UFC Fight Night: Fiziev vs. Gamrot

The official Tapology discussion thread for the event!

Dan Ige is a gatekeeper, if your top featherweight you beat him, if your not, you lose to him, Bryce is a top featherweight

Only top fighter Ige beat is a robbery decision to Edson Barbasa, beside that all he's other wins are mid

Would you really say Barboza is an elite Featherweight? He's 3-3 at Featherweight with 0 top 10 wins, right?

Fiziev vs. Gamrot
Rafael Fiziev, DEC
Fiziev via Dec. Better on the feet, solid TDD. May even TKO Gamrot

Mitchell vs. Ige
Dan Ige, TKO, R2
Ige via TKO. Mitchell is alright. Super hittable. Sidenote: too many personal issues going on with Bryce currently.

Rodriguez vs. Waterson-Gomez II
Marina Rodriguez, DEC
Rodriguez via DEC. Two old women. Snoozefest.

Battle vs. Fletcher
Bryan Battle, TKO, R1
Battle via TKO/KO.

Means vs. Fialho
Andre Fialho, TKO, R1
Fialho via TKO/KO. Means is bad. Fialho has CTE but can bang.

Collier vs. Usman
Mohammed Usman, TKO, R1
Usman via TKO/KO. Usman is awful but fatass Jake is hittable and unathletic as ****.

Inoue vs. Goldy
Mizuki Inoue, DEC
Inque DC. Goldy is awful.

Rendon vs. Vidal
Tamires Vidal, TKO, R1
Vidal via TKO/KO. Vidal bats for the opposite team (if ya catch my drift) Should be another KO for her

Fiziev vs. Gamrot
Rafael Fiziev, DEC
Fiziev comes back with some slight improvements and wins this

Mitchell vs. Ige
Bryce Mitchell, DEC
I like Ige in his last few fights but Mitchell's wresting/ground game should be the edge

I see people mentioning some personal problems for Bryce? Does anyone know what is it about?

Yeah, what issues are those?

his ex-girlfriend is allegedly stalking him IRL and vandalizing his property (keyword here being allegedly) and on top of that Bryce is just generally a pretty insane person

 Argueta vs Johns  
Argueta SUB RD 3

Really interesting clash of styles here. We have the patient, technical counter striking style of johns vs the aggressive pressure wrestling style of argueta. We already saw a much more striking heavy version of this fight play out in Johns vs castaneda. Castaneda didn’t let johns breathe for a second; he walked forward from the start to the end & it really gave johns issues. He did okay in round 1 but from then on the pressure just melted him. Argueta is not nearly as good of a striker but he keeps that same aggressive pace the whole fight & has never ending cardio. What I don’t like about argeuta’s striking is he leaves in his chin up quite a lot. He has yet to face someone who can take advantage of this but I wouldn’t test it against a counter striker in johns. Argeuta makes up for this by again, always being aggressive & also putting everything into each shot. Johns has always had good tdd but he has never faced someone who is gonna constantly keep shooting on him. We saw in his fight vs diego silva that argueta can go five rounds at a high pace no issue even when he can’t get the takedown. Argueta will probably drop round 1 due to not being able to get a td & being a worse striker but I think his cardio and pressure is gonna really hurt johns as the fight goes on. I think he will ghave a lot of wrestling success later in the fight and will drown johns. 

