The UFC Discussion and Prediction Topic

[electronicash]

Izzy wasnt happy with the referees decision to stop the fight too early. he thought he didn't look bad after Imanov catches him with an uppercut while falling. i think is he done already. its been said that when a fighter takes a heavy KO loss, its hard to get back the way they used to be.

Well, he hasn't really suffered a really heavy KO in the UFC, i.e. he was never completely out cold, so maybe that's not his main problem.
As for the last fight, I think it was a good stoppage. Maybe he would have escaped into a better position if the referee had given him more time, but he suffered two big blows and was lying flat on his belly, protecting his head and not really doing much, so the referee did what he had to do. But it's always good to have something to blame.
I think we'll see him again, I don't think he'd be satisfied to retire this way.

maybe we will see him again. in another fight night. this is a decline of his skill due to age i believe. we may never see him again going for the belt anymore.

Sean Strickland instead may be able to get a title if he does things differently against DDP which will be in the next fight at UFC312.  but still DDP has the edge to do it if he would grapple Sean. Sean only knew boxing, its surprising he even made it this far but sure he has accurate striking.

[pawel7777]

maybe we will see him again. in another fight night. this is a decline of his skill due to age i believe. we may never see him again going for the belt anymore.

I don't think it's the age-related decline. I think it has more to do with mentality, maybe he lost a hunger, or something changed in him after that loss to Pereira. Maybe he's got some psychological blockage that forces him to be overly careful and less aggressive than when he was at the top.
I'm 99% sure we'll see him fighting again.

[pawel7777]

Odds for the main card:

Jake Matthews x1.40 Vs Francisco Prado x3.00
Jim Crute x2.28 Vs Rodolfo Bellato x1.63
Justin Tafa x2.30 Vs Talisson Teixeira x1.62
Weili Zhang x2.00 Vs Tatiana Suarez x1.81
Dricus Du Plessis x1.45 Vs Sean Strickland x2.75

I think x1.45 for Du Plessis is quite fair, he's obviously the favorite, and odds in this range are what I expected.

We're going to have a UFC debut of Alexandre Topuria, Ilia's one-year older brother, who is 5-1. He's on the prelim card and fighting in bantamweight. Obviously, relation to Ilia must've helped him get the contract, but I wonder how that will pan out for him.

[electronicash]

Odds for the main card:

Jake Matthews x1.40 Vs Francisco Prado x3.00
Jim Crute x2.28 Vs Rodolfo Bellato x1.63
Justin Tafa x2.30 Vs Talisson Teixeira x1.62
Weili Zhang x2.00 Vs Tatiana Suarez x1.81
Dricus Du Plessis x1.45 Vs Sean Strickland x2.75

I think x1.45 for Du Plessis is quite fair, he's obviously the favorite, and odds in this range are what I expected.

We're going to have a UFC debut of Alexandre Topuria, Ilia's one-year older brother, who is 5-1. He's on the prelim card and fighting in bantamweight. Obviously, relation to Ilia must've helped him get the contract, but I wonder how that will pan out for him.

nice to see brothers in UFC again. his brother wouldn't be noticed if it weren't for Ilia of course but i think his brother is a tough one also.  he has 1 loss which i think this brother of ilia is not going to be bothered if he loses along the way in his UFC career. but will he ever survive fighting top rank fighters?

DDP i think will still win over Strickland.

[pawel7777]

Full UFC 312 results:

Main Card
Middleweight                 Dricus du Plessis (c) def. Sean Strickland   Decision (unanimous)
Women's Strawweight    Zhang Weili (c) def. Tatiana Suarez   Decision (unanimous)
Heavyweight                 Tallison Teixeira def. Justin Tafa   TKO (knee to the body and elbows)
Light Heavyweight         Jimmy Crute vs. Rodolfo Bellato   Draw (majority)
Welterweight                Jake Matthews def. Francisco Prado   Decision (unanimous)

