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Predictions for 2019 - Prospects, Champions etc. *updated


Egg Shen

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seeings that's we're a week away from the years first real significant card i thought i'd get this up...basically, who do you feel will end 2018 as champions, are there any prospects you think we should be keeping an eye on in 2018, aways nice to have some tips in such an oversaturated fight market, lets line em up...

Keep an eye on these guys:

Israel Adesanyer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Adesanya

1462625060Thai-Boxer-Israel-Adesanya-144

Entering the UFC at UFC 221. Adesanyer is an 11-0 MMA prospect with 11 KO's, that's a great record on paper (most notable win a KO of Melvin Guillard), but what makes him stand out is the fact that also one of the best kickboxers in the world (losing in an attempt at the Glory Middleweight Title only last year). Another thing worth noting is the fact that Adesanyer is a shit talker, he's cocky and confident and he's gonna make a lot of noise if he starts his UFC career in spectacular fashion. His fight is buried down the prelims at 221 but make a point of wathcing.

Zabit Magomedsharipov

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zabit_Magomedsharipov

zabit_magomedsharipov_weigh.jpg?14349277

Quite possibly the least intimidating looking fighter in MMA, if you watch all the fights on a UFC card you should already be familiar with Zabit, a former ACB Featherweight Champ and already 2-0 in the UFC with two performance of the night bonuses. Magomedsharipov looks like a special fighter, one of those crazy Russians that has literally been brought up through the Russian combat systems, he just seems to have it all including a very flashy, fan friendly style. No new fight lined up as of yet, but this is my no. 1 prospect for the year, if he gets the right fights i think he'll be knocking of the door of the featherweight top 5 by the end of the year.

Rafael Lovato Jr.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Lovato_Jr.

Lovato.jpg

I ain't gonna lie, i pinched this one.

7-0 in MMA and fighting in the Bellator Middleweight division. I ain't too familiar with Lovato Jr. myself but my eyes were opened to Lovato on a recent Joe Rogan MMA show where Lovato's teammate Justin Wren was speaking of Lovato. I know it's common for teammates to talk each other up, but Wren's assessment of Lovato felt a bit different, you sense that this might be guy capable of doing some serious damage in the division. First of Lovato has one of those ridiculous MMA resume's, similar to Demian Maia but he's coming into MMA knocking fools out and dominating division 1 wrestlers, he's not a spring chicken at 34 but he's the guy im looking forward to following in Bellator in 2018.

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borrachinha1.jpg

I'm interested to see how Paulo "Your Mum's vibrator" Costa gets on this year. The UFC clearly see him as having star potential, given he's a good looking boy, but this will be a big year for him, one way or t'other. He's currently ranked 15th in the MW division and, if all goes well, you fancy him having a shot at getting a top 10 fight soon enough. He's currently 11-0 in MMA, with his fights ending no later than 1 and a half minutes in the second. At 26, he's still very young for the division.

The UFC clearly want him to win, so we'll see if he's the new Brazilian hope in men's MMA. They need it.

Good idea for a thread, this, Egg.

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Pretty good chance that Nathaniel "The Prospect" Wood will make his UFC debut this year. Current Cage Warriors BW champ. He's got a pretty good chin, fast hands and decent power - could make an impact.

nathaniel1.jpg?w=748&h=420&crop=1

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A really good idea for a thread, especially to look back on a year from now. 

Francis Ngannou will beat Stipe in a war, then Stipe will win his rebound fight, Ngannou will beat Werdum in the summer, and we'll see the even bigger Stipe/Ngannou II fight at the end of the year. 

DC beats Volkan. If he fights Glover, he'll beat him too. If Gustaffson is healthy however, he'll dethrone Cormier in the summer, setting up a big re-match with Jon Jones, who I think will serve 18 months, leaving Gusty vs Jones II for the beginning of 2019. 

I haven't a clue about middleweight. Not a notion. These guys in the top 6-7 positions can all beat each other, and are all top level fighters. Following Colin Bollocks post above, I'm going to say Paulo Costa will go 3-0 for the year, without having to fight any of the elite of the division, and then he'll be in line for a number one contender shot at the start of 2019. I'm looking forward to his development from fight to fight to see if his improvements match his potential. 

170 is the most fun of all the divisions in the company at the minute I think. Woodley and RDA is a great match up of two men at the peak of their powers that I can't wait to see how it will play out. Darren Till, Kamaru Usman, Ponzinibhio, Emil Meek, Perry, are all guys that I'm interested to see where their careers go this year, as it's a pivotal point for all of them I think. 

