UFC 331 Press Conference Reaction? Sean Sharaf EXPOSES Gable Steveson? Arman Tsarukyan TRASH TALK?

UFC 331 Van versus Pantosia 2 takes place this weekend and I’m going to go through the entire card starting with the early prelims ending with the main events giving my prediction and breakdown for every single fight on the card.

And this card compared to UFC 330 is really good. It’s got some real hidden gems up and down the card and it finishes with some big matchups that we’ve been waiting for.

But before I get into the early prelim opener, this video is sponsored by mmaagguru.co.uk.

Get yourself the guru beanie. That’s mmaagguru.co.uk. And also, I have another announcement because this seems to be a weekly thing now.

Some new faces have joined the wall of Jerusalem. Alejandro Pantoia has joined Jerusalem. There’s him with his MMA Giri beanie.

I’m not I wish I was joking. I wish it was AI, but we’re getting new submissions every week.

It feels like with some big names. And he’s not the only one. And this is a guy fighting in the main event this weekend, by the way, looking to get his title back against Joshua Van.

Um he’s posing with the MMA Guru Beani. It’s Alejandre Pantoia approved, folks. Okay. He joins Jerusalem.

And also Pitbull did, but I’ll share that in another video, maybe on Twitter soon.

Rebellis to Spain on this card is also posing with the MMA Guru Beini. I wish these were AI, but they’re not.

Every now and then, I check the website and my friend sends me a message saying, “Uh, do you know these guys?

It seems like this is like some kind of UFC fighter or something.” I’m like, “Oh my god, it’s Rebellis to Spain and Alejandro Pantosia joining Jerusalem and posing with the MMA Guru Beanie.”

Big shout out to them. Get your MMA Guru beanie at MMA Guru.co.uk. Best of luck to both of them.

We’ll see who I’m going to pick in a second. I might betray them soon, but get your beanie, guys.

We move on to the card and the early prelim opener of Giga Trazzi versus Joe Anderson Britta.

I’m going to go with Giga Chiczi to kick off the card. And I don’t like that.

But I can’t help it. I just can’t help it, guys. I really can’t help it.

I don’t like it. Don’t like it. But I have to go with what my brain is telling me to do.

And maybe there’s a problem with this beanie cutting off circulation to my head. Even though a lot of user reviews have said that the beanie fits just fine and it’s just that I have a giant head that is the issue because everyone else’s head it seems to fit absolutely okay.

Either way, I think I’m going to go with Giga Chici here. He was looking pretty good against Kevin Vallejo before the finish in round two where Vallejo hit him with like a spinning back fist out of nowhere and then started landing good shots on him on the ground.

I had Vallejo winning the first round, but it was very close, very close, very competitive.

Then I look at the Arnold Allen fight for Giga Chic. Extremely close. In fact, if you watch back that fight on another night, a judge could see that second round goedzi’s way.

Very competitive, but Allan did finish strong at the end of the second round, and we did see Chici start to slow down.

What I’m saying is this guy is not an easy night out for anyone. Okay, the Onarmama fight extremely close.

I don’t like the fact that he lost to Onama, but I think he could give Jo Anderson Brrito some problems the the same way a William Gomez gave Jo Anderson Brrito some probleMs. Joerson Britto’s grappling got a little bit exposed out of recently.

He fought a guy called, I think, Isaac Thompson, who was like this Australian newcomer that stepped in on a few days notice, who actually gave him some competition and wasn’t the best fighter in all honesty at the time.

Other than that, he beat Jordan Levit in his last fight. And if you know anything about the explosivity difference between the two of them, that was kind of always going to happen.

But Breto’s had some stumbles recently. So I don’t believe that he should be a minus 390 favorite over Giga Chicia and I think if this stays standing which is good odds I think Jaci could teach him a couple lessons on the feet in terms of distance management and uh striking Britto could go out there and destroy him don’t get me wrong but I’m going to lean towards Chiczi here he’s a lot bigger he’s not that far out of his prime don’t get me wrong he’s had some damage he is coming off a KO loss but I’m going to side Jaci here.

It’s not like Britto’s unbeatable and just you can’t get rid of him. Like we’ve seen him like Jonathan Pierce was like well on his way to initially fraud checking Joe Anderson Britto.

I know Britto got back up and got the choke, but there’s some weakness there.

Okay. And then you look at the other fight that he had. Sabatini is of course a handful for anyone in the grappling, but I’m not sure if his grappling is all that to just destroy Chicadzia.

And I don’t think he’s really got all that on the feet. And so I think he’s a bit of an aggression merchant and Jaci can deal quite well off the back foot.

So I’m gonna go with Jaci getting this one done in a very close decision win as an upset to kick off the card.

We move on. Casey O’Neal versus Eduardo Mora. You don’t know how hard it is to be a fighter.

