🥊 The UFC Info and Prediction Thread

[TopTort777]

The amazing part of Pereira vs Rountree fight was that is has lasted for 4 rounds With odds like 4.5+, Pereira should have chopped him down in first or second round. But the fight went till 4th round. Only fight against Izzy lasted till 5th round. All other opponents Pereira has finished in first and second rounds. For me this means that Rountree aint that easy opponent. Even though he lost, his value imho has increased. The second round was the best of Rountree. But, starting from third, I felt like Khalils gas tank started to leak heavily. What do you think? Am I the only one to notice that he turned extremely slow?

Rountree keeps charging back every time Pereira throws a jab. He isn't waiting for Pereira to position for a combo in the first rounds, which I think is why he lasted a few rounds. If that was the secret strategy he was saying it's not working because Pereira is cautious of his counter combo.

Roundtree dropped Pereira in the 2nd round when he ducked the head kick and counter a right hook. The R2 I think is where Roundtree made it where he also scored a head kick. The strategy almost worked and exposed Pereira.

Imho, that moment when he connected well on Pereira, was not because it was a strategy or that special secret that he was talking about on press conference. Its because Pereira was way to relaxed, unfocused, sleepy. If we compare Pereira year or more ago and now, we see him becoming more media person. If previously he was more shy (or a stone face), more hungry, maybe felt uncomfortable in front of cameras. Then look at him now, he is filming some funny shorts video, living expensive life, more media. And as the world is balanced, then if we see him more in media, then the gym sees him less. He used to be hungry, ready to rip off Izzy head. Now he has got money, fame, and allow himself to give 70-90% of himself in a training and fight. Who he would face next? Ankalaev? Not really a thread, so he can enjoy his life for 4-6 months more, do lazy trading, get a camp where he would only do 100% of he is able, beat Ankalaev, relax and think about retirement, as he is rather old for a being a prime.

[jakelyson]

Perreria will move up to heavyweight, I don't know when that will be.
(...)

I think so too. He's 37 and maybe has like 4-5 fights at the highest level left in him, so he probably wants to maximise the profit before retiring and won't be much interested in fighting some average fighters from light heavyweight.
His next opponent should be Ankalaev, assuming he beats Rakic. So Alex could either escape the Ankalaev fight by moving up to the heavyweight, or fight Ankalaev and then (if victorious) move up to fight either Jon Jones or Tom Aspinal. But if he was to lose to Ankalaev and move up, he unlikely would get a shot for the belt and would have to fight someone lower-ranked first.
Anyhow, there aren't many interesting options left for him in the light heavyweight. But then again, the UFC matched him up against Rountree, a fight that no one expected, so who knows what they will come up with next.

It was pretty obvious he was aiming for that and who does not want to get enough money from fights until he retires he is also aiming for a great career in the UFC to be included in the Hall of Fame for fighting a greater wrestler in this division would surely see if he can still maintain his composure but I guess that is why Glover Texeira was there for him to give him advice for his ground game because Alex Pereira's Standing is so great he just needed sparring partners that could elevate his performance even further his ground game also needs to improve I really think that if he can have an opponent that could test him with his ground defense then that will be a great thing for him and there will be no question that he is a well-rounded fighter,

But going into the Heavyweight division might be farfetched for now I think he can manage to do so or maybe getting 3 belts in the UFC might be possible for him.

The amazing part of Pereira vs Rountree fight was that is has lasted for 4 rounds With odds like 4.5+, Pereira should have chopped him down in first or second round. But the fight went till 4th round. Only fight against Izzy lasted till 5th round. All other opponents Pereira has finished in first and second rounds. For me this means that Rountree aint that easy opponent. Even though he lost, his value imho has increased. The second round was the best of Rountree. But, starting from third, I felt like Khalils gas tank started to leak heavily. What do you think? Am I the only one to notice that he turned extremely slow?

He can't because Rountree just dominated him in the first 2 round with his counter and knowing that he's a striker, I know that he can do that. It's just that, Pereira's power slowly got him in the 3rd round and got completely dominated in the 4th round. Rountree might have that speed to counter and power to strike Pereira, but Pereira's power is just too much hence, he slowly crumbled starting the 3rd round. What I believe though is that, Rountree got my respect because of this fight, and even though he lost, many of those fans cheered for him because nobody expected him to last 4 rounds knowing that he's up against one of the best currently.

