🥊 The UFC Info and Prediction Thread

[tokeweed]

UFC Fight Night: Allen vs. Curtis 2



Date: April 6, 2024
Preliminary Card : SAT, APR 6 / 10:00 PM GMT+3
Main Card: SUN, APR 7 / 1:00 AM GMT+3

Venue:    UFC Apex

Main card (ESPN)
Middleweight: Brendan Allen vs. Chris Curtis            
Featherweight: Alexander Hernandez vs. Damon Jackson            
Featherweight: Morgan Charrière vs. Jose Mariscal            
Lightweight: Ignacio Bahamondes vs. Christos Giagos            
Heavyweight: Valter Walker vs. Łucasz Brzeski            
Lightweight: Trevor Peek vs. Charlie Campbell   

Preliminary card (ESPN)
Welterweight: Court McGee vs. Alex Morono            
Women's Bantamweight: Norma Dumont vs. Germaine de Randamie            
Bantamweight: Alateng Heili vs. Victor Hugo            
Women's Strawweight: Piera Rodríguez vs. Cynthia Calvillo            
Bantamweight: Dan Argueta vs. Jean Matsumoto            
Middleweight: Dylan Budka vs. César Almeida            
Women's Bantamweight: Nora Cornolle vs. Melissa Mullins

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFC_Fight_Night:_Allen_vs._Curtis_2

The main event that no one really wanted...  It was supposed to be Brendan Allen vs Marvin Vettori for Allen's chance to move up and join the elites at 185.  But getting a chance to get back that L he got from Curtis would be good too I guess.  Most of the other match ups are just ok I guess but nothing really to get excited about.  I'd say the winner of Allen vs Vettori would've been a preparation for Bo Nickal's next match up if he wins at UFC 300.  Maybe Allen vs Curtis still is.  :/

Here's a couple of replays to watch.

UFC Free Fight:  Allen vs Craig
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JteiRAfbhsw

UFC Free Fight:  Curtis vs Buckley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku3cnsTymSw

Here's the Multi Master...

UFC Fight Night 240:  Multi Master Challenge
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5491086.0

Enjoy...

[Swordsoffreedom]

What do you guys think about Bo Nickal? He's rarely discussed in this thread. Obviously he's getting fast tracked to be a nef UFC superstar and have an impressive 5-0-0 record with all being first round finishes: 2 KOs and 3 submissions - all scored on "no-names", and his next opponent is also not really well-known either (which begs a question on why is it a main card fight of the UFC 300, when much more established fighters are on prelims or early-prelims). But I like how hardworking and dedicated he is. If the hype is real, he might be an American response to all the successful Dagestani/Chechen fighters. I wouldn't mind seeing him matched up against Khamzat.

I have pointed out on Bo Nickal several times, but people seemed to pay low attention. He is an elite wrestler, but a really bad striker. I would say awful striker 5 fights, and he managed to slip two times during high kicks lol For me he seems like a new UFC gem and match makers gonna lay a red carpet for him on a way to top. Like they did with Alex Pereira who got only strikers as opponents. Similar Nickal will get wrestlers or no-names. Right now he can match Khamzat in wrestling match and beat him (honestly, what are Khamzat best wrestling achievement? Champ of Sweden? And Dagestany DNA?). I have also noticed, that he is doing to much accented strikes. He wants to knock out opponent with every strike. With that, he is spending to much stamina. No feints, no fake strikes, no testing jabs. He is very unexperienced in striking imho.

In my opinion he actually depends a little too much on his wrestling.
If someone can defend him properly, and keeping in mind that the 'someone' is really good at defending, he will face some certain problems.
And I believe he really needs to have some boxing in his arsenal.
At this day and age I don't think anyone is actually a complete fighter. I also do not think anyone can be.

But it is a good idea to have some certain ability and some certain knowledge under your belt when you are going into the cage. His next fight against Cody Brundage is probably not going to be a big problem for him. Because I do not see Cody having the skills to defend his opponent.

