🥊 The UFC Info and Prediction Thread

[YuginKadoya]

You can be a great MMA fighter without top boxing skills, Khabib did great for years before he improved a lot in that area.
MMA can be better because it combines other combat sports, but some people don't like wrestling or grappling and find it boring.
Spoiled crowd only likes to see blood and KO's but you can't have that all the time.

Guys, check out Israel Adesanya's great trailer for fight against Alex Pereira at UFC 281.
I can't wait to watch this fight, this has potential to be one of the best comeback stories and best fights of the year 2022.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZaLuDSmklg

Well, I agree, I think Khabib Nurmagomedov had an unorthodox kind of boxing, it is simple and surely effective, but over the years his boxing skills have tremendously increased, but as you have said his boxing skill is just basic when he started to UFC, but still he is using boxing towards his fight, just to check his opponent and to set up when he can get that takedown, it is still important to have some techniques you don't usually use just to have an upper ground than your opponent,

Adesanya-Alex Pereira is a kind of match to watch. It's going to be a wild fight for thier skills. Who will win is very unsure because of thier records. Pereira climbed fast his rank on UFC only to chase Izzy's belt. He only has a few fights in UFC but he has already been given the opportunity for the belt. He really is that good that need not fight fighters below Adesanya.

Alex Pereira might get the fight IQ in dealing with Israel Adesanya, but I think Pereira is Overrated so much in giving him this kind of treatment just because they think he can be the one to get Adesanya down the championship title, just because he wins against Izzy on a kickboxing match, is giving him to much credit on that feat, in just beating Izzy in the past, which is this is MMA it is surely a different turf than with a kickboxing match, this would need a huge fight IQ to able to win, and Israel Adesanya has perfected his craft with his defense,

[kro55]

Whatever anybody says MMA is as close as it gets to real fighting.  Western boxing is just a part of MMA's whole.  It's a skill set that every MMA fighter needs to learn but it's not the end all and be all of the sport.  I used to watch a lot of boxing but once you get into MMA, esp the UFC and know the all fighters from top to bottom, it's just better, more well organized and it's an easy sport to follow overall.  And as far as the betting market goes, MMA is waaay better.

You can be a great MMA fighter without top boxing skills, Khabib did great for years before he improved a lot in that area.
MMA can be better because it combines other combat sports, but some people don't like wrestling or grappling and find it boring.
Spoiled crowd only likes to see blood and KO's but you can't have that all the time.

MMA is the leading fighting sport in the world. If you have anything like if you are proficient at boxing you have a very good chance in MMA. If you are proficient at wrestling you also have a very reasonable chance in MMA. Just like this, Taekwondo, Jujitsu, Kickboxing, if you are proficient at anything you can be an MMA fighter. Obviously, this doesn't mean you will be one of the best but think about it like this- if you know how to box you cannot proceed to a Kickboxing competition and vice versa. But MMA is the home of every fighter in the world.

Guys, check out Israel Adesanya's great trailer for fight against Alex Pereira at UFC 281.
I can't wait to watch this fight, this has potential to be one of the best comeback stories and best fights of the year 2022.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZaLuDSmklg

In the Israel Adesanya vs Alex Pereira fight, I am willing to say that Israel Adesanya will have the upper hand. But it is going to be really interesting to see. Even though I say Israel Adesanya will have the Upper Hand, it is not a given because Alex Pereira is also a great fighter.

[Welsh]

Alex Pereira might get the fight IQ in dealing with Israel Adesanya, but I think Pereira is Overrated so much in giving him this kind of treatment just because they think he can be the one to get Adesanya down the championship title, just because he wins against Izzy on a kickboxing match, is giving him to much credit on that feat, in just beating Izzy in the past, which is this is MMA it is surely a different turf than with a kickboxing match, this would need a huge fight IQ to able to win, and Israel Adesanya has perfected his craft with his defense,

It's also worth noting that Izzy pretty much dominated until getting knocked out. So, while Alex is definitely a good knockout artist, he probably does get beat convincingly without getting that knockout. Obviously, it doesn't matter if he can continue to find that knock out, but I'm not convinced he can.

Especially, since Izzy has learned to evade in MMA, and has become the master at it. Sometimes that means boring fights, but he hardly ever puts himself in danger even when he moved up a weight class. He's never really in any danger so to think that he'll put himself in danger against someone who's knocked him out in the past, personally I can't see it.

