GDT: UFC 261: Usman vs. Masvidal 2

[Avs_19]

Date: April 24, 2021
Venue: VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena
City: Jacksonville, Florida
Time: 10 pm ET/7 pm PT
Viewing: PPV

MAIN CARD (PPV)

Welterweight Championship bout: Kamaru Usman (c) vs. Jorge Masvidal
Women’s Strawweight Championship bout: Zhang Weili (c) vs. Rose Namajunas
Women’s Flyweight Championship bout: Valentina Shevchenko (c) vs. Jéssica Andrade
Middleweight bout: Uriah Hall vs. Chris Weidman
Light Heavyweight bout: Anthony Smith vs. Jimmy Crute

PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN, TSN 5)

Welterweight bout: Alex Oliveira vs. Randy Brown
Welterweight bout: Dwight Grant vs. Stefan Sekulić
Middleweight bout: Karl Roberson vs. Brendan Allen
Featherweight bout: Patrick Sabatini vs. Tristan Connelly

PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN+, UFC Fight Pass)

Bantamweight bout: Danaa Batgerel vs. Kevin Natividad
Lightweight bout: Kazula Vargas vs. Rong Zhu
Flyweight bout: Qileng Aori vs. Jeffrey Molina
Women’s Strawweight bout: Na Liang vs. Ariane Carnelossi
​

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[I am not exposed]

Usman will win and dominate. Again. Really don't care to see part 2 of this fight at all.

Hope Shevchenko knocks out Andrade. Strangely enough, I think this title fight has the biggest chance of an upset. I still have Shevchenko winning though and a strong favourite.

I'm going to give this one a miss, as this card is on my birthday. And honestly, I don't mind missing this one. Mostly because I see all three title fights as not very intriguing tbh.

 

[m9]

Allen/Roberson is a pretty solid prelim fight Oliveira/Brown should be fun.

Haven't looked at the odds but Smith/Crute & Weidman/Hall both seem very competitive to me.

I agree with @I am not exposed that Andrade has the best chance of pulling the upset in the title fights. I know she still looked fine vs Maia, but even losing a round is something that Shevchenko really hasn't done in awhile. I am not predicting an Andrade win, but I will predict that she catches Shevchenko on the feet at some point to at least put a scare into her.

I like Zhang & Usman to defend. Zhang by TKO finish, Usman likely by decision.

These 3 title fight cards often end up being a bit of a slog, and those first 2 fights are competitve enough so that they could go the full 30 minutes. Might be a long one on Saturday night.

 

[Perennial]

I think it's a terrible look for the UFC having Andrade competing in their organization...

She's clearly filling herself with copious amounts of testosterone, or some other PED, in the hopes of becoming as masculine as possible...

Before:

After:

 

[chicagoskycam]

Wait, isn't your 1st pic of Rose? lol.

She does look like a man and the haircut doesn't help.

I already put in the Rose/Masvidal/Shevchenko parlay as that's what I want to happen. You guys should definitely take the counter

 

[CDJ]

I think it's a terrible look for the UFC having Andrade competing in their organization...

She's clearly filling herself with copious amounts of testosterone, or some other PED, in the hopes of becoming as masculine as possible...

Before:

After:

She passes USADA, not sure what you want them to do. Also weird that you single her out when you can say the same thing about most of the Ufc.

 

[pistolpete11]

I like Andrade She may or may not but most probably is on something, but she seems like a nice person, she's tough as nails, and she comes to fight. I don't think she has much of a chance against Valentina, though. I don't think she has the one-hitter-quitter power, especially when she's fighting above her natural weight class, and she definitely doesn't have the technical skills to beat someone like Valentina. Valentina didn't look great in her last fight but still won comfortably 49-46 on all the scorecards. I think she is kind of in that Jon Jones / Mighty Mouse category where people expect her to dominate. So when she doesn't get a finish, people overreact. I expect Andrade will continue to walk forward, Valentina will keep putting it on her, and eventually Andrade will crumble. Valentina by R3 TKO.

I think Rose has the best chance of pulling off an upset, but I don't like her chances either. Weili's had a long layoff which after the beating her and Joanna put on each other was the right thing to do, but you never know how someone is going to come back from a beating like that or a long layoff. I'd like Rose's chances more if she didn't start to fade against Andrade in their rematch. I think it's going to be close for a while, but I think the power discrepancy is going to be too much and she too will wilt. Weili by R4 TKO.

I don't really see how Usman loses. Maybe if he gets too caught up in trying to prove a point and stays on his feet for too long, but I think he is too smart and too disciplined for that. While Mavidal has good defensive BJJ, he's not going to be throwing up a triangle or something, so I expect Usman will put him on his back/against the cage again and win another dominant decision. Hope I'm wrong and Masvidal pull something out of his bag of tricks.

