GDT: UFC 254: Khabib vs. Gaethje

[Avs_19]

Date: October 24, 2020
Venue: Flash Forum
City: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Time: 2 pm ET/11 am PT
Viewing: PPV

MAIN CARD (PPV)

Lightweight Championship bout: Khabib Nurmagomedov (c) vs. Justin Gaethje (ic)
Middleweight bout: Robert Whittaker vs. Jared Cannonier
Heavyweight bout: Alexander Volkov vs. Walt Harris
Middleweight bout: Jacob Malkoun vs. Phil Hawes
Women’s Flyweight bout: Lauren Murphy vs. Liliya Shakirova
Light Heavyweight bout: Magomed Ankalaev vs. Ion Cuțelaba

PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN 2, TSN 5)

Heavyweight bout: Stefan Struve vs. Tai Tuivasa
Catchweight (140 lb) bout: Nathaniel Wood vs. Casey Kenney
Welterweight bout: Alex Oliveira vs. Shavkat Rakhmonov
Light Heavyweight bout: Da Un Jung vs. Sam Alvey

PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN+, UFC Fight Pass)

Women's Flyweight bout: Liana Jojua vs. Miranda Maverick
Lightweight bout: Joel Álvarez vs. Alexander Yakovlev​

Click to read more...

 

[I am not exposed]

This is an early start! 7am for the prelims for me I believe.

I have Gaethje pulling this off. Even though I'm rooting for Khabib.

And I have Cannonier beating Whittaker.

 

[BGDDYKWL]

Tough to pick against Khabib, but Gaethje is a very live dog at around +275.

 

[m9]

I had no idea this card was an early start. Works for me.

Overall a fun card. The main card depth is kind of weak due to injuries but seems par for the course these days.

 

[CDJ]

Tough to pick against Khabib, but Gaethje is a very live dog at around +275.

that where I‘m at, the value is there so I think I may need to hammer it. I would have set the line at +175 myself


Seems like they’re bumping RDA vs Islam back to that fight night they have in November that previously had Smolka vs Quinonez as the best fight on it. That was much needed



honestly the ESPN 2 prelim is a lot of fun. I blocked my work calendar off for this one

 

[N o o d l e s]

Let's see how bad I do!

Khabib
Whittaker
Volkov
Hawes
Murphy
Ankalaev
Tuivasa
Kenney
Oliveira
Alvey (meh)
Maverick
Alvarez

 

[crazychimp]

I think Khabib wears him out and submits him in the 4th. Cannonier finishes Whittaker and gets the Izzy fight.

 

[Avs_19]

I won't count Gaethje out because of his combination of strong stiking and the wrestling background but I also can't pick against Khabib until he actually loses or maybe if he fights GSP. I already foolishly did that before and couldn't have been more wrong. I bought into the mediocre (for his standards) performance against Iaquinta and concerns with injuries and weight cutting and thought Conor could catch him with something. Khabib looked better than ever against both Conor and Poirier though and I'd expect a similar version of him this weekend. I hope Gaethje can stuff a few takedowns and stay away from the fence to at least challenge Khabib.

I'm going with Whittaker in the co-main and I'm a little surprised he isn't the favourite. Cannonier has been on a nice run but against lesser competition. The power is probably the one advantage Cannonier has and he can end a fight anytime but Whittaker might be better with everything else.

There's a few other potentially entertaining fights on the card. Ankalaev/Cutelaba should be fun and maybe the next best one after the top two fights. The HW fights could go either way.

 

[CDJ]

Let's see how bad I do!

Khabib
Whittaker
Volkov
Hawes
Murphy
Ankalaev
Tuivasa
Kenney
Oliveira
Alvey (meh)
Maverick
Alvarez

I’m probably gonna end up the same but with Alvey losing (bad sign for you unfortunately that you’re so similar). Alvey is probably fighting for his job in this fight though so he will bring it. If he loses he’s either gonna retire or get cut because I don’t know if he will be retained with 5 straight losses. He’s not a former champ like condit

I want Walt Harris to win just because he’s been through hell the last year.

 

[crazychimp]

7AM (PST) Prelims, Main Card 11AM (PST). I guess I'm setting my alarm for Saturday.

 

[CDJ]

I was thinking about it and you can trace my die hard MMA fandom back to 2 Michael Johnson fights

1) Michael Johnson vs Khabib. I managed to catch that card after listening to the rogan podcast and hearing him hype Khabib up. I was amazed at the level of domination I saw. I would only watch the random ppv my brother or dad would get before that night.

