Hello everyone!
I hope you're all doing well.
Sleep issues are slowly being resolved, but as with most problems in life, it's never a quick fix.
Let's get the show on the road shall we?
(c) - Champ
(D) - Debut
NS - No Streak
FLS - Fight Lose Streak
FWS - Fight Win Streak
(#x) - Rank in Division
Lets go!
Prelims
Featherweight
Brian Kelleher (21-11-0, NS) v Kevin Natividad (D) (9-1-0, 5 FWS) - A fairly interesting fight to start off this event. Kelleher has been around for quite some time and he has been fairly active this year, fighting three times during the ongoing health issues that continuously make match making difficult. Kelleher is what i’d like to call a Jack of all Trades, Master of None, featuring Aziz Ansari, his striking is fairly standard for an MMA fighter, throwing excellent kicks, targeting anything and everything, and he is a dangerous person off his back as well, his Guillotine choke is absolutely beautiful. He is very, very well rounded in every aspect of MMA, including feints and movement. During his fight with Azure, he executed feints perfectly which Azure got tricked into retaliating, creating openings that Kelleher expertly made use of. He is a very patient striker, and waits for the perfect moment to land a body shot followed by a swing at the head. Natividad is on a great 5 fight win streak with four of those wins coming from LFA, he is clearly talented and a dangerous striker, with great forward pressure and a wide stance which only helps with his ability to dart in and out of danger to throw a quick combo, he is an exceptionally fast boxer and his reach advantage over Kelleher will be fairly large and no doubt be in his favour stylistically. This is a great fight on the feet and I feel like if Kelleher can avoid the quick shots from Natividad and maybe get a single leg takedown (since Natividad’s stance is wide), he can work from the ground. So, as a safe bet, I feel like Kelleher is going to wrestle and maybe get a submission.
Kelleher via Sub R2
Bantamweight
Cole Smith (7-1-0, NS) v Hunter Azure (8-1-0, NS) - I’m gonna be straight with you guys, I don’t see Smith winning this one at all. Looking over his fight against Johns, there was very little action coming from Smith, and even though the fight had a total strike count of 32 (11 for Smith and 31 for Johns) I just don’t see him getting the upper hand against Azure who is such an active and powerful kickboxer. His only chance at maybe winning is to take it to the ground and eliminate the offensive of Azure completely, but other than that I don’t see how he can get the upper hand. Azure throws absolutely everything into his punches, and he does it with the intent to knockout his opponent and walk away with some big bucks. He landed some significant shots on Kelleher before his loss, and his only issue so far is his ground game, he got taken down three times by Brad Katona (who isn’t exactly a takedown artist), so Smiths only real chance at winning is to take Azure down, but I feel like Azure knows that already and will look for a KO early on or at least just piece him up in the long run. So, yeah, it’ll be a fun fight.
Azure via KO R2
Heavyweight
Marcos Rogerio De Lima (17-6-1, NS) v Alexander Romanov (D) (#1 Europe Balkans) (11-0-0, 11 FWS) - This fight could be interesting to watch, but then again it’s heavyweights so it’s normally always zero cardio bangers. Lima has somewhat always been on the sidelines in terms of popularity, he hasn’t gained too much traction in the UFC, and even though his recent win over Ben Sosoli was somewhat great to see, he still hasn’t really gotten a win over any substantial names. I feel like until he gets consecutive wins, he’ll only be facing either debuting fighters, or fighters looking for a comeback, thus is the life of a UFC Heavyweight. My attention however is on the debuting fighter in Romanov, the dude looks huge, not necessarily in terms of muscle definition but just, he’s a big boy and he has destructive strikes that land with such insane impact, he is also great on the ground, having 6 submissions, most of them being in the first round. So this dude is always looking for a finish very quickly. Ultimately there’s not a lot going on in this fight other than heavyweights doing heavyweight stuff. I got Romanov on this one.
Romanov via KO R1
Women’s Flyweight
Montana De La Rosa (#12) (11-5-0, NS) v Viviane Araujo (#15) (8-2-0, NS) - This is a pretty great fight. De La Rosa has been a very dominating fighter in the division, a great submission artist and a very proficient boxer. She is very well rounded and has pretty good movement to back up her striking capabilities, it is only recently that she started facing actual fighters and not people who the UFC is trying to push, so hopefully we see a lot more tougher fights to push her boundaries as a capable fighter. Araujo is a very well rounded fighter who has the propensity of taking her opponents down in hopes that she can get a quick submission in. Even though she doesn’t have a submission win in the UFC yet, it’ll come soon enough because you simply cannot waste a Black Belt in BJJ on the biggest stage of MMA. I feel like she will look for a takedown against De La Rosa early on to get the advantage on the ground and gauge De La Rosa’s ground game. It probably won’t be an instant submission but expect a fair bit of exchanges on the ground. Tough one to pick but I feel like Araujo has this one.
Araujo via UD
Middleweight
Bartosz Fabinski (15-3-0, NS) v Andre Muniz (19-4-0, 5 FWS) - Fabinski had a really interesting time this year, he was scheduled to face Shavkat Rakhmonov in march, but due to the pandemic and the cancellations of fights, he had a fight in Cage Warriors against Darren Stewart. I can’t remember a time when this has happened, but then again how rare is a pandemic. Anyway, Fabinski is a dangerous takedown artist and it’s incredibly difficult to avoid a takedown from him since he either chain wrestles or just drives and eventually gets his opponent off balance. He might be a bit of a boring fighter hence why he is rarely spoken about, but his stats don’t lie, 22 takedowns in his 3 UFC wins (excluding his win over Stewart because that was in CW), he is an exceptional wrestler and he will no doubt be looking to take the fight to the ground and avoid any submission attempts Munoz can give.. Muniz had a bit of a struggle getting into the UFC, fighting on DWCS twice before eventually getting a contract, Muniz is a dangerous submission artist who has a shitload of submission wins in the first round throughout smaller regional promotions, he is amazing on the ground and will be looking forward to being taken down because well, it would save him the hassle and energy of taking Fabinski down. Anyway, as with a lot of wrestler v submission fighters, there will normally be a whole bunch of strikes being exchanged and I’m not too sure who is the better striker in this regard. It’s a tough fight to predict because really anything can happen, but i’m slightly leaning on Muniz on this one, he seems far more well rounded and if the fight goes to the ground he has the arsenal and techniques to get a submission.
Muniz via Sub R2
Main Card
Lightweight
Thiago Moises (13-4-0, NS) v Jalin Turner (9-5-0, NS) - Moises seems to be the ultimate fighter in patience. He was getting absolutely dominated on the feet against Michael Johnson, he only landed one significant strike throughout the fight. Eventually he locked in an Ankle Lock and that was the end of the fight, now, I doubt he’ll be that patient when he fights Turner because Turner is a very slick striker on the feet and will piece him up, but In this particular case I feel like Moises will be more proactive with the takedowns and do whatever he can to avoid the striking game of Turner. Now, Turner might have somewhat of a rough record, but he always puts on pretty good performances. Turner has an obvious height and reach advantage over Moises and with that, as usual, comes with a natural advantage in striking. I expect Turner to utilize a lot of movement and use jabs to slowly break down Moises, and sway any attempts or thoughts to attempt a takedown that Moises might want to execute. This feels like your traditional striker v grappler fight and if i was a betting man (I very much am not.) then I’d put money on Moises on a safe bet. I got Moises on this, if he lands a takedown (and he should since it’s a smaller octagon and thus less evasive movement from Turner) then Moises should maintain enough control on the ground to get a submission, probably.
Moises via Sub R3
Welterweight
Michel Pereira (23-11-0, 2 FLS) v Zelim Imadaev (8-2-0, 2 FLS) - Someone's losing streak has got to end. Pereira is a freak when it comes to athleticism, but let's hope he gets sponsored by BP Gas because he’ll need the extra fuel if he keeps doing crazy backflips and flying stuff, dude probably was a trapezist in his previous life. Pereira has insane power with no particular style, his style involves doing crazy shit that sometimes works. Now, unfortunately he lost his last fight via DQ but he is still a fairly dangerous, unpredictable fighter who can knock out his opponents pretty cleanly if it lands. Imadaev has a whole lot to do in this fight in order to successfully win. He needs to survive and evade, because Pereira is probably going to come out crazy in the first round, and that drains his energy like nothing else. Imadaev is a very well rounded fighter who might have bitten off more than he can chew when agreeing to this fight, especially considering he lost his last fight via KO, albeit by an excellent boxer in Roberts, but that aside, Zelim is always down for a good scrap and whilst he has lost both of his UFC fights, i’m pretty interested to see what he has changed in his camp in order to adjust to Pereira’s odd and unorthodox fighting style. I got Pereira in this fight, but that’s if the fight lasts only the first two rounds.
Pereira via KO R1
Women’s Bantamweight
Sijara Eubanks (5-4-0, NS) v Karol Rosa (13-3-0, 4 FWS) - This isn’t a very high calibre fight but it’s interesting regardless. Eubanks is a relatively well rounded fighter but is mostly a strong striker, not strong in terms of her striking capabilities, but mostly in her strength, she packs quite a punch and can, at times, be aggressive on the feet. She’s also a black belt in BJJ but we don’t really see her on the ground a whole lot, and I doubt she would want to go to the ground against Rosa who is a far better grappler in my opinion. Rosa is one hell of a striker, she’s always down to throw volume and keep the pressure going, landing 120+ significant strikes in both of her bouts in the UFC, she’s a cardio machine and is always looking for a good scrap. I see her getting the upper hand on the feet here easily, she’s got the movement and striking finesse to get the win here, but I don’t think it’ll be a finish. I got Rosa winning this one by Decision.
Rosa via UD
Co-Main Event
Light Heavyweight
Ovince St. Preux (24-14-0, NS) v Alonzo Menifield (9-1-0, NS) - I’m copying this straight from my last prediction since this is a rescheduled fight. This feels like the old v new fights that happen from time to time. OSP is no doubt one of the bigger names in the UFC, recognisable for his Von Flue Chokes and his general ground game, OSP at the moment is having a bit of a rough run, coming off a rough split decision loss against Ben “muahahaha” Rothwell. I feel like OSP’s time is nearing its end which is unfortunate because i’ve been quite a fan of OSP but he’s just going to keep facing younger and tougher talent, and in the case of Alonzo Menifield, he needs to be careful of those hands because Menifield is a train that’s going to crash straight through you if you’re not careful. Menifield is a powerhouse but he did struggle against wrestlers who were capable of controlling his mobility, in this case Clark shut down Menifields power, and whilst the fight was boring, it gave many of us a clean look at what Menifield needed to work on, and that’s his wrestling. Menifield has the capabilities to knock anyone out, that’s for sure, but unless he’s been working on his takedown defence (especially against OSP) then he’s going to have a rough time. I don’t know how this fight will go. I feel like OSP will be looking for a takedown somewhere and just use his BJJ to find a submission. Please, don’t bet based off this prediction because it certainly goes against the narrative of “Old man with great grappling skills v Powerhouse”. I got OSP on this.
OSP via Sub R2
Main Event
Heavyweight
Alistair Overeem (#5) (46-18-0, NS) v Augusto Sakai (15-1-1, 6 FWS) - This is a beautiful match up. Overeem has been around for quite some time now, in fact I believe he is one of the oldest and most experienced fighters who has always been in high calibre fights, I’m surprised he hasn’t retired yet to be honest. His kickboxing is on a very high level and the power he carries is pretty substantial and has the ability to just knock anyone out. His ground game is also on a fairly high level, with excellent use against knockout artists like Rozensruirk, Overeems fight IQ is certainly up there amongst the best. He does have a very challenging fighter ahead of him in Sakai, who has made quite a name for himself over the past few months. Sakai had a relatively tough fight against Ivanov a few months ago where he could have easily lost the fight if the ref caught him grabbing the fence whilst being taken down. Sakai has insane power in his hands but at the moment he just seems like a heavyweight that can swing. I understand the hype surrounding him but I’m not entirely sold on him just yet. I got Overeem on this one. Gotta back the Reem.
Overeem via KO R3
and that's it!
I hope you guys enjoyed this writeup. It's a pretty decent fight night, not too great, not that terrible, just right!
If you would like to follow me on twitter, you can find me @Slayer_Tip or if you want, add me on discord and we can have a super friendly chat about all things MMA: Slayertip#7013
Let's have a friendly discussion down below :)
For now, take care, stay safe, and enjoy your weekend!
o/

Hello!
I hope everyone is doing well, and is healthy :)
I am not super sure how many fights will drop out, but the rule of thumb in my opinion is "If a fighter drops out, and there's a replacement, bet on the staying fighter" so basically if it's x versus y, and y get's the Rona and drops out, and z substitutes, go for x. that's some MMA Algebruh.
Also, one of the best fight nights of this year confirmed?
(c) - Champ
(D) - Debut
FLS - Fight Lose Streak
FWS - Fight Win Streak
NS - No Streak
(#x) - Rank in Division
Lets go!
Prelims
Welterweight
Miguel Baeza (9-0-0, 9 FWS) v Jeremiah Wells (D) (#1 Pennsylvania) (8-2-0, 2 FWS) - Wells is coming in as a late replacement. Baeza took on Matt Brown earlier this year, and if you know Matt Brown, then you know that he’s no easy fight, but from the start to the finish Baeza picked apart Brown easily, with effective leg kicks and very fast blitzes. IT was power versus speed and precision and Baeza is incredibly fast with his punches. Baeza is no doubt a very interesting prospect and he’s probably going to make short work against Wells, who is coming in without a full camp. Wells is making his debut coming off a fairly decent streak in CFFC, he’s clearly well rounded and has a decent ground game, so he might have to take a safe route and look for takedowns to eliminate any offensive that Baeza will certainly give on the feet. I don’t know all that much about Wells so i’ll be treating him as a regular debutant up until his fight where I get to see how well he does. But for now, I got Baeza on this one.
Baeza via KO R2
Flyweight
Tyson Nam (19-11-1, NS) v Jerome Rivera (D) (10-2-0, 3 FWS) - Nam is coming off a career saving win over Adashev just over two months ago via a very early round KO and boy was it beautiful. Countered off a leg kick, straight down the line, hitting the target perfectly. Nam is experienced, having just over 30 professional fights, whilst he has had a rough time in the UFC so far, he still hasn’t been finished. Nam has excellent kickboxing and he has fairly fancy footwork, he’s very flowy and has pretty decent power in his hands. I’m not too sure how good his ground game is because throughout his three fights in the UFC, his opponents have not taken him down and judging from the fact that he has 1 submission win in his career, it makes me wonder if Rivera will instigate a chess match on the ground and eventually get the upper hand since Rivera has 7 submissions under his belt. Rivera is coming off a fairly decent win on DWCS, and as i said just words ago, he seems to be a submission specialist with the proclivity to take his opponents down and work for a submission finish there. I don’t know how good Nam is on the ground so I can’t be confident that Nam will be fine. If Rivera can avoid the hands of Nam (and this is Flyweight so, you gotta be fast to avoid anything) then he might get the advantage, but I don’t fully know. This is a tough call and I think Nam is more than experienced enough to get ready for Rivera and up his takedown defence. So, yeah i’ll go with Nam but it’s not a super safe prediction.
Nam via KO R1
Featherweight
Darrick Minner (24-11-0, NS) v TJ Laramie (D) (#1 Canada) (12-3-0, 4 FWS) - Minner is coming back after a rough debut against Grant Dawson back in March, and whilst it wasn’t an action packed fight, Minner still has an exceptional ground game, with 21 submission wins in regional promotions, he was just simply outclassed by a better grappler. Minner has had an exclusive background in MMA and considering he’s still fairly young, he’s got a lot of mileage ahead and he seems to be a better grappler if we’re looking at submissions alone, but Laramie showed fairly decent offensive ground game during his DWCS, where he absolutely dominated the first and only round in his fight against Swain with excellent pressure and strong ground and pound, but he did get caught in two submission attempts which makes me think he might have trouble if Minner catches him in a submission. Surprisingly, according to Tapology, 84% think Laramie is going to win, but I wouldn’t pull that trigger that quickly. I’m taking a ballsy pick here and i’m gonna back my man Minner for this one. I could be wrong though so bet at your own discretion.