[TopTort777]

So you are trying to say that it is going to be an easy fight for Izzy? Previously he dominated Pereira in kickboxing, lost focus and gets KOed, plus he has advanced his skills, is longer in MMA than Pereira (meaning he can be better on the ground). Izzy is better everywhere than Pereira and he simply needs to focus on what his is doing. Dont know, dont know. Dont think that this fight is going to be easier than any previous 2-3 Izzy fights.

[Welsh]

So you are trying to say that it is going to be an easy fight for Izzy? Previously he dominated Pereira in kickboxing, lost focus and gets KOed, plus he has advanced his skills, is longer in MMA than Pereira (meaning he can be better on the ground). Izzy is better everywhere than Pereira and he simply needs to focus on what his is doing. Dont know, dont know. Dont think that this fight is going to be easier than any previous 2-3 Izzy fights.

I wouldn't classify it as easy. Izzy's going to be dealing with some skeletons in the closet, which might make him a little more shy, than he usually is. Alex could potentially win on volume during this time, and of course he can always catch him. I do think Izzy's going to be super defensive, and cautious to avoid getting clipped though. It could potentially be a very boring fight.

He'll use his distance like he always does, and Alex at times has struggled with that during their past fights. He's better when it turns into a brawl or he gets in on the inside. Strickland was perfect for him since he basically didn't move his head, and just sat there waiting to get punched thinking he could take it.

My prediction is a Izzy win, but I don't think it'll be easy. Plus, despite Izzy having the potentially better ground game, we haven't really seen that from him, and I don't see him doing anything out of the norm in this fight either, that would be too risky.

[TopTort777]

What is your opinion on Pereira even getting that chance of a title fight? I mean he has two fights in UFC against opponents that were not in top15. Then a victory over Strickland, who I dont count as a very tough opponent (split win over Hermansson - the only opponent in record that was in top15 that time). And all of a sudden his fight against Adesanya was announced. Some fighters have 3-5 fights against top15 of their division before they get a title fight, but Pereira somehow got a short path.

[tokeweed]

^  And yet he knocked out a solid fighter ranked at the top 5.  If he's good enough, he's good enough.  And the guys who do all the match making know what they're doing.  They can't let a good fighter waste his time fighting lower tier fighters when he's ready to fight the top guys.

Whatever anybody says MMA is as close as it gets to real fighting.  Western boxing is just a part of MMA's whole.  It's a skill set that every MMA fighter needs to learn but it's not the end all and be all of the sport.  I used to watch a lot of boxing but once you get into MMA, esp the UFC and know the all fighters from top to bottom, it's just better, more well organized and it's an easy sport to follow overall.  And as far as the betting market goes, MMA is waaay better.

You can be a great MMA fighter without top boxing skills, Khabib did great for years before he improved a lot in that area.
MMA can be better because it combines other combat sports, but some people don't like wrestling or grappling and find it boring.
Spoiled crowd only likes to see blood and KO's but you can't have that all the time.

Guys, check out Israel Adesanya's great trailer for fight against Alex Pereira at UFC 281.
I can't wait to watch this fight, this has potential to be one of the best comeback stories and best fights of the year 2022.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZaLuDSmklg

True true...  But Khabib made up for that with superb wrestling skills.  I never said one has to be an excellent boxer to be great in MMA.  It's more complex than that.  I'm just saying, boxing is an essential part of MMA.  A fighter has to have at least some training in western boxing to at least know what he's going to do with his hands at striking range when he's in the cage.

[Apocollapse]

What is your opinion on Pereira even getting that chance of a title fight? I mean he has two fights in UFC against opponents that were not in top15. Then a victory over Strickland, who I dont count as a very tough opponent (split win over Hermansson - the only opponent in record that was in top15 that time). And all of a sudden his fight against Adesanya was announced. Some fighters have 3-5 fights against top15 of their division before they get a title fight, but Pereira somehow got a short path.

Although he doesn't have many fight record on UFC, but he's deserve to fight against Adesanya since Adesanya already fought against Whittaker, Cannonier, and Vettori. Pereira have beat 2 times against Adesanya on kickboxing, so we might Pereira could beat Adesanya on UFC considering both of them are a kickboxer, Adesanya doesn't good in ground fight. It's interesting to see if Adesanya already improving a lot or he's just same like he was 2016-2017.

