🥊 The UFC Info and Prediction Thread

[pawel7777]

Not a single word about Strickland vs Costa fight What do you think about it? Could Strickland survive power of Costas and secret juice? Is Costa able to crack Philadelphia defence of Strickland? Will black belt in JJ help Costa (did he ever even used his skills or only rely on his strength all the time?).

Apparently both of them have black JJ belts, which only shows how little this means nowadays. Strickland even joked about tossing his black belt into the boot of his car and never bothering getting it out.
I honestly don't know what to think of this fight. Obviously we should expect it to be a 100% stand up fight, but who wins is open for debate.
Strickland is the favourite and if he shows up properly focussed and keeps his discipline as he did against Adesanya, that should be enough to grab a win.
Costa can make an impression of a social media clown, who is more pre-occupied on PR stunts than he is on training, but then again, he didn't look all that bad fighting against Whittaker, and showed that he can do some damage.
If both come 100% prepared, I'll give it a 60/40 for Strickland.

[cabron]

Not a single word about Strickland vs Costa fight What do you think about it? Could Strickland survive power of Costas and secret juice? Is Costa able to crack Philadelphia defence of Strickland? Will black belt in JJ help Costa (did he ever even used his skills or only rely on his strength all the time?).

Apparently both of them have black JJ belts, which only shows how little this means nowadays. Strickland even joked about tossing his black belt into the boot of his car and never bothering getting it out.
I honestly don't know what to think of this fight. Obviously we should expect it to be a 100% stand up fight, but who wins is open for debate.
Strickland is the favourite and if he shows up properly focussed and keeps his discipline as he did against Adesanya, that should be enough to grab a win.
Costa can make an impression of a social media clown, who is more pre-occupied on PR stunts than he is on training, but then again, he didn't look all that bad fighting against Whittaker, and showed that he can do some damage.
If both come 100% prepared, I'll give it a 60/40 for Strickland.

If Sean can survive up to 3rd round I think he will be winning this fight. As long as the fight will just be standing and Strickland will not receive big blows, he will get his hand raised. I think Costa's secret juice will not save him when it comes to gassing out. He doesn't have the tank to last 5 rounds. This could be a decision since Costa is also aware of his gas. He will save some just to avoid getting KO'd.

[coolcoinz]

If Sean can survive up to 3rd round I think he will be winning this fight. As long as the fight will just be standing and Strickland will not receive big blows, he will get his hand raised. I think Costa's secret juice will not save him when it comes to gassing out. He doesn't have the tank to last 5 rounds. This could be a decision since Costa is also aware of his gas. He will save some just to avoid getting KO'd.

IMO it's Strickland's fight, unless he makes a mistake.
Costa is a heavy hitter, muscular, but lacks finesse and isn't very fast, rather likes to punch slower but harder, same with kicks they're not that fast but hard. Strickland moves better, has better cardio.

Also, Costa lost most of his recent fights, including Adesanya, who lost vs Strickland. The only fight he managed to win was Rockhold, who is also on a losing streak an already on his way to retirement, because let's face it, at 40 you're not going to win any belts in UFC.

[Pumared]

If Sean can survive up to 3rd round I think he will be winning this fight. As long as the fight will just be standing and Strickland will not receive big blows, he will get his hand raised. I think Costa's secret juice will not save him when it comes to gassing out. He doesn't have the tank to last 5 rounds. This could be a decision since Costa is also aware of his gas. He will save some just to avoid getting KO'd.

IMO it's Strickland's fight, unless he makes a mistake.
Costa is a heavy hitter, muscular, but lacks finesse and isn't very fast, rather likes to punch slower but harder, same with kicks they're not that fast but hard. Strickland moves better, has better cardio.

Also, Costa lost most of his recent fights, including Adesanya, who lost vs Strickland. The only fight he managed to win was Rockhold, who is also on a losing streak an already on his way to retirement, because let's face it, at 40 you're not going to win any belts in UFC.

Strickland doesn't usually get tired easily, so if he can make it to the end he can gain an advantage and score more points. However, he needs to manage the first two well, otherwise there's no point in reaching the third without winning the first two or at least one.

