UFC FN 129: Maia vs Usman Info and Prediction Thread

[tokeweed]

Date: Saturday, May 19th
Preliminary Card (UFC Fight Pass): 22:30 BCT / 3:30pm PST / 6:30pm EST
Preliminary Card (Fox Sports 2): 00:00 BCT / 5pm PST / 8pm EST
Main Card (Fox Sports 1): 2:00 BCT / 7pm PST / 10pm EST
Live Streams: http://www.fìrstrow.eu/




Main Card (Fox Sports 1)

Demian Maia (25-8) vs. Kamaru Usman (12-1) (Welterweight)
Alexa Grasso (10-1) vs. Tatiana Suarez (5-0) (Women's Strawweight)
Jared Cannonier (10-3) vs. Dominick Reyes (8-0) (Light Heavyweight)
Diego Rivas (7-1) vs. Guido Cannetti (7-3) (Bantamweight)
Veronica Macedo (5-1-1) vs. Andrea Lee (8-2) (Women's Flyweight)
Vicente Luque (12-6-1) vs. Chad Laprise (13-2) (Welterweight)

Preliminary Card (Fox Sports 2)

Zak Cummings (21-5) vs. Michel Prazeres (24-2) (Welterweight)
Brandon Moreno (14-4) vs. Alexandre Pantoja (18-3) (Flyweight)
Poliana Botelho (6-1) vs. Syuri Kondo (6-0) (Women's Strawweight)
Gabriel Benitez (20-6) vs. Humberto Bandenay (14-4) (Featherweight)

Preliminary Card (UFC Fight Pass)

Enrique Barzola (14-3-1) vs. Brandon Davis (9-3) (Featherweight)
Henry Briones (16-7-1) vs. Frankie Saenz (12-5) (Bantamweight)
Claudio Puelles (7-2) vs. Felipe Silva (8-1) (Lightweight)

Other

- A welterweight bout between Kamaru Usman and Santiago Ponzinibbio was expected to serve as the event headliner. However, Ponzinibbio pulled out on April 21 due to injury. He was replaced by Demian Maia on April 26.

- Ray Borg and Brandon Moreno were scheduled again and was expected to take place at this event. However, Borg withdrew from the bout to take care of his child, who required brain surgery. He was replaced by Alexandre Pantoja on April 28.

Thanks to the Puertorican for letting me use this content.

[Hydrogen]

Notes.

-I'm surprised Jared Cannonier opened as an underdog. Cannonier has faced by far higher level competition than Reyes has. Maybe bookies know something we don't, else Cannonier could be a live dog here.

-I'll go out on a limb here and say Veronica Macedo is a better kickboxer than Andrea KGB Lee is. It doesn't mean Macedo will win the fight if she hasn't done a better job improving her wrestling or ground game. Macedo also could be a live dog.

-Zak Cummings used to fight @ 185 lbs while Michel Prazeres fought @ 155. Cummings could also have a good size advantage (have to check weigh in results to verify) with him standing near 6 feet and Prazeres being around 5 foot 6. The bigger or heavier man doesn't always win. It has been awhile since we've seen this type of size disparity in a fight though.

-Henry Briones also might be a live underdog. Not certain on that.

[bbc.reporter]

@Hydrogen. Do you have notes on the pretty Alexa Grasso and Tatiana Suarez? I reckon Alexa might be too underestimated for this fight. The odds for her is at +499 now and with only 1 day to go before the fight.

[Hydrogen]

@Hydrogen. Do you have notes on the pretty Alexa Grasso and Tatiana Suarez? I reckon Alexa might be too underestimated for this fight. The odds for her is at +499 now and with only 1 day to go before the fight.

I think everyone is looking for easy fights (past of least resistance) and no one wants to fight Tatiana Suarez due to her accomplishments and athleticism:

What ranks and titles have you held?
Tatiana Suarez: I was a two-time bronze medalist in the world championships of freestyle wrestling. Gladiator Challenge champion. Ranked number one in the USA at 55kg in freestyle wrestling in 2011, ASICS National High School Wrestler of the Year in 2007 and 2008

I give Alexa Grasso a lot of credit for taking this fight. That shows some confidence and courage.

If Suarez can't get top position on the ground Grasso has a chance of winning. Usually in MMA when one fighter is really good at wrestling/grappling and can take the fight to the ground when they choose, that's often a winning strategy. Especially in woman's MMA where KO/TKO finishes are much less common and a lot of women don't have the right strength and conditioning training to be able to counter a powerful wrestler/takedown artist.

[eaLiTy]

I am not familiar with the rest of the fighters in the card other than Maia and Usman, both fighters are good on the ground and i am expect Usman to have the upper hand because of his wrestling, the age is the issue for Maia.

Zak Cummings used to fight @ 185 lbs while Michel Prazeres fought @ 155. Cummings could also have a good size advantage (have to check weigh in results to verify) with him standing near 6 feet and Prazeres being around 5 foot 6. The bigger or heavier man doesn't always win. It has been awhile since we've seen this type of size disparity in a fight though.

Usually these sort of size difference is visible in heavy weight division and the fight i remember with similar height difference was Pat Barry (5 ft 11 in) and Stefan Struve (7 ft). 

[tokeweed]

It's so sad to see Maia lose for the third straight time.  I think needs to retire in a year or two. 

And I wanna see Usman vs RDA, Wonderboy or Woodley now...  He could become the next champ imo.

[peter0425]

It's so sad to see Maia lose for the third straight time.  I think needs to retire in a year or two. 

And I wanna see Usman vs RDA, Wonderboy or Woodley now...  He could become the next champ imo.

I was about to look for the result of the match as I'm also not familiar with most of the fighters on the card when I saw our post. As @eaLiTy, it looks like age is catching faster on most fighter than we think. Tatiana defeated Alexa Grasso via rear naked choked, as Grasso was easily taken to the ground by Tatiana, he did her best to get back on her feet but Tatiana wouldn't let that happen and the choked was tight forcing her to tapped.

[tokeweed]

^  I don't know anything much about Usman too tbh.  I'm just judging from what I saw in the match.  He has speed, a good take down defense and the cardio.

So yeah...  I think he won't be another Ngannou. 

[Hydrogen]

Post event notes.

-Jared Cannonier looks to have deteriorated significantly since moving to train out of MMA lab. It is possible MMA lab run by John Crouch is one of the worst big name mixed martial arts gyms to train in.

-Veronica Macedo's wrestling, grappling and fight IQ were terrible. Even worse than her first fight in the UFC. Her kickboxing was very good everything else not so good.

-Zak Cummings training out of Factory X muay thai which could be another of the worst big name MMA gyms aside from MMA lab.

My only real bet for this event was Vicente Luque. Didn't do too bad. Don't know why I got a bit emotionally attached to some of the outcomes for this event its a bit out of character but I did. lol