UFC SAUDI ARABIA WHITTAKER VS. ALISKEROV PICKS & PREVIEW

“I'm going to be going with Lee Chang-ho uh because he seems to so first of all he's taken a lot less damage throughout his career which obviously he's had a lot less fights but he also seems to be a lot more damaging when he fights you see on his record a lot of TKO finishes via ground and pound whereas jaia long recently has been able to skate by with like majority decisions split decisions and things like that against relatively similar competition on road to the UFC so I do think that Lee Chang-ho is going to be able to get it done I think that he gets it done via TKO with ground and pound”

“I'm going to be going with Brendson Ribeiro here uh the reason being is experience and level of competition also the fact that hiier riviero whatever is comp uh pretty competent everywhere okay he's also going to have a significant reach Advantage now magomed on the other hand is fought absolute and total nobody's up until his last two fights and both of those were decisions so we're starting to see his finish rate drop off as he competes against better competition whereas Brendson Ribeiro has been fighting relatively good competition for a good while now okay ribiero is either finishing you dude or he's getting finished okay and magamed usually against opponents that are like 0 and three will take them down Mount them and finish them from there and Brendson Ribeiro I feel as though has good enough grappling to not allow that to happen even if he gets put in a bad position I think he's going to be threatening with submissions I think he's going to be trying to get back to his feet and things like that and not just allow it to happen so that's why I'll be going with Brendson Ribeiro here over magomed gav I think that rabo could potentially get a TKO here but who knows”

“I'm going to be going with Kang Kyung-ho Kyung-ho here okay Muin Gafurov just isn't that good he kind of fights like a complete and total [ __ ] if I'm being honest puts himself in very bad situations is finishable Kang Kyung-ho is a hard dude to finish despite having a lot of losses on his record okay um but I trust him more to like stick to a game plan keep himself safe whereas I do not trust muing gafarov to do the same at all”

“I'm going to be going with Nicolas Dalby okay he's a massive Underdog here he stopped one hype train and I could see him doing it again and in my opinion dude renat fov's gas tank kind of got exposed against Eliza's lucky dos Santos if you can kind of tough it out for that first round where he is absolutely dangerous I'm not going to deny that but in the second round and onward you can start to implement your game plan and Eliza's lucky do Santos made that fight unbelievably close like I thought that fight could have either been a or potentially gone the other way it was a very close fight after that first round okay Nicolas Dalby has never been finished in his entire career he's had a lot of fights not a single finish on his record or not him being finished on his record right so I don't think that renat fov's just going to be able to go in there and completely and totally steamroll him in the first round which I believe is Rinat Fakhretdinov's best uh option to win this fight okay and as I said dude Nicolas Dalby against uh Bon fee Gabriel Bon basically did just that he toughed out the beginning of the fight and then went on to beat the [ __ ] out of him okay and I he was a massive Underdog for that fight as well so there's no way that after watching Rinat Fakhretdinov gas out after the first round against an older and smaller Eliza Zaki dos Santos uh I don't think that he's going to be able to go in there and steamroll Nicholas dby especially not at like minus 400 or whatever it is that they have him at they have it relatively close to that I believe it's minus 375 or something but either way dude I'm picking the big Underdog Nicolas Dalby to get get it done late TKO or decision”

“I'm going to be going with Muhammad Naimov um Muhammad's going to have in my I think he'll have a pretty significant like size and strength Advantage you can see the height and stuff like that there but also Felipe Lima has fought at bantamweight do you know what I mean he's he's a smaller dude for featherweight and probably because this was on short notice or or whatever he's taking this but either way I'm going to say this though I'm not overly confident in my pick”

“now I'm picking Nasrat Haqparast paron me he's a relatively large favorite but either way bro is technically very sound in my opinion very good fun fals he does not get finished a whole lot and in fact the last time he got finished it was in 2020 and it was Drew Dober that dude hits like a truck okay so it's you know Drew Dober is even either finishing you or he's getting finished for the most part so I'm not going to hold that one against him all that much now he doesn't lose to bums either right you go look down the list of the guys he's lost to they're not like the cream of the crop but they're also not the bottom of the barrel we're talking like Bobby green Dan hooker as I said Drew Dober guys like this dude tough guys that usually have crazy fights also he's on a win streak with a very nice finish over Jamie Malarkey which was nice to see from him because we haven't really seen a big knockout like that in a bit even though most of his wins are by knockout just not in the UFC uh Jared Gordon while he looked good against Marco Madson I don't see Nasrat Haqparast gassing the same way that Marco Madson did which is kind of how Jared Gordon was able to get that one done Marco Madson went absolutely all out in the first little bit there and then Jared Gordon was able to tough it out and get the job done it was a nice knockout but Marco Madson real old okay also kind of has a very limited skill set and as I said Gass out so I don't see nasr hack prass doing that I think he's going to come in here with a really good game plan I think he's going to stick to that game plan and I don't know that he's going to finish Jared Gordon Jared Gordon's a tough dude to finish I would Bank on Jared Gordon's chin more than I would over Jamie malar is okay but I do think nasrat hack prz will probably pull off a decision Victory”

