Andreas Gustafsson vs Pat Pytlik Gustafsson’s striking is a borderline 60 grade. Close. But he gets hit way too much so I have him as a 55 for now. Chris’ Pick: Gustafsson by 1st round knockout. What odds I think the favorite should be at: Gustafsson -135 Rizvan Kuniev...
Dricus Du Plessis vs Israel Adesanya Prior to Adesanya matching up with Strickland, I said Adesanya being priced at -600 was bonkers. Maybe the market thought Adesanya had top of the scale 80 grade striking. Market was probably really under rating Strickland’s striking. Striking numbers were stunning with Strickland...
Mansur Abdul-Malik vs Wes Schultz Most of Schultz’s fights, he immediately goes to his wrestling and gets his way. Doesn’t show a lot of his stand up. Possible his striking tool could be a 60. Only 1 fighter has made it past 2 minutes in Abdul-Malik’s 5 pro fights....
Serghei Spivac vs Marcin Tybura I’m pretty sure Spivac’s striking is a 65, but wow, he really melted against Ciryl Gane. Spivac was out struck 105 to 11. Might be one of the widest gaps in striking in UFC history. Needless to say, it’s possible Spivac’s striking is closer...
Cory Sandhagen vs Umar Nurmagomedov Chris’ Pick: Sandhagen by 2nd round knockout. What odds I think the favorite should be at: Sandhagen -275 Shara Magomedov vs Michal Oleksiejczuk Hard to take away much from Magomedov’s last fight with Trocoli, who was already a mystery, being that he hadn’t fought...
Leon Edwards vs Belal Muhammad 2 It does look like Muhammad has gotten better since his first fight with Edwards in 2021. Wrestling is on the low end of a 75 grade. And I know Muhammad’s striking is only a 70 as the striking with Burns was close to...
Amanda Lemos vs Virna Jandiroba Whether Dern’s grappling is a 70 or a 75 doesn’t really matter. Dern did out grapple Lemos so I’m confident Lemos grappling is a 65. Market thinks Godinez has 70 striking but the numbers aren’t there to support that grade. Which means Jandiroba’s striking...
Rose Namajunas vs Tracy Cortez And here I was thinking Cortez’s striking was only a 60, going into the Jasudavicius fight. First time Cortez really relied on the stand up tools and she out struck Jasudavicius 91 to 58. Grading Namajunas’ striking is quite the puzzle. On the one...
Alex Pereira vs Jiri Prochazka 2 Prochazka could have a bit of a wrestling advantage. He took Pereira down in the 1st round in their first fight. But I don’t see him trying to do that for 5 rounds, nor would he have the cardio to do it being...
Robert Whittaker vs Ikram Aliskerov I know Aliskerov has a ton of hype right now. Three 1st round finishes in three UFC fights. Each lasting a little over 2 minutes. But. The striking numbers between Aliskerov and Hawes were close to equal. And despite the quick KO with Alves,...