UFC 251 On ESPN+ PPV [7/11] “Fight Island” (Usman/Masvidal, Volk/Holloway, Yan/Aldo, & More)

[8====D]

What a shame

Been a fan of dude since his street fighting days, but I can't support him anymore

Usman by SUB

 

[Kunty McPhuck]

first off, i hope this card can stay in tact without the usual MMA fukkery and now Covid 19 fukking things up but these are my thoughts.

Usman/Masdival
How poetic of gambred to get called up for this fight like he did the first time in a McDonald's drive through fighting for Kimbo. There is so many variables that go into this fight, is gamebred in shape coming into this in a week? what about the 20 pound weight cut? will the change of opponent (and the style) affect Usman like it did with Tony Ferguson? This adds another element to a hype main event that the people were craving for. It wasn't so long where many viewed Jorge as a gatekeeper who usually cruised through his fights that ended up biting him in the ass in split decisions and ever since hes been on this "Street Jesus" run, we have been witnessed a Resurrection in his career and a fan base that that has crossed over to the casual viewer. Now going into the fight it comes to, which gap is bigger? Usman wrestling with Jorge or Masdival striking with Usman? Usman wrestling is probably top 5 in the UFC, and without a camp for gamebred to train for, this could be the begging to the end for masdival, i also do want to point out, just like Anthony Pettis, Masdival has very underated grappling that is often outshined through their striking. Jorge has submitted Cheisa and had damien maia on his back and couldnt submit him. Now in the striking side, we all saw Colby hit Usman and we all know that Jorge is the much better sriker with a bigger arsenal of offense, this is the biggest danger for Usman, getting caught early and receive a baptism on the beach. This fight can go in two ways, a decision for Usman or a KO for Jorge Masdival. Even tho i am rooting for Gamebred, i'm going to pick Usman to win by Decision.

Holloway/Volkanowski
Another pick em fight, we all have seen how dominant max can be. He has dispatched Ortega in the past but now he is in crossroads, he lost to Poirier and to Volk within one year. Was the activity of having three 5 round fights in 8 months take a toll on him? Volk is a technical sound fighter and coached very well from the City Kick Boxing guys. he is a point fighter and he used that to kill maxs legs in the first fighter. Even tho,i do consider max to be the more dynamic striker and fighter, him admitting that he has not spared and he to zoom call his coaches throughput camp. This is concerning but at the same time, Max also came into his first 3 UFC fighters learning combos from the old UFC video games. I should say Volk should win a decision, i'm going to say max wins a decision.

Aldo/Yan
Even has a aldo fan, he did not deserve this title shot. When i look at aldo, he still a good fighter but at the same time, is a shell of his former self from that dominant champion. When i look at yan's fight i can buy into the hype of this top prospect, but i did noticed that he for some reason drags himself into these brawls and he gets cracked, happened with Dodson and with the Faber fight, he got cocky mid exchanged and got stunned from a punch, you can not afford to do that with Aldo at all. Im going to still say this is Yan's time and hes going to win the 135 belt since aldo has looked so/so in his last couple of big fights.

Poirier was on Teddy Atlas podcast, saying that Masvidal was helping him and others in training to prepare for their fights. So he isnt coming into the fight cold. I will say that Mike Brown not being in his corner could make more of a difference tbh.

 

[So UnThotful]

Poirier was on Teddy Atlas podcast, saying that Masvidal was helping him and others in training to prepare for their fights. So he isnt coming into the fight cold. I will say that Mike Brown not being in his corner could make more of a difference tbh.

Yeah I saw that after my post

Depends if he was there to just help train Dustin etc or he was training in secret hoping for the fight to fall through

We shall see on Saturday if he duped us

 

[aceboon]

 

[I AM WE ARE]

What a shame

Been a fan of dude since his street fighting days, but I can't support him anymore

Usman by KO

There you go fixed for you

 

[aceboon]

Honestly, I think Gilbert Burns would have been a tougher opponent for Kamaru.

Stylistically, I'm trying to see where Masvidal gives Usman much trouble. He has a hand speed (and foot speed) advantage so he will have to fight from the outside or use combination punching quickly and try to get out of range.

I just see Usman winning in dominant fashion. Masvidal hasn't been finished in over a decade, but I think Kamaru can do it if he gets him on his back and ground and pounds. It won't be a 1 or 2 round thing. He will have to break him down and finish him in the 4th or 5th round.

Clearly in the standup. Usman will be trying to take him down but Masvidal is better on the feet than anyone Usman has faced in his career, only one close is RDA and RDA is more straightforward in his approach and can be pushed against the cage too easily.

 

[OfTheCross]

Jorge may be MAGA but he a beast.