Minner via Sub R2
Bantamweight
Andre Ewell (16-6-0, NS) v Irwin Rivera (10-5-0, NS) - This is a fun one. Ewell is a very well rounded fighter who is on a win loss cycle at the moment but he is still an incredibly dangerous, scrappy fighter who has pretty decent boxing. Ewell is coming in with a fairly large reach advantage of 7 inches so he’s most likely going to be working some jabs and great lateral movement. Ewell hasn’t had a finish in the UFC but i'm sure it’ll come soon enough. Rivera is a mad animal, he was incredibly entertaining when fighting Chikadze, and he was in a very competitive bout against AlQaisi, it seems like he;s still finding his footing though, and he’s still a developing fighter. Rivera has power and speed behind him and if he can get inside the range of Ewell and land some solid shots to the midsection, he can shut down the movement of Ewell very quickly. I don’t know about you, but I got Rivera on this one.
Rivera via KO R3
Bantamweight
Randy Costa (5-1-0, NS) v Journey Newson (9-2-0, NS) - Costa is coming off a significant knockout late last year over Boston Salmon, and it was a violent fight up until that point, Costa is a very powerful striker, but he isn’t a very clean one, he’ll throw everything but land with little efficiency. It’s not a pretty style but it’s a style that hurts. He’s only two fights deep in his UFC career though so I suspect his striking diversity will only improve because he’s a solid fighter. Newson is the devil himself, how dare he smoke the nasty green stuff and win a fight, that’s straight up blasphemous. Newson is a dangerous striker, with a sharp right hand that slept Pilarte with one clean punch, it was beautiful and just showcased how accurate Newson can be. He’s in a similar position as Costa, having only two fights in the UFC and both are developing fighters, so this is certainly an interesting match up for two young fighters who are fairly new to MMA and especially the high level competitions that the UFC hosts. I feel like if Costa can manage the distance and keep Newson at bay, he’ll be able to get a win, I’m just not sure if it will be via KO or UD, let’s stick to the safer side and go UD.
Costa via UD
Women’s Bantamweight
Sarah Alpar (D) (#1 Oklahoma) (9-4-0, 3 FWS) v Jessica-Rose Clark (9-6-0, 2 FLS) - This is a relatively okay fight, but I don’t have a whole lot to say about it. Alpar has won her contract via DWCS last year I believe, and it was a great performance, but I still don’t know a lot about her, so i’m gonna pay extra attention to her during this bout. She seems fairly well rounded but I suppose we will see where the kinks in her armour is during this fight. Clark is on a rough losing streak and even prior to her losing streak she really didn’t stand out too much, she’s not going to be a champion any time soon but that isn’t to say she shouldn’t be fighting, because boy can she scrap. She’s got a decent kickboxing game and is alright in the clinch, but she doesn’t excel anywhere but I suspect she might get the punches in sooner due to her reach advantage, but we’ll see. I got Clark on this one, not a popular choice I know but I want to see how Alpar can handle this fight.
Clark via UD
Flyweight
Jordan Espinosa (15-7-0, NS) v David Dvorak (18-3-0, 14 FWS) - I tell ya what, that streak is nasty! Espinosa had an outstanding and dominant performance over Mark De La Rosa. His pace and his accuracy with those strikes were on point, those takedowns added onto the brutal pace and aggression that De La Rosa simply could not handle. This was an outstanding turnaround considering he was on a short losing streak. Espinosa is an exceptionally well rounded fighter who has very fast hands with excellent in and out movement, and when you combine excellent foot movement with the striking speed that Espinosa has, you get a dangerous, dangerous fighter in that cage. Dvorak is on a very significant streak right now, 13 of those 14 came via finish so he’s a highlight reel that’s only going to make more highlights in this fight because it’s a perfect match up. Dvorak is only one fight deep in the UFC but considering how young he is, he’s got an exceptionally bright future ahead of him, and if he breaks through the barrier that is Espinosa, he’s in the spotlight. Dvorak needs to use his grappling because it’s too risky to strike against a brilliant striker like Espinosa. If Dvorak can wrestle and maintain control, or even get into a position easily enough to get a submission, he’s got it. This is a great fight and you can’t miss it, as for who is going to win, it depends on the game plan of each fighter, but from what I can see, Dvorak has much more tools at his disposal.
Dvorak via Sub R2
Women’s Flyweight
Mayra Bueno Silva (6-1-0, NS) v Mara Romero Borella (12-8-0, 3 FLS) - I don’t have a lot to say about this one either. Silva is a submission specialist coming off a battle of a fight when she fought Maryna Moroz, and it showcased that she is willing to trade with the significantly better striker, but where Silva is absolutely dominant is on the ground, she’s an excellent submission artist, with a recent armbar submission in the very first round against Gillian Robertson. She’s dangerous on the ground and if Borella lets her, she’s gonna snatch a limb and just take it with her to the 9th circle of hell. Speaking of Borella, she has lost 4 of her last 5, with a split decision win stopping her from being kicked off the roster. She’s not a very exciting fighter in my opinion, she doesn’t push any pace or react to any action, she seems like fodder, and I hope that’s not the case because i don’t want to talk bad about her any more than I currently am, but you guys know I can be brutally honest sometimes. I have Silva in this fight, but I do hope that Borella has upped her game a bit.
Silva via Sub R1
Main Card
Middleweight
Kevin Holland (18-5-0, 2 FWS) v Darren Stewart (12-5-0, NS) - This… This is a beautiful, beautiful fight. Holland is on my list for being one of the most entertaining fighters in the UFC at the moment. He’s a trash talker, he’s a dangerous, dangerous fighter, and his wide variety of techniques and unorthodox, nearly unseen moves are simply something you cannot miss, Holland is a phenom in this Division, regardless of who is currently the champ, Holland is up there in my opinion. The way he knocked out Buckley? Picturesque. He’s coming in at a 7 inch reach advantage and he certainly knows how to use it. Stewart proved me wrong when he fought against Pitolo, he absolutely dominated the fight and sinked in a great guillotine that effectively ended the fight. Stewart doesn’t give a fuck when he fights, he’s violent and has great forward pressure when he throws down, he’s throwing to kill and if it lands on Holland then he’s in trouble. Luckily for Holland, Holland has a great fight IQ and probably can avoid everything. This is a violent fight, and I love this match up a whole lot. The Dentist versus Trailblazer? Fuck yeah.
Holland via KO R3
Women’s Strawweight
Mackenzie Damn (8-1-0, NS) v Randa Markos (#15) (10-8-1, NS) - Alright I just need to say this, and it’s probably odd of me to say, but does Markos’s record make anyone think “huh that’s not a normal record at all”, like, the losses are whatever but that one draw makes the record look a bit off… Maybe i’m just tired, anyway. Dern is a well known master of BJJ, she has won so many BJJ events and she has no doubt become such a role model for many young BJJ practitioners out there. Dern is insanely good on the ground, but that really doesn’t need to be said, does it? What does need to be said, is she’s going to finish Markos quicker than my kettle can boil, I mean, no disrespect to Markos because she’s had some significant wins but I don’t see her getting the upper hand when this fight goes to the ground. The difference here might be in the striking department, but because neither of these fighters are excellent strikers, it’s hard to say who has the advantage on the feet. I don’t know what else I can say, I have Dern on this one.
Dern via Sub R2
Light Heavyweight
Johnny Walker (#10) (17-5-0, 2 FLS) v Ryan Spann (#13) (18-5-0, 8 FWS) - Feels odd to see Walker on a 2 fight losing streak when only just last year he was crowned to be the one to destroy Jones. Walker has had it rough recently, losing to an excellent grappler in Krylov and prior to that being knocked out by Anderson. There is no doubt in my mind that Walker is coming into this fight with a new mindset, sure he’ll be entertaining still, but he’s going to be putting a much larger focus on the fighting aspect of well, fighting, and not the highlight reel aspect. Walker has power, that statement has been repeated so many times, but it’s true, he’s a dangerous striker when he lands. In 3 of his wins, he has only landed a shot 21 times. Whilst that’s impressive, that isn’t enough, it only showcases his power, not his longevity, and if you’re fighting an endurance athlete like Spann, you need to jog that marathon. Walker is going to have to take his time with this one and use his aggression and forward momentum to shut down Spann’s excellent boxing, back Spann up into the cage walls and shut off any lateral movement Spann will use to get out of danger. Spann has an excellent stand up game, his boxing and his timing are impeccable and he has the clean style that will allow him to slowly pick apart Walker. Now, what I do see happening is Walker gets hit with a clean right, stumbles, does some acrobatic stuff, then goes back into range to keep the pace going. This is going to be an explosive fight and we’re going to hear a lot of leather being landed. No cows were harmed in the process. This is a fun fight, and I feel like Walker is coming in as a different fighter. He has to, there’s no other way to adapt, look at Blachowicz and Reyes, top of the game and their striking isn’t particularly stylish. I got Walker on this one.
Walker via KO R2
Middleweight
Khamzat Chimaev (8-0-0, 8 FWS) v Gerald Meerschaert (31-13-0, NS) - There’s something I would like to quote from Iron Man 2. “If you can make God bleed, people would cease to believe in Him.” There is something that kinda irks me about Chimaev, and let it be known early that I am not pushing him aside as another “hype train about to be derailed”, but the fact that Dana White made two fights ahead of time for Chimaev is proof that people are only seeing his wins, and not his potential losses. If I get this prediction wrong, and you all know for a fact I might, then Chimaev is the real deal, but so far with his last two performances, i’m honestly not as impressed as many of you might be. Chimaev is an evolution in MMA, early on in his career, he has implemented everything you can in MMA into his game, and the fact that he fought twice in a month is nothing short of beautiful, he’s a hard worker and an even harder fighter to fight. His wrestling is at an elite level and his ground and pound absolutely smothers his opponents, but everyone has their kryptonite, and let me tell you about GM3. Meerschaert may have a rocky record in the UFC, but the fact that he has 23 submission victories, that is almost 3 times the amount of wins that Chimaev currently has, is proof that many people are overlooking Meerschaert, and that breaks my heart just a little bit because Meerschaert is being tossed aside like a used condom by so many pundits out there. Do not sleep on Meerschaert, in fact, don’t sleep on anyone, it’s rude and if you’re super fat you could actually kill that person. I can see Meerschaert struggling with the top pressure of Chimaev but a great grappler survives and finds an opening, and I feel like Meerschaert will do exactly that, survive then shut the fuck up every motherfucker that overlooked him. Alright that’s enough passion for now, this isn’t a romance novel. I got Meerschaert on this but bet at your own discretion.
Meerschaert via Sub R2
Co-Main Event
Welterweight
Donald Cerrone (36-15-0, 4 FLS) v Niko Price (14-4-0, NS) - You know, I get very anxious when I watch Cerrone fight, I have watched Cerrone for a very long time, and right now, as much as it’s hard for me to say this, but he’s looking a lot like BJ Penn right now. Such a hard record to look at right now. Cerrone’s coach has said he is sparring now, and that’s an interesting thing to hear, and it just makes me curious about how he’s going to perform, he could be Cerrone 3.0, the Cerroniest Cerrone we’ll ever see. Cerrone has always been an incredibly good kickboxer, he doesn’t have a specific style, but that’s what makes him special, he makes what he has, work. A survivalist in a sport in which you only have about 5 good years before it turns to shit, Cerrone has adapted and changed the game many times now, and i’m intrigued to see how he’s going to manage Niko Price's pressure and striking, we could see some excellent BJJ work from him, but it’s Cerrone so really, who knows. Price is a man of insane power and athleticism, he has a very high finishing rate, in fact he has never taken a decision win or loss, it’s always been a finish, he’s a highlight reel and you most likely remember him from his comical knockout against James Vick, that upkick was beautiful and just shows the offensive that Price has, he throws his give-a-fucks out the window and is always ready to put on an excellent performance. This fight is interesting and I’m not sure who is going to win, I’m currently leaning on Price, because how big of an improvement can Cerrone make by adding sparring to one camp? So, yeah, as much as it breaks my heart, I got Price on this one.
Price via KO R2
Main Event
Welterweight
Colby Covington (#2) (15-2-0, NS) v Tyron Woodley (#6) (19-5-1, 2 FLS) - If you told me that this fight was free for Fight Pass users, I wouldn’t believe you, especially if this was back in early 2019 where Woodley was still champ. Covington is the definition of chaos, he certainly lives up to his nickname because he brings chaos wherever he goes. He managed to survive and even give some trouble against Usman in their outstanding 5 round fight. I swear just watching those two cardio machine fighters made me lose maybe two kilo’s. Covington has a swarming style, he’s going to throw volume but not necessarily power, his main goal is to just break his opponents spirit, he’s done that to Robbie Lawler, I mean shit, he’s done it to everyone he fought. Hate him or love him, Covington is a championship level fighter. Woodley is having a rough time at the moment, losing back to back twice in very similar fashion, up against the fence, getting beat up. That was his biggest issue with both fights, he was defeated before being defeated. Accepting his position and doing nothing about it. Woodley is more than capable of getting his belt back, but he needs to do something this time to make a statement, he currently has what feels like one foot out of the door, he needs to shove that sucker back in because he’s got one good run left in him. Woodley has a vicious, vicious nuke of a right hand and he needs to use it this time. He’s got a desert eagle but doesn’t have the ammo. He needs to make his back somehow allergic to the fence, because once Colby has you against the fence, it’s game over for that round. I’m gonna get laughed at for this, but I got Woodley this time.
Woodley via KO R3
Woo that was a big one.
I hope you all have a beautiful week, lets start a conversation down below, share your thoughts on this card, give feedback, etc.
If you would like to follow me on twitter, you can find me @Slayer_Tip or if you want, add me on discord and we can have a super friendly chat about all things MMA: Slayertip#7013
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I fully understand it's tough times right now for every single one of you, especially those affected by the fires on the west coast... My heart goes out to you and I have donated a total of 95 dollars to various charities and food banks, Aussies know fires all too well, and we send all of our love to those affected.
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this prediction post, take care out there. much love!

Underground fighting, kind of an ironic name considering how promoted it is now. Every group of knuckleheads has their own YouTube channel, hell, bare knuckle boxing has became sanctioned as of late.
But there are still grimy rings with seedy individuals betting inordinate amounts of money on the outcome of a fight between two guys that are willing to go a little farther than the law would allow.
As you've guessed , I am one of 'those guys' don't get the wrong idea, I don't have a death wish, while its true you can find places that give a couple idiots machetes and watch the show, that isn't my thing. I'm just a good old, bare knuckle, no holds barred , not good enough to get into the ufc schmuck. It pays the bills and makes it so I only really have to work a handful of days a month.
The name's Terry Gilmore , and I'm not here to tell you about the mildly interesting world of semi illegal fighting...or rather, not the side of it most people see.
Like any other sport there is superstition, myth and legend. And the older guys, they have a rule, don't take fights from September 15th to November 1.
Ask 10 old heads why, you get 11 different reasons. Humidity leads to more injuries, spirits make bad luck, veil between world's thins, all kinds of crazy crap.
And most people laugh it off, schedule their fights, and are perfectly fine. I'm a pretty mediocre athlete truth be told, but in this regard, unfortunately, I'm not most people.
The fight takes place in a warehouse , spotlights hastily rigged up provide glaring illumination to the assembled crowd of scumbags just connected or rich enough to lose a few thousand dollars in a night and take the loss in stride.
I'm wearing loose shorts and no shirt, the spotlights are already making me sweat. My opponent is an older guy, 50s maybe, solid build, bushy grey hair and beard. He wears a pair of torn sweatpants and a sleeveless white undershirt. His face has the telltale signs of an alcoholic , and I really hope he isn't some poor homeless guy they dragged in at the last minute.
His confidant stride to the centre of the second rate ring made me realize that was not the case. The ref says nothing other than " Begin" as we touch fists and begin to circle.
He's a few inches taller than myself and has about 20 pounds on me. The advantage is most certainly on his side. But being half his age, there should be no way he has more gas than I do.
The first round is a boring affair. Both of us feeling each other out with jabs and feints, not wanting to commit for fear of taking a nasty cut early in the fight. Boxing purists will point this out as a flaw in bare knuckle bouts, from my point of view, if the goal is to make the fight as realistic as possible bare knuckle is the superior option.
The second round though, that is when I knew something was amiss. He came out of his corner like a bat out of hell , not the haymaker frenzy a lot of big guys with no skill try, but a constant pressure of jabs followed by heat seeking overhand punches I found myself stumbling backwards to avoid.
The first real blow that connects sends me into the boxing style ropes. I dodge the roundhouse right meant to finish me off and push forward, getting inside his guard.
One main difference, rules wise, to an mma bout is headbutts are perfectly kosher. As a shorter guy this is just about my only advantage.
