🥊 Your Guide to UFC 304

We’re going to get into what happened last weekend with Jake Paul and the UFC Vegas 94 card but… IT’S PPV WEEK FOLKS!

UFC 304 LIVE from Manchester, England is going down in a brand new arena but in the tried-and-true division that our man Kamaru Usman long held the crown in is at center-stage in just a few short days!

Watch our latest podcast episode previewing the UFC 304 card…

HEADLINES

🥊 Virna Jandiroba cemented her place in the 115lbs division title picture with a dominant with over Amanda Lemos at the UFC Apex arena this past weekend. Is she next in line for the title shot against Zhang Weili?

🥊 YouTube stud, MMA critic, and Pro Boxer Jake Paul won a knockout victory over UFC veteran and BKFC king “Platinum” Mike Perry late-night Saturday that had BKFC co-owner Conor McGregor BUZZING as the Brits would say…

🥊 Unfortunately, it looks like we will NOT be getting a Nick Diaz in a few short weeks as his fight with Vicente Luque has been canned for travel issue reasons. As an OG of the MMA game, Nick Diaz is always must-watch TV so it’s a shame we won’t see him fight in the near future.

REAL or FAKE 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

UFC VEGAS 94 RECAP

Virna Jandiroba def. Amanda Lemos (via Armbar SUB at 4:48 in RD2)

This was one of those fights where I didn’t have a true idea of how it would go until seeing the walkouts. Sometimes you watch a fighter about to walkout and you just say to yourself “wow they look like garbage”. This was one of those cases. The moment I saw Amanda Lemos about to walkout, I put $100 the other way on Virna Jandiroba.

After Virna’s walkout, a dancing spry with her Zelda hat and positive energy, we turned the opposite page to Amanda Lemos, slow and moping in demeanor, almost a sick look about her in my opinion. The energy for Lemos just didn’t feel right, which proved to be the case in the fight.

After a fairly even first round that saw one judge score 10-9 for Lemos, Jandiroba would hear nothing of it into the second.

She used her superior wrestling & grappling ability to bring Lemos into deep waters, resulting in the scramble below that led to the armbar win for the streaking Jandiroba.

With no clear title challenger at 115lbs for Zhang Weili and the active nature of the current champion, I could see them pitting “Magnum” against Virna Jandiroba in October/November.

QUICK HITTERS from UFC DENVER

• Steve Garcia def. Seung Woo Choi in a blistering KO win at 1:36 of Round 1. Garcia and Choi really got after it but it was "Mean Machine” that landed the finishing sequence…a 38 piece combo for a massive DUB in Las Vegas.

• Bruno Silva def. Cody Durden by a nasty uppercut KO at 2:58 of Round 2. Silva completed the comeback in the eyes of many and sent Durden’s mouthpiece into the rafters with a quick 6 to the chin.

• I’ll eat crow on this one, Doo Ho Choi def. Bill Algeo with a classic “Korean Superboy” left hook to the bread basket that seemed to agitate the eye of Algeo. I’m not shocked that KSB got it done but I did pick against him. That one’s on me Doo Ho, I owe you a Hite.

How to Bet UFC 304

UFC 304 takes place in a brand new Manchester Co-Op Live arena which welcomes the UFC for the first EVER event in the new arena.

THIS WEEK:

• PADDY PIMBLETT (+105) v. KING GREEN (-125)

  • I have no idea how “Paddy the Baddy” is an underdog In Manchester, England. Yes, King Green, formerly Bobby Green, is a seasoned UFC vet with 32 wins, the most recent of which a dominant decision win over Jim Miller at UFC 300, but I don’t see him getting this one done in England.

    • Expect Paddy to implement a wrestling/clinching heavy game plan, but he will surprise us with his ever-advancing striking. Pimblett gets it done for a sold-out crowd in Manchester.

• TOM ASPINALL (-355) v. CURTIS BLAYDES (+280)

  • Manchester’s golden son Tommy Aspinall, aka “The Honey Badger” will take the Co-Main event slot here only because this is a defense of the interim heavyweight title while Jon Jones vs ______ remains on the horizon. Aspinall faces a tough Curtis Blaydes here who did win their first matchup, albeit via injury, and is coming off an impressive TKO win against Jailton Almeida.

    •  I expect Aspinall not just to get it done here, but get it done via KO/TKO and early. Blaydes gets hit far too much against lesser strikers and this matchup against a sniper like Aspinall in the comforts of his own backyard.

• MUHAMMAD MOKAEV (-148) v. MANEL KAPE (+124)

  • Now disclaimer, this fight may not happen given the history of Manel Kape at 125lbs (9 UFC fights cancelled in his career), but I love Mokaev in this spot in England once more, and at -148 it feels like a steal number. Mokaev is a decorated British wrestler, born originally in Dagestan, Russia the hotbed of grappling shared by the Nurmagomedovs & Makhachevs of the world. He is twice an English National Champion and competed globally in freestyle wrestling in the UK. Kape, while a decorated MMA fighter in his own right, with titles in multiple non-UFC promotions, does not possess the smothering grappling ability of Mokaev.

    • Mokaev is not only a skilled fighter, but incredibly intelligent. I expect him to grapple early, often, and relentlessly with the fluid striking Kape on his way to a 15-minute decision victory.

POUND 4 POUND PODCAST

See what Cejudo & Usman had to say in their own UFC 304 Preview! 👇️ 👇️

LISTENER HOT TAKES

Okay Tez, I’m not going to say you’re WAY off here but, you’re pretty far off.

FIRST, Loma is a terrible example. He is a freak. Growing up he fought in Boxing, Sambo, Wrestling, you name it. His father famously wouldn’t allow him to train for boxing before he attended traditional Ukranian dance classes and Gymnastics.

Now, removing Lomachenko out of this because he’s a stud. Ryan Garcia recently said he’s coming to the UFC after a recent boxing ban., but nobody actually believes that. After UFC 303 featured Dan Ige stepping in on hours notice to fight Diego Lopes at 145lbs, he also offered to fight Ryan Garcia after this tweet. Garcia himself fights at 140lbs in boxing, or similar, which would make sense…

But it’ll NEVER happen. Wrestling and BJJ are the two most GRINDING aspects of combat sports. There is a reason there are far more amateur boxers than MMA fighters even in the meteoric rise of the UFC. Cardio Wrestling classes don’t exist. Cardio Kickboxing does. Sure, Alex Pereira exists, but he continues to prove he is 1 of 1. Remember Gokhan Saki’s UFC run? I didn’t think so.

There may be a 1% chance that a high-level boxer could enter the UFC and compete in the Top 15, but it’s at Heavyweight or Light Heavyweight where you can still be a striking specialist. Anything lower and you’re toast.

So Hot take: if you give a world class boxer like Loma a bit of wrestling and a bit of jujitsu they can be top 15 in the UFC…

DISAGREE 👎️ 👎️👎️

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THANKS FOR ALL THE SUPPORT!

Anyone else do this like Tom Aspinall? ✊