At Lightweight, Khabib will fight twice, first he will fight Ferguson, and it'll be for the official belt. If the fights close I could see them re-match it. If McGregor gets stripped then I don't think he'll bother fighting Khabib, and he'll go with the Diaz rubber match.  If McGregor keeps the belt then I still think Khabib beats Ferguson, but that McGregor has a chance for about 2-3 minutes against him. If it goes past that, then he's being turned to mince on the floor. This whole division is interesting right now mainly because I'm not aware of anyone in the top 15 that have a fight booked currently, though I'm sure I'm forgetting someone. 

Max Holloway and Frankie Edgar will go the distance, and it'll be close. However Max will edge most of the rounds, winning it 49-46. He'll fight Brian Ortega after that, end the year as champion and consider moving up to 155. 

Champions at the end of 2018:

HW: Ngannou

LHW: Gusty

MW: Whittaker

LW: Khabib

FW: Holloway

BW: Garbrandt

Flyweight: DJ

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Nothing outragous here but from looking at the UFC rankings with decent matchmaking Santiago Ponzinbbio and Michael Chiesa will move higher up the rank quite easily. 

Wouldn't surprise me if Werdum becomes champ.  

I don't know how well they will do but David Teymur, Niko Price and Emil Meek impressed. 

Don't know how much i believe this but hopefully Nate Diaz comes back.

Holloway v Ortega is the fight i'm most hyped for.

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12 hours ago, ColinBollocks said:

Paulo "Your Mum's vibrator" Costa

So that's what 'Borrachina' means! 

I'll have a proper think about this but one that jumped out immediately when I was reading the opening post was heavyweight Tai Tuivasa. He's Australian, 6-0 with 6 knockouts, brutally KO'd the usually durable Rashad Coulter in his UFC debut via flying knee, bashed up cuntbag James McSweeney outside the UFC, has a bit of pro boxing experience. He's got something about him charisma-wise as well from the little we saw in his post-fight interview. It's early days but I've got a good feeling about him and at just 24 in an aging division, the sky's the limit as long as he can stay active and remain healthy. 

N82W3.jpg

He's on the UFC 221 PPV in Perth next month against Cyril Asker. 

Not massively going out on a limb but I also think 2018 could be a huge year for both Darren Till and Brian Ortega. They both got big signature wins at the back end of '17 and I really think they could both go on to be something special. They should both be getting big fights next so we'll see what happens. 

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Agreed with Adesanya and Tuivasa. It'll be a great year for fighters from the Australia/New Zealand region, I believe.

Tyson Pedro. He got decisioned by Ilir Latifi last time out, but he still has potential and gets a chance to show it in the UFC 221 PPV opener. Just a bit of work on his grappling and he can be a force. He benefits from being in a division that doesn't have a ton of depth at 205. He has good striking, an imposing figure and is pretty likeable.

And of course, keeping on my Robert Whittaker bandwagon. He beats Rockhold at 221, then maybe Weidman in July or something. And that would damn near clear out the division for Robbie, he's beaten the other top contenders already on his way to the gold- Brunson, Jacare, Romero. Except...

(This is where I move away from the Aus/NZ fighters)

Paulo Costa. 100% believe he'll rocket up the ranks in 2018. Just ridiculous size and power for 185. He'll be in the top 5 by year's end, I reckon. Question marks a little on his gas tank, but honestly, it may not matter.

Emil Meek. Think he has a big coming out party next week by destroying Kamaru Usman. There's just something about his intensity, he's going to be a massive star.

I think Uriah Hall will finally get over the hump too. He's being fed Vitor Belfort up next, and he should demolish him no problem. I believe Uriah's got over the mental issues he had based on that Jotko win.

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17 hours ago, WeeAl said:

Francis Ngannou will beat Stipe in a war, then Stipe will win his rebound fight, Ngannou will beat Werdum in the summer, and we'll see the even bigger Stipe/Ngannou II fight at the end of the year. 

DC beats Volkan. If he fights Glover, he'll beat him too. If Gustaffson is healthy however, he'll dethrone Cormier in the summer, setting up a big re-match with Jon Jones, who I think will serve 18 months, leaving Gusty vs Jones II for the beginning of 2019. 

At Lightweight, Khabib will fight twice, first he will fight Ferguson, and it'll be for the official belt. If the fights close I could see them re-match it. If McGregor gets stripped then I don't think he'll bother fighting Khabib, and he'll go with the Diaz rubber match.  If McGregor keeps the belt then I still think Khabib beats Ferguson, but that McGregor has a chance for about 2-3 minutes against him. If it goes past that, then he's being turned to mince on the floor. This whole division is interesting right now mainly because I'm not aware of anyone in the top 15 that have a fight booked currently, though I'm sure I'm forgetting someone. 