I agree Roundtree was dominant in the 1st 2 rounds he has the speed and even the chin to withstand the strike of Pereira it was Alex Pereira who was breathing heavily and was out of gas but still managed to get through because of his will to continue Roundtree was really a different person inside the ring and he has shown it in the fight that he can withstand a blow from Pereira that has a great knockout power so for me Khalil Roundtree is really dangerous and he got my respect.

[TopTort777]

Does anyone knows story behind Khalils Rountree broken nose or scan on it? He has got that between his last fight and before UFC 307. It looked that it did not heal till the end, and any punch would open a bloody cut. It was so obvious that one jab would make a huge step forward to doctor stoppage.

Pereiras next opponent would be Ankalaev or someone else? What do you think? Because Dana did not say that Ankalaev will be 100%. He has told that he will be 100% next, if he wins and show "unbelievable performance". To bad that Ankalaev most likely will win, but in a boring manner

[Synchronice]

Imho, that moment when he connected well on Pereira, was not because it was a strategy or that special secret that he was talking about on press conference. Its because Pereira was way to relaxed, unfocused, sleepy. If we compare Pereira year or more ago and now, we see him becoming more media person. If previously he was more shy (or a stone face), more hungry, maybe felt uncomfortable in front of cameras. Then look at him now, he is filming some funny shorts video, living expensive life, more media. And as the world is balanced, then if we see him more in media, then the gym sees him less. He used to be hungry, ready to rip off Izzy head. Now he has got money, fame, and allow himself to give 70-90% of himself in a training and fight. Who he would face next? Ankalaev? Not really a thread, so he can enjoy his life for 4-6 months more, do lazy trading, get a camp where he would only do 100% of he is able, beat Ankalaev, relax and think about retirement, as he is rather old for a being a prime.

If you want to earn money, you have to be a media person these days. To be honest, I prefer this version of Alex Pereira because he doesn't look very dangerous all the time
By the way, the dude is 37 years old and still rocks, he is one of the best fighter for sure. Recently, I look at Messi too and think, what does age mean in sport? Alex Pereira was an alcoholic and he started his fighting career very lately but became a superstar. I think that he will still fight for a few years for this reason alone. When you start sports at young age, your joints and other parts of your body gets damaged early. When you start it at late age, they get damaged lately. Probably that's the reason why Alex Pereira still rocks in this age but Messi? I have no explanation. Probably, talent can't still stays with you and keeps you move forward despite the aging body

UFC 307 main event was amazing. Wish they had UFC events in Europe too because it's very expensive to fly in the United States but I want it so much to watch fights like this one.

[TopTort777]

Yeah, it is nice to be more media person than a boring stone face guy who cant speak English. But it is nice until you start to take damage. I think Pereira did not train enough for Rountree, enjoyed life and money way to much, and that caused him damage and troubles in the fight. Until that TKO, Rountree was winning on score cards. If Pereira did no wake up, it would be a win by split or majority decision for Khalil. Imho Pereira looked much better when he was hungry. Find another dude like Rountree, give him a little more experience and in addition to power and striking other elite level skill and good bye chama 

[cabron]

Yeah, it is nice to be more media person than a boring stone face guy who cant speak English. But it is nice until you start to take damage. I think Pereira did not train enough for Rountree, enjoyed life and money way to much, and that caused him damage and troubles in the fight. Until that TKO, Rountree was winning on score cards. If Pereira did no wake up, it would be a win by split or majority decision for Khalil. Imho Pereira looked much better when he was hungry. Find another dude like Rountree, give him a little more experience and in addition to power and striking other elite level skill and good bye chama 

I think Pereira was surprised to see the energy of Rountree who kept attacking him with combos.
When Rountree gassed out, he wasn't knocked out right away but seemed to be punished for the strikes he did to Pereira. Rountree had to wait for the body shot so he could go down.

UFC is promoting Pereira. Promoting UFC fights of someone who doesn't smile at the camera like a Moai is hard. I guess the interviews with Nina is show the other side of Alex.

[LogitechMouse]

Yeah, it is nice to be more media person than a boring stone face guy who cant speak English. But it is nice until you start to take damage. I think Pereira did not train enough for Rountree, enjoyed life and money way to much, and that caused him damage and troubles in the fight. Until that TKO, Rountree was winning on score cards. If Pereira did no wake up, it would be a win by split or majority decision for Khalil. Imho Pereira looked much better when he was hungry. Find another dude like Rountree, give him a little more experience and in addition to power and striking other elite level skill and good bye chama 

Speaking of score cards, I've seen an online post that shows the score cards of 3 judges after 3 rounds, and it shows there that Rountree had the lead 29-28. It's just that, the devastating punches of Pereira got him. Pereira's counter punches got him and defeated him in a slowly manner.

