MMA news updates

Instead of spamming the boards everytime I see some cool news, I’ll post it here. I’ll also keep track of prospects I like, new signings to ufc/dwcs/Bellator/etc.

* Edited at 05.02.2022, 4:44 PM ET *

Yes

Candelario is out against Estevam. Instead he will be fighting Zhalgas at 288. That’s a great addition 

Seems like chael wasn’t lying about costa vs Khamzat. Costa put out a tweet hinting Khamzat is next

https://twitter.com/ufcnews/status/1645592772605546496?s=46&t=8FKr5sRMMNWZA__X9a1zkA  

Ufc has officially released the full list of RTU participants 

Flyweight (>56.7kg)

• Rei Tsuruya (Japan) vs Ronal Siahaan (Indonesia)
• Mark Climaco (Philippines) vs Jung Hyun Lee (South Korea)
• Ji Niushiyue (China) vs Billy Pasulatan (Indonesia)
• Sumit Kumar (India) vs Seung Guk Choi (South Korea)

Bantamweight (>61.2kg)

• Xiao Long (China) vs Shohei Nose (Japan)
• Shuya Kamikubo (Japan) vs Jieleyisi Baergeng (China)
• Eperaim Ginting (Indonesia) vs Daermisi Zhawupasi (China)
• Chang Ho Lee (South Korea) vs Rana Rudra Pratap Singh (India)

Featherweight (>65.8kg)

• Yi Zha (China) vs Abdul Azeem Badakhshi (Afghanistan)
• Keisuke Sasu (Japan) vs Sang Won Kim (Korea)
• Yibugele (China) vs Koya Kanda (Japan)
• Li Kaiwen (China) vs Reza Arianto (Indonesia)

Lightweight (>70.3kg)

• Seong Chan Hong (South Korea) vs Rong Zhu (China)
• Kazuma Maruyama (Japan) vs Sang Uk Kim (South Korea)
• Windri Patilima (Indonesia) vs Shin Haraguchi (Japan)
• Won Bin Ki (South Korea) vs Batebolati Bahatebole (China)

Non-tournament bouts

• Flyweight: Top Noi Kiwram (Thailand) vs Nyamjargal Tumendemberel (Mongolia)
• Flyweight: Sim Kai Xiong (Singapore) vs Peter Danasoe (Thailand)
• Welterweight: Nueraji Taiyilake (China) vs Han Seul Kim (Korea)
• Welterweight: Chris Hofmann (Philippines) vs Sang Hoon Yoo (Korea)

That’s sad we don’t know the brackets yet. 

How is the Flyweight tournament so damn good yet the Bantam, Featherweight and Lightweight tournaments are all pretty lackluster to put it politely?

@Khanate
What’s your predictions?

Ooph, my predictions here aren't very valuable, I'm not that well read on most of these guys. 

A LW from looking over the bracket I'd have to go with Shin Haraguchi even though he's small and needs to drop to 145lbs, having an elite freestyle base has a lot of upside vs this caliber of competition and he's only 24 training out of a good gym too, plus several of the other competitors are undersized too. The next best guy is Rong Zhu with his UFC experience and having the best wins amongst the bracket but a clear ceiling.

At Featherweight the winner between Zha Yi vs Abdul Azeem probably wins that bracket. 

At Bantamweight the favorites should be Shohei Nose and Kamikubo but the Chinese fighters have such padded records its a little hard to be overly confident but those would be my two picks to win. 

At Flyweight...who freaking knows, this is stacked. Climaco has a good record, good wins on the US scene vs winning prospects but Jung Hyun Lee is only 20 and super talented, definitely the best Flyweight prospect out of Korea, one of the best prospects out of Korean period. Tough fight to call. I'll say I expect Sumit Kumar and Rei Tsuruya to win their opening rounds, both fantastic athletes and high level wrestling experience at only 20 and 22 year olds. Guk Choi should win his opening round too, he has less upside but good experience and legit wins too, was the finalist last year I believe? Rei Tsuruya, Sumit, Climaco and Jung are 4 of the better Flyweight prospects world wide albeit they're on the greener side of things. Guk Choi is a solid test for them. Gun to my head Tsuruya is the favorite but not confident. 

How about you? 

I have never seen the bigger part of those guys so I would rather not speculate 😅 But something tells me this time it will be much more successful for Japanese fighters. 
I would like to see Tsuruya and Climaco/Choi at flyweight title.
Shuya Kamikubo looks like big favourite and probably the best fighter of whole tournament.
Yi Zha probably supposed to be already signed but I believe Keisuke looks much better this time.
And yeah at lightweight seems like Rong Zhu and Haraguchi would be the best final.

My winners 

LW: zhu/haraguchi 
FW: Badakshi 
Bw: kamikubo 
FLW; climaco

Also I think the only guys who will get contracts with wins is winner of top noi/nyamjargal or if sim Kai Xiong wins 

@Ayy
I guess mongolian guy could easily get the finish on the ground.
By the way this year we do have better timing so winners could get dwcs contract as well.

Nyamjargal seems really good from what I’ve seen. I love top noi but his grappling is non existent. Nyamjargal is more complete 

@ayy the card is in Abu Dhabi not Dubai. Separate cities and Emirates within the same country. I saw this mistake on the event page too.

Also another issue I noticed is that Tapology considers all the events that are not ppvs to be "Fight Nights". This is incorrect. Every other outlet including ufc themselves also has "UFC on ESPN" and "UFC on ABC" events as well including UFC themselves which they regard as more important events. You can check ufc website or Wikipedia for further clarification. Having this distinction here would make it easier to tell the difference as regular "Fight Night" events have been held at the Apex as of late and broadcast on ESPN+ but any show being broadcast on a premier channel has a real venue, city other than Vegas and a live crowd. If UFC has their events organized in this way I think Tapologys event pages should reflect that.

Interesting tidbit that lazy king shared in a recent interview

His last opponent ended up testing positive for steroids. Makes lazy kings last win even more impressive considering he fought through a huge size advantage & his opponent was on steroids 

Is he already signed?

Yes. He said he will be making his debut in September 

The page who posted it is known to post fake news, but apparently Moreno vs pantoja 3 is in the works for 290. I really don’t believe it but thought I should share