UFC 287: Pereira vs Adesanya 2

The official Tapology discussion thread for the event!

you forgot to add sherman

I know that’s not what most of you wanted to hear but I live in reality, not the in the betting “yeah I got this” fantasy world, most of the time people bet with their emotions too, sad case. Good luck

I think Sherman will get wrestled majority of the fight

Pereira vs. Adesanya II
Israel Adesanya, TKO, R1
spinning backfist

Burns vs. Masvidal
Jorge Masvidal, TKO, R1
uppercut

Pereira vs. Adesanya II
Alex Pereira, TKO, R3
I don't see Izzy being able to wrestle Alex for 25 min (even mixing in will be difficult, like we saw in their 1st fight). Trying to win a point fight against someone so dangerous like Alex is really difficult as well, so I'll go with Poatan by finish in the 3rd.

Burns vs. Masvidal
Gilbert Burns, DEC
I have Durinho winning this one, but I don't think it'll be that easy like most of the people are thinking. I hope he tries and wrestle against Jorge, cause on the feet he can be finished by Jorge. Durinho will probably lose a close 1st and win the last 2 rounds for a decision victory (maybe he can finish Jorge in the 3rd). I'm not counting Masvidal out though.

Font vs. Yanez
Rob Font, DEC
I'll go with Font here, but I hope he tries to wrestle Yanez if he gets in trouble in the exchanges (Yanez might crack Font's chin). Great fight !

Holland vs. Ponzinibbio
Kevin Holland, TKO, R3
Holland is all about entertaining the crowd, so I'm not really confident in him here. Ponzi didn't look great against Morono, so Holland being the bigger guy here will be something difficult to deal with. I'll root for Ponzi, but if Holland comes in minimally focused he's winning this one. Rd3 finish or decision.

Rosas Jr. vs. Rodriguez
Raul Rosas Jr., SUB, R2
Initially, I was really confident that CeeRod could spoil the party, but not being able to make weight is not a good look tbh. I think he'll impose some problems for El Niño in the first, but eventually he'll gas out after all the wrestling exchanges and will get finished by Rosas late in the second.

Gastelum vs. Curtis
Chris Curtis, TKO, R3
I love Gastelum, and I think working with Cejudo for this bout could give him a win, but The Action Man was fighting all this time while Gastelum was inactive that makes me think that Curtis is gonna be the better man. To add, I think Gastelum's strking has been getting worse with time, and considering that this fight will be probably on the feet for the majority of it, I'll take Curtis to be the first man to knock Gastelum out.

Williams vs. Sherman
Karl Williams, TKO, R2
I'll go with Karl here, but I wonder how his gas tank will look for this fight being on short notice and after wrestling Brzenski for 15 minutes.

Nahh stats are meaningless. For example I pick every fight on almost every UFC card from prelim opener to main event and my stats are reflective of that. But you pick more selectively to presumably boost your stats - which are still worse than mine (since you find that important), resulting in our stats being based on different parameters. Then you got guys picking fights on Country Bumpkins 39 outta Alabama...

Potential narrative developing for Kevin Holland to fight Jorge for the BMF belt...

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Pereira vs. Adesanya II
Israel Adesanya, DEC
wouldn't mind being wrong, but i'm gonna stick with the idea that izzy can still win rounds and not get finished this time.

Burns vs. Masvidal
Gilbert Burns, DEC
gilbert fights with his chin sometimes, but jorge hasn't shown the ability to disengage from the grappling so i'd have to think burns will try to keep it there when possible.

Font vs. Yanez
Rob Font, DEC
font tends to get clipped, but i feel like he's being underrated here against someone who has not yet even seen a top 15 opponent.

Holland vs. Ponzinibbio
Kevin Holland, TKO, R2
not sure ponzi will be able to push grappling exchanges or manage holland's range.

Rosas Jr. vs. Rodriguez
Raul Rosas Jr., SUB, R2
i'm not on this rosas train, but i do feel like christian missing weight is a bad sign if he's gonna be willing to scramble with raul.

