UFC Fight Night: Strickland vs. Imavov

The official Tapology discussion thread for the event!

I Wouldn't call Basharat a lock, I think it's a 50/50 fight because Basharat lowers his guard too much especially from rounds 2 to 3, as he gets more tired. Mendonca is a much more technical striker with a hugee reach advantage while being short, I definitly see him catching his chin.

Now this is all of my memories, didn't watch tape yet so I may be ********ting haha, we'll talk in the weeks to come :)

i'm a bit of a homer and kinda biased when it comes to dan ige because he's genuinely one of the very few dudes who barely cuts any weight and doesn't abuse the weight cutting system so that instantly made me like him

off of instinct alone, i think dan ige is going to be the highest fight iq fighter damon jackson will have faced (excluding topuria - we've seen a lot of people in damon jackson's career unironically engage in the grappling with him which is insane leading to jackson easily winning)

in my head in theory, dan ige's wrestling background and all those years of training with khabib's and usman's teams should finally come in handy stuffing all those takedowns and end up making it a competitive fight on the feet, an area in which dan ige has the slight advantage

there's definitely questions to be made about dan ige's grappling in his last few fights but IMO he's been only outgrappled by really high level grapplers like evloev (evloev might genuinely have the most suffocating chain wrestling and takedown attempts in the ufc right now) and the korean zombie who at first glance looks bad but then you realize KZ is a super high level bjj player who's outgrappled people like dustin poirier in the past

all of this is off of instict alone though and I will be making a more detailed breakdown on this specific matchup leading up to fight week for sure so anything could change

* Edited at 12.19.2022, 9:11 AM ET *

i think the basharat brothers along with amir albazi are genuinely 3 of the scariest guys in the lower weight classes in the ufc

mendonca does have some slick bjj coupled with veeery sick muay thai to go along with it but I just don't think the experience nor the fight IQ are really there

his most high profile fight and his biggest "test" is ashiek ajim, a regional can crusher with quite literally 0 chin and 0 heart in him

basharat's striking does have some glaring holes, dude unironically fights like a bum orthodox version of conor mcgregor. his chin hangs high up in the air and a lot of the time he's way too comfortable in his standup and elects not to grapple when in like 99% of the matchups he's ever going to face he's going to be the superior grappler

despite all that though, his chin has never shown to be lacking and he has dominated the far better competition (trevin jones and tony gravely are both better than their records suggest) 

as long as basharat doesn't toy with his food and actually chooses to grapple the majority of the fight, this matchup IMO should be pretty easy 

i will also be making a detailed breakdown on this fight leading up to the card because basharat's grappling and scrambling ability is just wayyyyy too ******* good not to analyze

tell all bench warmers
naughty nuisance is the starter
style points while Mike ponders
hand in cookie jar Vince Carter

* Edited at 12.19.2022, 9:01 AM ET *

Thank you. Interesting fight indeed. Will look forward to seeing your breakdowns 

Something something random Andrew Tate
Nonsense random something Rogan Nonsense
LeBron something something stacking em
Nonsense something Nonsense random Tartara
Random Nonsense Jake Paul something random
Spitting rhymes Nonsense something something random
PrisonMike something random Politics something
Nonsense Nonsense random conspiracy something"

Insert bad photoshop of NBA with Steve Carells face

Everyone on Tapology.... "Wow Mike you are a Master lyrical genius" 👏 👏 👏 

thank you for the compliment
i count eight different topics
flaming any suckas now
would be wasted arguments
small win here small win there
if bars are bad
why do you care
twenty other accounts
spamming nonsense in the air
Prison Mike does not judge
seems like someone's scared

* Edited at 12.19.2022, 10:36 AM ET *

Which fight is everyone looking forward to the most on the first UFC card of the new year? I really want to see if Shavkat can keep his momentum going in the welterweight division by finishing Geoff Neal and keeping that 100% finish rate intact

Current Card and Early Preview: https://oddsmokermma.com/2022/12/19/ufc-vegas-67-current-card-early-preview/

i thought i smoked you last thread man what the hell are you doing here?

Razak Alhassan vs. Ribeiro
Claudio Ribeiro, TKO, R1
Lock

Is SmokerSteve that bad? I haven't checked out his picks. No need to after all. I have mine which are amazing, and can cross reference with you and Andrew which is absolutely foolproof and bulletproof. 

* Edited at 12.19.2022, 10:18 PM ET *

Also to guarantee an already sure thing, we just check against Tartaras picks and make sure we have the opposite of everything he has down

Lol. Well that's what having a split personality maniac like Tartara/PrisonMike who thinks he is Picasso/Eminem on the site does for you

* Edited at 12.20.2022, 1:49 AM ET *

Everyone hating on our boy Steve... 🍿 

****smokersteve is terrible but that's besides the point, i'd still flame him even if his analysis and picks weren't terrible

there's something VERY wrong in this world if the caliber of analysis that ****smokersteve is presenting is worth a whole ******* site with ads and links to donations slapped on it

that should only be reserved for elite, top tier, coherent and accurate analysis that only me, you and andrew can present

maybe we should go down that path? maybe we should put a paywall behind our analysis? it's infinitely better than these bums who post their sites and their donation links, so why not?

give me a few good reasons why the bums on this site deserve our ******* wisdom and our elite analysis that frankly they won't get anywhere else

I know it's christmas and I should be feeling the christmas spirit, but when I see bums like ****smokersteve slapping donation links on their ****** picks and breakdown, it infuriates me. 

realistically, a joint analysis comprised by me, you and andrew should cost 100 dollars per event but we're here giving it out for free and at the same time we have to put up with disrespectful bums like ****smokersteve, the audacity is insane.

* Edited at 12.20.2022, 6:37 AM ET *

Soriano vs. Kopylov
Punahele Soriano, TKO, R1
puna has the heavier hands and this is almost a guaranteed standup fight

Razak Alhassan vs. Ribeiro
Abdul Razak Alhassan, TKO, R1
knowing this fight ends in under two minutes might as well bet the dog

Soriano vs. Kopylov
Roman Kopylov, DEC
zero iq to wrestle in the ufc. and his striking is super predictable. kopylov via euro style