-Ovince St. Preux: Shogun gets hurt. Yushin Okami steps in to take the fight at 205 lbs. Ok, makes sense. Okami is 185 lb fighter that can fight at 205 lbs without a weight cut. Ok. Wait, Okami has been fighting at 170 lbs lately?? What? Oh no lol. So he’s going to jump from fighting 170 lb guys to a top 205 lb contender like St. Preux. Is this really the best the UFC could do on 1 week’s notice? Egad this is going to go terrible for Okami. St. Preux by whatever he wants in the 1st round.
-Claudia Gadelha: I don’t care what anyone says, this has always been the main event of this card. Even when Shogun was supposed to fight on it. Gadelha and Jessica Andrade are the #2 and #3 best female strawweights in the world in my opinion. And Gadelha impressed me so much in her last fight submitting fellow former title contender Karolina Kowalkiewicz in the 1st round. It’s not that often that a fighter loses 2 title fights and is motivated enough to stay at a high level, much less improve and get better. Andrade is 25 years old and she’ll continue to get better but I feel like Gadelha is at her peak and prime right now. Plus champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk laid out a blueprint on how to beat Andrade. Beginning of the fight, stay on the outside. Weather the first round barrage from Andrade. Survive. Then Andrade will start to gas out and fade. Jedrzejczyk and Gadelha are really similar fighters and I think this fight will play out close to the same as Jedrzejczyk vs Andrade went. So I’m picking Gadelha by close decision. Maybe even split.
-Dong Hyun Kim: Hard fight to pick as is towards the bottom of the lightweight division with a 1-2 record in the UFC and 14-8 overall record. But his opponent Takanori Gomi is just done. Gomi has been finished in the 1st round 4 fights in a row. And even though Kim’s last fight, a decision win over Brendan O’Reilly, hardly provokes confidence, it’s enough to make me think that he’ll have enough to knockout Gomi in the 1st round. Having more to do where Gomi is at than Kim.
-Henrique da Silva: UPSET SPECIAL 1: Very interesting fight as da Silva takes on kickboxing champion Gokhan Saki. And usually fights with big unknowns are difficult to pick, but not this one. Da Silva is a good MMA fighter. He’s 2-3 in the UFC so far. 28 years. Coming into his prime. Lost to 3 solid opponents. I just have a really hard time seeing him lose to a kickboxer like Saki who’s only had 1 MMA fight in his career and that was back in 2004. Da Silva is mostly a striker, but I think he wouldn’t have a problem grappling with Saki, taking him down and being way more advanced on the ground. So I’m picking da Silva by 1st round submission.
-Teruto Ishihara: Rolando Dy’s big claim to fame was a 23 second knockout over, at the time, 5-0 top prospect Koyomi Matsushima. But looking at Dy’s complete body of work outside the UFC, it seems like the win was lucky. When Dy signed with the UFC, he came in with a 8-4 record. And that’s not the type of record a top prospect has. Ishihara isn’t a top prospect either, but he’s done OK in the UFC so far with knockouts over Julian Erosa and Horacio Gutierrez and a 2-2 UFC record. Dy’s only chance in this fight is outstriking Ishihara and getting another lucky knockout, which will play perfectly for Ishihara who has the better striking and chin and will get a quick first round knockout.
-Ulka Sasaki: UPSET SPECIAL 2: This is by far the toughest fight to pick on the card. Jussier Formiga is arguably within the 2nd tier in the flyweight division. The 2nd tier being, the next best group of 125 lb fighters after Demetrious Johnson. That you could put Formiga as just a hair below Joseph Benavidez and Henry Cejudo. But Formiga is 32 years old. Has had a lot of fight mileage on his body. And is coming off a loss to young up-and-comer Ray Borg. Sasaki has only 3 fights in the UFC as a flyweight with a 2-1 record, but man, he looked like a completely different fighter in his last fight upsetting and submitting a very solid opponent in Justin Scoggins (and which Scoggins has a win over Ray Borg just last year). Saski is 27 years, coming into his prime and should be very comfortable fighting in his backyard of Japan, rather than having to fight on the other side of the world. I like the upset here and think that the 125 lb division has a new contender. I like Sasaki by decision.
-Keita Nakamura: UPSET SPECIAL 3: Me picking Nakamura reallys comes down to how not impressed I’ve been with Alex Morono. Morono is 27 years old, with a 2-1 record and could get better. But in his 2 wins, he barely beat Kyle Noke via split decision. Then he couldn’t finish James Moontasri, who had a 2-3 UFC record. And also, if you look at the MMA math, Noke’s next fight after losing a split decision to Morono, was against Nakamura. And Nakamura submitted Noke in the 2nd round. Nakamura is 33 years old and will never fight for the 170 lb title, but his submission over Jingliang Li was solid, and his 2 losses were against good opponents. Nakamura could be a quality lower tier gatekeeper in the UFC for the next few years. And Morono is the type of fighter Nakamura will have no problem dispatching.
-Syuri Kondo: Chanmi Jeon is one of the more exciting female 115 lb prospects out there, only being 20 years old and her skill levels already being where they’re at. But Syuri Kondo is definitely one of the top overall prospects with only 5 pro fights but beating very good competition in Kanna Asakura, Minna Grusander and especially Kinberly Novaes. Jeon couldn’t beat an average fighter in JJ Aldrich. So that makes me believe that with Kondo being an elite prospect, that she’ll get an easy decision over Jeon.
-Luke Jumeau: Such an easy fight to pick. Has more to do with how poorly I think of Shinsho Anzai. He’s a very below average prospect and he hasn’t fought in 2 years. Meanwhile Jumeau is coming off a convincing upset win over Dominique Steele. This is Jumeau all day. Will probably knock Anzai out in the 2nd round.
-Hyun Gyu Lim: This fight is a pick em?? That’s nuts. Pure nuts. It’s such an easy fight to pick. So, so easy. Daichi Abe only has 5 pro fights and the best opponent he’s fought against had a 12-6 record. Abe is nowhere near ready to fight someone like Lim. Abe does seem talented and is only 25 years old, but he stand no chance against Lim at this point of his career. Lim by 1st round knockout.