Here we are again, another Saturday, another lackluster card put together buy Dana and Co. It is hard to be upset about there being fights nearly every weekend, but when you only have 3 fights on the Main card with recognizable names on a 12 fight event, I just am not going to get excited for it. The only plus I have for these no name cards we have been getting as of late, there have been a ton of finishes. Everyone knows Dana hates fighters that don’t go for the finish, if you come in and wrestlefuck your opponent for 15 minutes, you are gonna have to take your sweet time getting to a title shot (not counting welterweights). That is me just being a silver lining kind of guy. Trying to take the good with the bad.
Outside of my standard first paragraph of bitching about how weak the card is, I’ll get into what I do know about it. Liz Carmouche vs Valentina Schevchenko 2, a rematch of a fight that no one in the world is confident happened outside of the 2 in it. We got Vicente Luque vs Mike Perry which should be fight of the night because neither values defense too much and they both love to stand in the center of the octagon and exchange. How about a little Volkan Oezdemir vs Ilir Latifi to get your KO fix? Those two fellas have no intention to let any fight go the distance. Also, we have Ngannou’s protege Ciryl Gane with his first UFC appearance, there has been a ton of talk about this man who only has 3 fights to his name. So with all of that in store (and that is pretty much it for this card) let’s get to business.
Here are my UFC Uruguay picks:
Main Card
Valentina Schevchenko vs Liz Carmouche Flyweight Bout
I believe in my heart that Valentina is the pound for pound best women’s fighter of all time. How can I say something so controversial yet so brave? I think she beat Nunes in their last matchup although the judges disagree, she hasn’t had a single close fight in her actual weight class, and with a win here tonight will have beaten one of two women that has put her in the loss column (clearly Nunes being the other). Now I’m not obtuse, well at least not about this, Nunes clearly has the most reasons to be the P4P GOAT, but I am a very biased person and Schevchenko is one of my favorites so it’s her.
Carmouche is an absolute legend in the sport of women’s MMA. She was part of the first women’s fight ever in the UFC, losing to some broad named Ronda Rousey in the bantamweight title fight. Outside of this, she is a pretty unremarkable fighter. Since there is absolutely no evidence of the first fight between these two outside of a couple pictures, I had to read their account of what happened to get any analysis. It seems Caramouche was just starting her MMA career and Valentina was coming back to MMA after a long layoff of just competing in Muay Thai. Valentina was piecing her up but Carmouche landed a shot and cut Valentina bad which led to a doctor’s stoppage. That is all I need to confirm that I am going with Bullet here, she is an unstoppable force at this weight and I don’t believe anyone on the current roster can stop her.
Valentina Schenvchenko by 3rd Round TKO -1000 4 units (most units I’ve ever allocated to a fight bet)
Mike Perry vs Vicente Luque Welterweight Bout
Here is a fight I have been excited about for a long while. Mike Perry is my favorite black fighter in the UFC. The dude is just a psychopath, he wants to get in there and cause as much harm to you as he can physically before the final bell rings. Unfortunately, because of this, he is not too much of a technical fighter and has seen quite a few losses since joining the UFC. On the other side we have Vicente Luque, TUF veteran and the owner of 5 straight wins. He also loves to stand and exchange, but has arguably the best chin in the weight class if you don’t count Lawler. Since his debut where he loss to Michael Graves, he has only one other defeat and that is to top contender Leon Edwards. The guy has been great in the octagon and seems to get better with every fight. If Perry wants to win this fight, he is going to have to finish it, and I do not think he has that in him. I’m siding with Luque here.
Vicente Luque by Unanimous Decision -224 2 units
Humberto Bandenay vs Luiz Garagorri Featherweight Bout
Luiz Garagorri by 2nd Round Submission -115 1 unit
Volkan Oezdemir vs Ilir Latifi Light Heavyweight Bout
This fight seems like it has been years in the making. Volkan’s Visa are his second bigness weakness behind wrestling. But here we are, the day of the fight and everything seems to be going according to plan. No Time wants to come in here and show he is still among this weight classes elite after a controversial split decision loss to Dominic Reyes (I thought Volkan won). He comes up against Ilir Latifi, who has long been a gatekeeper for this division and hoping he doesn’t join him in that right. Latifi is 5’10 fighting against the big boys, an inch shorter that champ champ DC. The problem is that when you are that short, you need to wrestle your opponents and fight in the clinch, which he has the ability to do, but never does. If he wants to beat Volkan he is going to need to take him down and tire him out, but I don’t see it going that way. I think we see the Volkan that stormed up the rankings because he had No Time to wait.
Vokan Oezdemir by 2nd Round TKO -160 2 units
Rodolfo Vieira vs Oskar Piechota Middleweight Bout
Rodolfo Vieira by 1st Round Submission -205 1 Unit
Ernique Barzola vs Bobby Moffett Featherweight Bout
Bobby Moffett by Decision +120 1 unit
Prelims
Gilbert Burns vs Alexey Kunchenko Welterweight Bout
Alexey Kunchenko by Decision -130 1 unit
Ciryl Gane vs Raphael Pessoa Heavyweight Bout
Ciryl Gane by 2nd Round TKO -440 2 units
Tecia Torres vs Marina Rodriguez Strawweight Bout
Marina Rodriguez by Decision +135 1 unit
Rogerio Bontorin vs Raulian Paiva Flyweight Bout
Rogerio Bontorin by 3rd Round Submission -105 1 unit
Geraldo de Freitas Jr. vs Chris Gutierrez Bantamweight Bout
Geraldo de Freitas by Decision -135 1 unit
Rodrigo Vargas vs Alex da Silva Coelho Lightweight Bout
Alex da Silva Coelho by 2nd Round TKO -280 2 units
Veronica Macedo vs Polyana Viana Flyweight Bout
Polyana Viana by Decision +115 1 unit
There you have it folks, this was the absolute toughest picks I have ever had to make. A lot of names I hadn’t seen before but I’m hoping the research I did and the stylistic matchups can win us all some change. I have been on an over .500 winning streak for the past 3 cards and I don’t want to lose it on this atrocity of a fight night. I hate how many favorites I picked but the oddsmakers aren’t stupid, it’ll be hard to slip one by them this week. I’ll leave it at that, enjoy the violence everyone.