🥊 The UFC Info and Prediction Thread

[cabron]

^ 3 Judges gave R1 to Perez. The knee injury just sealed it though. If it didn't happen, I think the fight would go up to 4th round, and eventually, Perez would gas out, he started to open his mouth at R1 already. Body triangle and then bent backward while Taira lifts Perez's leg to take him down, haven't seen that before.

Have you noticed that Sean Strickland has disappeared from the radars? He used to be all around, specially after beating Izzy. I remember it was 4-1 by rounds against Izzy. Which means it wasnt a lucky win. Then he lost to Dricus, but it was a split win by Dricus. And Dana told it was 3-2 Strickland if he was a judge. (and it would be fair to have a rematch). The Strickland won Costa. Where is Strickland now? Rarely we see him on media today.

Found such conspiracy theory Strickland isnt very smart when he talk. He blame all that LGBTQ stuff for example. Now take a look where UFC fights are often aired. ESPN. ESPN is owned by Disney mostly. Wiki say that The Walt Disney Company has been criticized for making purportedly sexist and racist content in the past, putting LGBT+ elements in their films, and not having enough LGBT+ representation.. So there is a theory, that Disney ordered to shut Stricklands mouth Otherwise UFC might get some troubles.

Oh no. It's possible. And Dana couldn't do something about it. He badly needs the marketing now that PFL and OneFC are increasingly grabbing fans. UFC even needs to find someone to replace The Korean Zombie's popularity. We'll see if Trump is on UFC 303, if not then something is going on.

[TopTort777]

Anyway here are the results...  Perez clearly won R1 and it was unfortunate that he blew his knee in R2.  It would've been 1 - 1 going to R3 imho as Taira was riding Perez's back for most of the minutes in R2. 

Dont forget that Taira eye poked several times. It was 2 or 3 of them. Why dont ref gave him a warning? Even if the fight goes full distance, Taira must have got -1 point for that, and it would be 10-8 first round or draw in second. It was going to split win for Perez. It looks like Taira is not #5, hope he wont get a title fight as a next fight, because eyes pokes and a win due to injury - imho that should not give a greed light for a title fight.

So bad that Chimaev is out. Now Aliskerov is facing his first opponent from top15, and suddenly a #3, former champ. Aliskerov must have fought agains Muniz last weekend, instead got Whittaker on short notice. Yes, I call it short notice, because he trained for Muniz who has 15/24 wins are by sub, now his opponent is totally different.

[jakelyson]

^ 3 Judges gave R1 to Perez. The knee injury just sealed it though. If it didn't happen, I think the fight would go up to 4th round, and eventually, Perez would gas out, he started to open his mouth at R1 already. Body triangle and then bent backward while Taira lifts Perez's leg to take him down, haven't seen that before.

We can say that Tatsuro Taira is built differently but that eye poke is really consistent I really don't know if it was intentional or if Alex Perez was making the other eye pokes an alibi from that 1st initial eye poke because there is an angle that Taira's finger didn't really touch Perez's eyes, but that body triangle was initially the reason why Perez knee snaps from carrying the weight of Tatsuro Taira and that lean back was the time when his knee was injured and for sure Taira has used the gravity on his side to win this fight, Taira was like Naoya Inoue in the MMA industry.

Dont forget that Taira eye poked several times. It was 2 or 3 of them. Why dont ref gave him a warning? Even if the fight goes full distance, Taira must have got -1 point for that, and it would be 10-8 first round or draw in second. It was going to split win for Perez. It looks like Taira is not #5, hope he wont get a title fight as a next fight, because eyes pokes and a win due to injury - imho that should not give a greed light for a title fight.

So bad that Chimaev is out. Now Aliskerov is facing his first opponent from top15, and suddenly a #3, former champ. Aliskerov must have fought agains Muniz last weekend, instead got Whittaker on short notice. Yes, I call it short notice, because he trained for Muniz who has 15/24 wins are by sub, now his opponent is totally different.

