Sean O’Malley vs Marlon Vera I wasn’t 100% sure going into the O’Malley vs Sterling fight that O’Malley had 75 striking. He fought Munhoz and Munhoz actually out struck him 26 to 25. Then he took on Yan and the first 2 rounds of striking had O’Malley edging him...
Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs Shamil Gaziev Gaziev really blew me away in his official debut with Buday. Buday, he was coming off his biggest win, looked to be in the best shape of his career and Gaziev just walked him down and steamrolled him. Gaziev’s cardio held up fine, which...
Brandon Moreno vs Brandon Royval 2 Moreno has all the advantages here. Won the first fight. Two paths to win. Hometown crowd behind him. Chris’ Pick: Moreno by 2nd round submission. What I think the odds should be: Moreno -350 Yair Rodriguez vs Brian Ortega I know Rodriguez got...
Alexander Volkanovski vs Ilia Topuria By the end of the Topuria vs Emmett fight, you walk away with the impressive that Topuria easily won the fight and dominated. But the numbers say otherwise. Yes, Topuria did last more shots, 114 to 87. But the guy who really dominated Emmett...
Jack Hermansson vs Joe Pyfer Hermansson’s last loss to Roman Dolidze was of the fluky variety. Hermansson got stuck in an awkward position which led to the loss. Stuff like that doesn’t happen often. But Hermansson out struck Dolidze 43 to 12, Hermansson was clearly winning the fight. My...
Shin Haraguchi vs Zhu Rong Chris’ Pick: Haraguchi by decision. What I think the odds should be: Haraguchi -300 Zha Yi vs Kaiwen Li Chris’ Pick: Zha by decision. What I think the odds should be: Zha -175 Rei Tsuruya vs Niushiyue Ji Chris’ Pick: Tsuruya by decision. What...
Nassourdine Imavov vs Roman Dolidze Imavov is very similar to Marvin Vettori, except Imavov has more power. I also expect Imavov’s cardio to be better than Dolidze’s too. Expect this fight to be similar to Vettori vs Dolidze. Chris’ Pick: Imavov by decision. What I think the odds should...
Sean Strickland vs Dricus du Plessis Everybody was shocked when Strickland upset Adesanya. I wasn’t. Adesanya doesn’t have the top of the scale 80 grade striking that the narrative says he has. What I was surprised by was that Strickland got better. Adesanya does have 75 striking for sure....
Magomed Ankalaev vs Johnny Walker 2 I was thinking maybe Smith’s striking was starting to regress going in to his fight with Ryan Spann. Everybody saw it as a coin flip fight. Then Smith out strikes Spann 90 to 50. Wow. So Smith’s striking hasn’t gone anywhere. Is still...
Leon Edwards vs Colby Covington The difference between the second Edwards vs Usman fight vs the third one is fascinating. You can obviously see in the third fight, Usman isn’t the same guy. Lacked confidence. Wasn’t able to bully Edwards. Most tangibly speaking, Usman didn’t seem to have the...