Prelims:
Featherweight            Gabriel Santos def. Jack Jenkins   Submission (rear-naked choke)
Lightweight                Tom Nolan def. Viacheslav Borshchev   Decision (unanimous)
Women's Flyweight     Wang Cong def. Bruna Brasil   Decision (unanimous)
Bantamweight            Aleksandre Topuria def. Colby Thicknessse   Decision (unanimous)

Early prelims:
Lightweight                Rong Zhu def. Kody Steele   Decision (unanimous)
Welterweight             Jonathan Micallef def. Kevin Jousset   Decision (unanimous)
Lightweight               Quillan Saiklid def. Anshul Jubil   TKO (punch)

That's a lot of decissions (75% of all fights).
The main fight went pretty much as I expected, maybe except DPP not shooting for takedowns as often as I thought he would be, but he was dominating in striking so there was no need for that really. He's still undefeated in the UFC but we all know he would not be the favourite if he's matched against Khamzat (or Islam if he moves up the weight class), that's why he's looking for a safer and better paid option of fighting Alex Pereira.

[electronicash]

i didn't bet on this fight because i saw tokeweed been sensing an upset lol which is why i also didn't watch the fights. but as expected DDP made it again. i might just watch it tomorrow. Zhang been expected also to win although she isn't really good in defense but in striking she is wilder.

i just look at the wiki on ufc 312,  most of the fights are UD. not so explosive. only the real fan of mma and practice mma can appreciate watching UD fights. i'm more interested on KO fights.

[pawel7777]

I've seen a comment on X by one of Sean's fans saying that Sean doesn't fight, he spars. I think there's a lot of truth to that. Strickland is known for sparring very often and that's not necessarily a good thing. In sparring, you don't go full power, you don't explode and not trying to actually hurt your opponents. By doing that almost every day, he might have conditioned himself to transfer the same approach to real fights.
But it's not the end of the world for Sean. At least he didn't get finished like most of the previous DDP's opponents, and he could use that broken nose as an excuse to some degree.

As for Du Plessis, I see that in the post-fight conference he said Khamzat is next and that he wants to fight the best to leave no doubt that he's a true champ. That man really deserves all the respect.

[electronicash]

I've seen a comment on X by one of Sean's fans saying that Sean doesn't fight, he spars. I think there's a lot of truth to that. Strickland is known for sparring very often and that's not necessarily a good thing. In sparring, you don't go full power, you don't explode and not trying to actually hurt your opponents. By doing that almost every day, he might have conditioned himself to transfer the same approach to real fights.
But it's not the end of the world for Sean. At least he didn't get finished like most of the previous DDP's opponents, and he could use that broken nose as an excuse to some degree.

As for Du Plessis, I see that in the post-fight conference he said Khamzat is next and that he wants to fight the best to leave no doubt that he's a true champ. That man really deserves all the respect.

i watched youtube videos of thier fight. dricus is the busiest among the two from spinning fist to elbows and then head kick as well while sean just kept the defensive stance.

if dricus is going to fight khamzat, it might just be his last title defense fight as well. khamzat will rag doll dricus like how khamzat did to his opponents. khamzat can do better what dricus could do.

[pawel7777]

(...)
if dricus is going to fight khamzat, it might just be his last title defense fight as well. khamzat will rag doll dricus like how khamzat did to his opponents. khamzat can do better what dricus could do.

I too think that Chimaev will be the favourite, but Du Plessis seems confident in his skills. I don't think it will be as easy fight for Khamzat as the Whittaker one. Dricus is probably the strongest guy in the division.

On another subject, Michael Chandler is calling out Paddy Pimblett:
https://www.si.com/fannation/mma/news/michael-chandler-calls-out-paddy-pimblett-ufc-international-fight-week
After Poirier rejected Paddy as his final opponent before his retirement, Chandler jumped in and called Paddy out. That's a match-up that I'd like to see. It's a good deal for both of them. Chandler is coming off two consecutive losses, so has to fight down, and Paddy is the biggest name among all the guys ranked below Chandler.

