Shane Burgos' approach reminds me of an early career Conor McGregor. He's an aggressive counterpuncher with solid power who wades forward with his hands at his hips, using speedy head movement to avoid opponents' strikes and lace them with heavy counters.
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I rewatched it. Munhoz landed some good leg kicks, but only for the first minute or so. I though Font clearly got the better of the striking until Munhoz rocked him with that Lead Left Hook and Font made the poor decision to try and take him down.
Between Font and Almeida, I think Font has the better chin for sure and Almeida is nowhere near as dangerous off his back as Munhoz is. I could see Font having success with an offensive wrestling/grappling heavy gameplan or via a striking approach.Comment -
I like Font as well in this one.Comment -
Who loses here?
100.00 317.20 Fighting - 24206 D. Cormier -320 for Game
Fighting - 24246 I. Makhachev -215 for Game
Fighting - 24310 M. Chandler -285 for Game
Fighting - 7100004 Matt Mitrione -165 for GameComment -
Chandler and Mitrione seem like LOCKS lol...I said it....Comment -
Also---I Am about to literally HAMMER this bet.......almost made a thread for it....
Sat 1/27 24421 G. Castro +440O 1½ -1408:00PM (PST) 24422 M. Bektic -665U 1½ +120
THE OVER 1.5 BOYS.....-665 fav that is ALL wrestling heavy vs a guy that can avoid subs and has good feet..... What do you think?
Line off here.....IT IS....Comment -
Also liking...SILVA OVER PACHEL -115
Sat 1/27 24437 J. Silva -115O 2½ -1508:00PM (PST) 24438 V. Pichel -105U 2½ +130Comment -
Think I'm going to do ngannou Cormier parlay. Pays about even money. Then just bet almeida straight.Comment -
145 lbs.: Kyle Bochniak vs. Brandon DavisMMA MANIA PART 1 -
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145 lbs.: Matt Bessette vs. Enrique Barzola
Matt Bessette (12-1) put together a respectable 5-2 Bellator MMA record before making a full jump to CES, where he won and twice defended the Featherweight title. This got him a “Tuesday Night Contender Series” shot against Kurt Holobaugh, who knocked him stiff in the first round, but was subsequently discovered to have used an IV, resulting in a “No Contest.”
He replaces Arnold Allen, who ran into **** issues, on around a week’s notice.
Enrique Barzola (13-3-1) took home the gold on The Ultimate Fighter (TUF): “Latin America” 2, out-grappling Mexican knockout artists Horacio Gutierrez in the tournament finals. Though a questionable decision loss to Kyle Bochniak halted his momentum, he enters the cage on a two-fight win streak, most recently defeating TUF: “Latin America” competitor Gabriel Benitez.
“El Fuerte” stands three inches shorter than the 5’10” “Mangler.”
I’ll admit, I haven’t watched as much tape on Bessette as I should. I had most of a writeup ready ahead of time for Allen vs. Barzola, since I was going to a place with iffy wifi, but then Allen had to go and have **** problems, so I’m working on limited information. There’s only so much you can do when you have to reconnect to the network every two minutes of a YouTube video.
Said limited information shows that — while Bessette is very capable on the inside — his ringcraft isn’t great and he can be overwhelmed by pressure. Barzola’s rapid-fire boxing and adeptness at blending his striking and takedowns seem like a good way to punish those deficiencies ... especially on short notice. Barzola -- who has proven his grit — sets the pace, lands punches and spends enough of the fight in top position to earn the win.
Prediction: Barzola via unanimous decision
115 lbs.: Maryna Moroz vs. Jamie Moyle
Maryna Moroz (8-2) sent the women’s Strawweight rankings a-wobblin’ in her short-notice debut, which saw her upset the massively favored Joanne Calderwood by flying armbar. She’s gone 2-2 since, defeating Cristina Stanciu and Danielle Taylor between losses to Valerie Letourneau and Carla Esparza.
Five of her wins have come by either armbar or straight armbar.
