UFC FN 131: Rivera vs Moraes Info and Prediction Thread

[tokeweed]

Date: Friday, June 1st
Preliminary Card (UFC Fight Pass): 22:30 BCT / 3:30pm PST / 6:30pm EST
Preliminary Card (Fox Sports 1): 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)

Jimmie Rivera (21-1) vs. Marlon Moraes (20-5-1) (Bantamweight)
Gregor Gillespie (11-0) vs. Vinc Pichel (11-1) (Lightweight)
Walt Harris (10-7) vs. Daniel Spitz (6-1) (Heavyweight)
Jake Ellenberger (31-13) vs. Ben Saunders (21-9-2) (Welterweight)
Julio Arce (14-2) vs. Daniel Teymur (6-1) (Featherweight)
Gian Villante (16-9) vs. Sam Alvey (32-10) (Light Heavyweight)

Preliminary Card (Fox Sports 1)

Sijara Eubanks (2-2) vs. Lauren Murphy (10-3) (Women's Flyweight)
Nik Lentz (28-8-2) vs. David Teymur (7-1) (Lightweight)
Belal Muhammad (13-2) vs. Chance Rencountre (12-2) (Welterweight)
Desmond Green (20-7) vs. Gleison Tibau (33-13) (Lightweight)

Preliminary Card (UFC Fight Pass)

Jessica Aguilar (19-6) vs. Jodie Esquibel (6-3) (Women's Strawweight)
Johnny Eduardo (28-11) vs. Nathaniel Wood (13-3) (Bantamweight)
Jarred Brooks (13-1) vs. Jose Torres (7-0) (Flyweight)

Other

- Bryan Barberena was expected to face Jake Ellenberger at the event. However on March 23, Barberena pulled out due to injury. He was replaced by Ben Saunders on March 30.

- A lightweight bout between The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil 2 welterweight winner Leonardo Santos and Nik Lentz was expected to take place at this event. However on April 28, it was reported that Santos was pulled from the event due to a hand injury. He was replaced by David Teymur on May 1.

- Niko Price was expected to face Belal Muhammad at the event. However, Price was removed from the bout on May 22 for undisclosed reasons and replaced by promotional newcomer Chance Rencountre that same day.

- Hector Sandoval was expected to face Jarred Brooks at the event. However, Sandoval was removed from the bout on May 22 for undisclosed reasons and replaced by promotional newcomer Jose Torres that same day.

Thanks to the Puertorican for letting me use this content.

[Hydrogen]

No good notes for this card. The info tokeweed posted on some taking fights on late notice could be some of the best info available here. Some fights @ this event could be difficult to call due to many of the fighters on it being inconsistent. Example of this is Nik Lentz. Sometimes he looks terrible, other times he looks great. Its tough to know which version of him will show up.

Main event should be good if nothing else.

-I dislike Murphy. On the ultimate fighter, Eddie Alvarez said Lauren Murphy might not have what it takes to make it in the UFC and rather than take it as constructive criticism, Murphy was super offended as if she was going to not sleep for 7 days or nights plotting revenge. I think Murphy has a bad attitude. On top of that she trains out of MMA Lab which could be one of the worst big name MMA gyms in the world. MMA Lab fighters are good fade material a lot of the time. I haven't kept track of statistics but its possible their win / loss record can be as bad as 4 wins and 12 losses during the times they're doing poorly. Also if you look at some of their fighters like John Moraga, sometimes the only time they have a career resurgence or comeback is when they leave MMA Lab and train out of the UFC performance institute or move to a different gym. Of course the overall level of competition in woman's MMA is often lower so maybe Murphy has a chance. But there are a few things that are against her.

-The biggest weakness in Ellenberger's game are those mental lapses he has where he freezes up in the middle of fights. Its almost like he has wartime flashbacks(being a former marine) in the middle of his fights which lead to him being submitted or KO'ed. Ellenberger was beating Kelvin Gastelum handily. In the middle of the fight Ellenberger froze in a scramble, allowing Gastelum to take his back and get the choke(with no resistance offered on Ellenberger's part IIRC). That was probably the most obvious time where something like that might have happened. Similar things might have happened the times Ellenberger got KO'ed/TKO'ed. TBH I don't remember 100%.

Nothing about this card really sticks out, which makes things tough to anticipate.

[tokeweed]

Here are the weigh ins for the event.  But I gotta admit, I haven't really been reading and watching much about the UFC or MMA in general lately...  I think they overdid some of the bigger events last year, making this year's 'bigger events' seem small and uninteresting.  We need McGregor vs Khabib asap!

UFC FN 131:  Weigh Ins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSHN3sP8jwM

UFC FN 131:  Face Offs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zakBbTjiHH8

Jimmie Rivera (134.6) vs. Marlon Moraes (135.4)
Gregor Gillespie (155.6) vs. Vinc Pichel (155.8 )
Walt Harris (253) vs. Daniel Spitz (243.8 )
Jake Ellenberger (170.4) vs. Ben Saunders (169.4)
Julio Arce (145.4) vs. Daniel Teymur (145.8 )
Gian Villante (205.2) vs. Sam Alvey (204.8 )
Sijara Eubanks (125.6) vs. Lauren Murphy (125.6)
Nik Lentz (155.4) vs. David Teymur (155.8 )
Belal Muhammad (170.2) vs. Chance Rencountre (170.6)
Desmond Green (155.4) vs. Gleison Tibau (155.2)
Jessica Aguilar (115) vs. Jodie Esquibel (115.4)
Johnny Eduardo (135.8 ) vs. Nathaniel Wood (135.4)
Jarred Brooks (125.8 ) vs. Jose Torres (125.2)

[bookiepro]

Make note that this card is TONIGHT(Friday) - not Saturday.

I like those odds on Saunders. He is super slick from the bottom and should be able to negate Ellenbergers wrestling.

[Hydrogen]

I guess I should have outright said in my notes that I thought Ben Saunders and Sijara Eubanks would win.     Don't want to make predictions or have anyone tailing me, unless I'm 99.9% certain I'm going to win.

I'm for one am excited to see CM Punk fight in the UFC again. Some are saying he doesn't deserve it and shouldn't be in the UFC but if he can cut the weight (which many UFC fighters seem unable to do) and bring more attention and fans to the sport, I don't understand what people have to complain about.

Some claim that mixed martial arts fighters should be paid more and receive more exposure. Well, having cross over promotion like CM Punk fight in the UFC is how you get higher paid MMA and more exposure for the sport. So I don't understand why people are hating on the thing that is most likely to take the sport to the place where people want it to be. It is sadly, a bit backwards.

Didn't have much confidence going into this event but somehow nearly all of my picks turned out to be correct.