[Hirose UK]

However, it seems very unfortunate because there is news that the second fight between Justin Gaethje vs Max Holloway has been cancelled, Gaethje as the BMF champion has bet his belt on Holloway as the featherweight champion challenger.
I don't know whether it was actually canceled or is still continuing but this is quite an interesting fight in my opinion because what is certain is that Gaethje will destroy Holloway.
I hope someone can provide information about this fight, I really want to see it on April 13th.

I think the fight is still on as there's no news about it being  cancelled. When you google "UFC 300" there's an event info page showing the fight as both on and cancelled (it has been like that for quite a long time" which is confusing.
Max is phenomenal striker,.while Justin is a brawler. I don't think either of them will be looking to take it to the ground, so we should expect an intensive strking match,.likely ending in KO.
Holloway has already fought in 155 against Poirier, despite losing, he gave a really good fight, so I don't think it'll be an easy one for Justin.

It good that it still going on because it really interesting fight and of course the winner gets the title of most brutal fighter and I want to see Gaethje defend his belt and knock out Holloway.
But indeed I saw it was canceled because the schedule listed on Google showed a cancellation, but I couldn't find further information regarding the cancellation.
If I predict this fight then I will also conclude that the finish could be by knockout and of course Gaethje is the favorite, plus there are several parties who have expressed concerns that Holloway will definitely be destroyed if the fight continues.
We see what happens, whether Holloway can fight well and make it difficult for Gaethje or not, but I still choose Gaethje as the favorite.

[TopTort777]

What do you guys think about Bo Nickal? He's rarely discussed in this thread. Obviously he's getting fast tracked to be a nef UFC superstar and have an impressive 5-0-0 record with all being first round finishes: 2 KOs and 3 submissions - all scored on "no-names", and his next opponent is also not really well-known either (which begs a question on why is it a main card fight of the UFC 300, when much more established fighters are on prelims or early-prelims). But I like how hardworking and dedicated he is. If the hype is real, he might be an American response to all the successful Dagestani/Chechen fighters. I wouldn't mind seeing him matched up against Khamzat.

I have pointed out on Bo Nickal several times, but people seemed to pay low attention. He is an elite wrestler, but a really bad striker. I would say awful striker 5 fights, and he managed to slip two times during high kicks lol For me he seems like a new UFC gem and match makers gonna lay a red carpet for him on a way to top. Like they did with Alex Pereira who got only strikers as opponents. Similar Nickal will get wrestlers or no-names. Right now he can match Khamzat in wrestling match and beat him (honestly, what are Khamzat best wrestling achievement? Champ of Sweden? And Dagestany DNA?). I have also noticed, that he is doing to much accented strikes. He wants to knock out opponent with every strike. With that, he is spending to much stamina. No feints, no fake strikes, no testing jabs. He is very unexperienced in striking imho.

In my opinion he actually depends a little too much on his wrestling.
If someone can defend him properly, and keeping in mind that the 'someone' is really good at defending, he will face some certain problems.
And I believe he really needs to have some boxing in his arsenal.
At this day and age I don't think anyone is actually a complete fighter. I also do not think anyone can be.

But it is a good idea to have some certain ability and some certain knowledge under your belt when you are going into the cage. His next fight against Cody Brundage is probably not going to be a big problem for him. Because I do not see Cody having the skills to defend his opponent.

What else should he rely on if he is a wrestler and has only 5 pro mma fights ? He sure needs to improve his striking. Because so far he has been lucky fighting trash. Otherwise I dont know how to explain how he managed to connect his strikes, or why most of his opponents go completely straight on a wrestler. This is like a BDay present for a wrestler, as this easily counters with two leg takedown, and if you are not an elite grappler or jitser, its a 99% chance of getting TKOed.

[tokeweed]

^  Yup.  Lol.  But Bo Nickal did KO two of his opponents in the first round tho.  Which means he has powerrr in those hands and starch guys in the UFC.  And he also volunteered to fight Chimaev on short notice which I think there's def a chance of him winning it.  But the UFC didn't allow it and opted to let Usman fight Chim instead.