Casey O’Neal. One of the weirdest accents in the history of the world. Is actually a true story.

I’m going to go with Casey O’Neal. Eduardo Mora four fights ago did have a pretty competitive split decision.

Lost to Denise Gomez, but this is up at women’s flyweight, a lot larger of a division.

That goes without saying. Eduardo Mora was a huge straw weight that was able to get away with a bit of a physicality advantage where she didn’t really have the standup skills to make things work.

Um, she’s done okay at women’s flyweight, but I just don’t see her beating anyone on the level of Casey O’Neal, who looked really good in her last one.

Um, Eduardo Mora last lost to Wang Kong, who’s now fighting for the UFC world title at UFC 330 in only two weeks time, no less, as well, by the way.

I believe it’s pretty soon. But Casey O’Neal coming off a coming off of a first round TKO win.

Very impressive. And before that, she got a good decision. She lost a couple fights to like uh what was her name?

The Queen of Violence, Ariani Lipsky, I think got her at one point, and she did take some stumbles, but she’s still young.

She’s still coming up and she’s got grit over three rounds and I don’t see her getting held down by Mora.

So, I think this is going to be like a three round scrap. And I rate the output and the volume, which is the same thing of Casey O’Neal over Edoard Morris.

So, if the going gets tough, I think Casey O’Neal is going to dig deep and win that competitive classic women’s MMA 2928 decision.

So, I’m going to go with Casey O’Neal. Plus, I think she has a much higher finishing potential on the feet.

So, I’m going to go with her. We move on. Edmund Shabbazian versus Bruno Fea.

I’m gonna go with Edmond Shabbazian. Uh Brendan Allen’s all right. I’m probably gonna pick Christian Leroy Duncan to beat him, but uh Brendan Allen’s all right, man.

And Edmund did make it close with him. Brendan is [ __ ] Like listen, Brendan Allen is bad.

Don’t get me wrong. He’s trash. And I think the top guys in a division would give him a ton of probleMs. And it would be bad for Brendan Allen if he did come up against a real elite person in the middle division.

But Shbazian did make it incredibly competitive with him. Whereas Bruno Fea, Bruno Fea, uh, coming off the loss, no, he’s not coming off the loss, but he got KO’ed a fight two fights ago to Gregory Rodriguez, who he did chin in the first fight.

Um, but he got flatline KO’ed in that fight. And then when he returned against Ikramiskarov, who don’t get me wrong is pretty good.

But I think is kind of about Shabbazian level. I don’t know if Iram’s going to be this next big thing in the middleweight division for everyone to look out for.

He’s pretty good, but you know, we saw in his fight with Parkinong, it’s he’s not that good.

You know, he’s not crazy great and everyone’s got to watch out for him. There’s a lot of weaknesses in his game.

Um, and Bruno Fea just looked terrible against Iraqis. Got out controlled the entire time.

Um, Edmund Shabbazian’s not really a guy that gets held down. You kind of have to take advantage of him as the brawl unfolds and take over later in the fight.

He’s very sharp earlier and I don’t know if Bruno Fea’s style can sustain that high output in your face non-stop threat to take out a guy like Edund Shabbazian.

Edmund’s not really a guy that gets chinned. You know, he makes mistakes as fights goes on.

He gets drowned by Anthony Hernandez. He fumbles in the third round against Gerald Meshot, legendary GM3 when he was on his run.

Derek Brunson takes him down as time goes on and he’s had a couple fights where he doesn’t pull the trigger, but Bruno Fea is going to be giving him a lot of opportunities to just fire off like a really quick fast twitch counter and Shabbazian can be sharp in those types of matchups.

So, I’m going to go with Edmond Shabbazian here. And also Bruno Fer in hindsight, he had some good performances.

Abbas drowned him. Not a good look. Took him down, eventually subbed him in the later rounds of their fight.

Felt like Bruno Fea kind of fumbled that matchup. Um, and then you look at some of the other fights of Bruno Fer again.

The last two recently weren’t all the best. He beat Dustin Staltzfus caught Gregory Rodriguez with a perfect punch.

Vtori somewhat competitive. I think Shabbazian could school a Vtori at this point. So, I’m going to go with Edund Shbazian getting this one done.

How I’m going to say that Edmond gets this one done by TKO in the first two rounds.

I could see him actually hurting Bruno to the body, putting him away with some combinations.

I just think Bruno has to do such big movements that opens himself up to certain shots if he wants to be aggressive.

And he’s going to have to be aggressive and get in Edmond’s face. And Edmund moves well.

You know, he does things correct. So I don’t think he’s just going to be there to get clobbering timed by Bruno Fea.

So I’m going to go with Edund Shabbazian getting this one done by TKO. We move on.