On other hand though, I don't want to judge Pereira like he didn't train enough for this fight. Can we just say that Rountree is just that good that he got a hard time defeating him instead of Pereira didn't train enough because he didn't dominate the match? I mean if we see a one-sided match, some say it's boring. If we see a match that's neck-to-neck, we though that the dominant fighter didn't train much for this fight. While it might be true, I just believe that Rountree is just that good and that high of an IQ to at least give Pereira a hard time.

Anyway, I wonder who his next opponent next year will be.

[TopTort777]

Anyway, I wonder who his next opponent next year will be.

I guess we wont find it out soon, as Pereira already got 3 title defences in 2024, and the year isnt over yet I think UFC should give this guy some rest.

Once again my attention was caught by UFC 309. Again I saw people praise it like a fight of a century, two best heavyweights, a fights that should not be missed, and so on and so forth. For me its just two veterans fight. Stipe hasnt fought since 2021. Bones since 2020 only spent 2 minutes in octagon. Do these guys even remember how to strike?

[shield132]

Meh...  Don't think so because if Dana White really hated him he wouldn't have been given the opportunity to fight O'Malley in what was to be a historic event.  He'll prolly say some of the fighters in roster are knuckle heads, but to really hate?  Nah.  It's all business with him.  But then again if you try to do bad business with the UFC, he'll hate you and you're out.  Mokaev looks like he had a taste of Dana White's hate.  The guy won all his matches and still got him out of there.

As for Merab, pretty sure personally and behind the scenes Dana White could respect Merab's decision not to fight Sterling.  I mean outside of business, who couldn't?

Live in 11 hours or so...

UFC 307:  Pre Fight Press Conference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZbMz_2hBGY

If Dana doesn't hate him, then why was he calling him a stupid for showing a cut on Instagram? What has changed by doing that? Did the info made Shean O'Malley win the match? I believe that Dana doesn't like him because he wasn't fighting Jose Aldo and Merab is not also a guy that will bring him millions of dollars like Shean O'Malley, so for this reason he doesn't like Merab and that day, he wanted Shean to win. Now he doesn't give him enough time to recover and wants to make him fight Umar as soon as possible. That's what Merab said and I agree with him, that makes sense.

In Russian we have such a quotation "Scars make a man beautiful" (or original English version "scars are the best jewels of men"). But they does not make woman beautiful.

We have that quotation in Georgia too, exactly like you said.

[mammusu]

Anyway, I wonder who his next opponent next year will be.

I guess we wont find it out soon, as Pereira already got 3 title defences in 2024, and the year isnt over yet I think UFC should give this guy some rest.

He managed to defend the title three times in one year and that is a very remarkable achievement for a fighter, the TKO victory over Khalil has shown his dominance in the light heavyweight class which is very big at the moment so it is quite natural if we want to see who will be able to break the trend of Pereira victory later, but currently news is circulating that Pereira who has managed to dominate the light heavyweight class may actually try to move up to fight in the heavyweight, of course we don't know for sure whether the news is true or not, but for now, I think, Pereira may indeed need some time to rest to recover after the fight.

Once again my attention was caught by UFC 309. Again I saw people praise it like a fight of a century, two best heavyweights, a fights that should not be missed, and so on and so forth. For me its just two veterans fight. Stipe hasnt fought since 2021. Bones since 2020 only spent 2 minutes in octagon. Do these guys even remember how to strike?

UFC 309 will be a comeback fight for the two veteran fighters, the hype from each of their fights in the past is of course still a spice that makes the fight look like the best fight of the century, Stipe Miocic and Jon Bones Jones are two big names in MMA, but there are still big doubts for me if we will see UFC 309 to be an exciting and tense fight, because there are concerns about whether they are still in the best condition and performance to fight at the highest level this time.