“okay I'm going Volkan Oezdemir now these odds are crazy so I'm not super confident in this if Volkan Oezdemir was a little bit more of an underdog I would pick him all day every day I had to go back and forth with myself a little bit but here's my problem dude Johnny Walker has kind of showed us multiple occasions that he can't really handle adversity all that much”

“I'm going with Antonio Trócoli all right now Sharabutdin Magomedovbutdin Magomedov in his last fight against Bruno Silva showed us he has zero takedown defense whatsoever and almost zero ability to get back to the feet either he would rather try and kick you from his back then get back to his feet okay and Bruno Silva dude keep in mind Bruno Silva is not some like super high level Grappler he's lost by submission a bunch of times most of his wins come by way of knockout he just knew that he didn't want to be on the feet with SH magedov because of the kickboxing credentials okay but charl meam spent the vast majority of his year uh his his career or at the very least the vast majority of his highlights fighting guys a lot smaller than he is okay that's just a fact you can go look at every single opponent on his record all of his most impressive finishes come against dudes that are a lot smaller one of his more recent opponents before he got to the UFC last weighed in at 135 pounds okay this is a middle weight right sh and Sh mageda fighting guys that now fight at Phantom weight so I feel as though he is a m he's got a ton of hype that I don't know is all that deserved yes he has a good highlight reel and all that stuff but he's not been fighting good competition his debut against Bruno Silva was in my opinion lackluster okay and exposed a few holes in his game now when I was bringing up the smaller opponent things that's to say Anton Antonio Trócoli pardon me is a lot bigger okay the opponent who was supposed to fight Sharabutdin Magomedov was a lot smaller than him as usual believe he even had fights at lightweight okay Antonio Trócoli there's no way he making lightweight ever in his life ever okay the dude is 6'5 with an 82 in reach okay he's not been finished since 2017 and and it wasn't even like a KN it was a retirement like he quit on the stool or something it wasn't like a true TKO or knockout now I just man he's got a ton of Subs on his record okay I feel like Antonio troli can take him down and sub him because Bruno Silva was able to take him down and kind of stifle Sharabutdin Magomedovbutdin Magomedov offense and Anton Antonio Trócoli pardon me at the very least based on his record is a much more credential Grappler than Bruno Silva and is also a lot bigger okay and is going to be able to if he can utilize it stay safe or at safer ranges than Bruno Silva was able to because of his size and his reach and things like that”

“now I'm picking Daniel Rodriguez okay because [ __ ] Kelvin Gastelum dude was like at media day smiling and smirking about coming in a whole weight class overweight yeah well you know we got to talk to the managers and see what we can do why the [ __ ] would you not tell Daniel Rodriguez about this like two weeks ago hey bro I'm morbidly obese this fight Camp I'm not going to make 170 you should stop cutting weight or whatever like dick move pulling Apollo Costa only the difference is is that Kelvin Gastelum has like zero personality compared to paollo Costa Paul Costa can kind of get away with some of that [ __ ] although he did get raked over the [ __ ] Kohls for that okay Kelvin Gastelum I haven't heard much criticism of you missed weight by a huge amount you still have to cut weight to get to the weight class above you which is 15 lbs do you know what I mean that's insane bro Kelvin Gastelum dude could have had he had potential but you can see there's maybe disciplin disciplinary issues or I don't know what it is but Jesus man you to me this is I I don't like this at all it bugs me and I don't think he's getting enough criticism for it Daniel Rodriguez credit to him for saying [ __ ] it probably needs the money so he's like I'll just fight him at 185 fine but bro couldn't even make a cat like listen dude I'm picking Daniel Rodriguez I don't know how he gets it done Kelvin Gastelum has not looked all that good lately he's not looked like the power puncher that he once was he's not looked as fast as he once was his wrestling doesn't look as good as it once did”

