Jakro's MMA Musings

Alright, the event is earlier than usual since it is in the Europe, so the previews will be a little bit shorter this time to make sure I won't be too late or anything like that. Main Event: Jack Hermansson vs. Jared Cannonier Jack Hermansson is the better fighter basically in every way except for power, and power happens to be the real leverage point for fighting. Cannonier has looked great at middleweight, but you can't really read too much into beating shopworn Anderson Silva. Regardless, the whole dynamic with the leg kick will be interesting in this fight - Hermansson's style seems to be to leave the leg on purpose open for the kicks and then just time takedowns when the opponent takes the bait and goes for the kick. Jacare did not go for the kicks a lot, and did get taken down for those times he did. Still, if Cannonier manages to hide his kicks well he could completely piece Hermansson's legs up, and of course he also carries a lot of power to finish the ...

Without some horseshit decisions, the fight night would have been almost perfect as far as my picks are concerned. What started as a decent card kinda fell flat in the end with terrible decision in co-main before complete disappointment of NC in the Main Event. Main Card Obviously there is nothing to say about the main event, the fight was over before it really started. I don't think Stephens faked the injury even if it looked pretty harmless as far as eye pokes go, these things happen and it was unlucky for everyone involved.  Co-Main is the kind of bullshittery that really should not happen though. So first round was close, I can see it going either way, but realistically, it was all Grasso doing damage in stand-up, and although she got taken down couple of times, she was not really under severe threat and could stand back up both times. Second round, you can't fault judges for giving it to Esparza, even if all she did was lay on top of Grasso for the whole round....

Main Event: Yair Rodriguez vs. Jeremy Stephens Both guys in the main event have got themselves a similar style match-up to their previous fight. Yair of course last fought against Korean Zombie almost a year ago now in Denver, getting that crazy last second elbow KO after a closely fought war. Stephens on the other hand fought another rangy, flashy guy in Abraham Lincoln Zabit Magomedsharipov and looked competitive but ultimately was second best. So with the match-ups being similar and one being a winner, one being a loser, this ought to be a clear cut pick for Yair, no? Well, yea. Yair is a young guy who has been off for a while now, and I presume that in such a long absence, he would show up improved, whereas Jeremy Stephens is who he is and probably already past his prime. Not shot by any means, but he ain't gonna suddenly look great again. Well, he might just KO Yair fast and that would constitute looking great I suppose - Stephens always has it in him to put people out ...

My prediction success rate was a little worse this time around which was something I expected. There just were lot less match-ups that I felt confident about going one way or another and the ones that I were the most certain about turned out to be the biggest mistakes. In the Main Event Cowboy turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. He just never got going, it was all Gaethje landing heavy shots until he put together enough of solid connections to put Cerrone out. It is worth noting that Gaethje fights in a bit more calculated fashion nowadays and despite his relatively simplistic game, looks like a legit contender for the belt. After Khabib and Tony settle who is really the best, he deserves to fight the winner. Of course he would take the money fight with Conor though, and I am pretty sure he would comfortably win it too. That is something to be speculated if and when the fight happens though. The Co-Main Event was just as messy and vague match as I sort of expected. Well, I ...

Time will tell if this whole "preview the whole card" thing will be sustainable for me, but encouraged from the reasonably good rate of correct picks last weekend, I am here to try my hand at it again with all the fights researched to some extent. Main Event: Donald Cerrone vs. Justin Gaethje Interesting fight for sure. There was a time couple of years ago after Masvidal KO'd Cerrone when it looked like Cowboy was done, then he became a father and seemed to regain his focus. He had a great momentum going on his return to lightweight division until Ferguson steamrolled over him.  Still, there is no shame in losing against perhaps the best lightweight out there and at least Cerrone showed in that fight that he is still relevant fighter. Here in this matchup against Gaethje he seems like the overall more well-polished fighter, the issue is that Gaethje is not a great stylistic matchup for him. Traditionally Cerrone has struggled with guys who put heavy pressure o...

Abu Dhabi event is done... It was a mixed bag of an event with some tactical, cautious fights mixed in with some absolutely vicious KOs. Main Event did not spring up any surprises, as Khabib continued his dominant reign. To that end, Poirier did about as well as I expected him to do. He had Khabib more troubled than anyone before him with a good shot he managed to land on 2nd. Khabib was not rocked or anything, but definitely felt it enough to start backing down. As expected though, every time Khabib got his hands on him, the round was as good as over and Dustin was not able to keep Khabib off him well enough to even win a round. Now the obvious fight to make is the only guy matching Khabib's UFC win streak, Tony Ferguson. He is the only guy even remotely capable of threatening Khabib, there is zero appeal with McGregor rematch as that would be even worse destruction. Probably even Tony cannot stop Khabib's pressure, but he is the only interesting style match-up and hig...

I will do something a little bit different today - I will actually write previews of ALL the fights since I spent the week actually researching the fights properly this time. Yeah, let's hope my awful rate of right picks will improve due to all the work I put in. Honestly 40 % success rate would be fine, haha. Main Event: Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Dustin Poirier What's there to say that has not been said before? It seems like people have finally woken up to how dominant Khabib is and he is rightfully rated as the clear favorite for this bout. Ironically, Dustin probably has the best chance to spring surprise out of the Khabib's recent opponents, for he has great boxing, packs decent punch and can keep a high pace all night. Still, Khabib being so dominant in his one skill means that if he can just get his hands on you, the round is as good as over. The best anyone has ever done is Tibau and even he got pressed against the cage for the whole match, despite managing to sta...