Weidman-Hall and Smith-Crute are both solid PPV main card fights. Allen-Roberson is a good one on the prelims and Brazilian Cowboy is usually at least entertaining.

Looking forward to fans being back, especially if any of the title fights are classics and/or Masvidal pulls off the upset.

 

[Perennial]

She passes USADA, not sure what you want them to do. Also weird that you single her out when you can say the same thing about most of the Ufc.

I want them to stop turning a blind eye to what's obviously going on, and cut an obvious cheater from their organization...

And I've called out other fighters in the past as well, but the PED use is so apparent with Andrade, it's ridiculous not to address it...

Back in the Usman vs Burns thread, I questioned whether Usman was using PEDs... and you responded that PED use isn't something to get worked up over

Clearly you and I view cheating in combat sports much differently...

 

[Perennial]

I like Andrade She may or may not but most probably is on something, but she seems like a nice person, she's tough as nails, and she comes to fight. I don't think she has much of a chance against Valentina, though. I don't think she has the one-hitter-quitter power, especially when she's fighting above her natural weight class, and she definitely doesn't have the technical skills to beat someone like Valentina. Valentina didn't look great in her last fight but still won comfortably 49-46 on all the scorecards. I think she is kind of in that Jon Jones / Mighty Mouse category where people expect her to dominate. So when she doesn't get a finish, people overreact. I expect Andrade will continue to walk forward, Valentina will keep putting it on her, and eventually Andrade will crumble. Valentina by R3 TKO.

I think Rose has the best chance of pulling off an upset, but I don't like her chances either. Weili's had a long layoff which after the beating her and Joanna put on each other was the right thing to do, but you never know how someone is going to come back from a beating like that or a long layoff. I'd like Rose's chances more if she didn't start to fade against Andrade in their rematch. I think it's going to be close for a while, but I think the power discrepancy is going to be too much and she too will wilt. Weili by R4 TKO.

I don't really see how Usman loses. Maybe if he gets too caught up in trying to prove a point and stays on his feet for too long, but I think he is too smart and too disciplined for that. While Mavidal has good defensive BJJ, he's not going to be throwing up a triangle or something, so I expect Usman will put him on his back/against the cage again and win another dominant decision. Hope I'm wrong and Masvidal pull something out of his bag of tricks.

Weidman-Hall and Smith-Crute are both solid PPV main card fights. Allen-Roberson is a good one on the prelims and Brazilian Cowboy is usually at least entertaining.

Looking forward to fans being back, especially if any of the title fights are classics and/or Masvidal pulls off the upset.

It doesn't seem very "nice" to masculinize yourself with PEDs in order to beat up women...

 

[Moncherry]

Everyone thinks the result of the Usman/Masvidal rematch is a foregone conclusion, but everyone also thought the Miocic/Ngannou rematch was going to be a repeat of the first fight, for pretty much the same reasons. Just saying.

 

[Perennial]

Everyone thinks the result of the Usman/Masvidal rematch is a foregone conclusion, but everyone also thought the Miocic/Ngannou rematch was going to be a repeat of the first fight, for pretty much the same reasons. Just saying.

I didn't think that at all...

 

[chicagoskycam]

Everyone thinks the result of the Usman/Masvidal rematch is a foregone conclusion, but everyone also thought the Miocic/Ngannou rematch was going to be a repeat of the first fight, for pretty much the same reasons. Just saying.

I don't think it will be for a couple of reasons. Jorge has an entire camp this time and has some idea how Usman might stifle his striking but I think it's more likely Usman has something to prove and wants to take Masvidal out by KO or submission. If I'm correct I don't think Masvidal has ever been stopped so it should be a much better fight either way.

 

[chicagoskycam]

It doesn't seem very "nice" to masculinize yourself with PEDs in order to beat up women...

Yeah but we really don't know what any of these fighters are doing so to single her out is not meaningful. As long as they pass their tests they are good to go and just because PED use is not obvious doesn't mean it's not happening. Not all PED's are testosterone.

 

[m9]

Everyone thinks the result of the Usman/Masvidal rematch is a foregone conclusion, but everyone also thought the Miocic/Ngannou rematch was going to be a repeat of the first fight, for pretty much the same reasons. Just saying.

Nobody thought that at all. Ngannou was favored to win that fight.

But it is true there are other examples.. you just picked an awful one.

 

[CDJ]

Everyone thinks the result of the Usman/Masvidal rematch is a foregone conclusion, but everyone also thought the Miocic/Ngannou rematch was going to be a repeat of the first fight, for pretty much the same reasons. Just saying.

i absolutely did not think that it was a foregone conclusion and many experts didn’t either. The betting line reflected that

this fight is going to be less competitive than the first one

 

[Perennial]

Yeah but we really don't know what any of these fighters are doing so to single her out is not meaningful. As long as they pass their tests they are good to go and just because PED use is not obvious doesn't mean it's not happening. Not all PED's are testosterone.

