I’ll be honest, I barely knew a damn thing about Murphy up until I got interested in this matchup enough to look into him. Pretty good striker, I can see why people are cramming for him as the favorite despite coming in on short notice. 

That being said, Murphy is going to get wrestle****** like a nympho in handcuffs. 

Amirkhani ain’t the best grappler and his style is both a strength and a weakness due to his limited conditioning, but this matchup is perfect for him. Murphy has dog**** defensive grappling. He had a draw against Tukhugov awhile back and was taken down a total of 6/8 times. Since then, his last two wins were against mainly strikers, both of which only offered a grand total of 1/4 takedowns. He also has zero submission wins, and 2/6 of his only UFC takedown attempts landed. Now, that’s enough to at least raise an eyebrow, but now I have to consider…is Lerone really going to be able to handle Amirkhani of all people? An extremely aggressive jiu-Jitsu fighter with a high finish rate, who rapid fires double legs till the opponent mentally breaks? And on short notice? Do you guys think he’s going to go into this fight without getting taken down once? Cause I ******* don’t. Easy +300 if you ask me.

Amirkhani by SUB in R2

Oh definitely overrated, I wouldn’t consider myself an Amirkhani fan by any means, but I know an upset when I see it. No matter how I look at the fight, I only see Amirkhani rawdogging Murphy. Words are made for eating, so I’ll stick with mine 

* Edited at 10.18.2021, 4:16 PM ET *

Imma be real, if Cory can’t beat him, he ain’t losing that belt for a long, LONG ******* time. That is unless Aijamain can stay on his hands and knees for twenty five minutes straight without getting forcibly bent over a table. I think the most impressive thing about Yan is his patience and stone cold nerves. He keeps those ******’ hands up and there ain’t a feint in the world that is gonna make him drop them. The only real weakness Yan has is his reliance on his high guard, something of which I feel will be a major problem against Cory.

I don’t think I gotta remind most of you guys Cory’s signature is liver hooks. If he’s able to bait Yan into blocking high too often and exploiting his range, he will probably be Yan’s most difficult opponent. This isn’t just a theory either, Jose Aldo had the most success using his signature liver hook on Yan’s body, however Yan’s masterful adaption per round allowed him to bait Aldo and punish him with elbow blocks and nasty check hook combinations. 

That being said, I still wouldn’t bet money on Cory. Outside of this obvious strategy, the odds are against Cory, especially in the grappling department. He turns his back WAY too much and it’s costed him his only two losses in the UFC because the only form of defense he turns to grappling wise is his dated as **** Kimura grip nobody uses anymore, and while Cory is pretty smart, so is Yan, whom as mentioned earlier is astonishingly good at tweaking his style to counter his opponent round by round. Still, it’s a fun thought.

* Edited at 10.22.2021, 6:38 AM ET *