UFC / MMA
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Predictions for Adesanya vs Whittaker?
Whittaker is easily the biggest challenge in the division but he's still a big underdog. There's lot's of ways to lose in MMA though..
The most interesting thing will be the tactics that RW comes in with. You'd assume he'll be more patient than last time.. but Izzy would be comfortable staying just outside range and picking him off. Adesanya has a big reach advantage and still has a speed edge
A lot of people are predicting wrestling heavy attack. I don't think that's as easy as some are suggesting. Adesanya's takedown defence is pretty good and there's still the problem of closing the distance and setting it up
Apparently Whittaker has been doing a lot of boxing training. Hoping to catch him when he does an Anderson Silva style lean back with the hands down? Maybe he thinks he can replicate the Gastelum fight? But Gastelum has very fast hands by MMA standards
tldr - I have no idea what RW will do
Izzy is likely to win but this has potential to be a classic. If they had 10 fights I think it would be 7-3
Short hype video:
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@duluth super hyped for this fight. Love Rob Whittaker.
I think if Rob had Vettoris chin he would win this fight. I think he has all the skills to win but I think adesanya will catch him and Rob gets wobbly. Adesanya is very dangerous on wounded opponents.
When watching the first fight live I believe Rob had many opportunities to land a take down or attack the body as adesanya sways back. So I think tactical blitzes, into body attacks or takedown will be robs gameplan. It's a risky one though.
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@muddyriver said in UFC:
When watching the first fight live I believe Rob had many opportunities to land a take down or attack the body as adesanya sways back. So I think tactical blitzes, into body attacks or takedown will be robs gameplan. It's a risky one though.
I agree with all of that. One thing in Rob's favour is he seems a lot calmer going into this fight. In Melbourne it was clear Adesanya made him see the red mist. Head hunting with 100% power on every shot didn't end well
It's all about how well Whittaker closes the distance. Adesanya seems to screw up opponents timing with his feints (particularly that hip one)
I flew over for that Melbourne fight. It seems like a lot longer ago than 2.5 years
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Bobby Knuckles for the win
No rhyme nor reason
It’s his time
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Whittaker will be super focussed for this one and surely won’t be as loose as he was last time. Looked like he had got a bit worked up about it all and wasn’t as precise as as needed to be. Was it emotion? Or the hype? Whatever it was, expect more structure and patience this time.
I still think Izzy will get the win in the end but think could be quite a different fight on Sunday then we saw two years ago.
Also blood diamond is on the undercard. I don’t know much about his opponent but seen plenty of bloody diamond and the $2.80 on offer is very generous.
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Also blood diamond is on the undercard. I don’t know much about his opponent but seen plenty of bloody diamond and the $2.80 on offer is very generous.
I hope it’s televised. He’s the first fight of the early prelims so we might miss out
His king in the ring fights were always entertaining
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Also blood diamond is on the undercard. I don’t know much about his opponent but seen plenty of bloody diamond and the $2.80 on offer is very generous.
I hope it’s televised. He’s the first fight of the early prelims so we might miss out
His king in the ring fights were always entertaining
Yeah they sure were eh. Not sure his approx fight time but TAB has 1pm and 365 has 12pm (which I think is more correct). Prelims on prime and ESPN from 2pm so yeah I think will miss it. Will it be on PPV coverage? Easy enough to get a stream going.
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PPV is just the last 5 fights. I think the only official way to see it in NZ would be via the Fight Pass app? There's probably a stream of that somewhere
If there's a few quick finishes in the regular coverage they'll pick an early prelim to fill the gap
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Ulberg is the other CKB fighter on the card. Will be interesting to see how he responds to a disappointing debut
There was an interview with Bareman a month ago where he discussed that fight. Under ideal circumstances he said Carlos would've had a couple more fights before joining the UFC. But the opportunity came up and there were no fights happening in NZ/Aus so they took a risk
Ulberg in an interview mentioned running out of gas. He talked about the huge difference in a fight situation going from 3min kickboxing round to 5min MMA rounds.
Hopefully the fight goes into the 2nd/3rd round so we can see if there's been improvements
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Picks/guesses
Israel Adesanya vs Robert Whittaker
Derrick Lewis vs Tai Tuivasa
Jared Cannonier vs Derek Brunson
Alexander Hernandez vs Renato Moicano
Bobby Green vs Nasrat HaqparastAndrei Arlovski vs Jared Vanderaa
Roxanne Modafferi vs Casey O'Neill
Kyler Phillips vs Marcelo Rojo
Carlos Ulberg vs Fabio CherantJeremiah Wells vs Mike Mathetha
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