UFC 299: O'Malley vs. Vera 2

The official Tapology discussion thread for the event!

@sangres oh I fully agree, but as his cardio starts to slow he is going to become a lot more stationary 

@pashaboyer 

I might flip also, I just feel as if people aren't giving Burns enough credit just bc he can't take straight punches. He's the veteran in this match and JDM was struggling against Bassil, so hopefully Burns can pull it off but I'm doubting now

@AyyLmaonnaise 

That's unfortunately his con in his fighting. I think he tends to start with high pressure so he can win the first 2 rounds, but it catches up to him eventually.

Yeah if he had good cardio I think he would be highly ranked. His striking is so good 

Petr is simply better everywhere other than the knock out power. Taking Petr, but man these judges scare me. Hope to see Petr Yan a complete beat down of Song. Either song by a split, or Yan by absolute brutal domination. 

2 years ago Elizeu Zaleski beat the sh out of BSD, it was clearly 2 or 3 standing TKO's, since BSD never faced good striker, Poirier will do the same.

Petr Yan vs O'Mailley was one of the biggest roberries ever

Only fight in 299 that has me going back n forth is Yan vs. Song I just can't decide.

Gotta mention that the Elizeu Zaleski fight was in short notice for BSD and a division above his weightclass so he could get into the UFC. 

Also USADA catched Elizeu Zaleski using some stuff after that fight.

@VicStrk 

I would also suspect him of using something, he was pretty damn big in that fight

Wood by Decision
Jojo is the better of the 2 on the feet and if she plays this fight at range she will win the fight the only worry is her submission defense is nonexistent but moroz does not have the best takedowns 

Almabaev by decision
CJ is going to be on a bad ufc run with this loss and he knows that im expecting some fire in him in this fight enough fire to get him to the scorecards i think he even will have a moment in round 3 where he rocks Asu but this will be a wet blanket performance by Asu im expecting 4-5 takedowns landed with Asu maintaining top control over Cj and thus winning him the fight 

Despaigne ko round 1 
not much to explain here Robelis is going to murder a man in under a minute

Lins by decision
i know everyone is writing this one off as a guarenteed finish but i think this is one of those fights where ion actually lands takedowns and we see the fight go past round 1 where ion will gas and not keep landing takdowns and Lins the bigger fighter will start to use his boxing to beat on Cutelaba and stun him a few times winning over the judges in what i see a close fight

Pereira ko round 2 
Michel is a big fighter whos hard to hit Michal is a one dimensional power punch kind of guy i dont see him finding michels chin i see michel doing what he does best playing the range game and in the later half of the second finishing off a wobbled michal

Phillips sub round 3 
i think pedro lands a big shot in the first and kyler recovers and takes over in the second landing his spinning attacks and by the third i think pedro will shoot and kyler will reverse the takedown with a guillotine choke and give munhoz his first submission loss kyler is crafty


Gamrot ko round 2 
Gamrot is getting RDA so he can finally look good while getting a win RDA has never done well against wrestlers and the fact Luque got him down 7-8 times gives me everything i need to know here gamrot is going to get the takedowns and slowly break RDA on the ground with some shots and by round 2 gamrot will find another takedown and put rda in a position he cannot defend himself in and the ref will have to stop the fight

Barber by decision
I dont see a Maycee finish here as Kaitlyn is good at playing her fights safe shes had a long layoff and Barber is starting to look more improved i think we see Barber clearly win every round

Holland vs. Page
Kevin Holland, DEC
This is the hardest fight on the card to pick for me. The argument for Holland is that MVP is past his prime, never fought anyone as good as Holland, and we've seen him get knocked out cold and wrestle ****** to a decision in Bellator, so we know lesser competition was able to get it done. The argument for MVP is that we've seen this style give Holland trouble when he fought Wonderboy, and it's hard to trust Holland to go in there and execute the right gameplan. He loves to entertain and sometimes it costs him fights. I'm riding with Holland here though, because he's just the better overall mixed martial artist in my opinion. I don't think MVP is quite as good as Wonderboy and I think Holland learned a lot from that fight and will come into this one willing to wrestle if he needs to. I think he'll take a decision, but I wouldn't be surprised by a SUB or even a KO.

Burns vs. Maddalena
Jack Della Maddalena, TKO, R2
If this was a prime Burns, he'd be the pick, but it's not. This is a 37 year old Burns coming off of a pretty significant shoulder injury. As long as JDM doesn't have the IQ of a fish, and learned from his fight against Hafez to not jump guillotine 5 times a round, then he's got this in the bag. His takedown defense should be good enough to hold up against Burns, and if it stays standing it's not going to be all that close. JDM is a lethal striker who throws beautiful combinations and mixes it up to the head and the body. We've seen Burns finished on the feet before and hurt on numerous occasions, and I think we see him go out here.

Yan vs. Song
Petr Yan, DEC
Man what a BANGER to kick off the main card. We got a fight between arguably the two best boxers at 135. First off, this is my pick for FOTN. Both of these guys have wrestling in their back pocket, but I think they'll both be willing to stand in the pocket and trade here and put an absolute war on film. In my opinion Song has the looks of a future champ and judging by his last two fights he's starting to put it all together and live up to that potential. With that being said, he's squaring off against someone who's already made it to the top and been champ before. I've never seen Yan lose a standup battle, and I have to ride with the former champ until Song proves he's on that level.

Going to be really interesting to see how well Kyler is still moving in round 2 if Munhoz is able to land a couple good leg kicks early. I'm 100% with you on how that fight plays out. Kyler round 1, Munhoz round 3. What happens in between likely determines the fight. 

There's going to be a chance that Burns is going to retire. He's 37 years of age, tho he looks 33. If he does, man, I'm going to cry

Trailblazer on Saturday https://imgflip.com/gif/58xmdy

* Edited at 03.06.2024, 3:56 PM ET *

I probably need to do a deeper dive into Yan vs. Song. I think I've convinced myself Yan is just due for a win and am not giving Song enough credit. 

The same is probably true for MVP/Holland. I think MVP will probably try to make this a very boring point fight. He's used to having on average 5-6in of reach on all of his opponents. The last time he fought someone with comparable reach was literally a decade ago. I don't know that we're gonna get showman MVP. I think he's coming for a win first and foremost by any means necessary, even if mean's fighting extremely boring. 

I want to pick Cerminara so bad! Idk who’s gonna win this fight at all tbh

Well maybe not if she’s had two miscarriages since then. That’s terrible, but she said she’s taking a fight to distract herself from that. I don’t think that’s the best mindset to win

I cannot wait to wake up on saturday. Porrier vs. Saint Denis has to be the fight I am most hyped for on this card.