Yeah, Stout is hard to keep down from what we've seen. However, Tavares would probably be the best grappler he's faced. Lauzon gassed extremely early and easily in the Stout fight, so I give Stout little credit. Stout's UFC career is littered with strikers. Certain LW strikers seem to live spoiled lives, where they get favorable matchups. Spencer Fisher was like that until they started giving him grapplers and he got destroyed. Stout is probably better defensively. But I'm not convinced Tavares can't dominate him. But yeah, I can see why you'd like Stout, since Tavares got his chin checked by freaking Roller.
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I think the odds will be rather close with -150 Stout +120 Tavares
Stouts high punch kick count mixed in with the chance of him hurting Tavares is what is making me confident. Stout rocked Stephens twice and hurt him with leg kicks
This will not be monster play, or mega play, or uber play but given the right odds, i will drop 5u on this
(very rare for me to go over 2-3u)Comment -
first card where all the Prelims are on FX (Sportsnet ONE in Canada). Listed at 8pm EST, can't see how they fit 6 prelims in 2hrsComment -
Steelers ML vs Broncos / Aldo ITD - degen action play, pays a bit over 3:1Comment -
Maldonado outComment -
Does anyone know too much on Gonzaga's opponent? Can't wait to see the big guy back in action, best leg kicks in MMA haha. I like Aldo over Mendes, Team Alpha Male has failed to impress me too much. Not too sure on Rumble vs Belfort, Vitor is still a bad bad man.Comment -
As was McCorkle until he faced Struve.
Ednaldo's last opponent was making his MMA debut, the most experienced opponent he's faced was Geronimo who quit after the first round from exhaustion even though he won the round and spent majority of it on top of Ednaldo! His quality of opponents is questionable to say the leastComment -
In his earlier career he was more of a grappler. Then he knocked out CroCop and got to thinking he was an elite striker. Still got some nasty leg kicks.
Interesting, so not a great striker and not too good of TDD. I'd say Nepao takes this pretty easily then right? Leg Kicks and BJJ BB are pretty tough tools to overcome.Comment -
Video isnt great... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXnzt0yJH5Y
Play by play:
Round 1:
The two start pawing for distant Gonzaga moves in landing a few quick jabs. Porter fires back landing a good straight. The crowed is behind the champ. As he fires a great body head combo. Napão is content to work his jab. He lands a quick stright and fires a leg kick that could be heard through the areana. Napão stops the action with a shot below the belt.
The two reset. Napão lands another solid leg kick . He is being very caution and calculated in his moves. Parker is working his jab. Napão fires a leg kick Parker rushes in with a quick combo knocking Napão off balance for a moment but he recovers. Napão continues to work his leg keg kicks. Parker pawing for range and fires a solid straight Napão answers back with a hard leg kick . It seems Napão is trying to chop down Porter with the leg kicks, maybe to set up the takedown in the later rounds They continue to fire combos not doing much damage as the round ends.
Round 2:
Parker being aggressive in round 2 tring to land some jabs and gets a solid leg kick in. So far he is showing the most forward movement. looks like he is waiting for his moment. Lands another solid leg kick Parker fires back with a combo, nap covers over and back peddles. Napão goes for a head kick. blocked. and shoots for his first takedown which Porter stuffs easily. The two dance again. Napão lands a couplpe good jab.s Parker catches him with a good right but Napão quickly recovers. Napão is sharting to show some redness in the side of his head. Parker landned a hard rigth that could bea heard everywhere. Napão is moving away. Parker landed another good headshot. Napão covering up still dancing around the ring. Parker fires a couple good front kicks to Napão’s head, blocked. Parker seems to be scoring themost this round. With a minute left Napão is not showing much foward movement. He lands a decent one two combo. He is trying to land a hard right leaving him open for parkers counter combo sending Napão back but he recovers.
With ten seconds left Napão puts some distance between him and Parkers combos. The round ends.
Round 3:
Porter is pawing tring to find his range. Napão goes for a head kick. Blocked. Parker lands a solid right that stuns Napão for a second. He fires a greeat combo that catches Parker. Napão rushes in to follow up landing some heavy punches and floors Parker! Parker grabs onto Napão and works his way to his feet. They clinch now, as Parker is trying to clear the cobwebbs.Napão trips Parker to the mat and is firing off bombs to Parker’s head. Napão works and gets the mount and continues the ground and pound with Parker pinned against the cage. Parker trying to escape to his feet and is scrambling. Gonzaga keeps him down utilizing the BJJ he is famous for and with great body control!! Parker has nowhere to go!! Parker is turtling with Napão in back side control unleashing bombs to his head. He takes Porter back looking for the rear naked choke , still raining down punches to the side of Parker’s head to soften him up. Parker scrambles desperately looking to shake Napão off and Napão easily moves to mount and transitions into an arm triangle!! Parker taps immediately!!!