Here's the official live weigh in stream.

UFC Fight Night:  Allen vs Curtis Official Weigh Ins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX1LEzuzByc

And as I was browsing over UFC 301 at Tapology, Aldo is gonna fight in the event?  And vs Jonathan Martinez?  :/

https://www.tapology.com/fightcenter/bouts/855230-ufc-301-jonathan-dragon-martinez-vs-jose-aldo-junior

Not sure what to think of it tbh.  Who you guys got?

[TopTort777]

^  Yup.  Lol.  But Bo Nickal did KO two of his opponents in the first round tho.  Which means he has powerrr in those hands and starch guys in the UFC.  And he also volunteered to fight Chimaev on short notice which I think there's def a chance of him winning it.  But the UFC didn't allow it and opted to let Usman fight Chim instead.

Here's the official live weigh in stream.

UFC Fight Night:  Allen vs Curtis Official Weigh Ins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX1LEzuzByc

UFC wont allow strikers to spoil perfect Nickal record I cant remember his age, but he seems or looks young. Throwing him against, lets say Cannonier and let him leg kick Nickal few times. As to power in hands, that power is there because he relies much on his level of wrestling and knows how low this level opponents have He can have a good swing, aim and shot, not worrying about being taken down. If not mistaken, he had quite a reach advantage against short and muscled Woodburn. Some of the commentators said that he is still "raw" for MMA. I would agree to that. Nicely said. Btw, he has no amateur or before UFC MMA experience. Not good, not good

[tokeweed]

^  I don't think it's totally about not spoiling about his UFC run.  It's also about developing a fighter and taking care of him as he's one of the guys who have great potential to be a hall of famer type of guy and could be a great title holder.  And he's pretty good in interviews and press conferences too.  So he def has the whole package.  

The other good thing about him is he doesn't need to create some bs persona like McGregor did to attract the crowd.  He could just be himself and the crowd will still like him.

[pawel7777]

^  I don't think it's totally about not spoiling about his UFC run.  It's also about developing a fighter and taking care of him as he's one of the guys who have great potential to be a hall of famer type of guy and could be a great title holder.  And he's pretty good in interviews and press conferences too.  So he def has the whole package.  

The other good thing about him is he doesn't need to create some bs persona like McGregor did to attract the crowd.  He could just be himself and the crowd will still like him.

Agree. Dana knows Bo has a massive potential so won't be throwing him against any really challenging opponent at this stage. When he called out Chimaev, he knew there was a zero chance of that happening. No match-maker with half a brain would set up two prospective fighters against eachother. But calling him out was a great marketing move.
As for Nickal's striking skills, he might not be there yet, but it's way easier for a wrestler to learn how to strike than the other way around.
Personality wise, I didn't like him at first, as it's a natural reaction to dislike fighters getting special treatment from the UFC, but he won me over with his natural confidence, hard work attitude and priorities in the right order.

[TopTort777]

A bit surprised, that Chimaevs next fight will be just a fight night event, but not a number event. Maybe I have a wrong understanding, but I always thought that number events are for fight of big names, and fight nights and ESPN are for sort of a regular fights, for building record, debuts and etc. But Chimaev will be fighting against Whittaker in UAE in June 22. It is known that there will be some other big names, but not every fight will a banger.

[tokeweed]

^  But it's a main event and a 5 rounder.  So I'd rather see that than being a three round undercard.  And it's gonna be a lot better for Whittaker if it's 5 rounds.    I'm rooting for him.  Hope he wins and he gets his title shot and rematch vs DDP.  It could be his last.  I'd be really surprised if he tries to go at it again if he loses vs Chim.

^  I don't think it's totally about not spoiling about his UFC run.  It's also about developing a fighter and taking care of him as he's one of the guys who have great potential to be a hall of famer type of guy and could be a great title holder.  And he's pretty good in interviews and press conferences too.  So he def has the whole package.  