Yup! That 1st eye poke was a legit eye poke but those other eye pokes I really don't know if that really connects or if Alex Perez making it up because there are angles on the fight that it seems that the fingers were too far from Perez's eyes this is just what I have seen from the footage that I have watched and initially, it seems that Perez is just making excuse for him to take a breather but yeah Tatsuro Taira was really something that body triangle was really something and he is not letting go of Perez at all while Perez is still standing up Taira cling for dear life and that is when the snap was heard by the ref as they are going down the canvas and yes even though Taira was exceptional he isn't ready for a title shot I agree on that,

That UFC Fight Night Saudi Arabia that we are having this week is like a Main Event The fight card was really stock of great fights and if not for Khamzat Chimaev's illness this would have been really an incredible fight but maybe this is what he needed his last fight against Kamaru Usman was not that great and I think that he should have done even better but maybe because of this illness his cardio was really affected by it, Said Nurmagomedov also withdrew from this card, but for me, this is really a stock card.

[tokeweed]

^ 3 Judges gave R1 to Perez. The knee injury just sealed it though. If it didn't happen, I think the fight would go up to 4th round, and eventually, Perez would gas out, he started to open his mouth at R1 already. Body triangle and then bent backward while Taira lifts Perez's leg to take him down, haven't seen that before.

Uh, dunno...  I'm thinking about it judging from their record and not from who's mouth is open.  So it's more likely that the Taira could fade at R4 imho.  But I guess we'll never really know. 

Next main event looks like it will be another sketchy one.  If Whittaker loses here then I think he won't be give another crack at the title.

Date:  Saturday, June 22
Main Card (ESPN/ESPN+):  3:00pm EST
Preliminary Card (ESPN/ESPN+):  12:00pm EST
Venue:  Kingdom Arena, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Live Streams:



Main Card (ESPN/ESPN+)
Middleweight:  Robert Whittaker vs Ikram Aliskerov   
Heavyweight:  Sergei Pavlovich vs Alexander Volkov
Welterweight:  Kelvin Gastelum vs Daniel Rodriguez
Featherweight:  Muhammad Naimov vs Melsik Baghdasaryan
Light Heavyweight:  Johnny Walker vs Volkan Oezdemir

Preliminary Card (ESPN/ESPN+)
Middleweight:  Sharabutdin Magomedov vs Joilton Lutterbach
Lightweight:  Nasrat Haqparast vs Jared Gordon
Welterweight:  Rinat Fakhretdinov vs Nicolas Dalby
Bantamweight:  Kang Kyung-ho vs Muin Gafurov            
Light Heavyweight:  Magomed Gadzhiyasulov vs Brendson Ribeiro
Bantamweight:  Xiao Long vs Lee Chang-ho

[Pumared]

Have you noticed that Sean Strickland has disappeared from the radars? He used to be all around, specially after beating Izzy. I remember it was 4-1 by rounds against Izzy. Which means it wasnt a lucky win. Then he lost to Dricus, but it was a split win by Dricus. And Dana told it was 3-2 Strickland if he was a judge. (and it would be fair to have a rematch). The Strickland won Costa. Where is Strickland now? Rarely we see him on media today.

Found such conspiracy theory Strickland isnt very smart when he talk. He blame all that LGBTQ stuff for example. Now take a look where UFC fights are often aired. ESPN. ESPN is owned by Disney mostly. Wiki say that The Walt Disney Company has been criticized for making purportedly sexist and racist content in the past, putting LGBT+ elements in their films, and not having enough LGBT+ representation.. So there is a theory, that Disney ordered to shut Stricklands mouth Otherwise UFC might get some troubles.

Oh no. It's possible. And Dana couldn't do something about it. He badly needs the marketing now that PFL and OneFC are increasingly grabbing fans. UFC even needs to find someone to replace The Korean Zombie's popularity. We'll see if Trump is on UFC 303, if not then something is going on.

They will really have a hard time getting fans in Asia. Because without someone to represent or take the lead spontaneously, they won't achieve much. And on top of all that, the fighter needs to be good.