I clinch up with the guy, who I notice is dry as a bone, and smells vaguely of sawdust. Instead of trying to take him down, or dish out some body blows though, I bring him in as close as possible, tuck my head and drive the top of my skull into his jaw.
I feel something give way and he falls back a bit. I'm shocked that i didn't put his lights out, but not enough to let up.
I assume he is more of a boxer so I start throwing some low kicks. They land as expected, seizing his oblique muscle. But that wasn't the goal.
On the fourth kick he throws his guard low, exactly what I was hoping for. I don't bother setting it up with a jab, I spin my torso into a devestating uppercut that lands with an audible crunch.
I think the guy has to be on something as he shakes his head for a second, obviously trying to clear away some cobwebs, but still in the fight.
I don't let shock make me stupid though, as he is getting his bearings I launch a roundhouse left, ready to back it up with a takedown if this guy's cement jaw keeps doing its thing.
He regains his wits quickly enough to see the powerful, albeit sloppy, punch coming. He reacts with a bulldozer of a left cross, meant to simultaneously block my blow, and take my head off of my shoulders.
But he wasn't quite quick enough. I turn my body and the punch misses cleanly enough that I look him directly in his surprisingly vibrant blue eyes. Right before my blow connects, and I see one launch itself from its socket.
I fight in a pretty brutal sport, and in an extra brutal league, but at the end of the day we are all still athletes trying to get by doing what we love. You get a few psychos now and then, but they are self defeating. If you are known for crippling folks no one is going to want to actually get in the ring with you.
With that in mind I took a step back, lowering my guard and saying " holy shit! " as I looked to the ref, who was unashamedly attempting to pick up on a pretty attractive lady in the audience.
The old man looks at me with one eye closed. No blood but I swear I see a thin line of grey fluid coming from the eye I unintentionally removed.
"Don't worry about me kid, you're in a fight." He says launching a push kick that widens the distance between us before the end of round bell rang.
He goes to his corner, and his cut-man, a young guy with pale skin an a moustache that makes him seem untrustworthy begins to work. I try to catch a glimpse of how bad I hurt the guy but I have my own wounds to attend to.
No cut-man for me, never saw the point in paying someone 15 per cent to take me out of the fight before I'm ready. That's the refs job.
I apply the last of a container of "quick stop" purchased from the pet store (mostly corn starch and lidocaine) on the worst of my cuts and feel the stinging and bleeding abate. We are on our feet again and as we touch fists, I first assumed I didn't actually knock the man's eye out. Clearly I was looking at a fully occularly typical person. Two perfectly functional eyes were gauging how much I had left in me.
The only problem was, one of the eyes was brown.
Maybe I'm punch drunk, maybe I just didn't notice it before , but my gut screams at me something is wrong. Especially when I realize that before the blows are even being traded I'm gassed, and my oponent literally hasn't even broken a sweat.
He's observant for someone who should no longer have access to binocular vision, and takes advantage of how winded I am. He launches a combination that I'm sure was the scourge of the city league 30 years ago. But we are not boxing.
I clinch up, taking a couple punches in the process but stealing his reach. He's not a grappler, and I easily get him against the ropes, heedless of the elbows and awkward jabs he is throwing.
I grab the ropes with both hands, trapping him, and gather up all my energy for as many knees as I can throw. The old man is out of his element , every time he lowers his guard he receives a headbutt to the jaw, as he defends against that I launch knee after knee, I feel his ribs crack , then break, and as the fifth knee lands, and I feel my muscles burning enough to make me disengage it feels like I'm striking a bag of melting ice.
His jaw is cocked, one side of his chest slightly caved, but he is still standing. And as I watch his jaw pops itself back into shape.
He whispers just loud enough for me to hear "You fought good kid, I'm gonna make sure you still come out of this looking decent." I think he is taunting me but his tone is very legitimate, and more importantly he does not sound ready to stop anytime soon.
Before I have time to set myself he fires off a kick that lands square in my stones. My body cramps up, and a wave of nausea overtakes me. Perfectly legal , though frowned upon blow in this sport.
A punch to the stomach follows , and as I go to a knee, the old man puts his hand over my nose and mouth in a death grip. I begin to retch and suddenly am waterboarding myself on my own vomit.
The ref, realising that aspirating vomit has killed much better people than myself calls the fight, a win for the old guy but judging by the booing from the crowd, not one that will get him another fight anytime soon.
The "locker room" was 2 industrial showers that sprayed what felt like ice and smelled like a week old mop. On the plus side there was a partition.
I begin washing the blood , sweat and vomit from myself and strike up a conversation with the old man.
"So what are you on that is letting you ignore that kinda pain, if it's not blowing out your heart , I think I need some. " I say , hoping it comes off as good natured ribbing.
"Not a thing to sell ya kid. But I do have an offer for you." He says cryptically.
"I'm not going to make the obvious joke about making me an offer in the shower, so I'll just ask, what's the offer? " suspicion creeping into my tone.
"I'm part of a promotion, and I think you might be good enough to join. You'd be making UFC money with your Streetbeefs talent." He says grinning a bit. I've made a deal with myself to not think about the fact I know I shattered that jaw.
"Look at you trying to sound all hip. Not interested in a snuff league man. " I say in a neutral tone.
"Nothing like that. Actually I'd say most of the time the rule set is going to be much stricter than these glorified barfights. Now, listen I could give you all the details now, with our Johnsons flopping around, and you are going to think I'm a liar, crazy, or some kind of pervert like that 'Competitive Tickling' guy from a couple years back. Better I give you my card, you see for yourself and make your decision. " the old man says drying off and putting on a pair of comfortable sweats.
I do the same, down to a similar oversized worn out sweatshirt and pants , adding a " great minds think alike." As I notice this similarity.
He hands me a card for a place called " Gym's" which, oddly is only a few blocks away from my place. Not that I think I can recall exactly what is there but I'd think I'd know if it was a gym or training camp.
"Come at 7am tomorrow or don't bother. " the old man says as we part our ways.
It'd be poetic if I said I didn't sleep the night before, but I did. In fact I'd pretty much decided this was going in a "competitive tickling" (look it up if you art getting the reference. If I had to find out about it undiluted so do you) direction and decided against it.
But now you get introduced to "Saw Guy" , now I know where you guys are reading this, so don't get too excited at that name. It's the nickname I've given to the guy who lives in the house next to my apartment. This man , I shit you not every weekend is up at the cracks of dawn sawing some bullshit for a home improvement project. . And you know what? I wish he was killing people because then , instead of having to deal with this bullshit when I want to sleep in , I could just have him arrested.
You can probably guess what happened next. I was bored, annoyed and up earlier than I had any right to be. I decided to go pay a visit to Gym's .
Sure enough a building that could have used a coat of paint, with a faded blue and yellow sign reading Gym's stood at an adress I could swear was just some houses last time I checked.
I don't prepare my mind for something horrific, just something…gross. Old people bondage club or fetishist bar or something. Luckily when I opened the tinted glass door , what I saw was a pretty big standard gym. Mma cage, boxing ring , treadmills, etc. And some slightly above average guys and gals who think they are warrior gods using them.
I'm greeted by the old man. He is wearing what I'd like to describe as 'business casual' attire. A pair of nice looking dress pants and a silk muted hawian shirt that is making up for its lack of taste by being obviously custom and very expensive.
He's had a haircut and shave as well and now has more of a James Randi vibe instead of reminding me of a blown out Mic Foley.
"You made it. Names Harold in case you never got it. Now are you the type that rips a bandaid off fast or slow?" He says with a bit of a smirk.
I point to my wounds from the night before , taking the time to notice there isn't a single mark on him, and say "not the type to use band aids." I say trying to show some confidence.
"Good to know. Gym!" He screams.
I hear a noise from the ceiling, I'm not trying to be funny but the closest thing I can think of it sounded like was the world's largest butthole taking the world's worst crap. A slimy , irregular slithering that drowned out the other sounds in the gym. I looked up I couldn't help it.
What I saw made me produce a layer of cold fear sweat. The ceiling of the gym was a rusted fleshy mass, rearranging itself into a massive face, staring dead eyed down at me. It grinned like a flayed emoji , I was at a loss for words.
"Gym " I say trying to not puke, faint or run.
"Who owes Harry ? Kid didn't shit himself." The face says, vibrating the floor with laughter.
The face disolves and I look to Harold, jaw agape.
"Things starting to come together?" He says putting an arm on my shoulder.
" I fucking hope not." I say as he starts to walk me to a back corner of the gym. "Because at the moment it seems like I'm being walked into a monster…"
"Okay, we are going to have to go over rule number one. You are acting like a 'Whedon' , that is our nickname for humans who try to frame everything in fiction. It generally leads to you putting your foot in your mouth and making really stupid paranoid comments. Then it leads to you acting like you have no choice , and generally being a real bummer to be around.
There are a lot of entities that do all the shit you are afraid of. But none here. Does that mean everyone loves you? Hell no, but we are trying something here.
It isn't a death pit, it isn't a ritual or some sick game. It's a promotion, we're 90%mma 10% WWE, we have health care, life insurance, and more cash to throw around than you can believe. Our refs actually look out for our fighters well enough I can say there is a minimum of 1 ufc ref worse." Harold monologues, I can tell he has practised this but I do get the vibe he is being sincere.
"Your talking about Herb Dean?" I say , trying to find something casual to say.
"Of course Herb Dean.
Anyway, we could use someone like you. You won't be fighting anything you can't handle, or don't agree to. I feel pitching it anymore is going to make you nervous , so , what do you say?" Harold finishes.
"First, why me? I could think of 20 guys better off the top of my head." I say , cockiness gone.
"It's not about that. We need the right kind of mindset, and you have it. You are no psycho, you are dealing with the destruction of your worldview well, you can keep your mouth shut and well, those 3 years on that kids show didn't hurt either." He laughs as we make our way to a skinny guy working a heavy bag in a pretty masterfull fashion.
The guy turns to us and thankfully I'd just seen an eldritch ceiling tile , as it let me react with a little less gusto to this fresh horror.
He was wearing extremely oversized workout gear, with a ruddy, almost infected reddish skin tone, greasy long black hair , a mouth that seemed too small for his face, and massive black almost hamster like eyes taking up a third of his face.
But these were not the most disturbing feature, his hands were massive things, not deformed and cancerous but lithe, with palms the size of dinner plates and 2 feet of undulating knuckles on each hand.
He extends one to me and talks in a soft almost childlike whisper "It is a pleasure to make your aquiessence, good bedfellow".
I shake his hand, which feels like it could rip my arm from its socket. But turn to Harold.
"The hell did he just say?" I whisper.
"Don't try to analyse it too much, go for broad strokes. He says hi and is happy to see you. " Harolds tone indicates this is something he is very familiar with. " And to answer the question, yeah in a free for all, or in a dark alley he'd destroy you. But the fight is going to be Queensbury rules, heavy gloves and with a ref that has as many eyes as you have fingers. There is one catch though. "
"Here it goes, this is where the creepy pasta starts." I say with a sigh.
"That, you are Whedoning all over the place with a comment like that. 'The creepypasta starts' you dramatic little princess.
The catch, before you humansplain any more to me is you need to help out a bit with our friend Syz's training. He's got the gimmicks, he's got the skill but he lacks that…he's a bit of a teacup. 10 grand for 2 months plus what you will be making in your other fights. You in?" Harold confidence that I am is not unfounded.
And that is where I am , writing this in an understocked lunch room just having agreed to not only fight but train a monster. Can I do it ? Should I be doing it?
I've always been a risk taker, and I guess this is just the next in a series of dangerous d ecisions, but it's feeling like I'm in a bit over my head

Hello!
So, I want to start off by saying I hope everyone here is doing well, is healthy and that their family and friends are well.
You will notice a few quality issues with this post and i sincerely, sincerely apologise for that, I have had a nightmare of a week in terms of sleep, I won't even hide it, i've had a few panic attacks and other mental bullshit that I hate, so, yeah, it's been a very tough week for me personally and I tried my best to get this written up in time.
With that said, Here it is!
(c) - Champ
(D) - Debut
FLS - Fight Lose Streak
FWS - Fight Win Streak
NS - No streak
(#x) - Rank in Division
Prelims
Welterweight
Sean Brady (12-0-0, 12 FWS) v Christian Aguilera (16-4-0, 3 FWS) - A pretty sick start to this stacked card. Brady is an undefeated prospect who has fought and dominated two of his incredibly tough opponents. Brady has great utilisation of level change feints and movement overall, he’s a phenomenal and powerful striker especially in the pocket. Brady is definitely someone you must keep an eye on, he’s an imposing force and he’s still finding his footing in the UFC. He’s very composed and doesn’t collapse under pressure, he always leaves his hands high and uses his feints very, very well. Aguilera only has one fight in the UFC but it was one hell of a fight and one beautiful knockout. He caught him clean, saw that Ivy was hurt, and fired on all cylinders to get the finish, he gave Ivy no room to breathe and he looked for a finish, From the very little of what I could see, Aguilera has very fast hands and is incredibly accurate, but I don’t think he’s ready for the fire that Brady has. This is an interesting fight but I’m leaning on Brady on this one, He looked excellent in his two bouts and his cardio held up fairly well throughout those 6 rounds he fought in the UFC.
Brady via KO R2
Women’s Strawweight
Emily Whitmire (4-3-0, NS) v Polyana Viana (10-4-0, 3 FLS) - There really isn’t a whole lot to talk about here, both fighters only have 4 fights in the UFC, and whilst that typically should be enough to warrant a watch, it’s hard to see where either of these women excel, both just seem average really. I am leaning on Viana though because she does seem to be a finisher, who defeated Ribas back in 2016, but then again, that was back in 2016, but for the sake of saying something, I got Viana on this one. How? Probably submission.
Viana via Sub R3
Featherweight
Alex Caceres (16-12-0, 2 FWS) v Austin Springer (D) (12-3-0, 3 FWS) - I’m always a fan of the Leeroy. Caceres has been in the UFC for quite some time now and even though his record reflects that he has lost a whole lot of times, he always bounces back for more and even dominates some of the fights (See the recent Hooper fight). Caceres is a very well rounded fighter who has a very diverse range of techniques and is very flashy, sometimes to his own disadvantage. Now, unfortunately Chikadze had to drop out and get replaced by Croom, who had dropped out and get replaced by Austin Springer, and with that said, I have literally nothing else to say, It’s hard to get hyped for a fight then 2 fighters drop out. At least Caceres is still there.
Caceres via UD
Middleweight
Zak Cummings (23-7-0, NS) v Alessio Di Chirico (12-4-0, 2 FLS) - Is this a late replacement? If so then I don’t think I have much to say about this one. Cummings has certainly made his rounds in the UFC, having a total of 12 submission victories, it’s easy to say that he’s great on the ground but most of his submissions have been in other promotions and he hasn’t really gained too much traction in the UFC despite fighting in it for 7 years. Cummings prefers the ground game compared to the striking part of MMA, he is always looking to wrestle and take the fight to the ground, where he is no doubt most comfortable. Di Chirico is on a rough losing streak and whilst he isn’t the most exciting fighter as of late, he’s durable and can last 3 rounds whilst keeping the same pace. His last finish was back in 2017 where he landed a devastating knee over Bamgbose, but even that fight wasn’t too exciting, with a total of 16 strikes landed by both fighters in total. I can see Cummings get a takedown early on and work on the ground from there, but ultimately there really isn’t that much riding on this fight.
Cummings via Sub R3
Women’s Flyweight
Mallory Martin (6-3-0, NS) v Hannah Cifers (10-6-0, 3 FLS) - It’s been sad to see Cifers fight very often, and lose just as often. Martin is only one fight deep in the UFC and unfortunately the performance she put on wasn’t too exceptional, she lost against a great submission artist in Jandiroba but ultimately she seems fairly well rounded with no expertise in either striking or grappling, she just seems fairly average. Cifers has been on a fairly horrible losing streak, and it still makes me scratch me head to see her come back after consecutive losses, you would think she’d take a bit of time away to recuperate and just start fresh next year since she’s fought a lot, but nope, she’s back at it. Cifers is a fairly decent striker who is great in the clinch, with excellent control and strength, and when i say strength, I mean she’s incredibly strong, she fought off multiple takedowns from Agapova yet ultimately succumbed to pressure and got submitted. Cifers needs to avoid the ground and keep the pressure going or she’s going to lose again. It’s hard to say who is going to win, I somewhat hope Cifers wins because she’s pretty close to being cut in my opinion. I’m gonna say Martin has this because I feel like Cifers is overworking right now, and whilst she might somehow get a win this time, how long will she be able to keep up the performances?