[bbc.reporter]

Everyone appears to be talking about Islam and Dustin Poirier and also being reminded that there is also Sean Strickland vs. Paulo Costa. However, I also want to remind everyone that there is a sexy fighting kitten for this event and her name is Ailin Perez from the country of Argentina.



On her introduction by Bruce Buffer in the octagon she will show her respect on her opponent with her welcome circle walk and bow.



However, on her victory dance, this does not appear to be very respectful heehhehehehe.

[TopTort777]

How many of you know the reason why such a great fighter as Demetreous Johnson was kicked from UFC? Reason is obvious - money. But here are some interesting info (I did not know such details) When a fighter becomes achampion, his contract gets automatically reconsidered into 500k+% from PPV. That is default. Wheb Mighty Mouse became champ, guess how much did he get? 14+14! For title defence. Two times for title defences he got only that amount. When he wrote an open letter to Dana, his payment got increased to 125k. But no PPV extra. Dana told that PPV sales does not affect flyweight. Google for his record and calculate how much money UFC owe him… No wonder he left or got kicked.

[tokeweed]

So here we are again...  Just 10 hours before the event.  Can't wait!

And here are the weigh in results.  One guy missed weight and is over the limit by 4 lbs.  That tells me that he prolly did try to get rid of the extra weight and will go in there with batteries fully charged.  This match prolly won't go the full distance.  Dunno tho...

UFC 302:  Ceremonial Weigh In
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99R0wnF0RK8

Islam Makhachev (155) vs Dustin Poirier (155) – for lightweight title
Paulo Costa (185) vs Sean Strickland (185)
Kevin Holland (185) vs  Michal Oleksiejczuk (185)
Alex Morono (170) vs Niko Price (170)
Randy Brown (170) vs Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos (170)
Cesar Almeida (185) vs Roman Kopylov (185)
Jailton Almeida (241) vs Alexandr Romanov (265)
Grant Dawson (155) vs Joe Solecki (155)
Jake Matthews (170) vs Phil Rowe (171)
Bassil Hafez (170) vs Mickey Gall (170)
Joselyne Edwards (136) vs Ailin Perez (135)
Andre Lima (130)* vs Mitch Raposo (125)

*Missed weight

Here's the last couple of vids of Embedded.  Watch episode 5.  Pretty sure somebody in here will like it.  Lolol.

UFC 302:  Embedded Episode 5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtyEznE_I7Y

UFC 302:  Embedded Episode 6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkPpToY6bkM

And here's the last call for jeremypwr's Multi Master.

UFC 302:  Multi Master Challenge
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5498047.0

[cabron]

How many of you know the reason why such a great fighter as Demetreous Johnson was kicked from UFC? Reason is obvious - money. But here are some interesting info (I did not know such details) When a fighter becomes achampion, his contract gets automatically reconsidered into 500k+% from PPV. That is default. Wheb Mighty Mouse became champ, guess how much did he get? 14+14! For title defence. Two times for title defences he got only that amount. When he wrote an open letter to Dana, his payment got increased to 125k. But no PPV extra. Dana told that PPV sales does not affect flyweight. Google for his record and calculate how much money UFC owe him… No wonder he left or got kicked.

From what I have seen in his documentary, he had been saying even in some interviews that UFC wants him to troll around and speak negatively to his opponent to sell the fight. But DJ is not the kind of person. I guess the relationship got colder with Dana. The promotion just wants someone who can do both and put his words into action. It's pretty rare for a fighter who can actually fight with his mouth except Conor and also do it in the cage.

Anyway. This one is coming.


ccto

[Hirose UK]

This is what we have been waiting for the time has finally come and indeed Islam Makhachev vs Dustin Poirier is the main fight that has been eagerly awaited, they have created their own hype in the fight for the lightweight title.
In my opinion, their fight is much more interesting and more important than Paulo Costa vs Sean Strickland.

In the end we can see how Islam Makhachev fights and shows his ambition in defending his title for the third time because this is very important fight for Islam Makhachev.
But on the other hand, Poirier will try to fight as best as possible and get win in order to become the undisputed champion.
In just matter of hours we will see how they fight for the title, I will still make Islam Makhachev the favorite.