Means vs Fialho  
Fialho KO RD 1

This is another very tricky fight to call. Both are on 3 fight L streak, but both are in different positions. Fialho has been embarrassed in his last three; he has a good round 1 & then gets dominated. Means is an aging vet who is losing these fights but still being competitive. Outside of the knockdowns, rounds 1 and 2 were very close against max griffin and he was doing great against morono before shooting that td. Means is just a scrapper; he is a veteran who comes to throw down every fight. He doesnt have a ton of power nor does he hit particularly hard, but he throws very quick and with a lot of volume. Every fight means has is a brawl on the feet; he walks forwards and throws everything from punches to slaps in there. Means has recently been wrestling a lot more as well. Its nothing special but it has proven to be veyr useful & is just another one of his vet savvy tricks. Means still has a pretty good chin but it is declining with time. He hasn’t been koed bad in a while but has been getting rocked/dropped a lot more. He is prone to getting hit a lot which doesnt help tho; he has a bad habit of not moving his head when brawling. Means has mostly lost fights recently by getting subbed. He will get rocked & shoot a td where he gives up his neck & taps out. Now Fialho has just been a disappointment. Outside the UFC, Fialho had been known as a 1 round or bust kind of guy. He has really sharp kickboxing & crazy power in round 1 & then falls off a cliff afterwards and just dies. The periera fight had me thinking fialho had improved somewhat but on second rewatch i realized i was wrong. Fialho did a much better job of being aggressive (something he doesn't normally do when hes tired) but the main attributes when hes tired were still there. In round 1, Fialho looks pretty good. He keeps everything very simple & doesn’t waste any movements. He only headhunts but throws with vicious power & keeps it simple. I also really like fialho’s counter punching. I cannot for the life of me understand why fialho shuts off after round 1. It looks like a cardio thing but then hes in fights that are very low paced & still turns into a statue after 1 round; it is mind boggling. Fialho stops being aggressive, stops throwing anything (literally throws maybe 20 shots a round), and turns into a walking punching bag. His defense goes out the window and he does nothing but survive. I will say, his cardio and overall game looked better against buckley, but that was also fought at a slow pace util the ko. Thats what makes this fight so hard to call, fialho has one round to win this fight; if he doesn’t ko means in round 1 he will gas out & means will use his experience to drag this fight out. Means is also not that chinny nor is he looking completely washed which makes this an even harder pick. However, I think means is too sloppy defensively and will get caught early. I am really contemplating taking him tho; I absolutely despise picking fighters who I know only have 1 round to win a fight. I would not be shocked in the slightest if means wins.

Malkoun vs Brundage 
 Malkoun DEC 

This has potential to be one of the worst fights ever. Malkoun is a wet blanket who does nothing. He is lowkey one of the best wrestlers in the division but may be the most boring fighter on the roster. I like to think of him as the 185 brady heistand; he has insane wrestling and pretty good cardio but nothing else. Malkoun’s striking technique isn’t terrible, but he has absolutely no striking iq. He doesn’t know how to use anything other than his hands & he doesn’t like to fight. He also doesn’t have very good bjj nor does he throw any meaningful gnp. Its very annoying because if malkoun either learned how to work on the ground, or learned how to engage on the feet, he could be seriously good. I hate to admit it because i ******* hate his style but malkoun is one hell of a wrestler. Then we have cody brundage, who has had one of the weirdest ufc careers in recent memory. Cody was never ufc level in the first place, having gotten his contract as a short notice replacement. What makes cody so weird is he actually has a ton of skills, but he has no idea how to use them. At times, he looks pretty good everywhere but then he just falls apart out of nowhere, or vice versa. His ufc wins are all him getting his ass beat & then finding a finish randomly while his losses have been quite weird. The maximov fight just sucked, the michal fight he had td success then got reversed & koed, the viera fight he looked incredible and then threw by pulling guillotine, and who could forget the absolute stunt he pulled in his last fight? That was the lowest effort in a competitive match ive ever seen; cody just showed up for a paycheck and nothing else. Its weird because I could lowkey see an upset from cody here. I know, I sound insane but lets not forget that while cody is an idiot who pulls stunts, he has skills in areas that malkoun doesn’t. Neither are what I would call good strikers but we’ve seen cody packs a punch. Nobody has ever fought malkoun standing because theyre so scared of his wrestling. Cody is an idiot so he will probably swing reckless. Another interesting thing is cody is the first guy malkoun has fought who can actually wrestle in the ufc (besides hawes but that was like 20 seconds). Hes no phenom, but cody knows how to wrestle and (historically) has had good tdd. In his last fight, cody decided to pull guillotine the whole fight instead of trying to win. I’m assuming he just didn’t care or was injured but if he tries that again he is going to lose a dominant wrestling decision. Weirdly enough, I could see the guillomeme working this time. Obviously you can’t rely on it but this seems like the type of fight where the hail mary guillotine randomly works. We’ve seen malkoun has the cardio to just chain wrestle endlessly, but if cody can stay up im interested to see how this plays out. Obviously im picking malkoun here but i get a weird vibe from this fight, idk why. 