Martin via UD
Middleweight
Maki Pitolo (13-6-0, NS) v Impa Kasanganay (D) (7-0-0, 7 FWS) - I’m pretty excited for this fight. Time and time again I have always stated that Pitolo is down to bang it out with the toughest of them, and even though he had a minor setback against Darren Stewart, in which somewhat surprisingly he lost by submission (I myself wasn’t expecting any submission attempts from either fighter). Pitolo has a rough style of boxing, he is willing to get down and dirty and just trade with the most game of opponents so regardless of his opponent, he’s always exciting to watch. Kasanganay is a debuting fighter who is on a strong 7 Fight Win Streak, but unfortunately a fair chunk of those wins come from decision which somewhat tells me he’s great at endurance and takes his time with his fights. He has had two attempts to get a contract in DWCS and just recently earned his UFC contract through a phenomenal win. He hasn’t been a pro MMA Fighter for a very long time so he is still very green, but his utilisation of feints and overall hand work is pretty great for a fresh fighter, but he will have some slips and falls throughout his career. Pitolo no doubt has more experience and I feel like he has this coming into this fight, he can handle the pressure better and will be looking to pressure and negate any offense that Kasanganay has, still, looking forward to his debut.
Pitolo via UD
Main Card
Light Heavyweight
Magomed Ankalaev (#13) (13-1-0, 4 FWS) v Ion Cutelaba (15-5-0, NS) - This is a long awaited rematch that we all wanted to see. There isn’t really too much technical talk behind this other than two titans in the Light Heavyweight Division doing whatever it takes to dismantle and destroy their opponent before our very eyes, this sport is pretty beautiful isn’t it? Ankalaev is one of the most dangerous strikers in the Light Heavyweight division in terms of power alone, he explodes when he fights, everything he throws has the intent to finish his opponent. It was very clear to me during his first fight with Cutelaba that Cutelaba was not ready for any sort of heat coming his way, all talk no action. It was actually odd seeing Cutelaba “stunned”, if he put it on to fake-out Ankalaev, he failed because he ate a few chunky head kicks which he no doubt got hurt from, and whilst the finish was premature, it was clear to me from the get go that Ankalaev was going to win. Cutelaba is a juggernaut of a man with crazy power in his hands. He has huge knockout wins over Khalil Rountree Jr., Gadzhimurad Antigulov and Henrique da Silva, and whilst they’re not the biggest names in the division, his power and ability to land huge, clean shots is nothing short of beautiful. Cutelaba is a dangerous man, but perhaps not as dangerous as Ankalaev. Cutelaba’s main weaponry is his punches and elbows, he has a clean boxing style and can get a little wild and wacky sometimes. Ankalaev on the other hand has a wide range of kicks and punches that he can use to pick apart Cutelaba. I got Ankalaev on this one. I’d be pleasantly surprised if Cutelaba can take this fight seriously and get a win, but I think Ankalaev is more composed and well versed to get it done.
Ankalaev via KO R1
Featherweight
Ricardo Lamas (19-8-0, NS) v Bill Algeo (D) (#2 US Northeast) (13-4-0, NS) - Lamas is on a rough road in the UFC at the moment, losing 3 of his last 5, he’s certainly getting up there in age, but that shouldn’t dismiss the fact that he has had significant wins over some very tough opponents, with a recent (1 year, 9 months ago is still recent, right?) knockout against Elkins, he’s got power in his strikes and can be incredible dangerous to trade with, he plans out his attacks and reads his opponent relatively carefully before executing attacks, that, and with his variety of attacks and skills at all range, make him a very dangerous opponent and I don’t think Algeo is ready for any of that heat. Algeo is making his debut coming off a decision win on CFFC a little under two weeks ago, which is great in terms of opportunity, but the dudes no doubt going to be still feeling the effects of his last fight, and he’s weight cutting once again (unless he walks around near 145 pounds). There’s not much that I can think about saying when it comes to Algeo, it could be a premature debut but who knows? I certainly don’t, all I know is that Lamas is someone you don’t wanna mess around with.
Lamas via KO R2
Women’s Flyweight
Ji Yeon Kim (9-2-2, NS) v Alexa Grasso (11-3-0, NS) - This is a pretty decent fight. Kim has missed weight twice in a row, and with the current pandemic going around, it’ll be interesting to see if she makes weight this time, i sincerely hope so because missing weight 3 times is seriously some Calvillo level shit. Kim is a relatively decent striker who attacks in bursts, so expect her to clash with Grasso and land some clean shots on exchanges. She doesn’t have the propensity to finish, despite her KO win over Nadia “The Beast” Kassem, she just seems like your average volume striker, and with her reach and height advantage I can see her getting the better shots at range. Grasso is currently on a win/loss cycle which hardly ever looks good on a record, especially in a women's division where only so few women are recognisable names, she does have some great wins on her side though, namely Karolina Kowalkiewicz, who as we all know is ready for a scuffle in the cage and can dish out as much as she can take. Grasso is always ready for a good scrap, she can throw hands exceptionally well and has very clean boxing especially within the pocket, and that’s most likely where she’s planning to do most of the work, she’s probably going to wait for the perfect time to counter Kims ranged attacks, get close and fire off a few shots, rinse and repeat until either Kim goes down, or the third and final round is up. It’s a coin toss at the moment in terms of who is going to win, but I feel like Grasso has this one, she seems to make weight far better and considering she’s moving up to Flyweight, she’ll no doubt look far better than usual. Looking forward to this one.
Grasso via UD
Co-Main Event
Welterweight
Robbie Lawler (#15) (28-14-0, 3 FLS) v Neil Magny (#12) (23-7-0, 2 FWS) - You know, when I saw that Geoff Neal dropped out of this fight, I was heartbroken, but Lawler is more than an acceptable replacement. Lawler has been in the UFC for a long time now, and he was a dominant champion back in 2014, where he had, and no doubt still has, absolute hands of fury. He has 20 knockout wins, and his rise to the UFC was nothing short of Ruthless. He is having a bit of a tough time now though, facing cardio machines in Covington and RDA, it’s going to be interesting to see how he handles the durability and patience of Magny. Lawler will no doubt be looking for a knockout early on, maybe in the first half of the fight, because I feel like he knows that he can’t go all three rounds without significantly slowing down in the third. Magny has near limitless cardio, he is a machine that keeps on going, and his style accentuates that, and makes his opponents exhausted to no end, he is always moving, always looking for an opening for great combinations and he’s always looking fresh in the second and third rounds. He absolutely dismantled the offensive of Jingliang Li and Tony Martin, Magny is a marathon fighter, he doesn’t exactly look for a finish, if it’s there, it’s there, but he is incredibly patient and his main game plan is to treat the fight like a marathon, take his time and slowly drain his opponent. He’s going to execute it the same way he executed it before, he’s going to avoid any direct confrontation and any risk-taking clashes from Lawler, he’s going to throw volume and circle away from danger. It’s gonna be a fun fight I tell ya that much. I got Magny on this one, as much as it pains for me to say because i’m a big Lawler fan.
Magny via UD
Main Event (3 Round Fight)
Light Heavyweight
Anthony Smith (#5) (33-15-0, NS) v Aleksandar Rakic (#9) (12-2-0, NS) - This is an interesting main event. Smith got absolutely, and heartbreakingly dominated in his last fight against Teixeira, it was incredibly hard to watch as someone who loves Smith. Smith is a veteran of the sport and this could probably be his last run for the title, he has an elite ground game that is one of the best in the division, and he will hopefully be looking to take Rakic down to negate the effective and accurate punches that Rakic has. Smith has been main eventing 6 fights in a row now, which is pretty huge and the UFC is giving him some awesome opportunities and he’s coming up against a dangerous, dangerous fighter in Rakic. Smith has the knowledge and the toolset to take on Rakic, who is typically a forward momentum fighter, but how? That, i’m not too sure about because Smith is that much of a veteran with no specific style. Rakic is a bulldozer of a striker who is incredibly fast with his flurries. He can go from 0-100 in a second and when he does, and lands, it’ll be disastrous for those on the receiving end. His knockout against Manuwa was devastating, he just launched a head kick from hell, landed it cleanly and put Manuwa, a great and experienced striker, straight to sleep. Rakic is dangerous on the feet, and that is why it’s imperative for Smith to avoid the feet as much as possible, he needs to grapple, he needs to get a dominant position and he needs to get a submission. This is a stretch and I am going to confess i’m writing this prediction out of love for Smith and hope that he doesn’t get obliterated, please, please bet based off your own predictions this time around, bit of favouritism here.
Smith via Sub R1
And that's it!
The Caceres v Springer write up has been changed twice now, because well, its a fuck up of a fight in terms of drop outs, its a mess and I just didn't have the energy to properly research, for that I'm sorry and please don't bet on that prediction based on my write up.
If you would like to follow me on twitter, you can find me @Slayer_Tip or if you want, add me on discord and we can have a super friendly chat about all things MMA: Slayertip#7013
For now, lets have a great discussion down below, sorry for leaving this a day late by the way haha, long week.
Take care, have a great weekend, stay safe and stay healthy.
:)

Hello!
I hope you all are doing well, and are healthy and happy :)
QUICK ANNOUNCEMENT
There will be no prediction this weekend! That is, Deiveison v Benavidez 2. The reason behind this is simply because i'm exhausted and I don't think I can do a third card without being absolutely drained. I sincerely apologise if you guys were looking forward to that, I hate letting you guys down and i hate myself for having to make this decision, but considering how much the first 3 event a week thing took out of me, I can't do that again. I'm sorry.
We have a fairly action packed card ahead of us, so lets get down to the nitty and gritty.
(c) - Champ
(D) - Debut
FLS - Fight Lose Streak
FWS - Fight Win Streak
NS - No Streak
(#x) - Rank in Division
Prelims
Light Heavyweight
Jorge Gonzalez (D) (#1 HW Mexico) (16-4-0, NS) v Kenneth Bergh (D) (8-0-0, 8 FWS) - Normally I don’t like double debuts because there isn’t really a whole lot to talk about, but this is Light Heavyweight and you just know that’s already a selling point. Gonzalez is apparently the number 1 heavyweight in mexico, with a 100% finish rate, all of those finishes being in the first round. He seems to have very heavy hands and really goes hard in the first round, otherwise he wouldn’t have gotten those finishes. Really exciting debutant. Bergh is a slightly taller submission artist who is coming in undefeated. I don’t know if he has a black belt in BJJ or anything like that, but I can only assume he will utilize his grappling during this fight. I don’t even know if Gonzalez has good defensive wrestling a lot so all of this really is just speculation, but I’m leaning on Bergh just to be safe.
Bergh via Sub R1
Bantamweight
Jack Shore (12-0-0, 12 FWS) v Aaron Phillips (12-3-0, 5 FWS) - Shore is one of the most interesting, undefeated prospects coming out of a very successful career in the Cage Warriors promotion, being an undefeated champ at a young age is always one excellent way to start your higher end career. Shore is a very well rounded fighter who is exceptionally fast on the ground. His debut just highlighted his skill set and it told us that no matter where the fight goes, he’s going to beat you to the punch. He’s got a very good cardio and somewhat most importantly, he’s young. At the age of 25, he’s still got about 7 years of top level fights ahead of him, and even if he does lose, his youth will no doubt help him adjust and learn new things. Shore is one hell of a prospect and I look forward to seeing him in the octagon once again. Phillips is returning after a rough initial journey in the UFC, losing both of his fights in 2014, it looked like he wasn’t really good at defending takedowns back then, that could have very well changed, but if it hasn’t, that’s a huge issue because Shore is going to be all over him, punches, takedowns, passing the guard, anything and everything. Phillips has since gotten a streak going, and is hopefully coming in with overall improvements. I obviously have Shore on this one, i’m feeling very confident about this.
Shore via Sub R2
Women’s Flyweight
Liana Jojua (7-3-0, NS) v Diana Belbita (13-5-0, NS) - I don’t have a whole lot to say about this fight. Jojua had a very difficult fight against Sarah Moras, being outstruck more than twice, eventually leading to a TKO loss, it didn’t look good for Jojua and I feel like since then, she’s probably got a new striking coach, because I feel like her wrestling and grappling were decent enough, the fundamentals were there but ultimately it’s not a great look on the feet. Belbita went to absolute war and actually held her own against McCann, who in her own right is a damn savage. Belbita showed us that she’s willing to brawl when the need arises, we haven’t really seen her wrestle a whole lot so I don’t know how her defensive wrestling is, but considering she’s a bigger and probably stronger fighter, it’ll be easy to just shake Jojua off and continue to work on the feet. I have Belbita on this, she has the experience and her last performance, whilst she lost, was impressive.
Belbita via UD
Lightweight
Jared Gordon (15-4-0, NS) v Chris Fishgold (18-3-1, NS) - This is an excellent match up for both fighters. Gordon isn’t facing a Brazilian this time, so that’s good news for him, but he is facing a very tough and durable fighter in Fishgold. Gordon is a very well rounded fighter who keeps a very good pace and never really gives his opponent a chance to breath and reset. He’s always in your face and his fast hands and kicks will sway much of Fishgolds advancements in the octagon, but unfortunately Gordon is at a slight disadvantage, and that’s his corner, his team tested positive for the virus and unfortunately that makes it difficult to prepare for Fishgold. He has a forward pressure fighting style which essentially means he can sometimes risk getting hit in order to push his opponent back and deal a bunch of damage in bursts. Gordon is a fighter in every sense of the word, his history with drug abuse and addiction has been told time and time again and it’s what made me admire him as a fighter. The UFC did him dirty with that Oliveira fight though, holy hell what a horrible match up. Fishgold only has a couple of fights in the UFC, and with only one win against Teymur via submission, there really isn’t a lot to say about him other than he’s strong on the feet and very dominant on the ground. He’s a very good wrestler and with a black belt in BJJ it’s gonna be tough for Gordon to be able to outgrapple Fishgold. Gordon is going to need to pressure Fishgold and make this fight all in his control, he needs to keep a heavy pace going, and not only out-cardio, but out-box him and go hard, and considering his corner isn’t going to be there, he is probably best going hard very early on in order to get a finish as soon as possible. I got Gordon on this one, it’ll tell one hell of a story if he wins.
Gordon via UD
Light Heavyweight
Modestas Bukauskas (D) (10-2-0, 6 FWS) v Andreas Michailidis (D) (12-3-0, 3 FWS) - A double debut! Bukauskas is coming in off a very dominant streak in Cage Warriors. He is the former champ and I can only assume he’s popular because of that. If that is the case then we’re going to see a very exciting fight. Bukauskas is a very aggressive striker who has very effective hands, he doesn’t do anything too risky, and the standard jab cross combo seems to be his main weapon coming into this, he’s always in his opponents face and the volume and power of his strikes is pretty good. It will be interesting to see how he handles UFC calibre fighters though. Michailidis has been on the back burner and no doubt would have been in the UFC eventually if he kept up the performances he’s had. He’s a big, imposing, powerful striker who starts off very strong, with powerful spinning kicks and hammers for hands. Unfortunately that’s all I know about Michailidis, and with that said, I need to go with a safer bet and that is Bukauskas, his experience in Cage Warriors will no doubt pay off in the UFC and I can’t wait to see these two talented fighters in the octagon.
Bukauskas via KO R2
Featherweight
Ricardo Ramos (14-2-0, 2 FWS) v Lerone Murphy (8-0-1, NS) - A fairly decent bout. Ramos has been through some very tough fights in the UFC and over time it’s been clear to us that he’s a very strong submission artist, especially in his last fight against Garagorri, whom he ended in the first round via Rear Naked Choke, almost effortlessly dominating him on the ground. Ramos is still a very young fighter and with that comes a great chance to develop his skills further and adjust what is needed, but from what I can see he only needs to work on his striking a bit more, as his ground game is absolutely beautiful at the moment. Murphy got absolutely mauled in his debut against Zubaira Tukhugov, he didn’t really have a chance to show off his skills so I can’t really talk that much about his octagon experience in a positive note, but prior to that, he was undefeated and looked like a great prospect from England. I feel like this fight might be similar to Murphy’s debut, Ramos will be looking for takedowns, but the question is, has Murphy worked on his wrestling since his debut? That’s the big question here, if he hasn’t, then Ramos is just going to effortlessly defeat him. I got Ramos on this one.