[TopTort777]

Boooring event Since UFC 299 and UFC 300, it is hard to impress. So many decisions in this event. Even 3 split decisions. At least main event did not get me disappointed. However, there were so many attempts to get Poirier to ground and choke him, and Poirier evades all of them (except 1 lol). I have expected a quicker finish. Still, but two fights against Volk were much better.

[Polkeins]

This is what we have been waiting for the time has finally come and indeed Islam Makhachev vs Dustin Poirier is the main fight that has been eagerly awaited, they have created their own hype in the fight for the lightweight title.
In my opinion, their fight is much more interesting and more important than Paulo Costa vs Sean Strickland.

In the end we can see how Islam Makhachev fights and shows his ambition in defending his title for the third time because this is very important fight for Islam Makhachev.
But on the other hand, Poirier will try to fight as best as possible and get win in order to become the undisputed champion.
In just matter of hours we will see how they fight for the title, I will still make Islam Makhachev the favorite.

For Poirier it was the most important fight in his career, because for him it was the third attempt to take the title and he spent it perfectly, but Islam Makhachev was objectively stronger and it is logical that he still ended the fight with a choke hold, but still Poirier did everything to protect himself from the transfer to the floor, defended desperately, but apparently in the 5th round was not enough strength and Makhachev fulfilled to the end of his plan.
It should be noted that Makhachev looked very good in the standup, although before the fight it seemed that Poirier was much stronger in the standup and his punching power is better than Makhachev's, but Makhachev was able to surprise everyone when he looked equal or even better than Poirier in the standup.

[tokeweed]

Here are the results.  The two matches that ended both via split decision really were from bad judging.  I don't know what the couple of judges were watching with the Strickland vs Costa and the Kopylov vs Almeida match ups...  The winners were bar none Strickland and Kopylov.

Islam Makhachev def Dustin Poirier  SUB R5
Sean Strickland def Paulo Costa  SD
Kevin Holland def Michał Oleksiejczuk  SUB R1
Niko Price def Alex Morono   Decision  UD
Randy Brown def Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos  UD
Roman Kopylov def César Almeida  SD
Jailton Almeida def Alexander Romanov  SUB R1
Grant Dawson def Joe Solecki  UD
Jake Matthews def Philip Rowe  UD
Bassil Hafez def Mickey Gall  UD
Ailín Pérez def Joselyne Edwards  UD
André Lima def Mitch Raposo  SD

And here's the post fight press conference.  Always good to watch it if Dana White is on, just to have an idea what they're planning next in the UFC.

UFC 302:  Post Fight Press Conference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_OP9vjo1w4

[Saint-loup]

Everyone appears to be talking about Islam and Dustin Poirier and also being reminded that there is also Sean Strickland vs. Paulo Costa. However, I also want to remind everyone that there is a sexy fighting kitten for this event and her name is Ailin Perez from the country of Argentina.



On her introduction by Bruce Buffer in the octagon she will show her respect on her opponent with her welcome circle walk and bow.



However, on her victory dance, this does not appear to be very respectful heehhehehehe.

Finally she managed to win her fight against Joselyne Edwards (by decision) and she did her signature twerk movement in the octogon after her victory.
https://x.com/alvezjulian_/status/1797058626760138849
But you should fill a bit disappointed today to not have taken my offer, no? Because you would have won the bet. Islam Makhachev has beaten Dustin Poirier in the last round, by submission with a choke. Not a rear naked choke, a D’Arce choke precisely, but a regular one as I suggested.

Yes he can win by KO or TKO for sure, or even by a kimura or an armbar submission and if you had bet on a victory by rear naked choke submission you would lose your bet despite his nice victory, you might feel wronged, but that's how it is. Betting on how he will win is just not the same thing as betting if he will win or not. So if you don't feel comfortable with betting on his precise winning method, we could just bet on a victory by choke. It means Islam would have to win the fight and to get his victory by submitting his opponent with a choke. But any kind of choking technique would be ok and not only the rear naked one.  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chokehold#Types

[Pumared]

Regarding the main fight, it always seemed like Poirier would score a knockout. However, it never came. I'm happy for the great fights we had but sad that I didn't get all my bets right. But it was a great card, especially because of Strickland and Almeida!