The other good thing about him is he doesn't need to create some bs persona like McGregor did to attract the crowd.  He could just be himself and the crowd will still like him.

Agree. Dana knows Bo has a massive potential so won't be throwing him against any really challenging opponent at this stage. When he called out Chimaev, he knew there was a zero chance of that happening. No match-maker with half a brain would set up two prospective fighters against eachother. But calling him out was a great marketing move.
As for Nickal's striking skills, he might not be there yet, but it's way easier for a wrestler to learn how to strike than the other way around.
Personality wise, I didn't like him at first, as it's a natural reaction to dislike fighters getting special treatment from the UFC, but he won me over with his natural confidence, hard work attitude and priorities in the right order.

And he's a humble guy.  It's hard not to like him.  Lol.

It's funny how the UFC has released all the promotional vids in YT days before the next event has even started.  Lolol.  Just shows how much of a filler it is.  

Go enjoy it I guess...

UFC 300:  Countdown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFLW7ZTP9zw

[Swordsoffreedom]

What else should he rely on if he is a wrestler and has only 5 pro mma fights ? He sure needs to improve his striking. Because so far he has been lucky fighting trash. Otherwise I dont know how to explain how he managed to connect his strikes, or why most of his opponents go completely straight on a wrestler. This is like a BDay present for a wrestler, as this easily counters with two leg takedown, and if you are not an elite grappler or jitser, its a 99% chance of getting TKOed.

Well, I am not saying that he should not depend on his wrestling. Cuz he is going to depend on his wrestling because that is the strongest part of him. But what I'm trying to say is that when he is going to face someone who has a good defense against wrestling and also a good striker, he is going to be in a big trouble. Because he has to go for takedowns to get his opponent on the ground and if he does face someone who has good takedown defense, almost half of his skills are going to be taken away from him. I absolutely agree that so far he has been lucky fighting trash as you said. If he does meet his match, it is going to be very hard for him.

^  Yup.  Lol.  But Bo Nickal did KO two of his opponents in the first round tho.  Which means he has powerrr in those hands and starch guys in the UFC.  And he also volunteered to fight Chimaev on short notice which I think there's def a chance of him winning it.  But the UFC didn't allow it and opted to let Usman fight Chim instead.

Here's the official live weigh in stream.

UFC Fight Night:  Allen vs Curtis Official Weigh Ins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX1LEzuzByc

UFC wont allow strikers to spoil perfect Nickal record I cant remember his age, but he seems or looks young. Throwing him against, lets say Cannonier and let him leg kick Nickal few times. As to power in hands, that power is there because he relies much on his level of wrestling and knows how low this level opponents have He can have a good swing, aim and shot, not worrying about being taken down. If not mistaken, he had quite a reach advantage against short and muscled Woodburn. Some of the commentators said that he is still "raw" for MMA. I would agree to that. Nicely said. Btw, he has no amateur or before UFC MMA experience. Not good, not good

They are going to get him a little more seasoned before giving him some very tough opponents. And UFC is not going to destroy that early on in my opinion at least. But if he does not improve his striking game a little, he is going to meet his match and not be able to win fight with his wrestling only. Even the elite level wrestlers need to have some striking in their arsenal. Because at the end of the day, you might need to punch your opponent hard enough to knock him out.

[TopTort777]

Pay attention to Jim Miller vs Bobby Green fight on UFC 300. If Miller wins (and I think he would submit Green) once again he will set a record of most fight, wins, most fight in division in UFC history. Quite a unique fighter. He is old (40 already) but still manages to win, he is not in top15 (but if he wins Green, he would get there). It might look that UFC build his record of win on purpose (because last his opponents were rather unknown) to get him in hall-of-fame and point on him like "guy who won 40+ fights in ufc).

[pawel7777]

Pay attention to Jim Miller vs Bobby Green fight on UFC 300. If Miller wins (and I think he would submit Green) once again he will set a record of most fight, wins, most fight in division in UFC history. Quite a unique fighter. He is old (40 already) but still manages to win, he is not in top15 (but if he wins Green, he would get there). It might look that UFC build his record of win on purpose (because last his opponents were rather unknown) to get him in hall-of-fame and point on him like "guy who won 40+ fights in ufc).