[cabron]

Have you noticed that Sean Strickland has disappeared from the radars? He used to be all around, specially after beating Izzy. I remember it was 4-1 by rounds against Izzy. Which means it wasnt a lucky win. Then he lost to Dricus, but it was a split win by Dricus. And Dana told it was 3-2 Strickland if he was a judge. (and it would be fair to have a rematch). The Strickland won Costa. Where is Strickland now? Rarely we see him on media today.

Found such conspiracy theory Strickland isnt very smart when he talk. He blame all that LGBTQ stuff for example. Now take a look where UFC fights are often aired. ESPN. ESPN is owned by Disney mostly. Wiki say that The Walt Disney Company has been criticized for making purportedly sexist and racist content in the past, putting LGBT+ elements in their films, and not having enough LGBT+ representation.. So there is a theory, that Disney ordered to shut Stricklands mouth Otherwise UFC might get some troubles.

Oh no. It's possible. And Dana couldn't do something about it. He badly needs the marketing now that PFL and OneFC are increasingly grabbing fans. UFC even needs to find someone to replace The Korean Zombie's popularity. We'll see if Trump is on UFC 303, if not then something is going on.

They will really have a hard time getting fans in Asia. Because without someone to represent or take the lead spontaneously, they won't achieve much. And on top of all that, the fighter needs to be good.

They have their taste of wickedness there and the Dagis are also dominating in the other FCs.
Found out that Taira wasn't the first to have executed this takedown. Someone on social media pointed this out. Tatsumitsu Wada another Japanese from ONEchamp also did it against Demetrious Johnson - |https://youtu.be/Hdm32AInJO8?t=114  DJfortunately survived and won.


https://www.instagram.com/p/C8UB0T-t10u/
Izzy is back on 305 by the way. He also posted this on his Insta. The King of Africa vs the China man  

[TopTort777]

https://www.instagram.com/p/C8UB0T-t10u/
Izzy is back on 305 by the way. He also posted this on his Insta. The King of Africa vs the China man  

The first comment (from the picture) is rather funny and discussible On one hand, Strickland would deserve a title fight, as his fight with DDP was close. On the other hand, Izzy already used his wild card for a title fight when he quickly got a rematch against Pereira. But if we look on the picture in general, Izzy has got enough achievements in middleweight to have this fight. Also, Who else should DDP fight? Everyone else from the top of middleweight got their fights recently, and for Izzy to have a third fight against Vettori (as he havent fought lately) is stupid.

[tokeweed]

^  Yup...  I really thought Strickland was gonna get his rematch.  It was a really close match between him and DDP, some guys even thought Strickland won.  Even Dana White thought Strickland won...  And he's just won vs a tough guy in Costa and they're giving the title shot to another guy who Strickland dominated?    

But I guess it also works in his favor.  If DDP wins, Strickland gets his rematch.  If Adesanya wins, he does what he did it all over again.

UFC Free Fight:  Whittaker vs Costa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Eg6VzMsWx8

UFC Free Fight:  Aliskerov vs Hawes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCKpMdqTQJ4

^  Who do you guys got in the main even this weekend?

[Pumared]

https://www.instagram.com/p/C8UB0T-t10u/
Izzy is back on 305 by the way. He also posted this on his Insta. The King of Africa vs the China man  

The first comment (from the picture) is rather funny and discussible On one hand, Strickland would deserve a title fight, as his fight with DDP was close. On the other hand, Izzy already used his wild card for a title fight when he quickly got a rematch against Pereira. But if we look on the picture in general, Izzy has got enough achievements in middleweight to have this fight. Also, Who else should DDP fight? Everyone else from the top of middleweight got their fights recently, and for Izzy to have a third fight against Vettori (as he havent fought lately) is stupid.

Du Plessis is more African than Adesanya.

About the title, I agree and Strickland really deserves more to fight than Adesanya, since, as you rightly argued, their fight was very close and Strickland has already beaten Adesanya.