Max Holloway and Frankie Edgar will go the distance, and it'll be close. However Max will edge most of the rounds, winning it 49-46. He'll fight Brian Ortega after that, end the year as champion and consider moving up to 155. 

You're a man after my heart with these predictions Al. I would like to see D.C vs Gusty 2. Enough time has past since their initial outing to get me excited about a rematch between the pair. 

I've gone back and forth with Stipe vs Ngannou. At first, I reasoned that it would likely be a shootout like most Heavyweight title fights have been in recent times, therefore I favoured Ngannou to get the job done. However, I have started to come around to a Miocic victory the past few weeks. He is the more proven and experienced fighter. We don't know how Ngannou will perform under pressure, or what will happen if he gets clipped. We do know that Miocic can come back from the brink of defeat, and there are fewer questions about his all-round game. It's a real puzzler, and I can't wait to see how it unfolds. 

Khabib is my favourite fighter on the active roster. Only Penn in his brief prime (2008-2009) and McGregor have left the impression on me that Khabib has. Aldo, Edgar and Cruz are all-time greats of course, but they don't get my juices flowing like Khabib does. I would love him to live up to the hype, and dethrone Ferguson. I think he will do it as well. Forget the McGregor fight, that isn't happening. Either McGregor will face Ferguson, or abandon Lightweight altogether, and chase GSP or a 3rd fight with Diaz. 

I also agree with your read on the Max vs Edgar fight. I think Max will just about win, but Edgar will give a good account of himself. 

 

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You're right Jim, it's incredibly difficult to picture the Stipe/Ngannou fight. Two strong bastards that we know can end anyone's night, and we know Stipe can go through hell and come out the other side, yet we don't know that about big Francis yet (In the cage that is, in life terms he's as tough as they come with what he left behind and the journey he took). I'm just hoping the hype train doesn't terminate here, yet also that it's an exciting enough fight that there would be cause enough for a re-match, as that could work out being the most interesting option at HW, with the way the rest of the division is these days. 

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11 hours ago, Shane O' Mac Version 2 said:

 

Emil Meek. Think he has a big coming out party next week by destroying Kamaru Usman. There's just something about his intensity, he's going to be a massive star.

 

Bold prediction. I like Meek but im takijg Usman all day there. Usman is another guy i could add to my list.

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Yeah Ebb, I like Usman too, I just think that Meek comes out to make a major statement after so much hassle in getting this fight booked. As I said, major intensity, the man actually scares me a little.

10 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

Bit of trivia you probably know Shane O but Tai Tuivasa is Tyson Pedro's brother in law and they have a podcast together apparently. Might give that a listen as I like both so far. 

Had no idea, cheers Wand. Not much of a podcast guy but I like both guy's personalities, so might check it out.

6 hours ago, Carbomb said:

What's with Oz nicking all the good New Zealanders? Is it simply a case of having better facilities?

Could be partly that, but also a lot of people from NZ, not just fighters, move to Australia simply because they prefer the country. Mark Hunt's lived in Sydney for decades and raised his family here, and despite the arguments people like to have about Whittaker and his nationality, he's as much a New Zealander as Kane is Spanish- spent the first month of his life in NZ before his parents moved to Sydney. Although one of them is actually a Kiwi, but all the same, Rob was entirely raised in Sydney.

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Prediction for the UFC Champions the 1st January 2019:

Flyweight: DJ, Bantamweight: Dillashaw, Featherweight: Holloway (after defeating Edgar in a rematch), Lightweight: Khabib (after beating Tony to determine the champion), Welterweight: GSP, Middleweight: Weidman, LHW: Gusty, HW: Stipe. JJ, Nunes and Cyborg for their respective divisions.

Nothing that outrageous there I don't think. 

Fighter Predictions:

Machida, Arlovski, Silva and Shogun will all retire, Bisping will retire after losing his last fight, neither Diaz brother will return to the sport, Gastelum will main event a PPV, Cejudo will main event a PPV, Paulo Costa will main event a FN in Brazil, Hendricks will move up to Light Heavyweight, Aldo will move up to Lightweight.

Others:

GSP/McGregor will headline the MSG show for the Welterweight Chanpionship. At least 2 fighters in the UFC P4P rankings will sign for Bellator. Volkan will go on a losing streak after losing to DC. Joanna/Rose II headlines a PPV. Stipe calls out Brock Lesnar after beating Ngannou.

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