According to statleaders.ufc.com, he's already holding records for the most fights (43) and most wins (26). So, win or lose, he will just add to his record of the total fights.
The second place in both of those stats is held by Andrei Arlovski, with 41 total fights and 23 wins. Arlovski is pretty close but he's 5 years older than Miller, so I don't think he's a threat to his record.
But all the above relate to UFC fights only and any fights in other organisations are not considered, so there probably are quite a lot fighters with even better overall records.
If all fights are considered, Miller's record would be 55 fights and 37 wins per to his Wikipedia page.

[tokeweed]

And here it is...  They weigh in results with 4 fighters missing weight.    It shows that they don't really care about event as it's obv just a filler for the weekend before UFC 300.  All of these match ups I don't care for.  Allen vs Vettori would've been interesting if Vettori didn't pull out of the event due injury.  :/  But yeah, it is what it is.

Have fun with this even sports fans. 

UFC Fight Night:  Allen vs Curtis 2 Weigh In Results

Brendan Allen (186) vs Chris Curtis (186)
Alexander Hernandez (147.5)* vs Damon Jackson (146)
Morgan Charriere (145) vs Chepe Mariscal (145.5)
Ignacio Bahamondes (156) vs Christos Giagos (156)
Lukasz Brzeski (236) vs Valter Walker (264)
Charlie Campbell (155) vs Trevor Peek (155.5)
Court McGee (170.5) vs Alex Morono (171)
Germaine de Randamie (135) vs Norma Dumont (136)
Pedro Falcao (136) vs Victor Hugo (135.5)
Cynthia Calvillo (119)* vs Piera Rodriguez (116)
Dan Argueta (136) vs Jean Matsumoto (136)
Cesar Almeida (185.5) vs Dylan Budka (185.5)
Nora Cornolle (138.5)* vs Melissa Mullins (138)*

*Missed weight

UFC Fight Night:  Allen vs Curtis 2 Weigh Ins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHdDlFr2FCQ

UFC Fight Night:  Allen vs Curtis 2 Face Offs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jugYI8GcpNg

And last call to the jeremypwr's Multi Master...

UFC Fight Night 240:  Multi Master Challenge
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5491086.0

My picks...  Like for most of the events I kinda have an idea.  But for this one I have totally no idea for these matches and I didn't bother looking into them.  Most of my time online is spent hunting for airdrops lately.  Lolol. 

13. Brendan Allen
12. Alexander Hernandez 
11. Jose Mariscal   
10. Ignacio Bahamondes
9. Valter Walker
8. Trevor Peek 
7. Alex Morono           
6. Germaine de Randamie         
5. Victor Hugo           
         
3. Dan Argueta         
2. César Almeida           
1. Nora Cornolle

[tokeweed]

Just 4 finishes in the event coupled with three split decisions makes me think it wasn't that good.  Not interested to watch the replay either.  Lol.  I did tune in for the main event tho.  I think Curtis threw the cleaner shots and had Allen in trouble in there...

And Allen's line was around 1.50 or something.  He didn't look good for a guy who's implied odds was lined high.

UFC Fight Night:  Allen vs Curtis Results

Brendan Allen def Chris Curtis  SD
Damon Jackson def Alexander Hernandez  SD
Jose Mariscal def Morgan Charriee SD
Ignacio Bahamondes def Christos Giagos  KO R1
Charlie Campbell def Trevor Peek  UD
Alex Morono def Court McGee  UD
Łukasz Brzeski def Valter Walker  UD
Norma Dumont def Germaine de Randamie  UD
Victor Hugo def Pedro Falcao  UD
Jean Matsumoto def Dan Argueta  SUB R2
Cesar Almeida def Dylan Budka  KO R2
Nora Cornolle def Melissa Mullins  TKO R2

UFC Fight Night:  Allen vs Curtis Post Fight Press Conference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iZ_9QgD2oE

[pawel7777]

And Allen's line was around 1.50 or something.  He didn't look good for a guy who's implied odds was lined high.
(...)