So, you're saying that cheating is okay so long as they don't get caught?

That's just irresponsible in combat sports when the health and well-being of others is at stake...

 

[CDJ]

I want them to stop turning a blind eye to what's obviously going on, and cut an obvious cheater from their organization...

And I've called out other fighters in the past as well, but the PED use is so apparent with Andrade, it's ridiculous not to address it...

Back in the Usman vs Burns thread, I questioned whether Usman was using PEDs... and you responded that PED use isn't something to get worked up over

Clearly you and I view cheating in combat sports much differently...

anti doping is just an extension of the drug war and accomplished nothing other than creating an unlevel playing field between fighters that have money and fighters who don’t. It quite literally did the opposite of what it set out to accomplish.

Hell who even dictates where the line gets drawn on what’s performance enhancing or not? its a subjective matter.

For the record by targeting Andrade in this way you are in effect admitting that anti-doping doesn’t work.


There’s a ton of literature out there about this topic. You’re approaching the subject from an emotional and naive point of view. I once was like that as well as I’m a big fan of Bisping. But my perspective on the topic has changed over the last year or two. From what I recall our discussion ended with similar talking points that weren’t being refuted.


Meanwhile the UFC should totally cut her for being too jacked, that would go great for them. That’s a totally reasonable thing to do.

 

[CDJ]

So, you're saying that cheating is okay so long as they don't get caught?

That's just irresponsible in combat sports when the health and well-being of others is at stake...

Hate to break it to you but their health is at stake regardless of PED’s or not....

 

[Perennial]

Hate to break it to you but their health is at stake regardless of PED’s or not....

PEDs make someone a more dangerous fighter, thus putting the health of their opponents at greater risk...

I shouldn't have to waste my time explaining this...

 

[I am not exposed]

Everyone thinks the result of the Usman/Masvidal rematch is a foregone conclusion, but everyone also thought the Miocic/Ngannou rematch was going to be a repeat of the first fight, for pretty much the same reasons. Just saying.

I didn't. I thought Ngannou would get a 1st round knockout! Ended up taking a little longer than I predicted.

 

[CDJ]

PEDs make someone a more dangerous fighter, thus putting the health of their opponents at greater risk...

I shouldn't have to waste my time explaining this...

Ok but again where do you subjectively draw the line on whats a PED? Because people are taking stuff that improve their performance, both legally and illegally (if fighters making themselves more dangerous is something that actually concerns you)

and you didn’t refute anything I said months ago and you haven’t done it here either. Propose what you would do better to ensure that there is a true level playing field, otherwise this is just virtue signaling to me. Because anti-doping is a nice idea in theory and something everybody should want, it just doesn’t work and doesn’t do what you think it does. At least the way it’s practiced now. It’s almost like the idea of a utopia


you ESPECIALLY can’t fire somebody because they’re jacked with no failed tests- that’s just the dumbest, most authoritarian anti-fighter bullshit I’ve ever heard. That’s giving the death penalty on purely circumstantial evidence

 

[chicagoskycam]

So, you're saying that cheating is okay so long as they don't get caught?

That's just irresponsible in combat sports when the health and well-being of others is at stake...

No, what I'm saying is you are singling Jessica out with no proof she is abusing PED's more than anyone else is and it's all based on her appearance. It's wrong!

 

[Perennial]

No, what I'm saying is you are singling Jessica out with no proof she is abusing PED's more than anyone else is and it's all based on her appearance. It's wrong!

So, on the one hand you say I have no proof, and then on the other hand you say I'm basing it on her appearance...

Well, her appearance is the proof!

 

[CDJ]

So, on the one hand you say I have no proof, and then on the other hand you say I'm basing it on her appearance...

Well, her appearance is the proof!

I hope you never get selected for a jury lol (and honestly you probably do too....hell I hope I never get selected for one now that I say it)

 

[Avs_19]

I'm much more excited for the women's fights than the main event. It's great that Masvidal has a full camp and time to prepare but I don't see it going any differently. If anything, I think Usman has gotten even better since the first fight with more time spent with Wittman and that camp.

Weili vs. Rose is my favourite fight on this card. Two good strikers who will likely go forward and push the pace. I think Weili wins and might even get a stoppage because of her power but it could be a close one too.

Valentina vs. Andrade could be Valentina's first competitive fight in some time but I still don't like Andrade's chances as much as some others do. I don't think Andrade can bully and overpower Valentina and I believe she'll get picked apart at range.

Agree with @m9 about how long this card could end up being. The main card can easily be at least four decisions, including all three title fights.