Ramos via Sub R2
Middleweight
John Phillips (22-9-0, NS) v Khazmat Chimaev (D) (6-0-0, 6 FWS) - What an exciting debutant! Phillips has 20 knockouts on his record, that’s incredibly impressive and just goes to show that his mindset coming into fights is to never leave it to the judges. We have yet to see him finish an opponent in the third round. Despite his rough 3 Fight Lose Streak prior to his win, he is still a very dangerous boxer and if he lands some shots, it’s going to be bad news for his opponent. Chimaev is a very interesting fighter, and a favourite on the betting odds, it makes me wonder what makes this fighter so attractive to the betters. It is because he’s undefeated? Because he’s a finisher? Whatever the case, I wouldn’t jump on that hype train so quick, yes, it’s fair to say that Phillips isn’t excellent on the ground, and with Chimaev being a strong grappler, it lays in Chimaevs favour, but what if Phillip lands some clean shots? This is an interesting bout and really anything could happen. Its a tough prediction to make, I guess if Chimaev is indeed a hype fighter coming into this, I guess this is a better time than any to see him perform, but for now, I’ll stick with Phillips.
Phillips via KO R1
Main Card
Welterweight
Abdul Razzak Alhassan (10-1-0, 3 FWS) v Mounir Lazzez (D) (9-1-0, 2 FWS) - What. A. Banger! Razzak Alhassan has been in the news for some horrible stuff, and I absolutely feel sorry for the guy, I won’t speak of his unfortunate situation because it is not my place to, but what I will say is that since joining the UFC, time after time he has impressed me, he is the first round king, who carries power, speed, and explosiveness in everything he does. His hand speed is incredible, and it will carry him for a long time. Lazzez is coming in as a hot prospect, coming off two very significant KO’s in smaller promotions, He is the only local fighter on this card, which is great because talent is found everywhere and it just means the sport has expanded from the mainstream areas. I haven’t seen a lot of Lazzez however but really, the spotlight here is on Razzak Alhassan and I for one can’t wait to see the next highlight! Very confident with this prediction. Razzak Alhassan is simply going to beat Lazzez to the punch, literally.
Razzak Alhassan via KO R1
Women’s Flyweight
Molly McCann (10-2-0, 3 FWS) v Taila Santos (15-1-0, NS) - I was never really a fan of either of these fighters, up until McCann fought Priscilia Cachoeira, and holy shit did she dominate, she showed us a whole new side of her and its ferocious. She’s not a finisher, but the volume of strikes she throws is large, and she’s always moving forward, landing more than 100 strikes in her last three fights each. That’s huge and has no doubt increased her stock as a fighter. She’s probably not known to casuals, but learn her name now because she’s going to be a problem later on in her career. Santos has one thing going for her, and that was her streak prior to her recent loss, she was a dominant force and a dangerous one at that, 10 of her 15 wins were via knockout which is fairly impressive, and that just makes me think that this fight is going to be an absolute war. I for one welcome both of these two warriors leaving it all in the octagon. I got McCann on this one, she’s on quite the momentum.
McCann via UD
Featherweight
Jimmie Rivera (22-4-0, 2 FLS) v Cody Stamann (19-2-1, NS) - I’m not sure if this is actually a featherweight bout or if Tapology is trolling me, but regardless, it’s a great match up. Rivera is an excellent striker, with a background in karate, he isn’t afraid to trade punches with you and keep at a very close range, his head movement is excellent and plays hand in hand with his striking style, which involves a lot of counters and a lot of evasive movement. Rivera is no doubt a tough fight for anyone and actually outstruck the now Bantamweight Champ Petr Yan. It is unfortunate that he is on a losing streak, but I have no doubt in my mind that he’s gonna fight his ass off in this fight, having much cleaner striking and more technique than Stamann. Speaking of which, Stamann is coming off quite an emotional win over Brian Kelleher, absolutely dominating the fight with excellent takedowns and very effective striking, Stamann was fighting with a heavy burden, and I feel like him losing his brother has only motivated him on many levels to improve and fight the best fight he can. That new motivation could be huge in this fight, but I feel like Rivera has the weaponry and technique to handle Stamann on the feet, on the ground however, that’s a different story, Stamann could easily control him with his strong wrestling. It’s a tough fight to predict but i’m gonna be leaning on Rivera. Please don’t bet based on this prediction.
Rivera via UD
Co-Main Event
Flyweight
Tim Elliott (15-11-1, 3 FLS) v Ryan Benoit (10-6-0, NS) - This is an interesting fight and perhaps the only fight Elliott has in his career, if he loses, he’s probably cut from the UFC, if not, then maybe he can be pushed for a few more fights, either way, Elliott loves a good scrap! He may not be incredibly good on the feet, but he’s a very high action wrestler who always looks for the takedown, and once he’s got the takedown, he does excellent work passing the guard, or just goes for a submission, either way, the ground is where Elliott excels and that’s most likely where he’ll take Benoit. Benoit is a very odd fighter, I can’t really get a solid read on him, he seems incredibly inactive, fighting only once in a while, i’m not sure if that’s because of contract issues or just conflict with matchmakers, but either way, I don’t think he has what it takes to defeat Elliott. Elliott has been in too many competitive fights and no doubt has the experience and tools to defeat Benoit.
Elliott via Sub R2
Main Event
Featherweight
Calvin Kattar (#6) (21-4-0, NS) v Dan Ige (#9) (14-2-0, 6 FWS) - Want the world to hear these guys land punches? Because that’s how you get everyone to hear leather hit skin. Kattar is a fucking monster in the octagon, the way he destroyed Stephens with that step in elbow, followed by that disgusting ground and pound, it was the strongest finish i’ve seen in quite a while, absolute picture perfect timing. Kattar has shown his sniper-like punches in almost all of his bouts, his finishes have been incredibly dominant, and since he’s facing a shorter opponent in Ige, I feel like he’s going to focus on counters here, he’s going to wait for Ige to rush in and throw bombs, avoid those bombs and lay down the thunder. Ige has one advantage that Kattar doesn’t, and that’s the wrestling. Despite his nickname “Dynamite”, Ige doesn’t only have his ferocious, wild punches to rely on, he has his high level wrestling, unfortunately though, that’s all he has in terms of advantages, and if Kattar continues to avoid those takedowns and starts teeing off on Ige, Ige will noticeably slow down. This is all just speculation of course, it’s an excellent fight and it will no doubt be explosive. I don’t know what else to say other than I look forward to enjoying this, and I’m sure you all will too!
Kattar via KO R3
And that's it!
I'm sorry if this isn't a highly technical breakdown of the fights, with this week having 3 events, my time to research has been divided.
I hope you guys enjoy the event though, at the end of the day, that's all that matters :)
If you would like to follow me on twitter, you can find me @Slayer_Tip or if you want, add me on discord and we can have a super friendly chat about all things MMA: Slayertip#7013
that's all I have to say :) Much love to you all, take care, stay safe and enjoy the event!

Hello!
I don't have much to say about this card, the prelims are relatively shit but the main card is some top level stuff.
There will be some bias in some of these fights, please don't think of me as a shit dude for having favouritism, we're all fans of the sport and of some fighters.
Some of the prelims are short, yes, but there just isn't much to talk about double debuts.
(c) - Champ
(D) - Debut
FLS - Fight Lose Streak
FWS - Fight win Streak
NS - No Streak
(#x) - Rank in Division
Lets do this!
Prelims
Featherweight
Kai Kamala III (D) (7-2-0, 5 FWS) v Tony Kelley (D) (6-1-0, NS) - There’s not much to say about these two fighters, this is a late addition to the fight card and I can only assume the UFC added these guys to beef up the card a little, with that said, it is a double debut, Kelley hasn’t been incredibly active, whilst Kamala III is on a fairly solid streak. So, at a glance, I got Kamala III on this, but please don’t bet based on this prediction.
Kamala III via UD
Heavyweight
Christopher Daukaus (D) (#1 Pennsylvania) (8-3-0, NS) v Parker Porter (D) (#5 New England) (10-5-0, 2 FWS) - Is there really that much to talk about here? It’s obvious both of these fighters have been fighting for a bit, but the one thing I want to point out is Porter's age, he’s 35 and making his UFC debut, that alone is quite worrying and this might end up being a very short career in the UFC. There is really no breakdown or analysis here, its heavyweight, they’re debuting on a fairly large PPV event, they’re probably gonna swang and bang for the masses, and one of them is probably going to sleep, either from exhaustion in the first round, or from a knockout. Either way, no real prediction here.
Porter via KO R1
Featherweight
TJ Brown (14-7-0, NS) v Danny Chavez (D) (#4 Florida) (10-3-0, 3 FWS) - This one is going to be pretty fun to watch. Brown was absolutely dominating his fight before getting stuck in a guillotine choke, which ended the fight pretty quick. Brown didn’t really show too much IQ during the grapplefest, I feel like his main game plan was to just take down Griffin and keep up the pressure, the only issue with that idea was that Griffin is excellent on the ground. With that said however, Brown is an excellent wrestler, his pace and aggressive wrestling will be important in this fight because it doesn’t seem that Chavez is that great on the ground, he seems more of a striker. Chavez is someone who I haven’t heard about but after seeing the few limited clips of him available, he does seem vulnerable to wrestlers, but his striking seems pretty alright. I’ll have to watch him this weekend to see if his wrestling defence has improved because if not, he’s in trouble. I got Brown on this.
Brown via UD
Strawweight
Felice Herrig (14-8-0, 2 FLS) v Virna Jandiroba (15-1-0, NS) - Herrig is a ferocious little striker who is fairly wild when it comes to throwing combos, willing to dish out as much damage as possible in short bursts. She has however been fairly inactive, losing to Waterson just under two years ago. Since then she has torn her ACL and has been in recovery until just recently. I kinda look forward to seeing her come back because she’s a wild brawler and has fairly decent power, and she’s always in solid shape, she’s fairly muscular and with that comes strength, so wrestling with her can be challenging. Jandiroba is a relatively good grappler who really focuses on getting her opponent to the ground where she does her best work. There really isn’t too much to it for Jandiroba, she’s not a very good striker, she’s average so I assume she’ll be looking for a takedown early on to negate Herrigs’ ferocity on the feet. This kinda feels like the typical Striker v Grappler fight, and in most cases it’s the grappler that gets the upper hand, so… I got Jandiroba on this one.
Jandiroba via Sub R2
Featherweight
Herbert Burns (11-2-0, 5 FWS) v Daniel Pineda (26-13-0, NS) - So, this one's interesting. Burns is on a very hot streak right now, he’s looking like a proper prospect and he has consistently got a R1 finish without taking any significant damage, this dude could fight every weekend and be fine. Burns is one of the most interesting prospects we have seen in quite a while, making short work of his opponents through any means, he’s exceptional on the ground, which isn’t a surprise since his brother is an elite submission artist. Burns is on fire so far, and there’s zero signs of him slowing down. Pineda is one hell of a juicy slut. He popped for banned substances during his short PFL stint and for some unknown reason, the UFC figured he should come back to the UFC, because if there’s anything else the UFC needs, it’s another juice box. I don’t wanna talk about him too much, because really the highlight fighter here is Burns, and for good reasons. Lets go Burns!
Burns via Sub R1
Strawweight
Livinha Souza (13-2-0, NS) v Ashley Yoder (7-5-0, NS) - Not much to really talk about here. Souza is a fairly well rounded fighter who is doing fairly well in the UFC, despite a recent setback against Brianna Van Buren, she is still very dangerous, especially on the ground. She is a very good submission artist and she’ll no doubt be looking to get this fight to the ground as fast as possible to get a win. Yoder is, at this moment, just an average UFC fighter, she doesn’t really stand out anywhere, her striking seems okay, her grappling is alright but not as great as Souza’s. I feel like Souza has this, I don’t see anything major coming from Yoder unless she has substantially improved her striking capabilities since then.
Souza via UD
Main Card
Lightweight
Jim Miller (32-14-0, NS) v Vinc Pichel (12-2-0, NS) - This is an interesting fight. Miller is one of the most well rounded fighters in the UFC and perhaps one of the most experienced. Starting his UFC career all the way back in 2008, he has faced pretty much everyone and over time he hasn’t shown much sign of slowing down, his ground game is still absolutely impeccable and his stand up is still dangerous. His recent submission victory over Roosevelt Roberts was pretty damn slick, and it only took him half of the first round. I still don’t know how long it would take until he retires, but for now I feel like he’s still a dangerous submission artist who owns the ground game in most of the fights. Pichel is not incredibly active, having only 14 fights in his 12 years of fighting, he’s a fairly decent, well rounded fighter but he doesn’t exactly stand out in any specific fighting style, he’s good on his feet and on the ground, but he doesn’t excel at neither. I feel like Miller has this one, unless Pichel can get a quick knockout and avoid the takedowns.
Miller via Sub R2
Bantamweight
John Dodson (#9) (21-11-0, NS) v Merab Dvalishvili (11-4-0, 4 FWS) - Dvalishvili is going on a rampage. Dodson has slightly fallen off the radar recently, losing 3 out of his last 5, it’s hard to tell if that’s because Dodson is facing a roadblock in training and just can’t improve, or if it’s the overall competition in the Bantamweight division. His 3 losses were against absolute killers, Yan, Rivera and Moraes. Dodson is a ferocious striker, he is exceptionally fast on the feet and can throw combos and get out of the way very quickly, but he is facing a dangerous, dangerous wrestler. Normally you don’t hear those two words in the same sentence, dangerous, and wrestler… But Dvalishvili is a cardio machine, he is powered by some form of nuclear energy because he just doesn’t stop wrestling. In his last two fights, he has taken down his opponents a total of 25 times. He’s the bantamweight Khabib, but I feel like that’s disrespectful to Dvalishvili, he’s his own monster, the mythical takedown artist who just does not slow down. Honestly, I wish i could expand on this more, but there really isn’t too much to talk about here. Dodson doesn’t really offer too much unless he gets on top of the wrestling defence, stay on the feet, maintain distance as well as keep moving because you can’t wrestle an evading target. With that said though, Dvalishvili is still my boy on this one.
Dvalishvili via UD
Heavyweight
Junior Dos Santos (#7) (21-7-0, 2 FLS) v Jairzinho Rozenstruik (#9) (10-1-0, NS) - If you guys know me well, you know who I’m gonna pick by default. JDS has for a long time been a dangerous boxer in the Heavyweight division, absolute, raw power. He lets those hands go and when they land, they land with phenomenal impact. It is only recently that he’s having a slight issue with power punchers, and when it comes to Rozenstruik, that is no exception. With that said however, JDS still has the speed and maneuverability to perhaps outstrike Rozenstruik because Rozenstruik is a relatively stationary fighter. Expect JDS to stick and move when he can. It could be a battle of attrition, but if he sticks to a long term game plan then he might get the win. Rozenstruik got absolutely destroyed by Ngannou a few months ago, which absolutely broke my heart because I was backing Rozenstruik, which is a rare thing for me when we’re talking about an Ngannou fight. Rozenstruik is a phenomenal kickboxer who has shown us many times now that all it takes is one punch to sleep his opponents. Ngannou got him good and I’m not sure if that’s going to rattle his trigger a bit, he might be a bit gun shy OR he might be looking for a very quick return, i’m not a sports psychologist so I can’t tell you what he’s thinking, but I can tell you what he’s going to do, and that’s forward pressure. He’s going to march forwards and look for the knockout early, and that’s exactly why i’m backing Rozenstruik once again in this fight.
Rozenstruik via KO R1
Co-Main Event
Bantamweight
Sean O’Malley (#10) (12-0-0, 12 FWS) v Marlon Vera (17-6-1, NS) - This fight makes some sense, but not a whole lot. O’Malley proved his doubters wrong in his last fight where he knocked the ‘stache off Winelands face, it was clean, it was near effortless and that’s essentially the style of O’Malley. He just doesn’t really care, but that could become an issue later on if he chooses harder fights. He has a very loose, karate-like style and his hand feints are exceptional, shit his whole striking game is on point, not because it’s a traditional style, because really, he’s got the Ferguson issue. Hard to read but overall not a great fighter in the traditional sense. With that said though, his rise has been nothing short of spectacular and he is definitely a shining star in the division. I still don’t like him as a person though, he’s got a punchable attitude and I will secretly squeal if he gets slept. Hatred aside, O’Malley will always be a problem. Vera is an odd match up for O’Malley but i suppose they were meant to fight a year or so ago, so i guess this is just settling somewhat old scores. Vera is an exceptional boxer, he has a very clean style where he picks his shots carefully and to great effect. Vera did lose his last fight though when he fought Song Yadong, and it was an insanely good fight and it only certified that he can stand and bang to great effect. His knockout against Frankie Saenz was disgusting and his elbow KO over Ewell was crispy clean. This is a beautiful match up and one that needs to happen for O’Malley to move on to riskier fights (because lets be serious here, he’s either taking easy fights because he wants to take it easy, or because the UFC is scared of losing a hype train). I know what people are going to think when I make this prediction. I am not 100% sold on O’Malley just yet, I was wrong with the Wineland fight, I might be wrong with this one, by all means bet on O’Malley because all stats point to him, but I feel like Vera is going to surprise some people, that’s IF he pulls the trigger and goes first, many of O’Malleys opponents wait for the perfect time and that’s never going to happen, pressure, pressure, and pressure, those are the keys to defeating O’Malley in my opinion.