Maybe for marketing reasons they don't want Strickland

[electronicash]

they didn't expect strickland to defeat izzy by any chance. only a few fans of strickland expect an upset that will happen but the majority predicted izzy. it was a one-hit-wonder strickland and lost in his first title defense. but it was a very close fight. but the one that strickland dominated badly takes the title shot. great decision by dana, and so UFC is becoming like boxing.

[pawel7777]

Found such conspiracy theory Strickland isnt very smart when he talk. He blame all that LGBTQ stuff for example. Now take a look where UFC fights are often aired. ESPN. ESPN is owned by Disney mostly. Wiki say that The Walt Disney Company has been criticized for making purportedly sexist and racist content in the past, putting LGBT+ elements in their films, and not having enough LGBT+ representation.. So there is a theory, that Disney ordered to shut Stricklands mouth Otherwise UFC might get some troubles.

Hardly a conspiracy theory. Disney have proved they will be pushing their homo/trans agenda onto kids even at the cost of their stock taking a nose dive (for some strange reason parents are not super excited for their children being openly indoctrinated by deranged corpo's CEOs). So no one should be shocked if they actually imposed some quiet ban on Strickland.
But let's face it, 90% of any hype is an effect of social media popularity, not legacy media coverage, so I don't think that would make any real difference.

About the title, I agree and Strickland really deserves more to fight than Adesanya, since, as you rightly argued, their fight was very close and Strickland has already beaten Adesanya.

I'm not a big fan of Izzy, but I don't mind him fighting DPP. They cannot allow situation when 2 same guys are consistently fighting each other, so they have to throw some other fighters in the mix. Whoever wins, will probably have to defend either against Strickland or Whittaker (if he goes past Aliskerov).

[inthelongrun]

they didn't expect strickland to defeat izzy by any chance. only a few fans of strickland expect an upset that will happen but the majority predicted izzy. it was a one-hit-wonder strickland and lost in his first title defense. but it was a very close fight. but the one that strickland dominated badly takes the title shot. great decision by dana, and so UFC is becoming like boxing.

UFC 305 will be hosted at Perth, Australia which is near near New Zealand, Adesanya's country. Maybe there's a lot of money involved here. And Dana is not really religious about the rankings and who deserved the best but it's still about bringing the most money in his company.

Strickland just went into a dominating performance against Costa which further solidifies his claim of getting another title shot. Now Strickland has to fight again or wait for nearly a year of his title shot. Whereas Adesanya did not even make a single tune up since losing his belt. But somehow, I am more excited in this fight. I want Dricus to fully dominate or hopefully stop Adesanya and then rematch Strickland again.

[TopTort777]

Just a quick question about upcoming event - arent you guy missing Chimaev? Since 2022 and covid, his career became, I dont know how to tell better, a mess? First he was to face Diaz, but wasnt able to make weight, showed middle finger to everyone and fought Holland in catchweight. Next fight in 2023 against Costa. Costa got injured and Usman stood on short notice. Against who, honestly speaking, Borz was dominating all the time. Now Whittaker, and against problems when the fight is about to happen. I am missing SMESH EVERIBADI !

[tokeweed]

^  Thanks for bringing it back to what we should be really be talking about...  The next event.  And yup, I'm really disappointed that it's not Chim vs Whittaker as I really think Whittaker has a good chance of winning.  Chim is good vs lower tier fighters.  But against the better ones like Burns and Usman, he doesn't bring a great performance.  It's almost like he's getting slowly exposed. 

Watch Chim vs Burns and Chim vs Usman again.  It could be that he isn't as good as we thought.  I even think Rakhmonov wins vs Chim.

[Pumared]

Just a quick question about upcoming event - arent you guy missing Chimaev? Since 2022 and covid, his career became, I dont know how to tell better, a mess? First he was to face Diaz, but wasnt able to make weight, showed middle finger to everyone and fought Holland in catchweight. Next fight in 2023 against Costa. Costa got injured and Usman stood on short notice. Against who, honestly speaking, Borz was dominating all the time. Now Whittaker, and against problems when the fight is about to happen. I am missing SMESH EVERIBADI !

