UFC PREDICTIONS

In the immortal words of Bruce Buffer, IT’S TIME! For some predictions! We have plenty of MMA action coming up in the UFC over the next few months; while Covid-19 slowed things down a little bit, you know how the saying goes… The show must go on and on it goes!

We’ll be giving you our predictions though unlike some of the best online sportsbooks, we aren’t necessarily experts, this are just our thoughts and opinions.

Over the next two months we have some huge cards with some huge fights, including a few title fights and title shot deciders. And not only that, but some of the biggest names in the mixed martial arts world are putting their reputation on the line to see who can be crowned victor, so let's get into it.

We’ll start by listing some cards that are upcoming, after we have our list together, we’ll break down the two big main events (UFC 263 & 264).

• UFC Fight Night – Rozenstruik Vs Sakai – Sat June 5th 11:00PM BST
• UFC 263 – Adesanya Vs Vettori 2 – Sun June 13th 3:00AM BST
• UFC Fight Night – Jung Vs Ige – Sat June 19th 11:00PM BST
• UFC Fight Night – Gane Vs Volkov – Sat Jun 27th 12:00AM BST
• UFC 264 – Poirier Vs McGregor 3 – Sun Jul 11th 3:00AM BST

UFC 263 – Adesanya Vs Vettori 2

First, we’re going to be taking a look at UFC 263: Adesanya Vs Vettori. There are two fights I want to look at here, but first we’ll list the main card.

• Adesanya ( C) Vs Vettori (#3) – Middleweight Title Bout
• Figueiredo ( C) Vs Moreno (#1) – Flyweight Title Bout
• Edwards (#3) Vs Nate Diaz – Welterweight Bout
• Maia (#9) Vs Muhammad (#12) – Welterweight Bout
• Craig (#14) Vs Hill (#15) – Light Heavyweight Bout

First up, let’s take a look at the main event. The legendary Israel Adesanya takes on Marvin Vettori.  Izzy is coming off the back of the only loss of his mixed martial arts career. Though it was a decision loss to Jan Blachowicz, Izzy stepped up a weight class to fight for the light heavyweight title and he didn’t look too bad. Jan was just too much for him, but at middleweight? Izzy is THE man. 

Vettori on the other hand is coming off the back of a win in April–talk about a quick turn around!–capping off a five win streak. His latest win came against Kevin Holland, and while Holland may not be having the most success in 2021, he’s still a huge scalp to take for Vettori. One thing to note, however, is that Vettori has already fought Izzy once, he lost that fight in 2018 via split decision.

One thing I would say, however, is that Izzy has become a MUCH more complete fighter since then. Izzy takes this for me.

The second fight we’re looking at is the rematch of Figueiredo vs Moreno for the flyweight title.

These are two of the most in form guys in the entire UFC, Figueiredo is on a five win streak (not counting his draw in December with Moreno) and Moreno is on a four win streak, again, not counting the draw.

You have two men, both wanting to prove themselves and go home with that strap, two men with unfinished business after their draw in December. Figueiredo only has one loss in his MMA career, meanwhile Moreno is sitting with an 18-5-2 record. Though it’s a tough decision, I really think Figueiredo comes in and gets the business done. Realistically he only lost the last fight because of a point deduction due to a groin strike.

UFC 264 – Poirier Vs McGregor 3

While most of the UFC 264 card hasn’t actually been decided, the two fights we’ll be looking at have been confirmed, so here we go.

• Poirier (#1) Vs McGregor (#6) – Lightweight Bout
• Burns (#”2) Vs Thompson (#4) – Welterweight Bout

First things first, the obvious one… The finale in the trilogy, Poirier vs McGregor 3. When these two first fought, it was a super easy show for McGregor, he got a first round knockout, however, that seemed to be a huge turning point in the career of Poirier, the man went from strength to strength since that fight and has racked up bonus after bonus. He finally got the recognition he deserved with a shot at the lightweight title, though it didn’t end well.

After his submission loss to, arguably the greatest of all time, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Poirier has looked fantastic. He had a unanimous decision win against Dan Hooker which won fight of the night and a domination win that ended in TKO versus his upcoming opponent, McGregor, which won him performance of the night. He’s a changed man. Meanwhile, McGregor spends too much time focusing on things outside of MMA like his whiskey or boxing.

Funnily enough, McGregor also had a submission loss to Khabib, way back in 2018, since then his only adventures in MMA have been a first round KO over the aging Cowboy Cerrone and a loss to Poirier. He’s adamant he will be better in the third fight, unless he learns to check leg kicks, I really only see this fight ending one way, that’s Poirier by TKO, within three.

Next up we have Burns vs Wonderboy and this is going to be a doozy. You’ve got Wonderboy looking to get another shot at UFC gold. The man has won his last two fights including a big win against Vincente Luque, but on the other side of the Octagon he’s facing Gilbert Burns, a man who had a taste of the title, before losing his chance losing to Kamaru Usman by TKO.

Will the taste of UFC gold prove to be the deciding factor giving Burns the win or will Wonderboy show how good he truly is? For me, I’m thinking Wonderboy proves too much and with a bit of luck, a win over Burns gives him a well earned shot at the title. Wonderboy by decision.

That’ll do it for this one. We’ve looked in depth at a few upcoming cards and teased what’s to come, you know, just to whet your whistle, what do you think? What cards are you looking forward to and who do you have taking home the gold? We’d love to hear your thoughts?