Vera via KO R3
Main Event
Heavyweight Championship Bout
Stipe Miocic (c) (19-3-0, NS) v Daniel Cormier (#3) (22-2-0, NS) - This fight is going to break me. I’m a big fan of DC, I got into MMA because of DC, I’ve watched him for 9 years and this is his last fight, and seeing him retire is going to send me into a sobbing mess, this is the biggest fight you can make right now for heavyweight, and i’m glad it’s happening because the division is hella constipated. Miocic is a very dangerous boxer who is a master of his craft, his range management and his ability to adjust on the fly is exceptional, his last minute adjustments during the second bout between these two titans was beautiful, those liver shots were clean and DC didn’t know how to respond, completely shut down the offense of DC. The very same could happen in this fight, you cannot effectively defend the body and the head at the same time, so Stipe could easily pick his shots, mess up the defense of DC and get another knockout. The one thing Stipe needs to keep an eye out for, is the takedowns. No matter how good your wrestling is, I doubt it’s better than DC’s. If DC is smart (and he is), he’ll wrestle more, Stipe hopefully has worked on his takedown defence since then. DC was fairly successful in his first, and second fight up until the adjustment change by Stipe. DC has all the tools to win this fight, but my biggest worry is his striking defence, he doesn’t really move his head that much, he eats punches rather than avoids them completely, and whilst that can be good if you’re an offensive wrestler, this is heavyweights and you can’t absorb too many shots. DC has been working exceptionally hard during this training camp and I for one look forward to seeing how he looks during the fight, I cannot tell you about what he did in his camp, or anything like that, all I can assume is that DC is going to wrestle more, and maybe box in the phonebooth a little bit. Stipe has a large advantage in reach and height, so trading with Stipe blow for blow at a distance isn’t a great idea. DC might fake a takedown, and go for an overhand right, or he might throw some leg kicks, I don’t know, and that’s what is truly beautiful about two high level athletes, you don’t know what is going to happen. I got DC on this, how can i not? Maybe there’s slight favouritism, sure, but there’s also the wrestling, and that’s key here. I love both of these fighters though, but once the fight is over… DC is gone from the octagon forever… fuck me that’s a bit depressing isn’t it? Anyway, I got DC on this, but please, pick your own choice on this one.
DC via KO R3
That's it!
I hope you guys enjoyed this prediction post as much as I enjoyed writing them (although, the prelims were pretty boring to write about, not gonna lie.)
If you would like to follow me on twitter, you can find me @Slayer_Tip or if you want, add me on discord and we can have a super friendly chat about all things MMA: Slayertip#7013
Lets have a friendly discussion down below, i'm sure there are some O'Malley fans that are gonna yell at me :P
Take care everyone, stay safe, healthy and happy.

What News Sources Do These Panelist Represent?

• burspak.se (a shoe company)
  • Christoffer Esping (this dude only has 39 Twitter Followers)
• CFMU 93.3 FM (a Canadian college radio station)
  • Steve Jeffery (525 Twitter Followers)
• Vladusport.com (no idea, their website no longer works, and they are selling their domain)
  • Romain Cadot (goes to LinkedIn - which looks fake. This is the only public record that this person exists, because his website sure doesn't)
• KHON Honolulu (a regional Hawaiian television station)
  • Rob Demello (7.4k Twitter Followers)
• KIOZ San Diego (a regional "Hard Rock" radio station)
  • Eddie Pappani (5.1k Twitter Followers)
• Wrestling Observer (a professional wrestling website)
  • Steve Juon (2.5k Twitter Followers)
  • Ryan Frederick (500 Twitter Followers)
• Cherokee Scout (regional newspaper for Murphy, NC)
  • David Brown ( Does not have a personal Twitter, but his Newspapers official account has 900 Twitter Followers)
• MMA Oddsbreaker (sports betting tips & tricks)
  • Brian Hemminger (1.4k Twitter Followers)
• Gazeta Esportiva (Portuguese sports website, mostly futbol)
  • Bruno Massami (4k Twitter Followers)
• Burbank Leader (Regional Newspaper for LA)
  • Grant Gordan (800 Twitter Followers; also no longer works at Burbank Leader, he works for NFL.com)
• Fight Network (Canadian Television Channel based on MMA)
  • Ariel Shnerer (has an inactive Twitter w/ less than 50 followers)
• MMA Weekly (Long-Time Independent Online MMA News Source)
  • Jeff Cain (no twitter, and his rankings are fucking terrible)
  • Ken Pishna (also no twitter, and his rankings are equally terrible)

Notes: The above went basically unchanged from 2016 - 2019. Oddly enough the MMA Weekly guys are the worst of the bunch...
​

New Ranking Panelists (added within the past year)

• FightNews (an online boxing publication; can't find any MMA info at all on the website)
  • Andreas Hale (23.7k Twitter followers, including buzznights - also works for DAZN)
• Top Turtle Podcast (The podcast for the MMA Manifesto Website)
  • Daniel Vreeland (3k Twitter Followers)
• My MMA News (MMA Website that also covers NCAA Wrestling; they also sponsor fighters)
  • Eric Kowal (4k Twitter Followers)
• BoxeoMundial (Spanish boxing publication; can't find any MMA info at all on the website)
  • Armando Romo (No Twitter Account)
• Kimura.se (Hebrew MMA website)
  • Jaser Davari (No Twitter Account)
• MMA Soldier (just a dude w/ a Twitter Account, and a podcast?)
  • Rodney James Edgar (2.6k Twitter Followers Twitter has been deleted)
• MMA NYTT (Swedish MMA Website)
  • Ashah Tafari(13 followers, yup...only 13)
• MMA Fight Radio (Podcast hosted by Penny Buffington)
  • Penny Buffington (No Twitter Account)
• Inside Fighting Radio (The podcast hosted by Scott Lewis; english commentator for battlefield fc)
  • Scott Lewis (Just 55 Twitter Followers)
• Blood & Sweat (Russian MMA Website)
  • Igor Sidorov (Youtube Channel has 251k subscribers)

Notes: These new panelists were just added this year. Whenever UFC launched the update that made it difficult as fruck for fans to actually find the panelists individual ranking lists.
​
Conclusions:
After researching all of the journalists to make this post I'd say the most suspect is Romain Cadot (Vladusport) - which doesn't appear to be a real person. Christoffer Esping is also suspect, as he owns a shoe company - that is it.
Brian Hemminger of MMA Oddsbreaker is also suspect, as he works for an actual Oddsmaker - that is such a clear conflict of interest that there might actually be some legal implications that the UFC could get caught up in if the rankings can ever be proven to directly impact betting lines. This is such a giant oversight I can't believe that the UFC legal team hasn't already nixed this. I'm not even saying that Brian's rankings are corrupt or unreasonable - just that him working for an actual legitimate MMA oddsmaker is a big "How The Fuck Did The UFC Let This Happen" moment.
Both of the MMA Weekly guys seem to be trolling their rankings - or they are just that inept. Jeff Cain didn't even bothering updating his rankings for this week...and he rarely ever does, maybe he'll update once every other month or so, and sometimes he'll rank fighter who have been cut, retired, or inactive, meanwhile Ken Pishna is a fucking UFC shill who did exactly what the UFC told him to do in their little sparknotes memo!

Hello!
I'm posting this a bit early because i needed to start super early in order to cover all 15 fights, because really, this is a loaded card and i didn't wanna dawdle
Gifs are making a comeback! Or at least I hope they are. I'm not adding a lot of gifs, this is simply a test run to see if the embedding works, if it works, then you'll see gifs come back in full! If not, I will leave a comment below talking about what I was doing and all that jazz.
But for now, enjoy the predictions, have a beautiful week and enjoy this pretty stacked card.
(c) - Champ
(D) - Debut
FLS - Fight Lose Streak
FWS - Fight Win Streak
NS - No Streak
(#x) - Rank in Division
Lets go!
Prelims
Bantamweight
Nathaniel Wood (16-4-0, NS) v John Castenada (D) (#1 US West) (17-4-0, NS) - What a fun fight to start off a very long card. Wood is about as well rounded as you can get, at least for the current competition he faces. Wood has three remarkable performances under his belt, he landed some very clean combos on Eduardo, with a slick hip change on his last left hook which no doubt accentuated his power, and that’s just his stand up, his ground game is absolutely sublime, with 3 submission victories in all 3 wins in the UFC, going to the ground against this man is very dangerous and he will sink in a choke if you let him. Castenada will need to fight the hands and wrist the whole time and try to keep the fight on the feet because that’s the only way I can see Wood losing, Wood does not have a good defence and he will eat a lot of shots. His recent loss against Dodson was disappointing but just adds to the fact that Wood needs to work on his defences or he’s just going to get clipped over and over again, and with Bantamweight being loaded with powerful strikers, it’ll be tough for him to breach the top part of the division with the current skillset he has. Castenada is someone who i’m not super familiar with, he has an equal amount of KO’s and Submissions under his belt, and he seems to be coming in from the combate scene where he’s faced a variety of tough opponents, so his debut is going to be interesting, I don’t know what to expect, i’m as blind as a bat when it comes to his side of the fight, my main focus is on Wood this time.
Wood via Sub R2
Welterweight
Ramazan Emeev (18-4-0, NS) v Niklas Stolze (D) (#3 Germany) (12-3-0, 4 FWS) - Emeev is an absolute machine when it comes to grappling, he’s very physically strong and is an excellent Sambo fighter, with strong takedowns and just a brutal grinder. He hasn’t had a finish in the UFC yet, but his ability to outperform his opponents and always dominate them on the ground is truly a beautiful thing. He has a tendency to crash forward with a strong right hand then clinch in a body lock in order to get a takedown, so his opponents are always ready for either a strike or a grapple attempt, but never both, and that’s what makes him so dangerous. Stolze is someone who i’m also not super familiar with, so many debutants who could be potential stars! Stolze Is a very dangerous kickboxer who has an extensive record of 17-3, so from that alone we can tell he specializes in well, striking, which could be good against Emeev. It depends on what Emeev wants to do, and I think what Emeev wants to do is most likely take him down and negate any striking Stolze will have, and he will have an advantage on the feet. This is an interesting match up, a grappler v striker in its purest form. I got Emeev on this one though, he’s just so strong and aggressive.
Emeev via UD
Women’s Bantamweight
Bethe Correia (#14) (11-4-1, NS) v Pannie Kianzad (12-5-0, NS) - The fact that Correia is ranked 14 in her respective division just tells me that the division is lacking in serious talent. Correia is an odd fighter. Whenever I watch her, she just lacks everywhere and it makes me wonder how she wins. Her grappling is probably her main weapon, as shes quite physically strong, but her striking is severely bad. I feel like this is her last chance at staying in the UFC because the general consensus amongst all viewers and pundits is that she’s just not UFC worthy, and if that is the case, Kianzad should easily be able to defeat her, either through domination, or through a submission, regardless if Kianzad can’t even defeat Correia then what hope is there for either of these fighters? I know i’m sounding harsh but let’s remember why these fighters are fighting, it’s for the belt, and Nunes is still the most dominant champ that the UFC has ever seen. These girls need to impress or they’re just going to be extras in a star filled film.
Kianzad via UD
Heavyweight
Raphael Pessoa (10-1-0, NS) v Tanner Boser (18-6-1, NS) - I see you, Boser. I didn’t last time, I wholeheartedly went against you, but goddamn that was a beautiful finish. Literally Bulldozed him. Pessoa is a large and foreboding fighter who isn’t having huge success in the UFC, despite having a win over Jeff Hughes (who was well on his way out) he still hasn’t really impressed fans, he seemed slow and really just not UFC ready. Which is probably why they’re feeding him to Boser because you gotta build some hype somehow. But that isn’t to say that Pessoa is an easy fight, he could very well not be, he has 6 knockouts on his record, 5 of them being in the first round. He’s still a dangerous brawler and when it comes to heavyweights it really only takes one to put someone to sleep. Boser is a savage though, an absolute wild man who unleashed hell on Lins three weeks ago, he’s a power house and his only real chance at winning is to just initiate and be smart about it. He needs to flurry then reset, tire Pessoa out, and maybe in the second or third round we’ll see Pessoa slow down significantly. I feel like that’s probably the safer bet right now, so yeah, Boser probably has this.
Boser via KO R2
Featherweight
Movsar Evloev (12-0-0, 12 FWS) v Mike Grundy (12-1-0, 9 FWS) - There’s a lot going on in this match up. Both fighters have quite a significant streak going. Evloev is a very high pace, high skilled wrestler who absolutely ragdolls his opponents. His two wins against Barzola and Choi were extremely dominant and his cardio held up exceptionally well in the later rounds. His ability to make his opponents think about the takedowns almost all the time, only to pepper them with very fast and snappy punches is great, he never really stops moving, every time his opponent tries something, he either fires back, or he wrestles, and when he wrestles, it’s straight domination. He is a nightmare opponent purely because its a true test of cardio and endurance, he’s almost a perfect opponent to find out your own weaknesses. Grundy is a world class wrestler which makes this match up super interesting, because it probably won’t be a wrestler v wrestler fight, it’ll most likely end up being a striking bout, because if both fighters negate each other, then you have one round of “nothing happened” and really, on the biggest stage in the world, you don’t want that. I won’t pretend to know the difference between Russian wrestling and Olympic Freestyle wrestling, i’m sure there’s a whole intricate thing behind both styles, but if I was to guess who is the better overall fighter, i’d go with Evloev, he has shown us in his fight against Barzola that he isn’t only a threat on the ground, but on the feet as well, an ever evolving fighter, and that quite frankly is pretty exciting.
Evloev via UD
Heavyweight
Jake Collier (11-4-0, NS) v Tom Aspinall (D) (7-2-0, 3 FWS) - This is a great fight, purely because Aspinall is a dangerous striker. Collier is on a vicious win/loss cycle right now, defeating relatively unknown fighters, but ultimately losing to more higher class fighters, so every time he wins, he has a minor setback afterwards. I’m not saying that’s gonna happen this time, but who knows? This is Colliers first time at heavyweight I believe, so it’ll be interesting to see if his cardio holds up against Aspinall who is a natural heavyweight. He could very well be a better athlete, but from what I saw during his Light Heavyweight and Middleweight performances, he seems like an average striker so, lets see what he’s worked on coming into this fight. Aspinall is a powerful boxer, he has fast and accurate hands, he’s huge, and he’s from england, and whilst that last bit probably doesn’t matter, we really need more England talent in the UFC. Aspinall is going to be trouble for Collier, his size and power is going to be at a huge advantage and I can see this fight ending in the first round easily. He’s a strong starter.
Aspinall via KO R1
Welterweight
Nicholas Dalby (18-3-1, NS) v Jesse Ronson (D) (#1 Lightweight Canada) (21-10-0, NS) - Dalby is going strong with his comeback to the UFC, with one significant win over Alex Olveira late last year, it was a slow, methodical fight and at the same time, it was intense. Oliveira being a veteran of the sport, anything could have happened, but Dalby handled that fight like a champ and got the win. He also had a very significant win, not in any cage, but in life, after fighting a rough run with alcoholism, he battled those demons, and now he’s back to chase his dreams once more, and that’s nothing short of beautiful and something I look up to. Dalby is fairly well rounded and no doubt a tough striker, but considering he’s nearing his late 30’s, he needs to push these last few years of his healthy prime before old age and wear and tear sets in. Ronson is apparently the Number 1 Lightweight in Canada, I don’t know how accurate that is because i’m getting all this info from Tapology, but if that is the case, then we could see something interesting from Ronson. He has a relatively interesting record, losing twice in his last five bouts in PFL, that kinda tells me he isn’t ready for that type of competition, which makes me wonder why the UFC signed him, perhaps because Dalby needed an opponent? Either way, I don’t have a lot to say about Ronson, i’ll be keeping an eye on him but most of my attention will be on Dalby.