Usman vs Collier  
Usman KO RD 2

This is a very tricky one to call as both these guys are terrible. Usman’s only good quality is his power. He is huge and jacked but Usman is very slow out there. He bites on every feint, has horrible reactions to being hit, and is almost always the slower fighter. When he can’t find the knockout punch he tries to wrestle. His wrestling is terrible, its based all on his strength and no technique. When he is on top, he does absolutely nothing. He just wet blankets you until the ref does something. We’ve seen that usman quits when he can’t be the hammer as well. Collier is a very weird case to me. For the last couple years, I liked to pick him because he has a couple qualities that make him stand out a lot from other heavyweights. You could argue he was at one point on a 4 fight winstreak (robbery losses to boi & arlovski) before the infamous barnett fight. Honestly he just hasnt been the same after the arvloski fight. It sucked, but jake lost what should've been a clear win for him. Since that, he has stopped fighting how he used to. Now, he starts out at a pace he can’t maintain & keeps going until he gasses out. One thing I used to really like about collier was his cardio. He always had solid output for three rounds which most guys can’t do. While collier has looked pretty good early, he doesn’t have the cardio to maintain the pace hes fighting at. What makes this fight hard to call is how does collier come out? This is an easier opponent than who he was supposed to face originally & on top of that hes getting another chance when he really shouldn't be so maybe he fights like how he used to. If he does, I think he can easily avoid the bombs of usman and outpoint him for three rounds. Collier has decent enough grappling that he can defend takedowns and is a better striker. If he shows up like he has been, he is screwed if he doesnt get a finish early. Well honestly idk actually, usman doesnt have good cardio either but at the end of the day I can’t pick collier anymore. The day to fade usman is coming soon tho; he sucks. 

Inoue vs Goldy
 Inoue DEC
I didn’t bother to watch tape for this one; goldy is an auto fade for me. Inoue has been gone for a million years but she isn’t even 30 yet so im not that worried. Goldy is an only fans girl who trains mma, not an mma fighter. She is in crazy good shape but her athleticism doesn’t translate to mma. She just throws punches out there and doesnt do much of anything. I expect a very boring decision win for inoue. Maybe she finds a sub but wouldnt count on it. 

Vidal vs Rendon 
 Vidal DEC 
Rendon is one of the weirder signings this year. For starters, the mexico card was last week so I find it very odd that the ufc didn't want to showcase a new mexican “talent”. But then you look at her record and fights & its like why did they even sign her in the first place? I get they want more talent in the 135 division but theres much better girls than this. Rendon is 34 & while she may have a 5-0 record, her last fight was a horrendously bad robbery. She hardly did anything against cloudy and somehow got gifted a decision. Her fight before that she went to war with a senior citizen. Rendon’s punches have no power behind them (0 finishes) and while she throws a lot, she misses soooo much. She is incredibly slow and has no footwork or head movement. Her wrestling is very poor as well. Just all around a terrible fighter & doesnt fit the bill of a ufc signee in the first place; shes 34, not a hyped/known prospect, and has no finishes. Now Vidal is also terrible but, she is at least beating real people where rendon is going to war with regional cans. Vidal is slow and very unathletic but she makes up for it by always pressuring forward & throwing hard. Vidal is not afraid to take a punch so she can give one, since rendon’s punches do no damage, Vidal will march forward & land the more impactful shots. Vidal will also engage in wrestling; her wrestling is poor but its much better than Rendon’s. Vidal has very bad fight iq on the ground tho. She always favors submissions over ground control & will frequently pull guillotine or heel hook. Despite her flaws, I think vidal should pretty easily win this; rendon seems like someone who will be gone by 2024. 
 