[cabron]

One reason why Connor and Floyd fight was because Floyd wants to prove boxing is a better sport. This is then where Pauls got the idea that they can make money using twitter to fight MMA fighters in boxing. 😁

Anyway. It really is somehoa unfair for other fighters who started from the ground and has to fight a list of monsters for the chance of title fight. Peirera did it well and I think Dana couldn't find one that coud challenge Adesanya.

[Welsh]

What is your opinion on Pereira even getting that chance of a title fight? I mean he has two fights in UFC against opponents that were not in top15. Then a victory over Strickland, who I dont count as a very tough opponent (split win over Hermansson - the only opponent in record that was in top15 that time). And all of a sudden his fight against Adesanya was announced. Some fighters have 3-5 fights against top15 of their division before they get a title fight, but Pereira somehow got a short path.

We see it with others, Chimaev was technically rushed into the top five, and I doubt anyone will have a problem with him challenging for the title. The thing is, Izzy's division has been rather stale for a while now. It's only been Bobby that has enough about him to challenge, and I thought their last fight was very close.

Although, Pereira is new to the UFC, and has been rushed. He got put against Strickland who was on a very good run himself, and knocked him out without much fuss at all. There's no one else really except Whittaker he could go against, but I'd rather see that fight after the Izzy one, since there's a story behind the Izzy fight. Which if Pereira got knocked out or lost against Whittaker it kind of destroys that story line. So, overall I don't really have much of a problem with it. I'm excited for the hype behind it even if it was to be a boring fight.

[Balmain]

It's a really nice video. Yep, getting to be a boring middleweight, and after Pereira defeated fifth-placed Strickland, this fight was announced and it's just days away. Right now I think Perreria is the only one strong enough to knock out Adesanya, but that doesn't mean he can win in the cage. He may have won in kickboxing before, but Pereira is more experienced in the cage and has a lot of weapons, I think he will disable and bend the pure power of Pereira with these weapons. he's a The Last Stylebender not to forget it

[Welsh]

It's a really nice video. Yep, getting to be a boring middleweight, and after Pereira defeated fifth-placed Strickland, this fight was announced and it's just days away. Right now I think Perreria is the only one strong enough to knock out Adesanya, but that doesn't mean he can win in the cage. He may have won in kickboxing before, but Pereira is more experienced in the cage and has a lot of weapons, I think he will disable and bend the pure power of Pereira with these weapons. he's a The Last Stylebender not to forget it

On that note; Izzy will likely try to stay safe, and therefore I think the decision win for Izzy is the most logicial one, and due to it being a even match it might have some decents odds. I haven't checked the odds yet, since it's a little while away. However, anything above 2.5 would be pretty good odds I would think. I can't see Izzy knocking out Alex, and I think Alex won't be able to land what he wants on Izzy due to Izzy circling, and keeping the distance.

That's my early prediction, bare in mind I'm a fan of Izzy so I don't really want to see him lose, and therefore am a little biased. Although, I do think that's where the value bet is. Obviously, until I look at the odds, maybe the knock out with Alex, I just can't see him pulling it off this time.

[YuginKadoya]

It's also worth noting that Izzy pretty much dominated until getting knocked out. So, while Alex is definitely a good knockout artist, he probably does get beat convincingly without getting that knockout. Obviously, it doesn't matter if he can continue to find that knock out, but I'm not convinced he can.

Especially, since Izzy has learned to evade in MMA, and has become the master at it. Sometimes that means boring fights, but he hardly ever puts himself in danger even when he moved up a weight class. He's never really in any danger so to think that he'll put himself in danger against someone who's knocked him out in the past, personally I can't see it.

I agree, for me, Izzy was dominating at the beginning of the fight It was a sure win for Pereira that conditions Izzy for that solid punch, but that was a long time ago, Israel Adesanya has adopted a fighting style that is beyond just kickboxing, Alex Pereira wouldn't be an easy fight for him, but it is a winnable bet that Izzy will be better with his style of high on defensive evasion and great timing with those kicks and punches,

It is surely viable to bet for Izzy, but I guess that Alex Pereira could be the favorite to win here, so his odds could be up, so it is great timing to bet for Adesanya, but this is just what I think and still, the odds could be equal aswell,

What is your opinion on Pereira even getting that chance of a title fight? I mean he has two fights in UFC against opponents that were not in top15. Then a victory over Strickland, who I dont count as a very tough opponent (split win over Hermansson - the only opponent in record that was in top15 that time). And all of a sudden his fight against Adesanya was announced. Some fighters have 3-5 fights against top15 of their division before they get a title fight, but Pereira somehow got a short path.