As Dana White himself said, whenever Chimaev goes to fight he gets extremely sick and he is never near the UFC doctors so they can check and this ends up being unfeasible because they cannot do their own analysis and need to trust the fighter.

[cabron]

Just a quick question about upcoming event - arent you guy missing Chimaev? Since 2022 and covid, his career became, I dont know how to tell better, a mess? First he was to face Diaz, but wasnt able to make weight, showed middle finger to everyone and fought Holland in catchweight. Next fight in 2023 against Costa. Costa got injured and Usman stood on short notice. Against who, honestly speaking, Borz was dominating all the time. Now Whittaker, and against problems when the fight is about to happen. I am missing SMESH EVERIBADI !

As Dana White himself said, whenever Chimaev goes to fight he gets extremely sick and he is never near the UFC doctors so they can check and this ends up being unfeasible because they cannot do their own analysis and need to trust the fighter.

Food poisoning, injured, diarrhea, covid, and passport issues. All excuses he already used.
They're the ones being said over on Twitter, that's where Khamzat stays all the time since. Dana still books him, but having 1 or 2 replacements will be ready whenever the fight is near.  Or it should be the other way around, he should be the replacement. He won't have to train harder and get injured if he is just a replacement.

[jakelyson]

The first comment (from the picture) is rather funny and discussible On one hand, Strickland would deserve a title fight, as his fight with DDP was close. On the other hand, Izzy already used his wild card for a title fight when he quickly got a rematch against Pereira. But if we look on the picture in general, Izzy has got enough achievements in middleweight to have this fight. Also, Who else should DDP fight? Everyone else from the top of middleweight got their fights recently, and for Izzy to have a third fight against Vettori (as he havent fought lately) is stupid.

For me, I think Israel Adesanya shouldn't have easy access to the belt but I think Du Plessis can take care of himself after what he sees in the fight between Adesanya and Strickland sure Dricus Du Plessis might know what to do while Israel Adesanya may have a hard time getting back as he has to lie low for a long time but maybe I was wrong in this but getting your body not doing the things you do you might get the rust and Israel Adesanya is not something special to not be like that.

^  Yup...  I really thought Strickland was gonna get his rematch.  It was a really close match between him and DDP, some guys even thought Strickland won.  Even Dana White thought Strickland won...  And he's just won vs a tough guy in Costa and they're giving the title shot to another guy who Strickland dominated?    

But I guess it also works in his favor.  If DDP wins, Strickland gets his rematch.  If Adesanya wins, he does what he did it all over again.

UFC Free Fight:  Whittaker vs Costa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Eg6VzMsWx8

UFC Free Fight:  Aliskerov vs Hawes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCKpMdqTQJ4

^  Who do you guys got in the main even this weekend?

I really want Adesanya to fight Sean Strickland again but I guess he is now evading Strickland because of their last fight maybe he knows that he can not go toe to toe against him yet so maybe trying his luck against Dricus Du Plessis this time, I really don't know if Israel Adesanya can take this again and win and get his championship belt back his eagerness was gone in winning this like he is not trying to win against Sean Strickland or having a hard time with him in the fight but I really want to see an Israel Adesanya VS Sean Strickland fight again or maybe getting a Strickland fight Dricus Du Plessis this time instead of Israel Adesanya.

[pawel7777]

As Dana White himself said, whenever Chimaev goes to fight he gets extremely sick and he is never near the UFC doctors so they can check and this ends up being unfeasible because they cannot do their own analysis and need to trust the fighter.

How is he supposed to get near the UFC doctors? When someone gets ill, they'd just go to the nearest hospital. And I'm assuming he was still in Sweden (when he's from) when that happened.
Dana likes to brag about all the special care he offers to his fighters, but I'm not sure I buy that.
He could offer to send specialist(s) to investigate whatever secret illness Chimaev is having, or arrange for the top medical specialists in Sweden. I don't expect Khamzat would refuse that.

