UFC Fight Night: Santos vs. Ankalaev

The official Tapology discussion thread for the event!

AyyLmaonnaise I went back and saw that you are picking Trevin Jones over Javid Basharat. He will probably be a slight underdog so you'll make some dollar if he wins. As of my prediction, I'm never high on or impressed with any fighter who comes out of DWCS but the two I'm about to name are an extreme exceptions and they are Michael Morales & Javid Basharat. It's funny because they both were/are matched up with someone called Trevin. But man the skill that Javid Basharat has is something else, literally watching tape and is just blown away. Striking is very explosive whilst also having the fundamentals in his game. His got great calf kicks (who doesn't love backing a calf kicker) and the most impressive aspect of his game is his ground game. If Trevin Jones shots on him (which he seems to be having that gameplan coz his striking is not what we made it out to be) his getting submitted. Only concern is that with his style he could gas out, however we've seen Trevin Jones gas out too. Javid Basharat is mainly based in Las Vegas training at the PI and Xtreme Couture with some up and comers but more notably Amir Albazi. I've also seen his been training with Jake Shields which is amazing too. When I say I'm not high on just any hyped up or regualr DWCS fighter I mean it, so believe you me you already seen what Michael Morales did in his debut now watch Javid Basharat do the same.

Prediction: Javid Basharat via R2 Submission.

* Edited at 01.31.2022, 6:33 AM ET *

Good points. Trevin is being underrated because of his last performance. Many people don’t know, but he had 3 fights cancelled in the span of a month before fighting said and cut weight for all the fights; thus severely compromising his gas tank. Trevin is a good striker himself and is also a multiple time no-gi champ. Basharat has some serious skill but looks how bad his competition is; he’s fought two guys with a winning record and one of those two was oron khalon who had a more padded record than basharat. I’ve noticed basharats ground game is submission over position; when he goes for a takedown he almost instantly goes for the head to get an anaconda/darce choke. I think trevin should be able to survive this if he does get taken down. Javid also looking good on the feet because he throws all those taekwando kicks and no one pressures him. In his one fight where I saw his opponent take the fight to him, he was getting beaten bad until the doctors stoppage. I know many people on here think trevin is a bad fighter but he’s easily the best person Javid has fought in his career. And he also doesn’t have bad fight iq like trevin Jones. Also for as bad a performance as he had against said, he was making it competitive by controlling said on the ground and against the cage. Let’s not forget trevin was the first person to finish timur valiev. He’s a good fighter just has a bad record from split decision losses; could easily be 18-2 with different judges 

* Edited at 01.31.2022, 10:12 AM ET *

trevin is a interesting guy. he has holes and a lot of skills. he gasses when he grapples and isnt that durable, struggles with kicks. but the man has ko power and a bjj black belt. but i honestly think the height will play a factor in this matchup, I think Basharat wins by tko or dec, hard to see him subbing trevin. but the fight could go either way since Basharat never fought someone like trevin 

I’m just going to eat my words if trevin loses. It’s easy to look like a world beater when you aren’t fighting top competition. I think Javid has skills but he literally hasn’t beaten one person of merit; his opponents are a combined 52-106 with 30 of those wins coming from two people (bekzoroveiny and kahlon who we know was a can crusher). Could even be more losses because john Spencer has fights as exhibition bouts due to him throwing fights. Also watch his fight against savio to see what happens when he isn’t the one pushing the pace. I’m also biased because trevin is one of my favorite fighters but still, for all his inconsistencies I think he’s the better fighter. Also if he didn’t gas last fight I think people would be on him to win. He doesn’t normally gas like that

* Edited at 01.31.2022, 10:39 AM ET *

thats the game man. recency bias. a good example is kattar chikadze, chikadze was -230 because of recency bias. 

True that. Excited basharat is on the roster but I really don’t know where that skill level is actually at

I did even more tape and I found out two new things for Javid Vs. Trevin. Just goes to show watching tape more than once is very useful. The first thing I found is Javid fights very similar and imo better than Saidyokub Kakhramonov. Javid is way more active with his unique attacks and he has those calf kicks. Secondly, I found that Trevin Jones is primarily a grappler/wrestler. Trevin loves to leave his neck out there and I think that aids in my prediction of Javid getting a submission vicotory as he has a ridiculosuly good guillotine choke. 

Side note I couldn't help but notice that Trevin Jones reminds me of the crazy but short UFC career of Khama Worthy. Khama comes into the UFC and pulls off an crazy upset just like Trevin Jones did. Both went into their second bout as massive underdogs and again pulls off the upset and then Khama gets finished in his third bout and was never the same. I think Trevin Jones follows suit but we shall see...

* Edited at 02.03.2022, 6:27 AM ET *

Idk I wouldn’t be so confident in someone who can crushes. Trevin is better than you think 

Isn't everyone who comes into the UFC got a record full of Cans ? Michael Morales fought bums yet went out and beat Trevin Giles, Adrian Yanez fought nothing but bums and came into the ufc and is killing it, hell you could include Gane before UFC fought cans yet he turned out to be a world class HW. You have to spot the talent. As I stated before, I'm not the one to hype up any regular MMA fighter because in my eyes you have to show me something and Javid has shown me everything I needed to see. 

Nah but like he’s fighting actual cans dude. His first 5 opponents didn’t have any wins and he has a win over John Spencer who is a literal fight thrower. There’s obvious talent but there’s a difference between looking good against people who can’t win fights and an actual ufc fighter. Watch Javid basharat fight savio to see what happens when he fights someone who pressures him 

At least yanez and morales fought guys with winning records; Javid has some of the worst levels of competition I’ve ever seen

I have watched Javid Basharat Vs Nicolas Savio and Trevin Jones fights no where near the amount of pressure as Nicolas Savio. I would of loved to see that bout get extended a little longer but Javid was competing just fine with Nicolas Savio. 

He was still losing the fight to a much worse guy. I’ll eat my words if he destroys trevin but I just can’t rate him with competition that bad. His competition is worse than Jordan wrights. Even the people with winning records who he’s fought also have padded records. Momoka hadn’t fought anyone who wasn’t debuting or negative record, oron khalon was arguably more padded than Javid, and bekzorovainy hasn’t really fought anyone good either. 

What a great fight. Semelsberger vs Fletcher

Ahh a Semi fight, the only time I ever find myself commenting.  Agreed, great fight for some boys trying to bang, should be super fun.  Still gonna lean with my guy Semi as always, but Fletcher is definitely a problem

One thing that’s insane to me is the level competition magomed fought in his amateur career. Dude beat Bellator HW IC, ACA LHW champ, Mikhail ragozin, and hasan mehziev. All before turning pro

Amateur MMA isn't MMA. Just like sport BJJ or amateur wrestling. Much more of a sport. And he had pro fights from 2014 but still had amateur bouts in 2016. What's up with that?

Idk but still look at the quality of opponents. 

Not doubting Ankalaev at all. I'd say he's probably a top 3 bet for future champ. Only UFC loss was a hail mary comeback sub. So not surprised at all that he won but I notice he also had 3 amateur losses and I'm sure he would whoop all of 'em now.

@AyyLmaonnaise I agree, Trevin is gonna smash Javid. Having to make weight 3 different times definitely affected his performance against Sayid last time, and it sucks because now he’s getting underestimated again like he was before, but he’ll pull off the upset again so it’s all good. If he does lose though I’ll admit I was wrong but I just don’t see that happening tbh.

* Edited at 02.06.2022, 3:02 AM ET *