Jamie Moyle (4-2) went 3-1 in Invicta, submitting J.J. Aldrich along the way, before becoming Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s second pick on TUF 23. Her run ended in the quarterfinals, after which she defeated Kailin Curran and dropped a decision to Viviane Pereira in UFC proper.
At 5’1,” she is six inches shorter than Moroz, though the reach difference is only two inches.
Man, that height difference. Moyle’s a capable wrestler and Moroz is too comfortable off of her back, but the other “Iron Lady” should be able to tear apart Moyle on the feet, using that range to stifle Moyle’s takedowns and steadily wear her down. Pereira showed that Moyle can be overpowered on the feet, which certainly bodes well for Moroz, and Moyle is neither the striker Letourneau is nor the takedown artist Esparza is.
So long as Moroz is busier and more aggressive than she was against Taylor, she should take this comfortably. Moroz pieces her up on the feet for a decision win.
Prediction: Moroz via unanimous decision
155 lbs.: Gleison Tibau vs. Islam Makhachev
Gleison Tibau (32-12) put together a 5-1 streak from 2013 to 2015, beating the likes of Jamie Varner and Norman Parke, before falling short against Tony Ferguson. He bounced back by demolishing Abel Trujillo in 105 seconds, but saw the win overturned to a disqualification loss due to a failed drug test.
This will be his first fight in 26 months as a result.
Islam Makhachev (14-1) saw his unbeaten record go up in smoke thanks to a one-punch knockout loss to Adriano Martins, then had insult added to injury when he tested positive for meldonium before a planned fight with Drew Dober. He has since gotten back on track with consecutive decisions over Chris Wade and Nik Lentz.
He owns six wins by submission and another two by (technical) knockout.
While Makhachev isn’t quite the physical powerhouse Khabib Nurmagomedov is, I can see him finding success against the Brazilian goliath by applying a similar sort of mindset, relentlessly pushing for takedowns and forcing Tibau to either lose a decision on lack of volume or gas himself out trying to keep up. Tibau isn’t a cardio machine at the best of times and a two-year layoff cannot have helped things.
The one real concern is whether Makhachev’s mental fortitude can hold up against a man this big and this adept at stuffing takedowns. Having already powered through a brutal knockout loss, I say yes. Tibau starts off strong, but defending Makhachev’s dizzying array of takedowns and trips eventually wears him out enough for the Dagestani to pull ahead.
Prediction: Makhachev via unanimous decision
Kyle Bochniak (7-2) made his Octagon debut just nine days after his previous fight and, though he ultimately came up short, gave the favored Charles Rosa a run for his money in Boston. He got back on track with a controversial decision over Enrique Barzola, but had no answers against Jeremy Kennedy’s wrestling.
“Crash” stands three inches shorter than Brandon Davis (8-2) at 5’7.”
Davis put a 1-2 start to his professional career behind him with six consecutive victories (or a 6-1 run, depending on whether you ask Sherdog or Tapology) to earn a spot on Dana White’s “Tuesday Night Contender Series.” He made the most of the opportunity with a terrific slugfest against Austin Arnett, whom he overwhelmed with volume on his way to a decision victory.
Three of his eight professional wins have come by form of knockout.
By all rights, Bochniak should be winless (0-3) in UFC. Not a single member of the media had the Barzola decision going his way — they were divided only by whether Bochniak won even a single round. He’s just not all that good, average-to-decent in most areas, but lacking any standout skills.
Davis, on the other hand, does have standout skills, namely insane durability and quality combination striking. With his height and length, he should be able to come out ahead in most exchanges, out-landing Bochniak and using his inconsistent-but-effective head movement to steer clear of return fire. He’ll probably look like a mess afterward, but I fully expect a triumphant debut for Davis.
Prediction: Davis via unanimous decision
170 lbs. Abdul Razak Alhassan vs. Sabah Homasi
Abdul Alhassan’s (8-1) streak of first-round destructions came to an end early last year when Omari Akhmedov survived the early onslaught to take a split decision. He was then booked to face Sabah Homasi (11-7), who slugged it out with him until an awkward stoppage halted things near the end of the first.