The UFC might want to have a difficult fight for Adesanya and seeing how Alex Pereira win over Adesanya back in their Kickboxing days, they are thinking that this could be the best solution and a fight that could be highly anticipated by fans, or I think many are saying that Izzy's fighting style is boring for some that is why I think the UFC wants to change the middleweight champion and that is Alex Pereira a knockout artist it all points to the UFC orchestrating this fight to happen,

[minairia3]

Every fight is dangerous, and to be honest before I actually got into MMA, I was one of those people saying that it was to barbaric like, and I didn't want to watch people get absolutely smashed to pieces. However, luckily I became a little more enlightened than that, and discovered it's actually a very disciplined sport. However, comparing the damage done compared to other sports is trivial.

At the end of the day every contact sport is dangerous, with boxing you have the compounding damage that can be done due to bigger gloves, and therefore you don't see flash knockouts nearly as often as MMA. However, MMA you can definitely get a lot more gruesome injuries due to the smaller gloves.

Ultimately, as I touched upon every single contact sport has its dangers. For example, there's currently investigations going on in rugby, and how they handle concussions. There's suggestions in football that headers shouldn't be allowed due to the brain being damaged. There's a ton of examples of this across loads of different sports. MMA isn't any different.

There has been researching done on how much damage is done by boxing gloves, MMA gloves, and barehand punches.
I found it surprising that the difference was only 5 lbs between each.

So, none of them is safer compared to the other. Obviously, when you get in the ring, it is survival of the fittest. I find those people who try to make a case that boxing is safer compared to MMA or vice versa to be just stupid. In every fighting sport, there will be consequences. And the fighters are well aware of that. If any people cannot understand that or cannot stand the sight of blood, they should just stay away from watching boxing or MMA, or any other fighting sport.

[notblox1]

It's also worth noting that Izzy pretty much dominated until getting knocked out. So, while Alex is definitely a good knockout artist, he probably does get beat convincingly without getting that knockout. Obviously, it doesn't matter if he can continue to find that knock out, but I'm not convinced he can.

We are going to see if Izzy has Achilles' heel or not, but he showed weakness not just against Alex Pereira but also in fight with Jan Błachowicz.
His game is great but far from perfect and I think that mental condition will be the key in fight against Pereira.
As much as I like Adesanya I think that he can be little cocky sometimes and he can pay the price for this.

New training video just released on Adesanya youtube channbel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xtbrq5L23U8

[Welsh]

There has been researching done on how much damage is done by boxing gloves, MMA gloves, and barehand punches.
I found it surprising that the difference was only 5 lbs between each.

So, none of them is safer compared to the other. Obviously, when you get in the ring, it is survival of the fittest. I find those people who try to make a case that boxing is safer compared to MMA or vice versa to be just stupid. In every fighting sport, there will be consequences. And the fighters are well aware of that. If any people cannot understand that or cannot stand the sight of blood, they should just stay away from watching boxing or MMA, or any other fighting sport.

Interesting, do you happen to have a source for that study? I've always assumed that boxing is worse due to the compounding effect I mentioned, whereas at least with UFC it's not a prolonged thing, it's usually in short bursts. Although, that isn't always true either. Just look at Nate Diaz, and Tony Fergusson.

We are going to see if Izzy has Achilles' heel or not, but he showed weakness not just against Alex Pereira but also in fight with Jan Błachowicz.
His game is great but far from perfect and I think that mental condition will be the key in fight against Pereira.
As much as I like Adesanya I think that he can be little cocky sometimes and he can pay the price for this.

Yeah, although Izzy did move up a weight class, and was significantly under weight, since that division allows a larger amount of weight difference, obviously. So, it's understandable how he was taken to the ground a lot. The most surprising thing to me was due to that ground threat he was actually losing on the stand up exchanges. I'd expect him to be a lot better if he were to go up again though.

[YuginKadoya]

There has been researching done on how much damage is done by boxing gloves, MMA gloves, and barehand punches.
I found it surprising that the difference was only 5 lbs between each.

So, none of them is safer compared to the other. Obviously, when you get in the ring, it is survival of the fittest. I find those people who try to make a case that boxing is safer compared to MMA or vice versa to be just stupid. In every fighting sport, there will be consequences. And the fighters are well aware of that. If any people cannot understand that or cannot stand the sight of blood, they should just stay away from watching boxing or MMA, or any other fighting sport.