Winner: Gabriel “Napao” Gonzaga by Arm TriangleComment -
Well that's not exactly inspiring play-by-play...how good of a striker is this guy?Comment -
Stylistically I like Stout over Tavares. Stout has the superior standup. He has excellent control of the distance with leg kicks and a stiff jab. Tavares' standup has improved a lot recently but, make no mistake, he'll lose this fight, possibly by KO if he can't take Sam down. Stout also has very underrated TDD and decent scrambling. He was able to scramble up from Edwards' first round takedown and rolled out of a kimura attempt against Round 1 Lauzon, no easy feat even if it was his first fight back from knee surgery.
The wild card here will be where Stout is at mentally. This is his first fight since his trainer and brother-in-law Shawn Tompkins passed away. We saw how that affected Hominick already. Stout has had more time to recover from the shocking tragedy which will help, and he saw how Mark erred so he likely won't make the same mistake. I could've seen him coming out more aggressively looking for the KO since his most recent KOTN performance but I think he'll be more patient and settle in after seeing Hominick fail at UFC 140 by making this mistake.
It doesn't help that it's in Rio and it's Sam's first fight since Shawn's death but I like a moderate play on Stout here.Comment -
what happens if Aldo wins by decision, that will make 4 of 5 fight going to decision putting him in the company of fighters like GSP and Cruz for not finishing fightsComment -
i think the difference is, gsp and cruz have styles that make it seem like they are playing it safe and avoiding risks associated with going for the finish (except the dan hardy fight in gsp's case). i dont think this applies to aldo. i dont think anyone can argue that aldo has a "play it safe" mentality.
anyway, i think he will get the finish against mendes. just a gut feeling.Comment -
dude is big, still crazy that a lighweight like Rich Clementi choked him outComment -
johnson is going to wrestlefuck vitor to a 30-27Comment -
Rumble gettin some action...Vitor now +101 on pinnacleComment -
Vitor has black belt in jiu-jitsu, but it's no secret that he prefers to knockout opponents. Against the last pure striker or brawler that you faced, Dan Hardy, you used your wrestling to grind out a win. How likely are we to see a similar tactic against Vitor?
I don't think it's going to happen. Dan Hardy was a striker, and of course his ground game was his weakest, his wrestling and stuff. I used it my advantage, because I'm a wrestler and a striker at the same time.
And I was out for a year and a half or whatever, so why wouldn't I just use my strength to my advantage like that?
With Vitor, I've got to make sure I'm on point. I have to make sure I get off before he does, with the punches and stuff. If I have to rely on my wrestling, I will. But I don't see this going to the ground; I really don't.Comment -
I wouldn't count on it. Even if Rumble is a big 185er, he will be dealing with bigger, stronger oppenents (ie Belfort) than what he is accustomed too fighting at 170. I think people are using the Dan Hardy fight as a comparison fight to this one. Vitor is far superior in every department to Hardy. If Vitor can keep it standing, it's his fight to lose. His TDD defense is solid and he doesn't use kicks that often, which will make it even harder for Rumble to secure the TD. While the Sexyama fight didn't tell us a whole lot, it did clearly show Vitor still has the same speed and power in his hands he has always possessed. Plus, Vitor will undoubtedly be HIGHLY MOTIVATED with it being in Brazil and the opportunity to fight Silva on the horizon. This is an important factor when you're dealing with a bit a head case like Vitor. I generally fade fighters who's records date back to the 90's and their highlight reels include a lot of footage of them wearing wrestling shoes, but I like Vitor to overwhelm Rumble with a barrage of punches, knock him down and secure a rear naked in the first round.Comment -
Let's see how much home field advantage can help the Brazilian fighters again.
The previous Rio event had a lot of winners.Comment -
Thiago Tavares +115
Sam Stout -145Comment -
Again, Nick is pretty much spot on IMOComment -
2.6u on Stout at -130
.5u on EO at +120Comment -
what makes you like EO? he seems a bit sloppy in fightsComment -
I like tavares hereComment -
NICK!!!!! give us a bone pal...
I don't see too much value on the undercard imo.
Already looking forward to the next card.Comment