* Edited at 09.18.2023, 10:02 AM ET *

 Fiziev vs Gamrot
 Fiziev KO RD 3

This matchup is super difficult for me to pick a winner. I think both guys are fantastic, but both also have flaws that the other can easily take advantage of. Fiziev’s striking style is a little overrated; now, before people come at me, I think his technique is among the best in the ufc. BUT, a lot of people think that since his technique is so good, that he is untouchable. This couldn’t be further from the truth; in fact, fiziev is actually very hittable. Its a caveat of his style but man fiziev has a crazy chin, he just eats punches & tanks it. Despite getting hit a lot, fiziev attacks back with punishing striking. What impresses me the most is the timing of his strikes; fiziev is able to make reads on guys with crazy defense like bobby green or RDA. He is a leg kicking machine, rips the body aggressively, and throws all types of strikes at the head. Fiziev has some of the best kicks ive seen in mma. On the gamrot side, you have one of the most unique fighters ive seen. Gamrot is an aggressive grappler with seemingly never ending cardio. His wrestling style is so unique; he doesnt wrestle normally, instead shooting whatever shot he wants & sticking on you until he gets you down. Gamrot will do anything in his power to get you down, even if he has to hold on to your ankles. We’ve seen him slow in 3 rounders (because he cant pace himself) but in 5 rounders gamrot has never ending cardio. He just keeps going & going no matter how high the pace or how many missed takedowns. When he gets you down, Gamrot looks for the sub. He has a bad habit of not throwing a ton of gnp, but he is always looking for a submission & if you get back up hes gonna go straight back to wrestling. This worries me against fiziev for two reasons. One, is obviously, the takedown defense. Fiziev has shown some very good defensive grappling thus far. Super strong hips & he has shown some sambo techniques in clinch exchanges before. However, he is yet to be tested against an elite grappler. Now, from what ive seen Fiziev has shown me he knows what hes doing on the ground, its just that nobody hes fought has the wrestling caliber of gamrot. He will likely be able to defend the first 3-4 shots (gamrot doesn’t care about accuracy of shots) but once gamrot keeps shooting & shooting it will be interesting to see how fiziev reacts. The second thing that worries me is cardio. Fiziev’s cardio is suspect to me; like gamrot, he has gassed badly in three rounders before, but then other times hes been fine & even gone into champ rounds before. I think it has to do with the pace he sets but not sure. Gamrot’s cardio is among the best in the ufc so if he sets a certain pace he could drown fiziev late. Whoever wins this fight will win pretty dominantly, its just hard to tell who can implement their gameplan first. On the feet, this will be a mismatch. Gamrot’s striking is serviceable, but he is really only able to have success because he gets people scared of the takedown. In reality, gamrot leaves his chin & body exposed all the time. Gamrot gets dropped badly against any competent striker, but makes up for it by 1. Having insane recovery and 2. Instantly shooting to fool you into thinking he was off balance. Fiziev will murder him on the feet; i really dont see gamrot doing much of anything. If gamrot wins by grappling, i think it will be a lot of cage pushing. He can get fiziev down but i think it will take a lot of attempts. I dont see him finishing fiziev either unless fiziev is completely death gassed. This is a very close fight to me; 50/50. I am leaning fiziev since he can defend some of the takedowns & i know he will beat gamrot tf up on the feet.
 
