Holly Holm vs Mayra Bueno Silva Surprisingly, despite her being 41 years old, Holm’s wrestling is undeniably a 75. She showed traces of that in the Ketlen Vieira fight, controlling her in the clinch. But in her last fight with Santos, she was able to take Santos down and...
Alexander Volkanovski vs Yair Rodriguez Not only was Volkanovski supremely impressive in the Islam Mahachev fight, I also think he won. As a result, I think Volkanovski is the #1 pound for pound fighter in the world right now. That said, Rodriguez is absolutely a live underdog to win...
Sean Strickland vs Abusupiyan Magomedov Strickland’s striking reached a new level in his last fight with Imavov, I have it now as a 75, although the tool is right on the bubble between a 70 and 75. And part of Strickland’s success on the feet came from his cardio...
Josh Emmett vs Ilir Topuria Going into Emmett’s fight with Rodriguez, I had suspicions that his striking could be more of a 65 vs a 70 and that turned out to be the case as Rodriguez out struck him 47 to 13. Mitchell says he fought Topuria while he...
Marvin Vettori vs Jared Cannonier Both of these guy’s skills have plateaued a bit in their last couple fights. They’re both elite, but haven’t gotten better. Close, coin flip type fight. Cannonier is unique because he’s very muscular and usually those guys lack cardio, but he successfully kept up...
Won Bin Ki vs Bahatebole Batebolati Batebolati doesn’t look physically imposing and at first glance doesn’t have tools that jump off the page. But he’s well rounded and his cardio really makes his skills play up. I watched him take on a well rounded fighter who I thought had...
Zhu Rong vs Sung Chan Hong Zhu has a big advantage coming into this fight being that he’s had 3 UFC fights already. I like Zhu here because he’s going to have a lot more power and could get some take downs. Chris’ Pick: Zhu by 1st round knockout....
Kaiwen Li vs Kai Lu Knockouts happen sometimes. Kai getting knocked out by Jeong Yeong Lee in 42 seconds doesn’t mean his skills vanished. The way to figure out where Kai’s skills are at is to look at his fight with Angga Hans. Angga came in as a -245...
Keisuke Sasu vs Sang Won Kim Sasu took on a 23-3 grappler who I think has 60 grappling and showed his wrestling was on par with his opponent. So his wrestling is an easy 60 for me. Not much footage of Kim out there, but Sasu should have better...
Amanda Nunes vs Irene Aldana Aldana came into the Chiasson fight as a 2 to 1 favorite, probably because the market thought she had 75 striking. But that instead the strikes were close to equal and she showed 70 striking instead. What did surprise me is how much improved...