Dalby via KO R2
Lightweight
Francisco Trinaldo (#15) (25-7-0, 2 FWS) v Jai Herbert (D) (10-1-0, 6 FWS) - An interesting debut. Trinaldo is an old, savage fighter. I say this time after time whenever Trinaldo fights, his age is probably an issue. I say probably because recently he’s still defeating younger fighters. Trinaldo is such a well rounded fighter, he’s got savage power in his hands, and he’s got a mean ground game, the only issues I see is that his age will probably catch up to him eventually, I’m not sure when, but it’ll probably be soon. Will Herbert be the one to retire Trinaldo? Possibly. But Trinaldo has faced some tough fighters and that experience adds up. Trinaldo winning is a possibility, but it also isn’t, if you catch my meaning. Herbert has one hell of a streak. 5 KO’s in his last 6 wins, he has proven to people that his striking capabilities and his power is immense and he could be a danger to Trinaldo. Trinaldo’s chin is possibly still there, he’s never been knocked out, but he could get outstruck and if Herbert keeps the pressure then he has a fair chance at winning, in fact i’d argue the only way he can win is to just keep the pressure up, avoid any takedowns and just ride out the storm. This is a fun fight, it can be gritty but that’s the fun part. I’m going against the tide on this one, Herbert has this, if he sticks with what I just said. I aint no coach though.
Herbert via UD
Welterweight
Khazmat Chimaev (7-0-0, 7 FWS) v Rhys McKee (D) (10-2-1, 3 FWS) - This fight is a must see, and i’m sure you all know why by now. Chimaev reminds me of Khabib, one hundred percent. There is no doubt in my mind that this man has a very bright future ahead of him. His win over Phillips was pure domination, Phillips didn’t even touch him I don’t think, it was essentially a sparring match with a lesser fighter (not saying Phillips is a lesser fighter, but the differential in skill was most visible during the fight). His wrestling, his cardio, his pace, and his focus were key during that fight and he executed his game plan superbly. I cannot say enough good things about him, it’s incredibly clear the light is shining on this young man who is literally my age, what have i done with my life. Sadness aside, Chimaev is a problem for the division, but I do have one worry, and that’s his chin. McKee is a dangerous striker, with huge knockout power and incredible hand speed, will Chimaev play it safe and stay out of range and wait for an opening? Or will he strike against a potentially better striker and get hit hard? Chimaev is only 7 fights in his career, that’s still a fresh fighter, he probably hasn’t faced adversity yet and he might not even have difficulty in this fight, it’s the what ifs that make me mildly hesitant to jump on the hype train. Regardless though, Chimaev is very promising so i’m gonna grab that ticket and board the hype train. Such an incredibly interesting prospect.
Chimaev via Sub R2
Main Card
Welterweight
Alex Oliveira (21-8-1, NS) v Peter Sobotta (17-6-1, NS) - A potentially fun scrap. Oliveira has definitely fallen off on some difficult times in his career recently, with his last significant win being over Pedersoli, which was just under two years ago, since then he’s faced defeat after defeat, and a fairly rough win over Griffin. Oliveira is always up for a good fight, he’s not the type to back down from one or pull out, he has the propensity to leave it all in the octagon and still come out a better martial artist. But I think the word that goes around when you hear Oliveira is “Gatekeeper” and that’s fairly true, he’s never going to be a champ, but he’s always going to be facing top level competition, and if you have the skills he has, which is very fast kickboxing and a fairly good ground game, he’s about as mixed as you can get, but he just doesn’t seem to push past a certain barrier of competition which probably explains why he’s facing Sobotta, someone who is still finding his footing in the UFC. Sobotta Is coming back after a two year hiatus due to injury, he’s most likely going to experience some form of ring rust and that alone kinda makes me think that Oliveira is going to have the upper hand, that and the fact that Oliveira is just overall a better fighter both on the feet and on the ground. There’s really not much to talk about Sobotta, I don’t know how he’s going to fight, I just know that he’s been away for quite some time now and he might not be 100% coming into this.
Oliveira via KO R2
Light Heavyweight
Paul Craig (12-4-1, NS) v Gadzhimurad Antigulov (20-6-0, 2 FLS) - A very tough fight. Craig is a legitimate grappler who excels on the ground. He is very physically strong and his takedowns are just nothing but brute power, but with that said, he’s not a very good striker, not at all. He has the tendency to panic wrestle but to great effect, so lets expect him to get hit a lot before he initiates something. During his fight against Da Silva, he was doing excellent work off his back, perfectly timing an armbar to submit Da Silva with great efficiency, so Craig really is an animal on the ground and will most likely get the upper hand on the ground. Antigulov is a very good wrestler, he’s exceptional at getting an opponent to the ground, maintaining a dominant position and just look for a submission to great effect, his two wins in the UFC have been by R1 Sub, one of those fighters being a black belt in BJJ you’d think that there would be more resistance during that fight but nope, Antigulov absolutely dominated that fight and it was beautiful. With that said, his two losses have been by knockouts, which only tells me his striking capabilities and defences are not there. There is a twist in this fight though, and that’s the fact that Craig is much larger, and has a huge reach advantage, so there is a slight chance there will be a knockout somewhere here, and if there is, it’ll be all in Craigs favour, its a very tricky fight to predict but in all honesty I feel like Craig is going to use his strikes to win. It’s gonna be a fairly technical fight and I can’t wait.
Craig via UD
Women’s Strawweight
Carla Esparza (#7) (16-6-0, 3 FWS) v Marina Rodriguez (#9) (12-0-2, 12 FWS) - A very good matchup for both fighters. Esparza has been around for a very long time and that experience adds up, she might not be the most exciting fighter in the world but she’s highly effective at what she does best, and what she does well is her ground game, she isn’t a submission artist by any extent of the imagination, but she’s a dominant fighter on the ground, her ground and pound, her control over her opponents and her cardio hold up exceptionally well over three rounds, I don’t expect a finish to happen but I do expect Esparza to keep up a very high pace and never give Rodriguez room to recover or adjust. Her stand up game is fairly good, she’s great in the clinch where she can land effective elbows, but no matter the fight, she’ll always try to get it to the ground where she’s most comfortable. Rodriguez is an exceptional striker, she could be well on the way to greatness. She is a very efficient Muay Thai specialist who is great in the clinch and at range fighting, those punches and kicks are incredibly snappy, but she’s got one big gap in her fighting style and that’s her ground game, she doesn’t have one, Calvillo took her down three times in their fight, that’s three too many and i sincerely hope she worked on her takedown defence since then. I can’t exactly predict how this fight will go because it seems like your average striker v grappler fight, so it really depends on who executes their game plan better. If Esparza manages to just ragdoll Rodriguez and maintain a dominant position, she’s got this, but if Rodriguez has worked on her ground game a lot since her last fight, which i sincerely hope she did, then she’s going to easily get the cleaner shots in on the feet. Very much a coin toss, but i’m gonna go with Esparza on this one. Her wrestling is just so much better and will be such an advantage during this fight.
Esparza via UD
Heavyweight
Fabricio Werdum (23-9-1, 2 FLS) v Alexander Gustafsson (18-6-0, 2 FLS) - This is an interesting fight. Werdum did not look good in his return to the octagon this year, he looked like a walmart dad that was publicly intoxicated, took off his shirt and said “lets bang but only slightly, my kids watching” It’s very clear to say that Werdum's time is over, he needs to retire after this fight, regardless if he wins by a 10 second knockout by a flying spinning back kick. He needs to go, he’s not fit for the UFC anymore. The only threat I can see from Werdum is the ground, but even then that’s a stretch. His return fight against Oleinik was like taking the most minimal, babiest steps to getting back to the game, but Gustafsson is a different force of nature. Gustafsson is moving up to heavyweight after a relatively rough end in Light Heavyweight, it was clear that his mind wasn’t really into it any more, and i hope he has revitalized his love and hunger for the sport. We haven’t seen Gustafsson in heavyweight before, so it’ll be interesting to see if he has the cardio and the muscle mass to be able to match Werdum’s obviously larger and thicker frame. Gustafsson has excellent boxing, he has displayed beautiful distance management and hand speed, it all seemingly comes naturally to him and he executes combos beautifully. He’s not gonna have any issue on the feet against Werdum, but if Werdum has indeed changed substantially since his last fight, and he has worked on his cardio, that’s a whole different story. There’s a lot of “what ifs” during this fight, but for the sake of backing my boy, I gotta go with Gustafsson on this one.
Gustafsson via KO R1
Co-Main Event
Light Heavyweight
Mauricio Rua (#15) (26-11-1, NS) v Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (23-6-0, NS) - Is this bellator? Much respect to both fighters but jeez they’re both just really, really old. Rua is a powerhouse when it comes to his kickboxing, he’s absolutely destructive on his feet but recently it seems that he’s slowed down and his cardio is just not there any more. Rua still has tremendous punching power and is still very much a threat on the feet, especially against the ever aging Nogueira, who recently got knocked out by Spann, so his chin is certainly not there any more. Nogueira has been around for a very long time, and he has been a dominant fighter back in the day, but unfortunately the younger generation of fighters are catching up and I don’t think he can hold back that tidal wave much longer. There’s not a lot to talk about with this fight really. Just let these dudes bang.
Rua via KO R1
Main Event
Middleweight
Robert Whittaker (#2) (20-5-0, NS) v Darren Till (#7) (18-2-1, NS) - This is an interesting fight to say the least and i’m no doubt going to stir a cauldron of shit by saying what i’m about to say. Till is not ready for Whittaker. Whittaker was a champion for a reason, his rise to the belt was an exceptional and momentous occasion for an australian MMA fan. His 50 minutes fighting Romero has been like watching a movie. Every round Whittaker faced adversity and came out on top, you can’t say that a lot when you face someone like Romero, even Costa had more issue against Romero than Whittaker did. Whittaker is as well rounded as you can get, he hasn’t exactly displayed aggressive wrestling but you can bet he’s gonna attempt that during this fight because Tills left hand is just dangerous. Whittaker is I believe the biggest fighter that Till has faced in terms of just size and muscle mass alone, with Thompson being a close second. But let's compare both fighters' previous wins. Whittakers last 5 wins were Romero twice, Souza, Brunson and Natal (who was on a streak prior to that fight.), all of those were absolute killers in the middleweight division. Till has defeated Gastelum, Thompson, Cerrone, Velickovic and Ayari. The notable wins would have been Cerrone and Thompson, since the Gastelum fight was a split decision and it was quite a slow fight to begin with. Till is by no means an easy opponent, he’s an excellent kickboxer with an exceptional left hook, he’s a huge fighter, maybe not so much in Middleweight but in Welterweight he was one of the largest fighters in the division. Ultimately though, I don’t think he’s ready for the top level competitors in Middleweight, if they’re trying to build him up again to be a star, this is not the right way, we saw how that ended up in his Woodley fight, and we’ll most likely see this happen in this Whittaker fight. Now granted, I could be wrong (and boy have I been wrong before), but Whittaker has proven to put his limits time and time again. We have yet to see that from Till. I got Whittaker on this one.
Whittaker via KO R4
I hope you guys enjoyed this write up as much as I enjoyed writing it.
If the gifs don't work, or if it looks super fucky, i sincerely apologise, ive been trying to find a decent place where i could upload gifs so i could keep the analysis up but gfycat flags everything these days.
If you would like to follow me on twitter, you can find me @Slayer_Tip or if you want, add me on discord and we can have a super friendly chat about all things MMA: Slayertip#7013
And with that said, I hope you guys have a beautiful week, stay healthy, happy, and full of life.
I'll see you all in the comments below ;)

More serious pregame analysis would greatly improve the quality of the LCS broadcast. And by "serious," I mean both paying a serious amount of time to a predictions segment (whether it's hot takes or honest debate or stats related arguments) and acting more serious and using stats/professional analysis/betting odds, as opposed to Flyquest Fish.
LCS spends too much time postgame. Almost all of the broadcast that isn't the actual game should be pregame. Look at the UFC. The only thing that matters post-fight is the interview with the winner. Pregame, they show fighter interviews, clips from their training, face-offs, walk-ins, announcements, tale-of-the-tape, betting odds, caster commentary, and more.
The NFL spends hours pregame, discussing who's going to win and why. Their postgame is often cutting directly to another game or doing one on-field interview and moving to other programming.
One main source of this imbalance is that League has no true post-game shows or highlight shows. They don't have an NFL Tonight or SportsCenter style show to show highlights and dissect games later, so they do it immediately after games, which really slows down and dumbs down broadcasts. If you watched the game, you don't really need it explained immediately after. Get rid of all the post-game analysis, and make yourself a half-hour or hour long highlights and analysis show that airs on your Twitch or YouTube on Monday nights, that covers results from the major regions. That would grow viewership in non-native regions really, really well.
I want pregame where analysts spend longer than thirty seconds on their game predictions. I want to see stats comparing every lane and every relevant measurement. I want to see actual betting lines from actual sportsbooks. But what I really, really want to see is a couple minute break between champ select and game start, where it goes back to the expert analysts to discuss how champ select has changed their predictions or expectations. I think a look at how champ select changes the betting odds of winning would be a cool feature, similar to what the UFC does with highlighting how certain sportsbooks have updated the odds between rounds of a fight.
I know the meme is immediately that LCS would need expert analysts. I'm not going to weigh in on that. But there are many sites that offer betting, including all kinds of props on the LCS, which means there are some very, very expert analysts that exist, because sportsbooks don't just throw numbers out there. There are insanely accurate analysts that work for these online books, LCS would just have to find them.
(Yes, I'm a UFC mark. Yes, i think betting and endorsing betting would be great for League, regardless of player or viewer age; Bud Light is one of their major sponsors. Yes, I know this was TL;DR.)

Hello!
I hope you're all doing well and that you and your family are healthy during these incredibly tough times.
I missed you all very much, I apologise if this prediction seems very controversial, there have been many coin toss fights this time around and it was very hard to decide who I'll predict is going to win for some fights.
Overall, I hope you enjoy this post, I'll be here all week because well, there are 3 events this week and you guys all know that's my busy time.
(c) - Champ
(D) - Debut
NS - No Streak
FLS - Fight Lose Streak
FWS - Fight Win Streak
(#x) - Rank in Division
Lets go!
Prelims
Bantamweight
Martin Day (9-3-0, NS) v Davey Grant (9-4-0, NS) - Day has a very floaty style of striking, he doesn’t necessarily have a great defence other than movement and he’s never staying in the same spot, he’s almost always on the move, sliding out of the way from counters, movement is very important in his style because it allows him to catch his opponents off guard when they’re chasing him down. Now, Day has one big issue that I could see from his bout against Liu Pingyuan, and that’s his defence, whenever he kicks, his hands go low, very low, so it’ll be easy for Grant, if he spots it, to catch the kick and counter with a strong punch. It’s very hard to read Day though because he doesn’t start with the same combos or set of punches the same every time he chooses to strike, so it’ll be hard to predict what he’s going to do next. Grant is a switch stance striker, he loves to switch his stance and throw a beautiful kick as soon as he does so. Grant is also a movement based fighter, a whole lot of lateral movement and explosive kicks which go hand in hand and play to Grants’ advantages. Now, Grant is only 2-3 in the UFC which isn’t a great look, and his last win was a questionable result (should have been unanimous, not a split). Grant has one advantage that Day doesn’t and that’s his ground game, he landed 6 takedowns in his fight against Popov, and whilst he didn’t do anything huge with them, he did land them and in MMA that can be the difference between a win or a loss of the round. I’m pretty mixed on this prediction. I like what Day does on his feet, it’s a beautiful style, but Grant is going to use his takedowns, if he doesn’t then I'd be very surprised. It’s ultimately a coin toss, but i’m leaning on Grant here.
Grant via UD
Women’s Bantamweight
Vanessa Melo (10-7-0, 2 FLS) v Karol Rosa (12-3-0, 3 FWS) - Melo Is a fairly well rounded and experienced fighter who is having a rough time in the UFC, losing both of her bouts in the UFC so far, Melo is no doubt pretty close to being cut from the UFC. Melo in both of those fights, have been outstruck significantly, she didn’t really show any sense of urgency, she became too complacent and didn’t fire off anything decent to get a win, I don’t see her doing a whole lot this fight as well, she just does not seem UFC ready, and she got signed on with a 10-5 record, which isn’t great. Rosa only has one fight in the UFC but holy hell what a debut. She showed excellent and relentless strikes, never backing down from any retaliation from her opponent, both women went to war within those 3 rounds and both have shown that they’re not here to mess around. Rosa is a very fast and snappy striker who will no doubt give Melo trouble. I can’t go that deep into this fight because really there’s not a lot to talk about, but i’m liking Rosa in this fight.