Mitchell vs Ige 
Mitchell DEC
Really interesting one here. In a way this is the 145 version of the main event; we have a very aggresive grappler with creative submissions vs a very good striker. I have a soft spot for ige because I feel as if he always gets counted out because of his record. Yes, its ugly but ige is simply a gatekeeper. I don’t mean that in a bad way but he simply destroys the guys who arent top 15, and is competitive with guys in the top 15 (but ultimately loses to the top guys). I know Mitchell got embarrassed in his last fight but ilia is simply just that good. Going back and watching Mitchell’s tape, I wasn’t crazy impressed; he was a lot more flawed than I previously remembered. Despite this, I think stylistically he is a terrible matchup for ige. Ige is a very good striker & has great power but he historically struggles against wrestlers. Mitchell is a grinder; he will shoot & continue to shoot no matter how many times you defend. He is a traditional wrestler, lots of single & double legs but he is so aggressive with his wrestling. He shoots over and over, even if he has a bad shot/gets defended he will grab on to an ankle and keep going until he gets them down. Ige has okay defense but I think bryce’s unrelenting takedown style is going to give ige a lot of problems. Mitchell is very aggressive with his submission attempts attacking all sorts of things like twisters or darce chokes. I think he will attempt a lot of subs & suppress ige on the ground but wont finish him; ige is a black belt and very difficult to finish. Even if ige does get back up Mitchell is just going to keep shooting & thats the style that kills ige; he can defend 1-2 shots easily, but when you readjust and keep shooting he struggles. Even on the feet i dont think itsthatone sided. Mitchell’s striking is not pretty but it is effective. He throws a lot of kicks to keep the distance and has a very powerful overhand right. He is very good at landing that overhand, having dropped & stunned a few people. Obviously, ige has the striking advantage but I think mitchell will be able to land a few shots; especially once he has ige thinking about the takedown. Regardless, I dont think there is going to be much striking in this fight. Ige is a dog but I do not think this is a good matchup for him. 

Rodriguez vs Waterson
Rodriguez DEC
Such a weird and pointless rematch. I dont even know why waterson is getting another fight; she is on a 3 fight L streak & you could argue it should be 6 since she won that robbery over hill. Its weird because shes still being decently competitive in every fight but shes just not winning. Either way, no chance i can pick someone who is losing so much. I am not a big marina fan. Yes, her striking is fantastic but I hate a lot of things about her overall game. She has honestly looked very bad in her last 3 (she 100% lost to yan as well). Her very poor grappling has shown out, she has looked like she doesnt want to be there, and she hates getting hit. Luckily for her, waterson is the biggest air puncher in the sport. As much as she has declined, waterson hasnt gotten any better & marina decisively beat her 2 years ago. She should comfortably win this fight. 

Battle vs Fletcher  
Battle KO RD 2
This is such a good matchup. I feel really bad for fletcher because he is way too small for 170 but his frame is too big to make 155. I think fletcher actually has a lot of skills. He hits very hard & has pretty dynamic striking. The issue is that he has dinosaur arms so he has to close the distance every time & often gets hit a lot while doing it. When he does land he has a big impact & loves to throw wild kicks or flying knees. Fletcher also likes to grapple; his wrestling is pretty good, he is explosive with his shots & is good with top control. He will give up positions to try and submit you though, and he can also be outgrappled himself. Fletcher’s cardio is also poor, he has about 8-9 minutes in him and then his cardio completely fails. Battle has got to be one of the most deceptive looking fighters ever. He looks goofy but he can actually fight his ass off. Battle has very sneaky ko power; having floored two opponents thus far. Now, they were against low level guys but still the setup & the power to turn the lights off was very impressive. Battle’s striking looks a little awkward but it is very effective. He never stops putting out volume and picks you apart with his length. Fletcher has more dynamic striking and hits very hard but battle is way bigger than him and will be able to bully fletcher. Battles head kicks are going to be very good here since fletcher is very short; he will be able to effortlessly land it if he wants to. Battle’s takedown defense is godawful but he is good at getting back up. We saw rinat just destroy him but thats rinat so its different. Against everyone else battle can just get back up to his feet. He wont have much trouble against fletcher but he will definitely get taken down. The repeated wrestling and the volume of battle is going to give fletcher a ton of issues. Fletcher could hurt battle if he lands but only early on. I think battle is gonna weather the early storm and put a beating on fletcher. 

