185 lbs.: UFC Middleweight Champion Robert Whittaker vs. Yoel Romero
UFC 225 PPV Main Card (10 p.m. ET):
170 lbs.: Colby Covington vs. Rafael dos Anjos for interim welterweight title 145 lbs.: Megan Anderson vs. Holly Holm 265 lbs.: Andrei Arlovski vs. Tai Tuivasa 170 lbs.: CM Punk vs. Mike Jackson
UFC 225 Prelims On FOX Sports 1 (8 p.m. ET):
265 lbs.: Curtis Blaydes vs. Alistair Overeem 115 lbs.: Carla Esparza vs. Claudia Gadelha 145 lbs.: Mirsad Bektic vs. Ricardo Lamas 265 lbs.: Rashad Coulter vs. Chris De La Rocha
UFC 225 Prelims On Fight Pass (6 p.m. ET):
205 lbs.: Rashad Evans vs. Anthony Smith 125 lbs.: Joseph Benavidez vs. Sergio Pettis 155 lbs.: Clay Guida vs. Charles Oliveira 145 lbs.: Dan Ige vs. Mike Santiago
I'm not hating on this rematch, 2 of the best middleweights of all time right here. whittaker coming of severe illness, bad staph infection, really bad chicken pox, hamstring injury all on top of his knee operation that he injured in the 1st round of the first fight. must of been very challenging to recover from all that. Fully expect whittaker to win if he looks good early and is not hampered by these setbacks. yoel is still extremely dangerous ofc but I wonder how he will improve on his gameplan after the first fight, it will be very difficult for him to improve at his age. cardio will not be as good being 1 year older and that is a very important part of his style. iirc he had a lot less output vs rockhold exploding less but still with the same ferocity power and speed. I think due to his cardio issues he's going to be looking for 1 or 2 big shots each round and maybe mix a takedown in to try and steal rounds. whittaker needs to pressure and make romero work from the start. the more grappling there is the worse it could be for yoel if whittaker is indeed fully recovered. It's incredible yoel is able to perform at this level at his age I think he might be the best athlete we've ever seen in the ufc. certainly up there. the joe rogan podcast he did was very good, and incredible insight into the brutal nature of his training regimen in cuba since a young age
im liking tuivasa as a bet. his KO line will hopefully be decent. arlovski could get ko'd by a paper bag at this point as awesome as he is. interested in overeem too but very risky as his chin might be worse than arlovski's but he could very well negate blaydes takedowns and obviously is MUCH more skilled on the feet, and should have a speed advantage also. no bet though before tape for that one.
Holly Holm welcomes megan anderson to the ufc in what on paper should be an easy win for holly, megan does have good striking but it's exaggerated by her very unusual frame. I think she has the longest reach in all of WMMA, but on the other side she lost to cindy dandois... and has been inactive for a while now. she apparently had visa issues but who knows. she did duck cyborg unlike holly who did very well compared to everyone else cyborg has fought. holly displayed an excellant chin and her technical counters, good conditioning and heart. not super tempted by 1.4 but I took her at 1.5+ main worries are her age, how she looks after the damage she took from cyborg, mentally if she is still 100% (she should be with her experience). I see this being almost exclusively a kickboxing match that goes to decision. anderson will have more pressure on her imo.
interested in guida-olivera, bektic-lamas, smith-evans also. definitely want to fade rashad but not sure how yet.
im liking tuivasa as a bet. his KO line will hopefully be decent. arlovski could get ko'd by a paper bag at this point as awesome as he is. interested in overeem too but very risky as his chin might be worse than arlovski's but he could very well neg
outside of a huge KO early(which doesn't seem that likely considering the lack of success yoel had striking overall) yoel is going to need to wrestle and control whittaker in the clinch or on the ground for sustained periods of time. that's going to be very taxing on his cardio and like his striking I have a hard time seeing how he is going to improve the success he had with it. whittaker jumped straight back up every time yoel got him down, and demonstrated great counter wrestling. whittaker's going to look to work yoel's body again but I'm thinking he should be able to utilize his punches a lot more this game as it seemed like he didn't want to throw too many punches of that damaged leg, he just threw the leg instead haha, landing a LOT of front kicks to the body and keeping yoel at range where he could exploit and defend yoel's blitzes from distance once he started to slow and telegraph them. I think whittaker may look to land that beautiful head kick he loves catching yoel as he's moving backwards.
outside of a huge KO early(which doesn't seem that likely considering the lack of success yoel had striking overall) yoel is going to need to wrestle and control whittaker in the clinch or on the ground for sustained periods of time. that's going to
may have to play mike jackson against cm punk too, just small bets but punk is simply not a fighter and he's 40 years old, looks horrendous in his training footage. jackson has ok boxing for mma standards but obviously his ground game and tdd is a big question. but common it's cm punk... jackson ko prop could be worth a stab.
may have to play mike jackson against cm punk too, just small bets but punk is simply not a fighter and he's 40 years old, looks horrendous in his training footage. jackson has ok boxing for mma standards but obviously his ground game and tdd is a bi
romero misses weight by 0.2lbs. the commission stop him cutting anymore and give no reason why. a doctor with yoel was letting him continue and his team said they were maybe 5-10 minutes away from making the weight.
video of romero barely able to walk after the failed attempt. https://twitter.com/MMAjunkie/status/1005150686386896896
the guy looks emotionally drained at the ceremonial weigh ins. got to be hard on a 41 year old to cut that much. whittaker must be confident af right now.
romero misses weight by 0.2lbs. the commission stop him cutting anymore and give no reason why. a doctor with yoel was letting him continue and his team said they were maybe 5-10 minutes away from making the weight. video of romero barely able to wal
I love the ufc but the weigh ins are pi55ing me off. The fight should be the sole attraction instead these days its two events in one, the weigh ins and then the fight.
I love the ufc but the weigh ins are pi55ing me off. The fight should be the sole attraction instead these days its two events in one, the weigh ins and then the fight.
can see why he thinks he won for sure. he hurt whittaker real bad multiple times. whittaker clearly won 3 rounds though. I thought rnd 5 was a 10-8 easily though judges are ****
can see why he thinks he won for sure. he hurt whittaker real bad multiple times. whittaker clearly won 3 rounds though. I thought rnd 5 was a 10-8 easily though judges are ****
damn, whittaker fought most of the fight without his left hand, makes sense when he wasn't defending with it. http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/Robert-Whittakers-Team-Releases-XRay-of-Broken-Thumb-Suffered-Early-in-UFC-225-Main-Event-137937
no idea, he has a case though. he lost the chance to fight for the belt and quite a big loss of wages. whittaker gets like 25% of his purse and he wasn't eligible for the 50k fight of the night bonus that the fight got so whittaker got all of it. at least they should get an explanation from the commission.
no idea, he has a case though. he lost the chance to fight for the belt and quite a big loss of wages. whittaker gets like 25% of his purse and he wasn't eligible for the 50k fight of the night bonus that the fight got so whittaker got all of it. at