This card is fucking STACKED. I'm really bored and going on a deep dive here.
Aside from Jones/Gane. Which.. I'm still not sure who to pick. Jones has always been very fast. He's added a ton of weight. Will he still have his speed? He hasn't fought for three years. Gane is a great athlete with a pretty great skillset at HW. Feels like Gane is going to take it, but Jon is the GOAT. I can't not pick Jones until he actually loses.
Future title contenders all over the place though. Du Plessis is on the undercard and is rightfully pissed. Dude is a monster. I think he's a future champ. Personally think he could be a top five fighter in his division right now (he's ranked 10). We're going to find out, because he's fighting the #5 fighter in his division in Derek Brunson. Can't believe this isn't on the main card. I'm picking Du Plessis. Vegas is too. Shows you how good Du Plessis is when he's rank 10 and the favorite everywhere over #5.
I think the Gamrot/Turner fight is super interesting. Turner has a unique body for his weight class. Tall, lanky, big reach and he has power. Gamrot is a phenomenal wrestler and a monster in his own right. But I think every Jalin Turner fight is interesting because of his unique advantages vs. guys 4-8 inches shorter on average. Justin Gaethje is the second biggest dude in the division at 5'11. Turner is 6'3. Most dudes are between 5'7-5'10. I'm picking Gamrot because I don't think Turner is quite ready for the next level yet.. but I don't really feel great about it.
Shavkat Rakhmonov is another guy I'm looking forward to seeing again. Looks like he could be a serious contender in the near future, but the division is probably one of the strongest divisions in the history of the UFC. He's still undefeated, hasn't fought too many names yet. Geoff Neal is pretty fucking solid, so this should be a good one. I'm picking Shavkat.
Bo Nickal is another up and coming guy who looks like the real deal. Only three fights in MMA, but he's easily one of more accomplished wrestlers outside the UFC we've ever seen. I'm always intrigued by guys who were standouts in college wrestling. They usually do extremely fucking well.. Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman (both Buckeyes - also absolutely juiced to the tits like most of these names coming up here), Brock Lesnar, Johnny Hendricks were all NCAA champ wrestlers who also won UFC belts. Other standouts in NCAA were Randy Couture, Jon Jones, Chael Sonnen, Daniel Cormier, Matt Hughes, Cain Velasquez, Chris Weidman, Dan Severn.. all were UFC champs, but not NCAA champs. Bo Nickal won three national championships at State Penn (runner up once), three big 10 titles (third once), two golds in National Championships and U23 World Championships. So he's probably going to beat the ever living fuck out of his opponent, and most everyone else if history repeats itself for literally the 13th time.
Valentina Shevchenko is on the card, I am a huge fan. She just beats people down. Last fight was really close, so we'll see.
The Garbrandt fight was canceled. Probably for the best...
Just really looking forward to this one. Pumped. Been pumped about it since it was announced. I also helped set up a boxing/MMA event the last two days and saw some live combat. Good stuff. Side note: Joe Burrow was interested enough to come to have the staff set up a table. But sadly, I didn't get to meet Joey B. I left before he got there (if he went).