Ramos vs Jourdain 
Jourdain DEC 
Jourdain is talented but his holes are glaring. As a result, he has had a very inconsistent ufc career. Jourdain is a super aggressive striker; he always puts out volume and does a lot of flashy things like kicks and flying knees. The caveat of these high amplitude attacks is they often lead to him being taken down or getting his back taken. Jourdain also is not afraid to take a punch; he is insanely durable but with his style he takes a lot of hits. The worst part of jourdain’s game is his wrestling. It is pathetically easy to take him down. Wood was using just basic muay thai trips in the clinch & it was working without fail every time. Even strikers like burgos and erosa were taking him down relatively easy. The only person we have seen hold down jourdain for a significant amount of time was burgos & I think that mostly had to do with the position he got jourdain in and due to his large size advantage at 145. Against everyone else jourdain has been able to get up pretty easily. Then we have ramos. Ramos is a guy who is shockingly young but has been in the ufc forever. He is like a jake matthews to me; not in fight style but in that he has been around forever, only beats guys who arent that good, and rarely ever fights. Idk what it is but ive never been wowed by a ramos performance. I mean obviously I have when he got that ko over chavez & zahabi but besides that his fights are usually pretty uneventful. Ramos is pretty well rounded but striking is his main game. His signature move is the spinning elbow; he has landed two insane ko’s but thise were against lower level fighters. Besides that, Ramos is a kickboxer. He doesnt have much power naturally & mostly just throws kicks. He is much cleaner than jourdain but lacks the power and output. Jourdain is prone to being hit but unless ramos lands his signature strike I don’t see him getting hurt with anything. Ramos on the other hand is a little chinny and doesn’t have incredible defense. He has head movement but does get tagged a good amount. It also doesnt help that he is pretty low volume. On the feet I favor jourdain. What makes this very close is the grappling of ramos. Ramos isnt an incredible grappler but he will go to it a lot. I already touched on how bad jourdain’s wrestling is so if ramos has any sort of fight iq he will grapple. Jourdain also tends to give up his back very easily & we have seen ramos likes to jump on the back many times. Despite this, I actually dont think there will be a ton of grappling. Jourdain has only been held for a significant amount of time by burgos; everyone else has had td success but only able to hold him down for like 90 seconds. Ramos is not great at controlling either; he is able to get takedowns when he wants but only controls people for short amounts of time. He does have pretty decent bjj but its simply just decent. Another interesting aspect of this fight is the cardio; Jourdain seemingly never gets tired and throws a ton of output even late into the fight. Ramos is fast and dynamic early on but when hes forced to actually fight he will slow down. He doesnt death gas but his dynamic movement & pop on his strikes goes away. Ramos likes to control the pace & jourdain is gonna force him to fight. Despite the large grappling advantage, I think jourdain will avoid getting controlled for too long & is a decent black belt so probably wont get subbed. On the feet I think his pacing will wear on ramos & maybe he even gets a finish. 
 

* Edited at 09.18.2023, 10:03 AM ET *

The disrespect for Ige here is insane. Never been finished. Only loses to the best of the division. +185? The Arkansaudacity.

@3jumper 

@rappinpapsoda 

Seems like he is going through some sort of domestic issues. While he was in Vegas cornering for DWCS, his ex-girlfriend destroyed his fruit trees. Also, claimed she was "gonna try to kill him". Here is a link to a video about him trying to get back his dog: https://twitter.com/PhotoAmy33/status/1702347596638069078

@Rah123 

 who you like this week rate your picks i do bro

What is this UFC tier on everyone's posts? can someone explain, i'm a little tarded, thanks

@ZoomerBet 

https://www.tapology.com/forum/threads/76166

Cody brundage looked terrible last fight

Brundage is terrible. The one thing though is he packs a punch. Not sure I trust Malkouns chin at those odds.

Pass.

Looks like this card is a prove it or get cut card

Sounds like they truly belong together. Crazy loves crazy

Thank you my man. One of the few who appreciate true genius.

I still am going through the card but tentatively (not my final picks) I like Gamrot, Ige, Argueta, Battle and Vidal. The first two are close. 

Will drop my final picks soon. Just for you.

I also think I like Fialho and Collier. But need to look more.

Mitchell vs. Ige
Dan Ige, DEC
Switched to IGE more tools probably better tools wayyy better experience.