very technical while Robert Whittaker has closed the deal with Marvin Vettori so for sure Robert Whittaker will be the favorite in this fight and I can surely tell about that if Paulo Costa still decides to fight that is he could withdraw from the fight any minute but let's just wait for further announcements,