[cabron]

This is what we have been waiting for the time has finally come and indeed Islam Makhachev vs Dustin Poirier is the main fight that has been eagerly awaited, they have created their own hype in the fight for the lightweight title.
In my opinion, their fight is much more interesting and more important than Paulo Costa vs Sean Strickland.

In the end we can see how Islam Makhachev fights and shows his ambition in defending his title for the third time because this is very important fight for Islam Makhachev.
But on the other hand, Poirier will try to fight as best as possible and get win in order to become the undisputed champion.
In just matter of hours we will see how they fight for the title, I will still make Islam Makhachev the favorite.

For Poirier it was the most important fight in his career, because for him it was the third attempt to take the title and he spent it perfectly, but Islam Makhachev was objectively stronger and it is logical that he still ended the fight with a choke hold, but still Poirier did everything to protect himself from the transfer to the floor, defended desperately, but apparently in the 5th round was not enough strength and Makhachev fulfilled to the end of his plan.
It should be noted that Makhachev looked very good in the standup, although before the fight it seemed that Poirier was much stronger in the standup and his punching power is better than Makhachev's, but Makhachev was able to surprise everyone when he looked equal or even better than Poirier in the standup.

Their faces say it all. But does anybody think it's the new gloves the UFC? It looks like it's all foam inside there.
Dustin must have been exhausted in defending all the attempts to go behind him, it looks very tight in the 5th round, and he taps. There's still more than 2 mins left and Islam still has the gas. Not quite what I expected. Strickland vs Costa seems the most expected result.

Oleksie didn't tap but Herb Dean stepped in to stop the fight. They tend to make the rules safer for fighters.   

[Balmain]

Islam Makhachev in his statements after the match. He said that gold gloves are harder. He said that he could not open his fingers fully and that the glove closed itself. Other than that, there was not much difference. If the gloves are harder, doesn't that mean there will be bloodier matches in the future? Going back to the card, the expected results came. I thought Strickland and Islam would win, and that's exactly what happened. It seemed to me that Islam could have finished the match more easily, I think he might have extended the match just out of respect, I'm not sure.

[pawel7777]

Strickland Vs Costa wasn't as much of a dog fight as expected but was still OK. Costa had a good tactic of getting out of Sean's way and chopping him with those calf kicks, but he needed to take a risk and go all in in the last rounds, but that just didn't happen as he was just too gassed out.

Despite a loss, Dustin has nothing to be ashamed of after that fight and probably has gained a lot in the eyes of the fans and the UFC. Both gave a really good show. But situation in the lightweight gets a bit complicated. Islam wants to move up to face the winner of Leon/Belal, is not looking to fight Tsarukyan, but says he will if that's what the UFC wants him to do.
Poirier has announced his "half-retirement", meaning he probably won't be looking any regular fights, unless there's something on the line there. Since he's not getting a title fight anytime soon, this probably leaves only a fight for the BMF belt with Holloway, which would make sense as both had a great fight first time around. But I believe Holloway was set for a title shot against Topuria, so this might not happen. The other option I see for Dustin, is to get another high profile win against someone from the top 5, and hoping that Islam will lose to Arman (if they'll fight at all) and then he could get his final fight for the 155 belt against Arman.

[bbc.reporter]

Everyone appears to be talking about Islam and Dustin Poirier and also being reminded that there is also Sean Strickland vs. Paulo Costa. However, I also want to remind everyone that there is a sexy fighting kitten for this event and her name is Ailin Perez from the country of Argentina.



On her introduction by Bruce Buffer in the octagon she will show her respect on her opponent with her welcome circle walk and bow.



However, on her victory dance, this does not appear to be very respectful heehhehehehe.

Finally she managed to win her fight against Joselyne Edwards (by decision) and she did her signature twerk movement in the octogon after her victory.
https://x.com/alvezjulian_/status/1797058626760138849
But you should fill a bit disappointed today to not have taken my offer, no? Because you would have won the bet. Islam Makhachev has beaten Dustin Poirier in the last round, by submission with a choke. Not a rear naked choke, a D’Arce choke precisely, but a regular one as I suggested.