[electronicash]

an upset can happen of course but i would bet khamzat will have to go for the takedown in the earlier rounds. this could be his only way to enforce his control.

dricus escaping these TDs will be good for him. but it may not take long that they will have to grapple and one of them will be dominant. my take is khamzat. he gets more aggressive on ground games,

[pawel7777]

In the main fight of this weekend's event, Jared Cannonier defeated Gregory Rodrigues by TKO in rd 4.
It was a big win by Jared. The fight was the opposite of what I expected to happen. I thought, due to his age, Jared would press hard in round 1 and gas out in later rounds, but it was him who almost got finished in round 1 but bounced back nicely and finished Rodrigues in round 4. I don't think it would make any impact on his rating, as Rodrigues was unranked, but he made a statement that he still has what it takes to compete on the highest level and he can give a good show.

[electronicash]

In the main fight of this weekend's event, Jared Cannonier defeated Gregory Rodrigues by TKO in rd 4.
It was a big win by Jared. The fight was the opposite of what I expected to happen. I thought, due to his age, Jared would press hard in round 1 and gas out in later rounds, but it was him who almost got finished in round 1 but bounced back nicely and finished Rodrigues in round 4. I don't think it would make any impact on his rating, as Rodrigues was unranked, but he made a statement that he still has what it takes to compete on the highest level and he can give a good show.

there must have been bettors who double down when they saw the first round was won by Rodrigues. he seem to be the more dominant and then 3rd round came where it all began where Cannonier elbowed Rodrigues that went down. no one is probably winning in a parley. Cattar also lost.

UFC Fight Night: Cejudo vs. Song (also known as UFC Fight Night 252 and UFC on ESPN+ 110)  of Feb 23
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFC_Fight_Night:_Cejudo_vs._Song

should you also expect an upset?  odd is 3.40 for Cejudo.  the most possible to happen for me is Yadong By Decision 2.20

[pawel7777]

(...)
should you also expect an upset?  odd is 3.40 for Cejudo.  the most possible to happen for me is Yadong By Decision 2.20

I don't know about that. Bookies tend to favor younger fighters, perhaps a little bit too much, so you can often get a really good odds being on more experienced underdog.
But I wouldn't be putting my money on this one. Cejudo already announced his retirement, but came back only to lose to Aljo and Merab. I'm not convinced he still has a drive to compete and it could be that he just wants to earn a bit of extra money before it's too late.
Yadong is 11 years younger than Henry but actually has more fights on his record. He has 8 losses though, so it's not like he's some up-and-coming prodigy.
It's a fight that anything can happen, but it going to the distance is the most likely outcome.

[electronicash]

(...)
should you also expect an upset?  odd is 3.40 for Cejudo.  the most possible to happen for me is Yadong By Decision 2.20

I don't know about that. Bookies tend to favor younger fighters, perhaps a little bit too much, so you can often get a really good odds being on more experienced underdog.
But I wouldn't be putting my money on this one. Cejudo already announced his retirement, but came back only to lose to Aljo and Merab. I'm not convinced he still has a drive to compete and it could be that he just wants to earn a bit of extra money before it's too late.
Yadong is 11 years younger than Henry but actually has more fights on his record. He has 8 losses though, so it's not like he's some up-and-coming prodigy.
It's a fight that anything can happen, but it going to the distance is the most likely outcome.

i'd hate to see a old fighter retiring where his last fight is his last loss in the most embarrassing KO. if i were to make things happen i would try fixing the fight and make Cejudo win/loss in a UD. but of course i'm not Mr white.

there was once in Cejudo's career where he was the highest paid athlete in UFC afaik. he is a hall of famer as he was once a fly and bantamweight champ. that's gotta be something to value.

[Zed0X]

^ I think the odds are just fair. Cejudo is already on a decline and a gatekeeper for the younger fighters to 'step on'. I don't know about the match up though because it seems a battle between two countries that 'hate' each other Maybe something is arranged here so as not to embarrass the great murica?