I would watch fights here and there until about 6-7 months later when I caught Michael Johnson vs Justin Gaethje and never looked back. It became my #1 sport that night


A weird coincidence for Michael Johnson to be involved in the two fights that really got the train going for me in my fandom. Khabib brought me in as a casual and Gaethje turned me into an absolute die hard that made me never want to miss another fight card ever again

 

[CDJ]

Before I got caught up in that tangent I meant to say the championship fight is on fellas, weigh ins are right now and both guys are on point


Also Cannonier is such a physical specimen

 

[CDJ]

cowboy oliveira and Alvarez missed weight. Cutelaba hasn’t hit the scale yet *eyeball emojis*


Could it be possible????? There’s a rumor one of his cornermen tested positive and it makes sense because they have a backup fighter that made weight as a replacement just in case

 

[Islay1989]

Definitely pulling for Khabib and I think he is the better fighter of the two, but Justin will be a tough nut to crack. As for Whittaker, I think he is a better fighter than Cannonier by a considerable margin, one question being what happens if Cannonier connects?

 

[CDJ]

 

[Avs_19]

Khabib looked rough while weighing in. He used the arms of the two guys holding the towel to get up on the scale and then was very relieved after making weight. He has had tough weight cuts before and still dominated so it probably doesn't mean much for the actual fight.

 

[YNWA14]

Gaethje has a great skillset to fight Khabib. His father's passing further complicates things. I'm not really sure what to think of the fight but most signs point to Khabib doing what he does best. There's always a puncher's chance in every fight, but Khabib is so unorthodox and methodical in his approach I just don't think Gaethje has much more than that. I don't think he'll be able to keep Khabib from taking him down for long periods. I just hope that we get the best of both. Gaethje can definitely win, but I think Khabib has to be the big favourite.

I'm a big fan of Whittaker and I think he's a superior fighter to Cannonier when it comes to his all-around game. That said...power is such a devastating equalizer. It's always playing with fire when you've got to be perfect over an entire fight and the other guy just needs to land a bomb on you. That's simplifying things in this case, obviously, but again I think Rob should be able to win this one as long as he's not reckless (which might be asking a lot of him).

 

[m9]

Gaethje has a great skillset to fight Khabib. His father's passing further complicates things. I'm not really sure what to think of the fight but most signs point to Khabib doing what he does best. There's always a puncher's chance in every fight, but Khabib is so unorthodox and methodical in his approach I just don't think Gaethje has much more than that. I don't think he'll be able to keep Khabib from taking him down for long periods. I just hope that we get the best of both. Gaethje can definitely win, but I think Khabib has to be the big favourite.

I'm a big fan of Whittaker and I think he's a superior fighter to Cannonier when it comes to his all-around game. That said...power is such a devastating equalizer. It's always playing with fire when you've got to be perfect over an entire fight and the other guy just needs to land a bomb on you. That's simplifying things in this case, obviously, but again I think Rob should be able to win this one as long as he's not reckless (which might be asking a lot of him).

This is basically exactly how I feel about the two top fights as well.

 

[m9]

Khabib looked rough while weighing in. He used the arms of the two guys holding the towel to get up on the scale and then was very relieved after making weight. He has had tough weight cuts before and still dominated so it probably doesn't mean much for the actual fight.

Yeah, he looked rough. I hate these bad weight cuts.

Lets just turn 170lbs into 175lbs and do a 165lb division with the initial championship fight being Khabib v Colby Covington. Khabib doesn't need to do that cut anymore.

 

[Chaels Arms]

Gaethje looked like he was just chillin at the weightcuts lol.

 

[bov]

Not a good look for whoever was operating the scales there. I know they weigh in backstage beforehand, but that seemed a bit suspect. Not that it would be Khabib's fault, but if you're doing "official" weigh ins...make it official.

 

[CDJ]

Not a good look for whoever was operating the scales there. I know they weigh in backstage beforehand, but that seemed a bit suspect. Not that it would be Khabib's fault, but if you're doing "official" weigh ins...make it official.

It appears he was doing it with many of the fighters

 

[jcs0218]

On one hand, I get the theory behind weight-cutting. A true 170 pounder can fight as a 155 pounder, which allows them to fight with more lean muscle than if they didn't weight-cut and fought in the higher division.

But at the same time, I would think all the dehydration and starvation and everything else you go through to cut-weight would impact your performance on the day of the fight.

They can't be feeling too energetic by the time fight day comes.

 

[CDJ]

On one hand, I get the theory behind weight-cutting. A true 170 pounder can fight as a 155 pounder, which allows them to fight with more lean muscle than if they didn't weight-cut and fought in the higher division.

But at the same time, I would think all the dehydration and starvation and everything else you go through to cut-weight would impact your performance on the day of the fight.

They can't be feeling too energetic by the time fight day comes.

there’s for sure a trade off with it. We’ve seen fighters deplete themselves too much and the impact it has on their durability (Dillashaw vs Cejudo)

 

[jcs0218]

Lets just turn 170lbs into 175lbs and do a 165lb division with the initial championship fight being Khabib v Colby Covington. Khabib doesn't need to do that cut anymore.

The issue with adding another weight division is the fact that the weight divisions are already too thin as it is.

It seems like there are only 1-3 legitimate contenders in each division right now.

This makes some of the fights overly predictable, and means the top guy in each division is overly dominant and/or runs out of opponents quickly.