Yes he can win by KO or TKO for sure, or even by a kimura or an armbar submission and if you had bet on a victory by rear naked choke submission you would lose your bet despite his nice victory, you might feel wronged, but that's how it is. Betting on how he will win is just not the same thing as betting if he will win or not. So if you don't feel comfortable with betting on his precise winning method, we could just bet on a victory by choke. It means Islam would have to win the fight and to get his victory by submitting his opponent with a choke. But any kind of choking technique would be ok and not only the rear naked one.  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chokehold#Types

Yes, however, this bet on Islam to get the victory with any choke is not very much exciting and Duelbits and other sportsbooks offer this type of bet already. If I want to bet, I want this to be my donation for you or I win an amount 10 times of my bet hehehehe.

Also, another reason I did not want to bet this is because there were rumors that Islam had a staph infection. This implies that he is taking antibiotics which causes weak muscles and stamina for the fighter.



St-Pierre's Coach Coach Calls Islam Makhachev's Staph Infection 'Pretty Bad'

While discussing UFC 302 on the Tristar Gym YouTube channel, Zahabi was asked how Makhachev's alleged staph infection could influence his fight. The coach first checked out the pictures from the latest photo shoot and was quick to suggest that Makhachev indeed absolutely has a staph infection.

Read in full https://www.mmanews.com/news/georges-st-pierres-coach-islam-makhachev-ufc-302-compromised

[Psynthax]

Islam Makhachev in his statements after the match. He said that gold gloves are harder. He said that he could not open his fingers fully and that the glove closed itself. Other than that, there was not much difference. If the gloves are harder, doesn't that mean there will be bloodier matches in the future? Going back to the card, the expected results came. I thought Strickland and Islam would win, and that's exactly what happened. It seemed to me that Islam could have finished the match more easily, I think he might have extended the match just out of respect, I'm not sure.

he didn't purposely extended the match I think, he's said to have staph infection ongoing the match which probably caused him to be rather weak compared to his usual self, there's even proof of discolored skin on his foot during pre-shoot photos which give me that impression in his match against poirier he was not as effective as in his previous matches..
but undeniably the match was good enough both sides doing their best poirier is giving a good fight for makhacev.

[Hirose UK]

This is what we have been waiting for the time has finally come and indeed Islam Makhachev vs Dustin Poirier is the main fight that has been eagerly awaited, they have created their own hype in the fight for the lightweight title.
In my opinion, their fight is much more interesting and more important than Paulo Costa vs Sean Strickland.

In the end we can see how Islam Makhachev fights and shows his ambition in defending his title for the third time because this is very important fight for Islam Makhachev.
But on the other hand, Poirier will try to fight as best as possible and get win in order to become the undisputed champion.
In just matter of hours we will see how they fight for the title, I will still make Islam Makhachev the favorite.

For Poirier it was the most important fight in his career, because for him it was the third attempt to take the title and he spent it perfectly, but Islam Makhachev was objectively stronger and it is logical that he still ended the fight with a choke hold, but still Poirier did everything to protect himself from the transfer to the floor, defended desperately, but apparently in the 5th round was not enough strength and Makhachev fulfilled to the end of his plan.
It should be noted that Makhachev looked very good in the standup, although before the fight it seemed that Poirier was much stronger in the standup and his punching power is better than Makhachev's, but Makhachev was able to surprise everyone when he looked equal or even better than Poirier in the standup.

Indeed, it was very important, but not only for Poirier but for both fighters, they fought very closely from the start of the first round and several times Poirier tried to pressure Makhachev but to no avail, Poirier also managed to escape three submission attempts did Makhachev.
However, in the 5th round, nothing could happen again and Makhachev achieved a unanimous victory and managed to defend his lightweight title, Makhachev also added to his record from winning this fight.
Makhachev is like Khabib, he fights with full calculation and lots of fighting strategies in an effort to make his opponent unable to read every move he will make, after all they also have similarities in showing unexpected surprises from every victory they get.
Congratulations to Makhachev on his victory and congratulations on successfully defending his championship belt.

In the future, it looks like we can see more interesting things, Makhachev wants another belt and tries to win it, he will hunt for the welterweight title held by Leon Edwards.