UFC 296: Edwards vs. Covington

The official Tapology discussion thread for the event!

Edwards vs. Covington
Leon Edwards, DEC
Leon please, please defeat this Yakubian Devil

Edwards vs. Covington
Colby Covington, DEC
Colby gonna man handle Leon, usman a great wrestler but his takedowns and tdd are his keys Colby holds you there slowly advancing to the best possible position Leon won’t be able to wrestle here and Colby’s prsssure is to immense for Leon to be prepared for the stand up and grappling of Colby Covington 49-46 Colby

Am I the only one that’s really high on Durden beating Tagir? Lol

Thug nasty stepping in to face emmett

Best matchup for Emmet honestly, highly ranked and Bryce is a BJJ guy. Josh Emmett is a good wrestler who hits hard, I’m really feeling an Emmet Ko

One of my more hyped fights on the card now, fun and interesting matchup

* Edited at 12.06.2023, 6:43 PM ET *

Barn burner for sure 🔥

It will be interesting to see how he does with the grappling of Bryce. The only other grappler he’s faced in the ufc was ilia (who has been more of a striker in the ufc), but ilia didn’t wrestle until the 5th round after he beat the living **** out of josh (no idea how he recovered so quick from that btw). Hes got a 46% tdd so it doesn’t seem that difficult to take him down; it’s not a huge sample size but everyone who has tried has taken him down. We all know Bryce will chain wrestle his ass off and emmett was preparing for a striker so this is a rough opponent change for him. He could totally nuke Bryce but I don’t think trying to land one of his hooks is going to be effective against a wrestler. He should try to mix in some uppercuts or throwing as soon as Bryce whiffs on a takedown, if he can stop the takedown that is. Also his defense is terrible but Bryce’s striking isn’t completely awful. I wouldn’t exactly call it good but it’s serviceable. Emmett isn’t very technical so I think Bryce could absolutely score on the feet, he just has to avoid getting hit with a bomb. Although, Emmett’s finishing ability is very bad; he always scores knockdowns but unless he’s getting a one punch ko, he rarely ever gets the finish, especially since his top 15 run. If he gets a knockdown and doesn’t finish Bryce, it could initiate a grappling exchange and Bryce could steal the round off of that or even finish the fight. His grappling is very suppressive and he never stops attacking a submission or doing some crazy jiu jitsu ****

* Edited at 12.06.2023, 7:04 PM ET *

Honestly thought Emmet takedown defence was a lot better then it is, with him being a strong guy with a wrestling base, also most people he fight being striker help with that 

I think his wrestling is a little overrated. He never uses it and it’s not like he was an NCAA champion, he wrestled at menlo college, which was NAIA division 2, the equivalent of wrestling at at an NCAA division 3 school (the lowest competition bracket in the NCAA incase you aren’t familiar with how American college sports structure works; think of NAIA divison 2 as the best version of the B leagues). It only became NCAA divison 2 this year so it’s not like he was wrestling for Penn State at the highest level 

* Edited at 12.06.2023, 7:30 PM ET *

Edwards vs. Covington
Leon Edwards, DEC
10/10

Pantoja vs. Royval II
Alexandre Pantoja, SUB, R2
9/10

Rakhmonov vs. Thompson
Shavkat Rakhmonov, SUB, R1
9/10

Ferguson vs. Pimblett
Paddy Pimblett, SUB, R2
9/10

Luque vs. Machado Garry
Ian Machado Garry, DEC
9/10

Ulanbekov vs. Durden
Cody Durden, DEC
7/10

Aldana vs. Rosa
Irene Aldana, DEC
7/10

O'Neill vs. Lipski
Ariane Lipski, DEC
6.5/10

Brown vs. Salikhov
Muslim Salikhov, DEC
7/10

Menifield vs. Jacoby
Dustin Jacoby, DEC
7/10

Garbrandt vs. Kelleher
Cody Garbrandt, TKO, R1
8/10

Gaziev vs. Buday
Shamil Gaziev, SUB, R1
7/10

Fili vs. Almeida
Andre Fili, DEC
8/0

Thug nasty to replace Giga ? That sucks. 

I saw that Diego Lopes wanted that fight, he was asking to be send the contract. Guess we will have to wait until next year to see him fight again. 

Josh Emmett has only been taken down 4 times since 2018, 3 times by Topuria which is expected, once by Dan Ige who is also a good enough wrestler, then he stopped all takedowns from Ige. Percentage looks bad but he hasn't been taken down much since 2018. 
But at the same time Emmett failed a lot of takedowns against strikers, that suggests his wrestling is not elite, Bryce is an elite wrestler who managed to takedown all of his opponents so far. So I doubt Emmett could stop him.

He might be on that Feb 24th Mexico City card 

LMAO Bryce is getting ktfod here he will then say it was all a conspiracy.

Did Emmett just create his nickname "CC0"?

* Edited at 12.06.2023, 10:01 PM ET *

We are so close to America 🇺🇸  showing the British that their prime athletes will never be able to hang with ours. 🤷‍♂️💪🐐

@CrimsonChinGuru 

Leon 1 taps cold by with a deagle first round 

@Calfoth 

Colby gonna drag Leon deep into BANG energy filled waters.

Emmett vs. Mitchell
Josh Emmett, TKO, R2
8/10

Emmett vs. Mitchell
Bryce Mitchell, DEC
I think Josh Emmett is washed up.