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...
Kai Kara France vs Amir Albazi I think Albazi’s striking is a 65 now. He showed 60 striking in the 1st round of his last fight with Costa, hurt Costa in the 2nd and then it was one way traffic after that. But when Albazi started to land more...
MacKenzie Dern vs Angela Hill Did Hill’s striking level up to a 70 grade in her win over Ducote? Or has Jessica Penne’s striking regressed to a 50? Because if Penne has 50 striking, it would explain Ducote being able to out class her with 60 striking and how...
Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs Jailton Almeida If you want to see the difference between 75 grappling and 70 grappling, watch Curtis Blaydes vs Abdurakhimov. And Blaydes finished the fight via ground and pound, in the mount. But he had to work to get there. He didn’t get a dominant position...