[TopTort777]

UFC Fight Night: Royval vs. Taira



Date: October 12, 2024

Preliminary Card: Sat, Oct 12 / 11:00 PM GMT+3
Main Card: Sun, Oct 13 / 2:00 AM GMT+3

Venue: UFC Apex

Main card (ESPN)
Flyweight: Brandon Royval vs. Tatsuro Taira            
Middleweight: Brad Tavares vs. Park Jun-yong            
Lightweight: Grant Dawson vs. Rafa García            
Women's Strawweight: Julia Polastri vs. Cory McKenna            
Welterweight: Daniel Rodriguez vs. Alex Morono            
Middleweight: Abdul Razak Alhassan vs. Josh Fremd

Preliminary card (ESPN)
Welterweight: Chidi Njokuani vs. Jared Gooden            
Flyweight: C.J. Vergara vs. Ramazan Temirov            
Featherweight: Jonathan Pearce vs. Pat Sabatini            
Welterweight: Themba Gorimbo vs. Niko Price            
Heavyweight: Chris Barnett vs. Junior Tafa            
Bantamweight: Daniel Argueta vs. Cody Haddon            
Flyweight: Clayton Carpenter vs. Lucas Rocha

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFC_Fight_Night:_Royval_vs._Taira

[tokeweed]

^  The main event looks like one of those ones when the young, upcoming prospect will get beat by a vet at the top 5.  I'm not really sure why Royval is lined where he currently is but it sure looks like he's disprespected by the books in this spot.

On the mat Taira has the advantage but not by much as Royval is also good on the mat.  On the feet it's Royval all day.

Here are a couple of replays.  Keep in mind that Alex Perez is already damaged goods.

Royval vs Moreno
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bL33gm1_7KU

Taira vs Perez
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE4cup0PEKw

[TopTort777]

What do you mean by "get beat by a vet at the top 5" ? That disrespected by bookies Royval is #1 of flyweight and beat former champ in his last fight Bookies see him as an underdog probably due to Taira having 16-0 But, most of those 16 wins are against so-so opponents. Royval seems to have a much stronger opponents in his career.

P.S. Another filler event. Another chance for Dana to visit Vegas and gamble

[l99l]

Does anyone knows story behind Khalils Rountree broken nose or scan on it? He has got that between his last fight and before UFC 307. It looked that it did not heal till the end, and any punch would open a bloody cut. It was so obvious that one jab would make a huge step forward to doctor stoppage.

Pereiras next opponent would be Ankalaev or someone else? What do you think? Because Dana did not say that Ankalaev will be 100%. He has told that he will be 100% next, if he wins and show "unbelievable performance". To bad that Ankalaev most likely will win, but in a boring manner

The next fight should be with Ankalaev, even if there is no next fight, they will face Ankalaev.
Perreria has never fought a strong wrestler before, all of his UFC fights have been on the feet, he never fought on the ground.
There was only one fighter who could shake him on the feet, and that was none other than Adesenya. I think Ankalaev can turn him like a crocodile, this fight will be a good test for Perreria.

[TopTort777]

But Ankalaev not much of a wrestler. 10/18 wins are by KO. His combat sambo as fighting style shows that his striking/wrestling skills are divided into 40/60 proportion when this character was created Dont remember also that he wrestle a lot during fights. His stats in UFC card shows that he is more striker. Fight with Ankalaev, compared with other Pereira opponents, could only end differently It would end by decision, but not by doctor check-up

[cabron]

^  The main event looks like one of those ones when the young, upcoming prospect will get beat by a vet at the top 5.  I'm not really sure why Royval is lined where he currently is but it sure looks like he's disprespected by the books in this spot.

On the mat Taira has the advantage but not by much as Royval is also good on the mat.  On the feet it's Royval all day.

Here are a couple of replays.  Keep in mind that Alex Perez is already damaged goods.

Royval vs Moreno
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bL33gm1_7KU

Taira vs Perez
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE4cup0PEKw

Royval vs Moreno is an entertaining fight, it is disappointing to see Moreno wasn't successful in giving a KO through that overhead punch. It's only in the later rounds that Moreno stands his ground. This will not happen with Taira, their fight might end early and he only needs Royval's carelessness to submit him.

Taira showed his skills in Perez's fight where he utilized gravity to pull Perez. Idk if he still could do this if he moves to 125 but winning this fight will probably give him a title shot.

[Lykslyks]

Alex Pereira remains the king of UFC light heavyweight division!
Rountree was holding good for first few rounds, but fight finished like I expected and it was finished in fourth round.
Next fight for Pereira could be against winner of  Ankalaev vs Rakic, or Prochazka, but I really want to see him against Jon Jones after that.