Prior to the Akhmedov fight, none of Alhassan’s bouts had lasted more than 83 seconds.
Homasi joined his American Top Team squad on The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 21, where he lost his sole bout to Carrington Banks. He eventually made his UFC debut on a 15-day turnaround against Tim Means, who steadily broke him down for a second-round stoppage, and then came the Alhassan fight.
His 10 stoppage wins are split 8-2 between knockouts and submissions.
The first fight was basically exactly what we expected before Herb Dean stepped in. Considering that Alhassan’s loss to Akhmedov wasn’t enough to halt his free-swinging ways and Homasi has continued to trade leather despite four (technical) knockout losses, I don’t picture the rematch going terribly different. Once again, it will come down to whether Homasi’s chin can hold up long enough for Alhassan to wear himself out.
Methinks no.
While Alhassan was beginning to flag, Homasi is still far, far too fragile and willing to throw down to survive Alhassan’s bombs. Another wild scrap ends midway through the first courtesy of a booming right from “Judo Thunder.”
Prediction: Alhassan via first-round knockout
125 lbs.: Dustin Ortiz vs. Alexandre Pantoja
Dustin Ortiz (17-7) defeated prospects Jose Maria Tome, Ray Borg and Justin Scoggins in his first four UFC appearances, losing only to John Moraga by split decision in that span. A 2-4 crash followed, but he earned the most stunning win of his UFC career in Aug. 2017 with a 15-second knockout of rising Team Alpha Male product Hector Sandoval.
He owns seven wins by knockout and two by submission to strikes.
In 2015, Alexandre Pantoja (18-2) choked out Damacio Page to unify the RFA and Legacy Flyweight titles and earn the No. 1 seed on TUF 24. He reached the semifinals before falling to Hiromasa Ogikubo, then picked up consecutive UFC victories over Eric Shelton and Neil Seery.
He will have two inches of reach on Ortiz.
I genuinely believe Ortiz is better than his recent struggles would indicate. He’s a powerful, dangerous scrambler with a bottomless gas tank and serious physicality for the weight class. Pantoja is a skilled striker and extremely adept at taking the back, but his loss on TUF showed he could be ground down and he had issues with Shelton, who is a similar breed of high-speed grappler.
I expect this to be close and full of arguments on either side, but Ortiz’s strength should put him either on the right side of the fence or in top position for just long enough to eke it out.
Prediction: Ortiz via split decision
145 lbs.: Dan Ige vs. Julio Arce
Dan Ige (8-1) — the latest product of Hawaii to step into the Octagon — slugged his way onto the “Tuesday Night Contender Series” with wins in promotions like Legacy and Titan FC. There, “Dynamite” picked up his sixth consecutive win with a submission over Cuba’s Luis Gomez.
Half of his professional wins have come by submission.
Julio Arce (12-2) racked up a perfect (8-0) amateur record and a flawless (7-0) professional record before falling to Brian Kelleher in consecutive Ring of Combat title bouts. He has since won five straight, stopping Lloyd Irvin acolyte Peter Petties on the fifth episode of “Tuesday Night Contender Series.”
He steps in for the injured Charles Rosa on around three weeks notice.
Ige is cut from a similar cloth as Kelleher, being a come-forward bruiser who leans heavily on his wrestling ... and I was initially leaning his way. Re-watching Arce’s DWTNC fight, though, I find myself favoring him. After a rough first round, he made excellent adjustments to shut down Petties’ grappling and tear him apart at range. Arce has definitely improved since the Kelleher losses and looks to be by far the sharper striker.
Ige’s relentlessness and the fact that Arce took this on short notice make it a bit dicey, but I say Arce controls the stand up and — after an adjustment period — fights off Ige’s takedowns to score the win.
Prediction: Arce via unanimous decisionComment -
The idea that if Volkan has stepped up his training for the past 15 months now that he made the UFC he can suddenly wrestle with Cormier is laughable.