Gastelum vs. Curtis
Chris Curtis, TKO, R2
i'll say kelvin fades after pushing hard for td's.

Waterson-Gomez vs. Pinheiro
Michelle Waterson-Gomez, DEC
never really impressed iwth waterson, but she has a significantly higher level of competition so i'll hedge and say she can extend her career a bit longer.

Meerschaert vs. Pyfer
Gerald Meerschaert, SUB, R2
beacon to all those betting: i'm picking gerald to survive the early muscle so that means pyfer is a lock to stuff the first td and embarrass him striking.

Williams vs. Sherman
Karl Williams, DEC
possible sherman lands some early distance strikes to establish range, but the kicks could get him taken down and i think that he's probably outclassed once the range is closed.

Calvillo vs. Godinez
Lupita Godinez, DEC
wrestling could cancel a bit and we end up with a sloppy kb match, i'll take the girl with more room to improve.

Ogden vs. Bahamondes
Ignacio Bahamondes, DEC
baha monday pumps up the volume as long as he can avoid getting pushed against the fence and taken down.

Garcia vs. Nuerdanbieke
Shayilan Nuerdanbieke, TKO, R2
not sure garcia will throw enough volume to keep shayilan away from him.

Hughes vs. Amorim
Jaqueline Amorim, DEC
some opponents have had significant success taking sam down so i'll ride the hype here and say amorin's assumed grapple heavy gameplan prevents hughes from fighting at the range she wants.

Adesanya vs. Pereira
Pereira, TKO, R2
Izzy has a problem - Pereira can, has and will knock him the f**k out yet again. The excuses are already flying in by the dozen and that's because he knows he's going to sleep. A tiny part of me fancies a little bet on an Izzy sub because MMA is random and that's an MMA fighters easiest path to victory against Alex. But Izzy isn't a good enough grappler to overwhelm Pereira and that's what he needs to do. Pereira has reaffirmed in the modern era that he can still flatline Izzy almost at will and after warming up that's what'll happen.

GM3 vs. Joe Pyfer
Joe Pyfer, TKO, R1
Pyfer's too good of a grappler to fall for a GM3 guillotine and he's crispy crisp on the feet. GM3 was surprisingly effective against Bruno Silva on the feet but after re-watching the Silva vs Pereira match no f**king wonder. GM3 finished off Pereira's leftovers that night and that's all there is to it. GM3's boxing has improved but beating up the corpse of Bruno Silva hasn't sold me and I've seen the dude give up when he can't get to his game - which he's about to experience in this fight.

Gastelum vs. Curtis
Curtis, 29-28 DEC
I've been back and forth on this one but show me a KG win that has aged well?!  I'd feel more confident if Curtis performed better against Hermansson but then again Hermansson finished KG in a round on the ground... Curtis has strong counter wrestling, top 5 KO power within the division and a great corner to push him. KG's a tough mf'er to finish and Curtis can be tentative but he'll win the bigger moments in round 2 and round 3 unless he's the guy to crack KG's weathered chin? But probably not. 

Pereira vs. Adesanya II
Alex Pereira, TKO, R4
/ '

* Edited at 04.08.2023, 12:29 PM ET *

it's crazy to see people treating like Poatan as just a power puncher and I💤 y as the striking lord. let's not forget that poatan was the only double champ at Glory history. the fight will go majority of the time on the feet, and Poatan has training just striking like 3 years ago, while adesanya had to mix things up +8years. you don't make huge adjustments in 6months 

ppl talk like I💤 y is going to wrestle**** Poatan. if he trained wrestling the whole camp, instead of focusing on his striking, he will be flatenned in the 2nd

Williams vs. Sherman
Karl Williams, DEC
Dominant decision win for Karl Williams.

Ogden vs. Bahamondes
Ignacio Bahamondes, TKO, R1
Late 1st round finish for Bahamomdes.

I have the same picks.