Perreria will move up to heavyweight, I don't know when that will be.
There are still a few fighters left at light heavyweight who need to fight. If he moves up to heavyweight, I really want a Jon Jones fight.
Khalil Roundtree was respected by many people because he was durable but after the 3rd round his conditioning was gone.

You should put a link to that statement for Alex Pereira getting into the heavyweight I would like to see him in that Division but for now, I would like to see him fight a wrestler like Magomed Ankalaev preparing to go against Jon Jones for sure that will be a great fight but right now he has said in the article that he is staying at 205 pounds after his fight on UFC 307 and he would really like to be in the Heavyweight someday that is why he is consistently having fights it is to fasten his route to go beyond and because of his age he got no time left he needs to fight more.

https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2024/10/ufc-307-alex-pereira-staying-at-205-pounds-but-heavyweight-one-day-third-title

Did you all know that Alex Pereira's camp revealed that Pereira was not feeling well in the UFC 307 he has multiple health issues he said "I had a fever, I had a bad throat, and a lot of things happened. Also, going back: when I was in Brazil, I hurt my rib. It was an injury that I had about a year ago, and it came back, so that was also something that I was dealing with" They even said that they are preparing to back out from the fight on UFC 307 so the possibility of having a Julianna Peña VS Raquel Pennington for a main event which is not good at all as that Main Event is a great treat for fans.

https://sports.yahoo.com/alex-pereira-reveals-overcame-multiple-111720442.html#:~:text=I%20had%20a%20fever%2C%20I,my%20throat%20was%20still%20bad.

[pawel7777]

Imho, that moment when he connected well on Pereira, was not because it was a strategy or that special secret that he was talking about on press conference. Its because Pereira was way to relaxed, unfocused, sleepy. If we compare Pereira year or more ago and now, we see him becoming more media person. If previously he was more shy (or a stone face), more hungry, maybe felt uncomfortable in front of cameras. Then look at him now, he is filming some funny shorts video, living expensive life, more media. And as the world is balanced, then if we see him more in media, then the gym sees him less. He used to be hungry, ready to rip off Izzy head. Now he has got money, fame, and allow himself to give 70-90% of himself in a training and fight. Who he would face next? Ankalaev? Not really a thread, so he can enjoy his life for 4-6 months more, do lazy trading, get a camp where he would only do 100% of he is able, beat Ankalaev, relax and think about retirement, as he is rather old for a being a prime.

Yup, I had the same thought even before the fight. It's like seeing a wild animal slowly getting domesticated, or like watching the Rocky III when he got civilised 
I don't think getting comfortable with media and being active in promoting himself is the key problem. It's more of having his priorities right and keeping that edge and hunger up.

But going into the Heavyweight division might be farfetched for now I think he can manage to do so or maybe getting 3 belts in the UFC might be possible for him.

He definitely has the size for the heavyweight, and moving up the weight division is an old trick te extend fighters career a little bit, as generally the higher the weight class is, the slower the fighters are, and it's easier to maintain power than speed as one gets older.
I'd be very surprised if Pereira retires without ever moving to heavyweight.

[bbc.reporter]

Alex Pereira remains the king of UFC light heavyweight division!
Rountree was holding good for first few rounds, but fight finished like I expected and it was finished in fourth round.
Next fight for Pereira could be against winner of  Ankalaev vs Rakic, or Prochazka, but I really want to see him against Jon Jones after that.

Perreria will move up to heavyweight, I don't know when that will be.
There are still a few fighters left at light heavyweight who need to fight. If he moves up to heavyweight, I really want a Jon Jones fight.
Khalil Roundtree was respected by many people because he was durable but after the 3rd round his conditioning was gone.

My prediction on this. I reckon that after Jon Jones with his fried chicken legs has fought Stipe Miocic already, the UFC will declare Tom Aspinall as Jon's next opponent. However, only 1 week before this fight, Jon will announce that he has an injury during training. This will force the UFC to declare that the replacement is Alex Pereira. Poatan will certainly be very much happy for this because I predict that this will be his biggest purse from the UFC heheheheeh.

[TopTort777]

Social media claim that Pereira had only 3 week camp before UFC 307. Pereiras coach say, that Alex had some serious health issues: that little toes injury continue worry him (as I remember he broke that in a fight against Hill), got ribs injury during camp, twice he had fever and had antibiotics courses, sore throat. Also he had American visa problems. I guess all that describes his unusually weak performance. Btw, it was even discussed with UFC to cancel and postpone the fight.