Jakro's MMA Musings

Main Event: Dominick Reyes vs. Jiri Prochazka I feel like Jiri is coming to this fight with a lot of hype, and people kinda aren't appreciating Reyes for the fighter he really is. Sure, Blachowicz kinda exposed him, he was winning the fight even before Reyes got caught. But Reyes wasn't doing bad in that fight, just showed his inexperience getting carried away into trading in the pocket with Blachowicz. We need to take a moment to appreciate the fact that Reyes is only 14 fights deep into his MMA career. He is fighting at 205 where he was bound to get finished up eventually. That doesn't mean he is suddenly a bad fighter. He still moves well, carries a lot of power and is defensively mostly sound. He is only 31 in a heavy weight class and has already fought a very close fight with the GOAT. All in all, it's unlikely we have even seen the best of Reyes yet. That being said, we haven't seen the best of Jiri either, cause even though he is much more the experienced fig...

UFC 261 delivered hard. Violent finishes, brutal injuries... Was it the best card of the year? It's up there for sure. Having the crowd back had even the first prelim feel like major title bout and I think it showed in the fighter's performances. Main Card Most people expected Kamaru to have this in a dominant fashion, and after again starting a little bit slow against Masvidal, he hit an absolutely sweet cross right on Jorge's jaw to put him out for the first time of Masvidal's pro career. Jorge is up there in age, but might be have gotten KOd by that shot even in his prime. Kamaru is tough to beat cause you can't dominate him in any range but he can surely dominate you with wrestling and stamina while matching you in striking and power. At this point I'd be interested in a totally different style match-up in Wonderboy, but will see.  The co-main gave us one of the best moments of the evening, with Rose just killing Zhang in the first round. Zhang reacted to Ro...

UFC 261 has three excellent title fights up top, but most of the card is a regionals extravaganza. Main Event: Kamaru Usman vs. Jorge Masvidal Nope, I am not gonna fall into this trap again. Perhaps partially on emotion, partially on false belief that Jorge had actually been training, last time I predicted Jorge to win, only to see him getting foot stomped to an UD. That same thing is gonna happen again. Don't get me wrong, Jorge's chance definitely is above zero, after all even Burns had Kamaru hurt, but he pretty much needs a finish, Kamaru will get at least three rounds simply with clinch control. So basically my point is that we have seen how this plays out, nothing has changed except Jorge is bit older and bit more out of his prime. I guess he has a full camp now, but I don't see it making much of a difference, Jorge is still gonna fade as the fight goes on cause Usman puts a pace on people. Prediction: Kamaru Usman Confidence in winner: 4 Co-Main Event: Weili Zhang vs...

Mediocre event for me, but I wasn't that far off in my analysis for most matches - not far for making better picks and ending in a small win instead of small loss. Let's glean the lessons from the event that wasn't the greatest even in entertainment value. Main Card Not much to say about main event, except that Robert Whittaker looked even better than everyone expected, and he was already expected to be able to handle Gastelum. Still you would have thought he would face more adversity, but he put in a very solid shift and decisioned Gastelum 50-45.  Co-main was also easy money, as Arlovski keeps being a reliable fighter against competition that isn't the most stellar. It's not that Sherman didn't give us couple of scares, but eventually Arlovski's superior skill and conditioning started to pay off. Still going strong at 42, I guess I should not be worried for the guy but rather let him enjoy as he keeps adding wins to his record. Abdul Razak Alhassan turns o...

 Main Event: Robert Whittaker vs. Kelvin Gastelum Gastelum is another one of those guys whose fights are kinda hard to predict. With his height it was no wonder that Till and Hermansson got the better of him, but he also went to absolute war with Adesanya, still being perhaps the toughest challenge Israel has had in the middleweight. Facing Whittaker here he faces a fellow former welterweight, so in terms of stature it is a fairer match-up. Despite that, I think Kelvin will run into familiar problems. Whittaker might not be as tall and big as Kelvin's previous opponents have been, but he uses his range well and moves very well. Kelvin's best advantage is his boxing, and I think he will struggle to keep it in the boxing range against Whittaker, who will pop him with jab and kicks and keep circling. Kelvin's wrestling is a bit of an X factor, but usually Whittaker has fared well against wrestlers. Another questionmark is Whittaker's chin, but the guy just fought Till and ...

UFC on ABC 2 was a pretty exciting event. Lots of good fights especially early on. Fight was in middle of the night for me but the good action helped me stay awake through it, and the pacing of the fights was pleasant - never had to wait too long for the next fight. Not to mention I had a winning night for a change too. Main Card So did Holland manage to address his lack of takedown defence issues in three weeks time? Well he didn't, but he certainly showed that he could have had that fight if he could have defended even half of the grappling Vettori did. Late on Holland had Vettori hurt and comfortably outstruck Vettori for most of the first round. It was clear though that his conditioning wasn't all there, don't know if he had trained much in between this and the Brunson fight, but regardless the grueling pace did a number on him pretty fast. It eventually made Vettori fade too and in the final round it seemed that Holland was the fresher guy. Still, when you can't av...

Main Event: Marvin Vettori vs. Kevin Holland My initial thought is that Vettori steamrolls here, but it's not that simple really, isn't it. I am really hesitant to pick Holland after how embarrassing he looked last time around, but Vettori is not the wrestler Brunson is. Still, he is competent in grappling too so I wouldn't be surprised if he holds Holland down for a round or two. At the same time I certainly don't believe we are gonna see a similar top control domination as we did in Holland's last performance.  Vettori has the sharper hands, but is that gonna matter as much when Holland has seven inches of reach advantage here. So I think if this stays on the striking range, Holland is actually gonna be comfortably dominating this match here. Vettori is tough and durable, but he has to be willing to work the clinch and takedowns here to beat Holland. As much as that last performance showed Holland is fish out of water on the ground, it has only been shown against ...