Hot on the heels of another disastrous round of picks, we are back with the third instalment of “An Idiots Guide”, it’s safe to say I have lived up to the name. The only thing I can be assured of is if you bet directly against my predictions you are sure to become a very rich, gender ambiguous, person #politicallycorrect.
Since the fashionable new trend of ‘Interim Title’ came about, this is actually the first one to be unified since the premature education that was the Mcgregor vs Aldo fight early last year. Jon Jones’s evaporated into thinned blood and Aldo’s got promoted. In comes Max ‘Blessed’ Holloway straight into the belly of the beast, Rio de Janeiro to face national favourite Jose Aldo, buoyed by jovial threats of “I murder your family” & “YOU DIE” sung pleasantly from the bubbly Brazilian fans. Before we get into the card lemme just give a quick shout out to the debut of one Marlon Moraes, who is going to bring a whole world of fighting to the UFC….series.
Erick Silva vs Yancy Medeiros
How important can a home crowd be to a fight? This is an extremely close match up between two fighters that haven’t really hit anything like their full potential over the last few years. Medeiros, a name that could be plucked from Greek Welterweight mythology, seems to enjoy a nice rhythmic W-L-W-L run. Although skilled, I believe he will come across a balls-to-the-wall wired Erick Silva who will wrestle him to the ground, whisper sweet nothings into his ear, and gain the submission late in the second round.
Erick Silva Win by Submission
Paulo Borrachinha vs Oluwale Bamgbose
In the brawl of the Bs, Bronx native Bamgbose battles the Brazilian Borrachinha in his backyard. Borrachinha has one of those Yoel Romero type looks about him, you know, Herculean freak of nature kinda thing, the kid is young, unbeaten and has more abs than I have inches… BANGbose is more of a hit-it and quit-it kind of guy. The type of guy that has been brought up knocking dudes out on a Friday night then realised he was damn good at it. The real question is, can a guy brought up in the Bronx, make his way to the ring without trying to fight every Brazilian fan that throws any shade?
Paulo Borrachinha Win by TKO
Vitor Belfort vs Nate Marquardt
The end of an era. A legend of the game bringing a close to a knockout career. Well, it was… for like two months, before Vitor came out and performed a big ol’ U-turn on his decision saying a stint with TriStar gym had rekindled the fire in his belly. I wonder how he would feel if he were to receive a Nate Marquardt elbow from Pluto (Marquardt vs Woodley). Both fighters peaked long ago, and by peaked I mean they scaled Everest, travelled back home to their families and lived their entire lives kind of peaked.
Belfort can point to the fact he has fought absolute killers for about 6 years straight and with this fight being chosen to give him the opportunity of the perfect send off, I see him picking up the win in the first round. And proceeding to getting knocked out in his next fight in about two months time.
Vitor Belfort Win by TKO
Cláudia Gadelha vs Karolina Kowalkiewicz
If there is one type of fighter more dangerous that a Brazilian, it’s probably a Pole, and by Pole I do not mean the super dangerous, impenetrable Pole that I often cycle into attached to scaffolding, I mean a native citizen of the country Poland, a country that seems have discovered the way to create Terminators. With Joanna running through the Strawweight division this is the perfect platform to build up excitement for an impending rematch. Cláudia gave Joanna real problems for the first three rounds of their last fight and I can see her doing the same to Karolina who will be looking to exercise her striking advantage.
Cláudia Gadelha Win by Decision
Jose Aldo (c) vs Max Holloway (c)
With McGregor out of the Featherweight picture for the foreseeable future, this one actually feels like THE featherweight title fight. Aldo vs Edgar was a bit drab, shoved on the mid-card on one of the most disappointing cards of all time, it got lost like Anderson Silva got lost inside Daniel Cormier. This is the return, this is Aldo’s chance of true redemption to do what he didn’t do with that Irish punk, spark out the younger stud challenging his crown. A great performance would go along way to getting rid of that 13 second blemish on the otherwise incredible record.
Holloway is the best export from Hawaii since Coconut Bikinis… Coconut Oil…Coconut Water… just all things Coconut. He reminds me of Tony Ferguson in that every time I watch him, he look like an evolved version of himself, always improving and adding new elements to his game. What makes Holloway that much more dangerous than Frankie Edgar? Maybe that IDGAF attitude he shows with a smile to the Brazilian crowd.
Max Holloway Win by TKO