Good find but I wish you could provide a link but anyway I think I will search for it anyway, well for me if their gloves are the same then the way MMA and boxing and how they could KO/TKO their opponent or how they fight inside the cage and if what combat sports does likely to make a majority hit to the head could be fatal, and likely boxing had the most punches to the head than with MMA,

It's also worth noting that Izzy pretty much dominated until getting knocked out. So, while Alex is definitely a good knockout artist, he probably does get beat convincingly without getting that knockout. Obviously, it doesn't matter if he can continue to find that knock out, but I'm not convinced he can.

We are going to see if Izzy has Achilles' heel or not, but he showed weakness not just against Alex Pereira but also in fight with Jan Błachowicz.
His game is great but far from perfect and I think that mental condition will be the key in fight against Pereira.
As much as I like Adesanya I think that he can be little cocky sometimes and he can pay the price for this.

New training video just released on Adesanya youtube channbel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xtbrq5L23U8

Jan Blachowicz was a little aware of how Israel Adesanya was moving and I really don't know why those faints were getting to Izzy's head maybe because Izzy is respecting Blachowicz power but Jan Blachowicz keeps on getting into those faints he out faints the faint master, I really don't know if Jan Blachowicz was very technical on this match but he doesn't show this kind of aggressiveness during the Glover Texeira fight, but I think he has learned from this mistake so I think he will be fine, in taking exchange with fighters with the same length and height as him,

[TopTort777]

We are going to see if Izzy has Achilles' heel or not, but he showed weakness not just against Alex Pereira but also in fight with Jan Błachowicz.
His game is great but far from perfect and I think that mental condition will be the key in fight against Pereira.
As much as I like Adesanya I think that he can be little cocky sometimes and he can pay the price for this.

Somehow I think Adesanya and Pereira fight is not going to go full distance. Probably it will last for 1 or 2 rounds only. Reason - I think Pereira is not quite ready for MMA fights, I think he has not much experience of how much strength and stamina fighting at the fence or on the ground take and how much should be saved. Cant explain why, but I think Pereira is going to rush in this fight. 

[danherbias07]

We are going to see if Izzy has Achilles' heel or not, but he showed weakness not just against Alex Pereira but also in fight with Jan Błachowicz.
His game is great but far from perfect and I think that mental condition will be the key in fight against Pereira.
As much as I like Adesanya I think that he can be little cocky sometimes and he can pay the price for this.

Somehow I think Adesanya and Pereira fight is not going to go full distance. Probably it will last for 1 or 2 rounds only. Reason - I think Pereira is not quite ready for MMA fights, I think he has not much experience of how much strength and stamina fighting at the fence or on the ground take and how much should be saved. Cant explain why, but I think Pereira is going to rush in this fight. 

Experience-wise, I agree, Adesanya has the upper hand. But as notblox1 said, the cockiness might get the better of him. That is a chance Pereira should take like how Weidman defeated the Spider Silva because of playing too much in the octagon. Being a champion for long has that weakness of overconfidence while the opponent is hungry to snatch the belt from him.

Both are standing-style fighters, take down defense is high. Will Pereira try to mix it up by training for a takedown and play it on the mat or will he just try the same kickboxing style?

[tokeweed]

It's also worth noting that Izzy pretty much dominated until getting knocked out. So, while Alex is definitely a good knockout artist, he probably does get beat convincingly without getting that knockout. Obviously, it doesn't matter if he can continue to find that knock out, but I'm not convinced he can.

We are going to see if Izzy has Achilles' heel or not, but he showed weakness not just against Alex Pereira but also in fight with Jan Błachowicz.
His game is great but far from perfect and I think that mental condition will be the key in fight against Pereira.
As much as I like Adesanya I think that he can be little cocky sometimes and he can pay the price for this.

New training video just released on Adesanya youtube channbel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xtbrq5L23U8

As far as weaknesses go, Adesanya is no match vs Blachowicz.  In hind sight because the match was at 205, Adesanya showed that he couldn't bulk up enough to make the full weight...  And Blachowicz turned out to be yuuuge.    

As for Pereira, dunno...  He has the power but Adesanya is better technically.  Slight lean on Adesanya but from a betting perspective Pereira via KO could be a fun bet.  Hopefully it's lined somewhere around 4.50 - 5.00.  But surely the books will turn on the juice and line it around 2.50 - 3.00.  :/