 

[Omar Little]

Jorge may be MAGA but he a beast.

 

[RedEye Jedi]

For some reason I always thought Masvidal was bigger than Usman

 

[storyteller]

They need to green screen the exterior and make that ish look like the beach or something. Not a damned thing "island" about that arena , what are we gonna get some sweet shots of sand during intermission?

 

[So UnThotful]

 

[storyteller]

I take time out to highlight sleeper fights and prospects damn near every fight. Since me and @LinusCaldwell went deep on the main card fights in the podcast here UFC 251 Podcast Preview by FTESWL • A podcast on Anchor

I decided to write up some of the prospects and fighters that I'm looking forward to on the undercard for extra material. So here are some names to look out for during the prelims and why...

Who to look out for on the undercards:
Leo Santos: Let's start with accolades. ADCC bronze medal, World Jiu Jitsu Bronze and silver medals in back to back years. Hasn't lost a fight since 2009, been in the UFC since 2013. He's TKO'ed Kevin Lee and submitted Tony Rocco Martin. 6-0-1 in the UFC with a draw to Norman Parke being the closest thing to a blemish. Also, at ADCC he tapped out a prime GSP with a not quite flying armbar and he did that in about 1 minute flat:



So how come you don't know him? He's had 1 fight since 2016 and averages 1 fight per year since joining the UFC. It like if Khabib never got past the injury bug. That's kept him from ever climbing the ladder to see where he stands among the better guys. His opponent is 10-0 Roman Bogatov, a fighter I'm not familiar with.

Jiri Prochazka: One thing the UFC has always been good about is smiting champions from other leagues by throwing them to the absolute wolves. It's an opportunity if you're Alvarez or Gaethje and a nightmare if you're say...Will Brooks. Enter Rizin LHW champ Jiri Prochazka; a man who last tasted defeat in 2015 against a near prime King Mo. He would avenge that one loss. His resume basically shows a guy who has beaten the best LHW's that aren't locked in to Bellator and the UFC. He's beaten Jake Heun, King Mo, C.B. Dollaway and Fabio Maldonado; those are all former UFC fighters who stuck around a while.

Former UFC names not convincing enough, how about the ridiculous finish rate? In the 10 wins since his last loss, Jiri has 9 knock outs. In the 11 fights prior to that he had 10 wins by finish and 1 draw (8 KO's and 2 submissions for the dubs). In 30 fights Prochazka has seen the scorecards twice...it's kill or be killed. He's getting the champ treatment too, he'll face Volkan Oezdemir. Oezdemir is the guy who most people think got robbed by Dominick Reyes the way many think Reyes got robbed by Jon Jones. Oezdemir is among the most well rounded bigs in MMA point blank, he's super athletic and without any glaring weaknesses. This fight could be a show stealer and the winner ought to get immediate high rank competition.

Here's 5 mins of Jiri mostly just mauling people:


Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos: Zaleski dos Santos starts from a Capoeira base and treats every fight like he's Liam Neeson and the other guy kidnapped his family. Dude is 8-2 in the UFC and one of those L's was his debut in 2015. He's beaten a lot of high caliber unranked opponents (Curtis Millender, Sean Strickland, Omari Akhmedov, Max Griffin, Lyman Good). But the record, great as it is, isn't the main reason I list him. Zaleski dos Santos is a buzz saw and he finishes dudes with everything. I've seen him close on spinning heel kicks, flying knees, body shots and submissions (BJJ Black Belt with the same pace on the ground as standing). Here are some examples:



And this one's a twofer: Here's where things get even more interesting. His opponent, Muslim Salikhov has a nickname that should clue you in to my excitement...King of Kung Fu. He's one of only 2 non-Chinese competitors to ever win a Wushu World championship. He has 200 kickboxing fights and 12 KO's in 18 mma fights (only 2 decisions). Salikhov had arguably the knockout of the year once a while a back and he did it to well known former UFC lightweight, Melvin Guillard:

The clash at distance: What makes this one particularly interesting to me is that both Wushu and Capoeira heads have means to explode and attack from long distance. They're both comfortable exploding across gaps that most fighters have to use two and three misdirects or angle changes to break into.

There's just heat up and down this. Guys like Amirkhani and Tybura also had hype in the past but don't get listed because they have to regain momentum. Strictly speaking, we've got a top to bottom amazing show coming.

 

[LinusCaldwell]

Put money on all my dogs and Rose. Aldo the only shaky pick.

 

[The axe murderer]

@storyteller great breakdown. I knew salikhov won the wushu world champ didn't know he was only one of 2 non chinese competitors to

 

[Apollo Creed]

What time is the event?