Yeah, I miss him a bit, he was entertaining and was bringing something fresh to the table. The 5 rounds against Whittaker would be a really good test for him. But it wasn't meant to be.

As for the Aliskerov Vs. Whittaker, who do you guys would be betting on? Whittaker is a favourite but I disagree. Aliskerov is not even ranked in the top 15 yet, accepted the fight on a short notice, but defeating Robert will be a fast-track to the top, so I'm sure he'll take it seriously. In terms of skills, he seems very well-rounded. But maybe I'm overrating him just because he's from Dagestan.

[bbc.reporter]

https://www.instagram.com/p/C8UB0T-t10u/
Izzy is back on 305 by the way. He also posted this on his Insta. The King of Africa vs the China man  

The first comment (from the picture) is rather funny and discussible On one hand, Strickland would deserve a title fight, as his fight with DDP was close. On the other hand, Izzy already used his wild card for a title fight when he quickly got a rematch against Pereira. But if we look on the picture in general, Izzy has got enough achievements in middleweight to have this fight. Also, Who else should DDP fight? Everyone else from the top of middleweight got their fights recently, and for Izzy to have a third fight against Vettori (as he havent fought lately) is stupid.

Du Plessis is more African than Adesanya.

About the title, I agree and Strickland really deserves more to fight than Adesanya, since, as you rightly argued, their fight was very close and Strickland has already beaten Adesanya.

Maybe for marketing reasons they don't want Strickland

You are very much mistaken. Uncle Dana will certainly like Strickland for marketing reasons. Have you witnessed what he was doing on press conferences and interviews? He is very funny and he will say many truths that many fighters will not say because they are afraid of being cancelled by sports news media.

Also, Sean Strickland is very much injured.



In the co-main event, Sean Strickland earned a win over Paulo Costa but now faces an indefinite suspension pending an x-ray of his left tibia as well as clearance by an orthopedist for the injury to his left tibia/leg. Based on the language of the suspension, Strickland may have suffered some sort of fracture in his leg, although the commission wants him to get that examined to verify the potential nature of the injury

Source https://www.mmafighting.com/2024/6/4/24171758/ufc-302-medical-suspensions-dustin-poirier-sean-strickland-michal-oleksiejczuk-indefinite-suspension

[TopTort777]

^  Thanks for bringing it back to what we should be really be talking about...  The next event.  And yup, I'm really disappointed that it's not Chim vs Whittaker as I really think Whittaker has a good chance of winning.  Chim is good vs lower tier fighters.  But against the better ones like Burns and Usman, he doesn't bring a great performance.  It's almost like he's getting slowly exposed. 

Watch Chim vs Burns and Chim vs Usman again.  It could be that he isn't as good as we thought.  I even think Rakhmonov wins vs Chim.

If we get back to originally announced Chimaev vs Whittaker fight, then I would disagree with the odds. I think Chimaev was 1.30-1.50 probably, and Whittaker was around 3. Quite low former champ. Imho that special Chimaev aura is evaporating. People used to be scared of him. But his two last fights were really close. Even though Chimaev trains like crazy, why the hell he has so bad stamina? If he did not finish his opponent in first round, he becomes really slow. Of course he will try to get Whittaker down, but Rob is good at countering wrestling (2 fights against Romero should be something to count with). If Rob survives till second or third round, he will outstrike Chimaev.

Now to Aliskerov. He is a copy of Chimaev, with lower wrestling skills, but better stamina and striking. Their fight against Whittaker I might consider to be even more interesting than Chimaev.

Somehow I start not to like Chimaev. Talks a lot, but no SMESH or KILL EVERIBADI in last two fights. Always sudden problems to postpone or cancel fight. Dont wants to fight 5*5min fights. Dont want to cut. Wants to fight in UAE only or Sweden. Latest performance does not match the level of star level he think he is.