Cormier did not get his wrestling skills over 15months after he randomly decided to get motivated. He has a lifetime of consistent hard training behind his wrestling. Try as hard as he might, Volkan can't just quickly bring himself up to speed for that.Comment -
I like him a lot too. Was on him pretty big for his UFC debut and haven't been disappointed since. Problem is, I also won on Kattar in his debut as an underdog and even though I bet him, he performed better than I expected. I haven't really gotten into capping this one yet, but I like both fighters here quite a bit.Comment -
Another thing to add is that Jimmie Rivera couldn't get Almeida down until the 3rd round (0-3 in the first 2 rounds on TD's) and Font's offensive wrestling is pedestrian at best. This fight will happen on the feet due to this and with both guys being excellent strikers and Almeida's propensity to either kill or be killed, I think this fight ends inside the distance for sure. It's amazing that the Rivera fight lasted 3 rounds. I think the fight not starting round 3 is right at even money and the fight not going the distance is around -160. Trying to think how I want to play it but I think someone goes down for good in this one.Comment -
Font was bullied by the power of Lineker and lost a no doubt 30-27 at best. Not saying Almeida has THAT power and definitely not that chin but if Font struggled against a guy like Lineker's power that bad, he'll struggle against Almeida's as well.Comment -
given DC is 39 and likely on the back end of his awesome career I'm going to go extra heavy on him this fight. Don't know how many more we will get.Comment -
I think he will age fine and can be a force for years to come. It's just a matter of how many fights left do I think he is a bet and forget kind of guy. I'll keep betting on him in his 40s but I can't count on that chin when he is in 40s especially given age will slow him down soon.Last edited by brooks85; 01-18-18, 09:33 PM.Comment -
Quick question to the peanut gallery~
Does anyone remember DC purportedly using a towel to make weight?
Afterward, DC said he was moving up to heavyweight and would never fight @ 205 again.
In the Jon Jones fight DC had trouble making weight. For anyone who watched the fight, did you think that DC didn't look 100% in the cage? To me, he looked like he was sleepwalking in there. He hadn't recovered from the weight cut enough to be fully conscious of everything, mentally. (That might factor in to how Jon Jones was able to set DC up for that kick.)
What are everyone's thoughts on this? DC vs Vokan is a tough fight to predict. We've never seen Volkan's TD defense tested. We don't know if DC can fix his weight cut issues. We also don't know how good Volkan's sub defense is. There are some unanswered questions, there.Comment -
I don’t agree with that. I scored both rounds as close 10-9s for Jones.Comment -
Definitely passing on Burgos. I'm definitely on Kattar on ToutMaster though. Burgos hasn't been tested at all on the feet and the way Burgos penetrates around all the time and Kattar is a pretty good striker with some grit, I'll take the shot.Comment -
round 1 was a toss up very even round, slightly lean Jones
round 2 DC won though
DC would be a p4p king if Jones wasnt around or juicing tbh
basically bet DC against anybody but Jones and youll make money
the GUS fight was super tight though and i remember i was leaning Gustafsson decision on thatComment -
DC gonna get dropped... Chin has been cracked in last fight, DC gonna have flash backs and get caught again..
Then announces his retirement after the loss..
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JIBBBY....MAYBEBut no way he goes round for round with DCOezdemir wins by TKO/KO +456 Comment -
I think rumble and Gustafson were way tougher fights for dc than this will be. Going to lay on him every round. Possible sub too or ref stoppage. Also showing a head kick by arguable the best uric fighter ever Jon Jones makes no sense. Ozdemir isn't excellent at head kicks if I remember correctly and definitely isn't Jon Jones.Comment -
lol.... look at DCS record and tell me hes gonna lose to Volkan whosdameer
laughable id cap DC -500Comment -
Volkan hits harder then Gus.. Volkan very good in close range and clinch situations with his striking.. Could see DC getting worked in the clinch and dropped...
DC 39 years old not getting any better at this point.. Getting worse, contemplating retirement now also which is never a good sign..
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