I think tomorrow's card is sneaky good, especially with Spann/Krylov being added. Working on my picks now, if anybody cares I'll post them sometime tomorrow.
Quick thoughts: Dvalishvili by sub. I think he takes Yan down over and over and breaks him. Romanov ITD. Same thought process. Lots of takedowns. Spann by KO Petrino ITD Williams ITD Grant (probably by decision) Dumas ITD Bautista in R1 Gravely (with lots of takedowns) Nam in an upset (not betting on this) Harris ITD I think this card is set up for fireworks. Lots of finishes. 3 PM start!
He’s really fortunate Merab turned down a title fight. He could find himself right back in the mix, if he can pull off a win
https://www.strfish.ga/2023/03/2b0920.html https://www.thestreameast.to/ufc/ufc-fight-night-yan-vs-dvalishvili/
That Tybura fight must have really effed with Romanov. He didn’t look like the same fighter at all. I was high on him.
Only turned it on for the last fight so not sure how the rest did but thanks for the last fight. He didn't get the sub but you nailed how it'd go.
Merab found a cheat code in MMA scoring. The way it is now, takedown scoring can only be offensive. Takedown defense doesn't score any points. So there's no risk to shooting 49 shots and only getting 11.
11 takedowns is kinda nuts anyway, but I would argue all of those unsuccessful takedown attempts would factor into aggressiveness and octagon control. Merab controlled that entire fight.
Sure. But his opponent stopped 38 takedowns. There's no points for that. This isn't the fight to use as the golden example for my argument but he 100% found a cheat code in MMA scoring. If you have insane cardio, just shoot nonstop the entire fight. There's literally no downside.
That's literally how Colby Covington has been fighting, throw volume strikes without much KO power and swarm your opponent with wrestling when they try to strike back
normally I’d agree but Yan’s eye was closed and he had to fight southpaw after the 2nd the round. That wasn’t a grapplefest it was an ass whooping
I have no idea what to pick this Saturday. Usman was clearly a level above Edwards through 24 minutes, but getting KO’d like that changes most fighters forever.
Most fighters would need oxygen if they attempted half that many takedowns at the pace of the fight last night.
Was super high on him. He was on the verge of elite. He didn’t prepare to fight a bigger veteran at altitude and paid for it late in the fight. so his response was to add 30 pounds of flab and basically conceding the fight if his first takedown attempt didn’t land