Rosa via UD
Flyweight
Zhalgas Zhumagulov (D) (13-3-0, 4 FWS) v Raulian Paiva (#14) (19-3-0, NS) - A fairly interesting debuting fighter. Zhumagulov is currently on a fairly strong 4 fight winning streak, and despite him not being an exceptionally active fighter, it’s always good to see more talent in a long forgotten division. Zhumagulov is at a slight height disadvantage coming into this fight which might be troublesome, because he seems like a quite good kickboxer. I’m not too sure if he’s decent on the ground but from the limited clips ive seen of him striking, he seems to be pretty good at pushing his opponent back whilst hitting him with combos, so that’s one thing to look forward to. Paiva is coming off a dominant knockout over Mark De La Rosa, but whilst it’s not a huge win, it did highlight that Paiva has worked on his hands over time, and we finally saw a product of his training, it may have even saved his ass from being kicked off the UFC because he lost both of his fights in the UFC up until that point. In terms of experience I feel like Paiva might get the upper hand on this one, he might not have a high amount of finishes but he does have high level fights under his belt, especially when he fought Kai Kara France, that alone would have been one hell of a lesson in high calibre fights. I’m thinking that Paiva has this, despite Zhumagulov being on a fairly strong streak, Paiva might have what it takes, but how is he gonna win? That, i’m not too sure about.
Paiva via UD
Heavyweight
Marcin Tybura (#15) (18-6-0, NS) v Maxim Grishin (D) (30-7-2, NS) - A slugfest is about to begin and it’s gonna be loud! Tybura has no doubt had his ups and downs, but this guy can certainly throw leather. Everything he throws, he throws with insane power. He’s not a volume striker by any means, so his fights might be a bit slow, but just know that one punch can make a big difference, especially in this fight where these guys are no doubt going to trade each other shot for shot. Grishin is a PFL fighter making his debut, and as most of us know, PFL isn’t an easy league like Bellator, it’s got some serious competitors, one of the best fighters are in PFL. Grishin has serious punching power and he has the 15 knockouts to back it up. The only minor red flag is his age, he’s 36 years old, which isn’t a huge issue, but it does make me wonder how he will handle the younger generation of heavyweights that the UFC has. The differential in age between these two fighters are 2 years, so maybe it’s nothing. Anyway, it’s gonna be a very heavy fight, but i’m leaning on Tybura for this fight, he has pretty great wrestling and I feel like he’s going to rely on that a lot during this fight, it might be grindy but a win is a win and that win bonus could mean the difference between coming home with nothing, or coming home with something.
Tybura via UD
Lightweight
Leonardo Santos (17-3-1, 5 FWS) v Roman Bogatov (D) (10-0-0, 10 FWS) - Pretty awesome matchup. Santos, despite being fairly old, is still an absolute assassin, he’s got a 4th degree black belt in BJJ and hands that will put you to sleep. His knockout over Steven Ray still surprises me, the beautiful right hand counter which put him to sleep. He’s a 40 year old fighting like a 35 year old with the experience of a 45 year old, especially on the ground. The most interesting thing about Santos during that fight is he lead the fight with strong body kicks, and there were only two things Ray could have done to stop that, catch the leg, or block it and leave his hands low, Ray did neither because he know if he caught the kick, it would lead to the ground and rolling with Santos is essentially admitting defeat because he’s a very good submission artist, an absolute animal on the ground and that’s the most dangerous thing about him. Bogatov is someone who i’ve heard of before, but only because he was a dominant force in M-1 Challenge, the dude submitted 5 people in the span of 3 years. If you want a great grappling fight, this is it, you’re about to see how technical BJJ can truly get. Then again I probably said that about Burns v Maia and look at how that ended. So either way, this fight will be very competitive. It’s tough to say who is going to win, Santos certainly has the experience and the physical advantages, but Bogatov is so much younger and perhaps can out-cardio Santos. So, this is an odd prediction, but if Santos wins, it’s via a submission in the first two rounds, with perhaps a noticeable change in pace in the third, but if Bogatov wins, it’s in the third, where that change in pace probably happens. As I said last time, don’t bet based off this prediction.
Santos via Sub R2
Featherweight
Makwan Amirkhani (15-4-0, NS) v Danny Henry (12-3-0, NS) - If there’s one thing Amirkhani can rely on, its his wrestling, he is an outstanding wrestler and almost always effortlessly takes down his opponents with great efficiency. He works very fast on the ground, maintaining control and landing some heavy ground and pound that comes with it. Always expect the fight to go to the ground when it comes to Amirkhani. His stand up is alright, it’s nothing too exceptional, some snappy strikes but ultimately it’s a takedown that’s coming from that. Henry is a fairly well rounded fighter who fought very tough dudes from the get go when he first debuted back in 2017, defeating both Teymur and Dawodu, he seemed like a very decent prospect. He still very much does, that Ige loss was a minor setback and he’s got one hell of a challenge in front of him. At the moment though, i’m leaning on Amirkhani, he’s just such a dominating fighter, and he sets an incredible pace that not many can keep up with. He’s gonna score a takedown, and maybe get a submission whilst he’s there.
Amirkhani via Sub R2
Welterweight
Elizeu Zalecki (22-6-0, NS) v Muslim Salikhov (16-2-0, 3 FWS) - You guys have no idea how fucking excited I am for this fight. Both fighters here are stylistically pleasing to watch. Zalecki is a highlight reel, a dangerous one at that, he’s a straight assassin! Alright i’m sounding like Joe Rogan right now and I sincerely apologise. But holy shit can this dude go from 0-100 real quick. His constant pressure and ability to gauge his opponents movements before attacking is pretty great. He is also a black belt in BJJ so he has the ground as a backup plan if Salikhov manages to outstrike him. Speaking of which. Salikhov is a dangerous, dangerous kickboxer. He’s got speed, power, and aggression. He destroyed my boy Nordine Taleb, and dominated Staropoli with incredible ease. He is also a multiple time Sando champion and that experience will show in this fight. I am fully on board with the Salikhov hype, first class ticket. This is going to be a very competitive, explosive fight and it could easily be a fight of the night contender. I got Salikhov on this one, but holy hell it could easily go either way.
Salikhov via KO R!
Light Heavyweight
Volkan Oezdemir (17-4-0, 2 FWS) v Jiri Prochazka (Rizin Champ) (D) (26-3-1, 10 FWS) - Woo boy, this is gonna be one hell of a collision. Oezdemir has had so many tough fights in his career, starting from his debut, until now, here are the top level fighters he has faced. OSP, Cirkunov, Manuwa, Cormier, Smith, Reyes, Latifi and Rakic. All killers and high level fighters, and he has only lost to Cormier, Smith and Reyes. That’s incredibly impressive and his journey throughout the UFC has not been easy. Oezdemir has this forward moving striking style that can overwhelm and catch his opponents off guard. Oezdemir had very, very fast hands, especially when he crashes forward, He is very unpredictable with his strikes, he throws jabs, then works the body, then he might throw a knee, anything and everything to throw his opponent off guard really. Prochazka has been a dominating force in Rizin for many years now, with a large variety of knockouts and straight domination against tough opponents like C.B. Dollaway, Fabio Maldonado, and Muhammad Lawal to name the most recent ones, he’s coming in with a fairly large amount of experience and hype. Prochazka is a very large and dangerous striker, standing at 6 foot 4 inches tall, you can probably mistake him for a heavyweight at that height, and he carries the power of a heavyweight too. What i’m not too sure about is his cardio, since Oezdemir is a very durable fighter, will Prochazka struggle in the later rounds? That i’m not too sure about. I am very conflicted with this prediction, it could easily go either way, but honestly, I feel like Prochazka can handle this, he needs to counter Oezdemirs flurries or he’s gonna get hurt.
Prochazka via KO R2
Main Card
Women’s Flyweight
Paige Vanzant (8-4-0, NS) v Amanda Ribas (9-1-0, 4 FWS) - I would say this fight is interesting but that’d be a lie. The highlight fighter in this bout is obviously Ribas, and for very good reasons too. Vanzant is a long afterthought when most people think about top contenders for the belt, I could go on for days on end about how her looks and connections get her places, but honestly this is MMA so i’m gonna stick to the fight. Vanzant is a fairly fast and snappy striker who, despite her looks, is incredibly tough, she fought with a broken arm for I believe two rounds, but she’s overall not an exceptional fighter, she only looks “good” because her opponents are rather shit. RIbas on the other hand excels as a fighter, whilst looking great doing so. Since joining the UFC she has defeated fairly experienced fighters in Dern, Markos and Whitmire, and I feel like she’s going to go far, but she’s not gonna be a champion any time soon. She’s fast, athletic and is incredibly good on the ground, and the groundwork is where she’s going to most likely dominate Vanzant. I got Ribas on this one hundred percent.
Ribas via Sub R2
Women’s Strawweight
Rose Namajunas (#2) (8-4-0, NS) v Jessica Andrade (#3) (20-7-0, NS) - A rematch we all wanted to see. Namajunas made one fatal mistake which cost her the title, and that was she didn’t let go of the kimura lock when Andrade picked her up. Everything else she did in that first bout, was perfection, her punches were exceptionally fast, those jabs especially were the fastest i’ve seen in a while. Her hand speed, and her constant feints and movements kept Andrade guessing, ultimately leading to Andrade to get punched in the face countless times. I feel like Rose most likely has addressed that and has either worked on her grappling defence a whole lot, or she has a whole new gameplan coming into this, but I honestly think she should just repeat what she did the first time, piece her up and slow her down. Maybe even work the legs a bit, either way, she was winning the first fight effortlessly until she didn’t. Now, this is where Andrade gets dangerous. Andrade knows why she was losing that first and second round, she wasn’t active enough, she was waiting to get hit before hitting back and that’s a big no no when you fight Namajunas. She needs to take the initiative and be one hundred percent aggressive. You can’t win a chess match when your opponent is a grandmaster in chess. Namajunas is a cunning and wise fighter who knows what to do on the feet in almost any situation. What Andrade lacks in speed, she more than makes up for it in brute strength and power, and she needs to use that power, wrestle, ground and pound, anything to sway the movement and feints of Namajunas. This is a great fight guys, but I honestly feel like Andrade is gonna win this, I know I know, controversial, so please, don’t bet based on this prediction. It’s one hell of a risky prediction but I feel confident enough about it. But i’m probably gonna get it wrong.
Andrade via KO R1
Bantamweight Championship Bout
Petr Yan (#3) (14-1-0l, 9 FWS) v Jose Aldo (#10) (28-6-0, 2 FLS) - Its kinda odd how Aldo is a champ despite losing to Moraes, it was an excellent and very close fight and the results could have gone either way, but you’d think the UFC would wait until Sterling and Garbrandt fought their fights before making an announcement, in any case. Yan is someone who I have been hyping up for months now, He is a russian assassin who bangs like Bochniak and has the ferocity like Poirier, He will be in your face the whole time, grinning that evil, cunning grin, just before launching a right hand that puts you to sleep faster than the worlds strongest anesthetic. The only issue I see, is the same thing so many other pundits see, his record, it’s great, but his opponents have been less than great, I’m gonna compare the last 5 opponents Yan and Aldo has had and you can see for yourself the difference in competition. Yan has faced Jin Soo Son, Douglas Andrade, John Dodson, Jimmie Rivera and Urijah Faber, neither of those fighters, at this moment in time, are top level contenders. Aldo has faced Marlon Moraes, Alex Volkanovski, Renato Moicano, Jeremy Stephens and Max Holloway. There’s a vast difference in competition between the two and that will be key for this fight. Yan is a dangerous, dangerous kickboxer, he’s aggressive and patient, a rare mix, he waits for the right time to strike, and goes at it like a uncaged animal, and Aldo needs to be aware never to settle and always be ready to move or counter. Aldo is as veteran as you can get, a long time Featherweight champ, who kept his championship hunger even after being dethroned. Aldo is an excellent boxer, his head movement and ability to fire off combos whilst moving is excellent. I am a bit conflicted though, he was average size in Featherweight, and smaller in Bantamweight, but he’s got a bigger reach than Yan, so he could have an advantage with his jabs and counters against Yan. One weapon that Aldo will certainly use against Yan will be his leg kicks, they’re fast and crack like a whip, and those leg kicks will slow down the forward momentum coming from Yan. This is a highly competitive fight and I honestly can’t wait. I’m leaning on Yan for this fight, i’m on that hype train!
Yan via KO R3
Featherweight Championship Bout
Alexander Volkanovski (c) (21-1-0, 18 FWS) v Max “Blessed” Holloway (#2) (21-5-0, NS) - This is one hell of a rematch, and it makes sense. Volkanovski is a dense motherfucker. Dude was huge back in the day, and even now he’s practically pure muscle. Volkanovski is exceptionally well rounded but he excels at range finding and target hunting, he can easily work his way into someone's space, and fire off with hard shots to the body or head. This was evident against Holloway. Whatever they’re doing in City Kickboxing is working because its evident that each of their fighters adjust incredibly well in between fights, and it’s clear that they’re going to stick around for a very long time. Holloway is coming back hungry for the belt, and after him relaxing a whole lot during the lockdowns, I’m not fully sure if he’s ready. Now, I love Holloway, the dude made my own quarantine easier because of his streams, dudes an insanely good person, but is he too relaxed for this fight? My thoughts on this are pretty simple, he has the championship mindset, without the burden of holding the title, he’s more relaxed now, but hungry. A champion must always work on themselves to get better for future competition, this is a rematch so there really shouldn’t be too much adjustment. Max most likely knew where he failed, and that’s his distance management and his leg checks, he didn’t check those leg kicks properly, and have you seen the size of Volkanovski’s legs? Thick like a ham. Imagine that slamming into your shin/thigh multiple times throughout a fight. Holloway needs to do something to address that, he needs to go first, or he needs to implement some form of wrestling, I haven’t seen him wrestle a whole lot, so it’ll be interesting to see if he can do that. Anyway, This is a rematch where most likely the same thing will happen as it did in the first fight. I don’t know what Holloway will change during his camp, so I can’t address this fight fully. I got Volkanovski on this one.
Volkanovski via KO R2
Main Event
Welterweight Championship Bout
Kamaru Usman (c) (16-1-0, 17 FWS) v Jorge Masvidal (#3) (35-13-0, 3 FWS) - This is a fight that makes more sense than Usman v Burns, debate me. Anyway. Usman is a genetic freak, he is one of the best athletes in the UFC, but not necessarily the best fighter. Lemme rant and explain. Usman has never been a phenomenal striker, with no huge knockouts, he’s a grinder and he’s a product of years of wrestling, cardio and strength training. Usman specializes in draining his opponents, mentally and physically, he is the bigger, scarier Khabib, his wrestling is high level and his cardio is never ending, he will go, and go, and go, like a diabetic needing to piss. There is no stopping the Nightmare and I am on board with this hype train one hundred percent! Ahem. Usman suffers in one huge area, and that’s striking, a rather large portion of MMA and most definitely Masvidals main strength coming into this. The fight against Covington, they never wrestled, all they did was exchange jabs and crosses. Usmans’ head was incredibly still, and that shit will not fly against Masvidal, Masvidal will aim for that head and fire on all cylinders. Masvidal is on a very quick rise right now, we haven’t seen anything like this since the Conor days, but it’s unfortunate for me to say that he has not faced top level competition recently. His win against Till was probably his last competitive bout, and it ended spectacularly. Askren went to sleep within 5 seconds of the first round, and Diaz had no business being in the octagon against Masvidal in the first place. Masvidal is a wild card, plain and simple, he is very explosive, and his not-give-a-fuck attitude in his fights will be an issue for himself, and for Usman. I’d love to back Masvidal on this one because it’s entirely possible that he can knock Usman out very quickly, but Usman is not easy to put away. I don’t wanna dig deep into this fight simply because as a fan, I can’t ask for anything more than watching these two fighters in their prime, battling it out in the octagon, we live in unique times and this is a gift from the MMA gods. Lets Go Usman!
Usman via UD
That was longer than I expected.
I apologise if it's too long, there will be a TL;DR version (basically a tapology copy pasta) on my twitter a few minutes after i post this.
Looking forward to the discussions down below!
If you would like to follow me on twitter, you can find me @Slayer_Tip or if you want, add me on discord and we can have a super friendly chat about all things MMA: Slayertip#7013
That's it! I hope you all have an excellent weekend, Love you all heaps, take care, stay healthy, and stay awesome!