Ryan Gandra versus Aussie Diaz. Ryan Gandra coming off a big first round TKO win against Zachary Ree.

Not too impressive. Um, Ryan Gandra also got a first round finish over Joseé Medina, I believe it was.

So, real bottom of the barrel stuff. Um, but Aussie Diaz is bottom of the barrel.

And I know that, you know, he got one over on Jorgan Santos in a competitive decision.

So, he’s not terrible. And in some moments against the Tea Gutierre, you kind of noticed, hang on now, you know, like he’s actually maybe he could withstand this and land some good shots as it goes on.

And there was sort of like a glimmer of hope in Aussie Diaz’s game. And he’s a big dude for the division, but he is open to get chinned and he just got chinned and he’s making this turnaround before Gutierre makes his turnaround if I’m not mistaken.

Yes. So he’s back before Gutierrez and Ryan Gandra is a big powerful puncher in the first round.

And I just I I just feel like he gets past this one with that big powerful punching style.

Really good KO over Zachary Ree, nasty KO over Jose Medina before that. They are bottom of the barrel guys, but in all fairness, Aussie Diaz isn’t much above bottom of the barrel.

I think he’s a little bit better than those other guys, but it’s Aussie Diaz, you know, like he’s just one of them guys that’s around for whatever reason in caseier needs a match up with him again.

It’s just like if you are a prospect, they will keep middleweights around to try and build you up.

You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if Jose Medina gets resigned to fight that guy that just won on the contender series that look like [ __ ] So, I don’t know.

There’s certain middleweights that are just kind of there to lose. And in my opinion, Oussie Diaz is one of those middleweights, especially against a prospect like Ryan Gandra who has a ton of power.

I’m going to go with him to win this one by TKO in the early rounds.

We move on. Michael Aswwell Jr. Lad versus Juang Yu. Michael Aswwell Jr. Um coming off a loss to Gaston Balanos.

Not the best look, but he’s a thick chunky featherweight. I thought it was a very close fight that could have gone either way, but Balanos did land some of the better shots on him.

Uh before that, he got picked apart by Luke Riley, but showed some competitiveness. The fight with Balanos was very close though, by the I know Balanos got a takedown in a crucial round in that fight, but Aswell did outwork him in two of those rounds pretty clearly.

And uh Aswell just doesn’t seem to have that pop. I know he knocked out Lucas Almeida if I’m not mistaken, but that was when Lucas Almeida showed up with a broken hand and he put Almeida out pretty badly.

Um but that’s not crazy impressive. Juan Yu coming off being broken by Daniel Santos and finished by TKO.

And for an undefeated swaggerbased fighter, I’m interested to see how he’ll rebound after coming off that KO loss.

You know, Jaca isn’t all that. And I don’t think he chins or finishes Michael Aswell Jr.

You know, Luke Riley is a hard puncher. You know, you saw him put down Bogdan Guskov by KO.

You saw him put away in his last fight, Kaikamaka the third, who’s a tough guy to put away and as well took shots pretty well in those fights.

So, I can see this being a gritty decision and that’s the way I think this is going to go.

And as well has a really good pressure style and he mixes in takedowns well in his game.

He’s quite a big dude for the division. I think he’s going to look pretty big next to Juan Yu.

So, I’m actually going to go against Juang Yu here and side with Michael Aswell Jr.

In hindsight, Juan Yu, although having some highlights, what isn’t really this big, he doesn’t really have any credible wins to be honest with you.

And he fought Santos and he looked pretty sharp in round one and then Santos eventually just tracked him down and put him away.

I’m going to go with Michael Aswell Jr. Juang Yu could pull this off. He’s a big favorite.

I’m going to go with the underdog of Michael Aswwell Jr. I think his grinding tough man in your face non-stop pressure style could work for him in this matchup.

We move on. Titu Iasa versus Rebellis to Spain from the area. Um I’m going with Titu Iasa.

No, I’m joking. I’m not going with Titas. I’m going with the minus700 favorite of Rebellis Spain.

And that’s not just because he posed with my bean. Um, but I’m going to have to go with the minus 700 favorite, 6’7.

Um, 84 in reach compared to Titas’s 6’2 75 uh in reach. Sorry, not feet.

I’m going to go over Rebellis to Spain here, folks. And it may have something to do with the fact that Titu Ivasa is on a sevenfight losing streak.

I couldn’t even can I name the losing streak of Titu Ivasa? I want to say Sirillan.

Sergey Spivac was one of them, right? Surely Sergey Spivac was one of them. Not Ty did he lose to Tyura?

He might have [ __ ] lost to Tyura in amongst all of that as well.

By finish no less. Then he fought that big worm Talis and Terara. I don’t think this is in order.

Luis Southerntherland I mean Luis Southerntherland got by him. I’m just saying there’s there was a time where Tuasa could drop Sirill Gan.