They say a win is a win, but that's not the kind of win Allen will be proud of. He was in real trouble as Curtis put him on wobbly legs and if he pressed harder, he probably could finish Allen with a KO.
I believe Allen was originally scheduled to fight Vettori, and I think Marvin is on a higher level than Allen.
It was a good fight to watch though as both of them went all out and were not saving themselves, to the point both had to sit down on the floor right after the final buzz.
I don't expect it will affect the ranking positions of either of them.

[yazher]

Just 4 finishes in the event coupled with three split decisions makes me think it wasn't that good.  Not interested to watch the replay either.  Lol.  I did tune in for the main event tho.  I think Curtis threw the cleaner shots and had Allen in trouble in there...

Let's just wait because after this week the great fighters will be relieved of their obligatory actions and they will be back in the cage getting to fight some good opponents. I'm talking about the Digestan warriors and we will see them soon again because their opponents are also waiting for them it will be a great year once again for the rivals especially Islam Makachev vs Charles Oliveira since their chance to fight again will surely happen because their fans are waiting to see them fight once again to settle it once more. But Charles needs to prove himself in another fight before that and I know he can easily handle whoever it is since he is at his best right now.

[pawel7777]

(...) Islam Makachev vs Charles Oliveira since their chance to fight again will surely happen because their fans are waiting to see them fight once again to settle it once more. But Charles needs to prove himself in another fight before that and I know he can easily handle whoever it is since he is at his best right now.

Charles is fighting Arman Tsarukyan next week and he's not a favourite in that fight. If he wins he might face Islam again, but we might see Islam fighting the winner of Gaethje Vs Holloway instead, meaning Oliveira (even if wins against Arman) might be forced to fight someone else before getting another title shot. But personally I'm not convinced if he really wants to fight Islam again.
As for Makhachev, it looks like he'll be fighting Poirier first in June. I don't think the fight has been officially announced yet, but there are some news reports confirming Dustin accepted the offer and is willing to take the challenge.

[TopTort777]

UFC 300



Date: April 14, 2024
Early Prelims: SUN, APR 14 / 1:00 AM GMT+3
Preliminary Card : SUN, APR 14 / 3:00 AM GMT+3
Main Card: SUN, APR 14 / 5:00 AM GMT+3

Venue: T-Mobile Arena

Main card (ESPN)
Light Heavyweight: Alex Pereira vs. Jamahal Hill
Women's Strawweight: Zhang Weili vs. Yan Xiaonan
Lightweight: Justin Gaethje vs. Max Holloway
Lightweight: Charles Oliveira vs. Arman Tsarukyan
Middleweight: Bo Nickal vs. Cody Brundage

Preliminary card (ESPN)
Light Heavyweight: Jiří Procházka vs. Aleksandar Rakić            
Featherweight: Calvin Kattar vs. Aljamain Sterling            
Women's Bantamweight: Holly Holm vs. Kayla Harrison            
Featherweight: Sodiq Yusuff vs. Diego Lopes

Early preliminary card (ESPN / ESPN+)
Lightweight: Jalin Turner vs. Renato Moicano            
Women's Strawweight: Jéssica Andrade vs. Marina Rodriguez            
Lightweight: Bobby Green vs. Jim Miller            
Bantamweight: Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Cody Garbrandt   

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFC_300

[tokeweed]

^  The main event is not what we really wanted but the rest of the event is so good, it makes up for it.  Something like Jones vs Aspinall would've made it complete tho.  That's the match up that everybody would surely wanna see.  Two of the best heavy weights in the UFC and it would've been a champ vs interim champ kind of thing.  But we can't get everything we want.

Again...  Here's the Countdown vid.

UFC 300:  Countdown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFLW7ZTP9zw

^  I'm more excited with the BMF match than the main event.