UFC Fight Night: Vera vs. Cruz

The official Tapology discussion thread for the event!

Quinlon is my lock, He's aloud to take steroids and he's fighting the chinest guy pound 4 pound on the roster, It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know what going to happen

It's a joke that Quinlon is aloud to compete, He got caught with steroids, What the point of having USADA if he aloud to compete, USADA is a joke, 

USADA is more about providing the appearance of a clean sport than actually making the sport clean. That's why they allow you to skip three tests no questions asked before you get popped. That's why you can have testosterone levels four times that of the average male and not pop. That's why Novitzky made up the goofy pulsing theory to justify Jones Gustafson 2 even though it's never been proven that turinabol pulses. USADA is the Potemkin Village of anti-doping.

explains this in detail. Quinlan is allowed to fight because he was testing clean for 10 tests, and then very small amounts of the steroid popped up. California is lenient on this and allows you to fight with less than 100 picograms (which he has less than) whereas Nevada will not liscense him at all. Now, I’m sure quinlan is on all kinds of steroids, but he was testing clean until this popped up. It’s a similar situation to manel kape at 275

Fake AF !

Got Godinez, Buday, Bruno Silva in a nice 3 leg parlay. Yeah, gotta keep in mind that GM3 could pull an upset, I've lost money betting against him but I'm confident in Bruno, GM3 is a one trick pony really. Gonna put some hedge bets also, so that I don't leave with 0 in my balance. Gotta be careful these days. Also got Umalatov from PFL in a parlay with these 3, bookies seem to really agree also. Let's make some money

Osbourne vs. Nam
Ode Osbourne, TKO, R1
Source agrees

Hill vs. Godinez
Lupita Godinez, DEC
Source agrees

Zalal vs. Blackshear
Youssef Zalal, DEC
Source agrees

Witt vs. Quinlan
Jason Witt, DEC
Source dissagrees

honestly Andres' point is pretty, especially considering both Armfield and VanCamp had their set of moments as the short notice guy. Very good comparison no lie

USADA lost me after the Jones saga tbh. The person who spoke up above is right, they only give appearances of a clean sport. Deep down they know what the deal is

Remember UFC 244? Nate Diaz goes on social media saying the fight is off because they're telling him he got flagged on a USADA test. He basically demands that they "fix it" or he's not doing ****. Magically the issue gets fixed and the only other thing we hear about it is that the dummy somehow had something go wrong with a tainted supplement. But to me the best part is, that supplement? It was his own **** that he was endorsing before the fight lol

Landwehr vs Onama: awesome matchup, I think Onama might be a little overvalued in the market. He is probably the A side but now that Landwehr has been fighting more technical and slower, losing that exciting factor slightly has really benefited him. Beat Klein which has aged very well. He has experience against Southpaw's too. Onama has the power advantage and that straight left is going to be money... curious if the crowd will play into Onama and make him a bit more rowdy. Should be a banger!

Silva vs GM3: I don't think there is anyway GM3 can stand for an extended period here against Silva. Silva is very good in the clinch too, nice knees to the body. If GM3 had better offensive wrestling I would be more inclined to think on that side, just can't see it here.

Cruz vs Vera: I actually think this fight is closer than the line would indicate. 2-3 years ago, I am all on Cruz in this fight. Chito's forward pressure, relentless pace and cardio mixed with his durability are his best traits. I think Cruz's footwork is going to make him hard to hit and Chito's habit of covering up high as he is planted as well as his slow start should allow Cruz to start hard and fast and bank a round or two early. The biggest worry is the damage, Vera just wears on opponents with elbows, front kicks etc. He wears his damage far better than opponents - I am not sure if Cruz can get through 5 tough rounds. Cruz needs to work some wrestling exchanges here to be any chance. Interesting fight. I can see Cruz winning by sticking and moving, being hard to hit and forcing wrestling exchanges where Chito can be content to work off his back. I can also see Vera not respecting Cruz, constantly moving forward and just damaging Cruz as the rounds go on. Cannot

U are trippin, Clarke got all his teeth smashed in and won round 3 v Cutelaba

USADA loves to make you think the sport is "clean"

OFF - Imagine having to do this to live

"A lot of people are doing it and I remember when I made mine (page), it was a huge internal conflict for me. But when I did mine, I literally didn't know how I was going to pay my rent next month. I was working three jobs, two gyms and a restaurant. They closed when Covid-19 started and I had just moved into a new house. I was like, "F***, what do I do?" and I ended up doing this"

She was supposed to be a pro mma fighter. c'mon dana, ofc you will not increase the paycheck just because they want, so why don't allow the fighters to show only one sponsor on their shorts?

https://www.marca.com/en/ufc/2022/08/07/62f0105f46163f9f4c8b45fa.html

Rewatching Zalal vs Griffin has me 2nd guessing Zalal a lil now.

* Edited at 08.09.2022, 11:25 PM ET *

Starting to lean Blackshear, man can go a hard 15 mins wrestling and a very chaotic, high pace/pressure stand up style.

Zalal is also trying 135, who knows how he carries his strength compared to recent fights at 145 where most of them he was dominated on control time. (A lot of Blackshear's fights are at 140 or 145 aswell.)

* Edited at 08.09.2022, 11:51 PM ET *

89% for Silva over GM3 despite the fact that all but one of Silvas losses are by sub.. Seems dicey!

I also heard that's why USADA rarely takes blood tests and build a profile of fighters to get indications when something is off. EPO is pretty much undetectable under such circumstances because of how expensive the testing is, as compared to how cheap it is to take a blood sample regularly and monitor a fighter's biometrics that way. Jon Jones can have the t-levels of an 80 year old grandma without suspicion being raised because they don't check for abnormally low levels, just abnormally high ones and so on.
Well I'm just regurgitating talking points from people smarter than me on the subject. But yeah it seems like a big circus.

* Edited at 08.10.2022, 12:43 AM ET *

Don't you usually wonder how people carries strength going UP a weight class? I should think Zalal is at least as strong as before going down a weight class. Hopefully stronger because that could help him with his grappling.