“I'm gonna go pavlovich but I'll say this I could see a world where volov picks him apart on the feet if I'm being honest okay volov has a much wider Arsenal on the feet a little cleaner with the fundamentals very good long range attacks whereas pavlovich likes to get in close with the hands now he doesn't need to get that close because he's got an 84 in reach at 6'3 that is the biggest positive ape index I think in UFC history right John Jones has an 84 and a half or whatever it is but he's also 6'4 a little bit taller than pavlovich pavlovich has what a 9 in PA Plus 8 uh plus 9 in AP index that's insane that's unheard of the dude is a literal [ __ ] fridge okay anyways um as I said very good long range attacks and stuff like that I could see him kind of teing the body staying at range staying you know at a safe distance from Sergei Pavlovich but I do think that pavlovich is going to kind of just bully through that and eventually hurt him kind of the way we saw Derrick Lewis do it just took Derrick Lewis a lot longer but I trust Sergei Pavlovich to do something like that way more than I trust Derrick Lewis to do it okay because pavlovich is much cleaner with his hands than Derrick Lewis uh has ever been”

“I'm going to be going with Robert Whittaker um man I've been gone back and forth with this one on myself as well honestly aalis I feel like is very good and I think that he people immediately dislike him because of where he comes from or whatever and that's fine but he has a much more exciting fight style I think that a lot of those guys it's not as grappling heavy uh heavy he will utilize it if he needs it but we've seen him come in and knock two dudes out do you know what I mean but Robert Whittaker is not Phil HW Phil HW has a chin in which I would trust like a featherweight to put out do you know what I mean the guy gets flicked and he goes to sleep warl Alves is a very small middleweight and long in the tooth taking a ton of damage throughout his career and I understand that there's a lot of recency bias when it comes to Robert Whittaker because we've got the drick 2 plus C performance and whatever but despite all that he does have very good takedown defense historically speaking okay he's very good at keeping a safe distance he's very good at coming in and out of range and tagging you before you even have a chance to process that he's entered inside and you're you need to hit him back or counter or whatever right also what I'm hoping we see from Robert Whitaker is the Robert Whittaker that we saw against like a Marvin vtori Jared caner guys like this Kelvin Gastelum where we saw a very faint heavy Robert Whitaker so he was actually setting up his combinations whereas with dricus d plus C it was almost reminiscent of the first Israel osna fight where he went in there probably thought he was just going to demolish him and didn't obviously but wasn't really setting things up he was kind of just throwing the combos that we know he throws the the problem with that is dude is that Robert Whittaker has a very a limited set he doesn't have a limited Arsenal in terms of his striking but the combinations that he throws are very predictable we know which combinations you're going to throw we know we know we've seen it a 100 times onew head kick we get it dude so what's very important to do is set that up with faints you got to get them moving their head you got to get them tweaking out which is something he did very well against Marvin VOR something he did very well against Kelvin Gastelum and Jared caner and guys before um the championship level obviously but I think he can do that to Ikram Aliskerov while is exciting to watch while has decent striking is a little bit sloppy obviously that flying knee was beautiful and the I think it was a right hand that he caught Phil HW with was also very nice and clean there are openings though uh defensively speaking and I think that by the time he realizes he wants to Grapple it'll be too late Robert Whitaker as I said historically speaking very good takedown defense stuffed a ton of yel Romero's takedowns stuffed brunson's taked down stuffed drias D plus C I can't even remember another guy that took Whitaker down aside from that unless I'm just blanking completely and totally uh no he took Darren t down he took osia down and took his back I can't I can't think of it and driis 2 plus C kind of just chatted his way through that that was like a pure strength takedown uh a head and arm throw which we usually only see work in women's MMA but it was also because Robert Whittaker engaged in the clinch Robert Whittaker was the one that was kind of trying to grab because he drick dup he was staying very responsible with his defense very high tight guard wasn't biting on faints and things like that so Whitaker was you know trying to mix things up it seemed um I don't think that he's going to do that here I think he's going to be fully aware of the grappling threat that stands in front of him I think that he's been training takeown defense and get uh get ups and and everything like that for the last however long hamzat chamaya obviously pulled out with food poisoning okay kind of ridiculous but either way so he's prepared for that style now all he has to do go in his do and do what he usually does against dudes do you know what I mean so that's why if I alisov had had a couple more fights and I'd seen him beat higher level competition which I do think he can do I would probably actually pick him because I do think he's very good I don't think that he gets enough credit and uh I think that he if you look at him versus hamach chv I think that Ikram Aliskerov has actually improved more than hamach chv has since the last time they fought I thought that would be a very interesting matchup one day but who knows if we even if we even see hamach fight again okay okay so either way dude Robert Whittaker probably a decision probably just kind of pieces Ikram Aliskerov up at range if he does get a finish it'll be later on in the fight but I doubt it because Robert Whitaker doesn't usually get finishes either way”