He had the chance to save us from the worst timeline possible. And we were in the two Ivasiverse, you know, and he took us to another universe of of two of us verse.

And it’s the worst one for him, the worst one for the heavyweight division. And I just don’t think he’s going to blob his way out of this one against Rebellis to Spain.

Now, Rebellis has had a bunch of karate combat fights. It’s against [ __ ] Sam Alvi, though, you know, middleweight 50-year-old man.

He scores a nightmarish KO. Cool. JDS back on the source by the looks of things.

Um, you know, kind of looks like he’s got it. Lands a couple low kicks on Rebelis.

JDS gets slept brutally by Rebelis to Spain. Um, Rebellis’s first run in the UFC.

I believe he lost to Austin Lane, which was one of the names, which isn’t a good look.

And I think that’s a guy to Iasa could KO because Austin Lane has a habit of being flatline KO’ed.

But another one was Waldo Cortez, A Costa. Not too embarrassing for for Rebellis to Spain.

In hindsight, I just don’t see Tuvasa working a grappling game to take down and deal with Rebellis to Spain here.

I really don’t see that happening. I think Rebellis is going to be too big, too sharp, coming into his prime.

Um, he’s only five and two at the end of the day, but he’s had a lot of experience in karate combat and more competition experience.

More manet. That’s something to be mentioned as well. Been training with Alex Pereira. I can just so see him floating around before nightmaring nightmarishly KOing Titu Ivasa badly and we get a really horrific first round KO loss for Tuasa and that’s the end of his career.

Sucks. Um, but I think they’re well and truly done with Tuvasa losing in the UFC and this is their farewell present.

See you later, bud. Take half your paycheck home with you and get KO’ed by Rebellis and spawn him in to the new heavyweight division that we’re looking forward to building.

So, I’m going to go against Tivasa. There’s even moments in fights now, even against Luis Aland and even against Talison Deser where I’m thinking, man, Tai could have had that.

Old Tai would have had that and it’s just not there anymore. The durability and he has taken a bit of a whooping.

He’s had his losses. He’s been through his wars and a heavyweight those walls you can’t have too many of them.

Um so I’m going to go against Tai to Ivasa here in a shock twist.

I’m going to go with the minus 700 favorite of Rebellis to Spain by KO to is just going to be there to get hit.

And there’s so many times in fights where Tivasa puts his hands down and gets hit by a three-piece and eats it against someone who’s not that powerful.

But in this case, there’s too much leverage behind the punches of Rebellis. It’s going to be bad.

It’s going to be bad. We move on. Marlon Vera versus Charles Jordan. In all honesty, I think Jordan is very good.

I think he’s very, very good. And I do think he’s going to beat Marlon Vera.

But the reason the odds are closer is because Vera does have the kind of style that could beat Charles Jordan.

You know, the the wear on you, the drag you into the deep deep waters.

Jordan’s very explosive, very dangerous, very uh dynamic in everything that he does. And there was a time in the past where if you could drag him into those later rounds, you could maybe have a better time dealing with a Charles Jordan.

Um but he’s worked on that. You know, he’s got better at going the distance, potentially losing a third round or arguably, I’m not sure.

I think he actually might have lost a third round to Kyler Phillips. I’m not sure on quite the order of that fight and what round went to who, but I seem to remember Phillips doing pretty well in the third round of that fight.

That’s not a good look because Phillips is normally the guy that gets drowned. You know, Phillips is normally the guy that’s puffing for air in the third round.

Um, but I’m gonna go with Jordan to beat Vera simply on the case that I think Jordan’s very talented.

He’s always improving. Um, this is his time. You know what I’m saying? It’s he’s had some, you know, he beat Doohoo Choy, I remember, a while ago, burst onto the scene.

I think he lost his debut to a guy Desmond something. I can’t remember. I think the guy actually ended up getting [ __ ] arrested for like a car accident or something.

I don’t even remember the story of it. Um, Jordan had some ups and downs where he’d build himself back up and then a Shawn Woodson split decision happens or he gets a win back and then Jean Silva comes along and we didn’t even know Jean Silva really was back then but he ends up chinning Charles Jordan and then he gets into a fight with Wood and very competitive but he doesn’t do enough and he gets wobbled here and there.

But in this division I think he’s got the physicality advantage. Um, his reach fits the division a lot better.

He’s got nasty submission skills with guillotines. I don’t think he’s going to finish Vera with a submission.

Um, I could see him shooting takedowns on Vera, though. That’s a big part of this fight.

And I could see him dropping Vera as well. I think Jordan might have the power and the and the speed to do that to Vera, to catch him with a jump near or to catch him with something that doesn’t knock him out, but like stumbles him off balance.

And then he gets the rest of the round because of that moment. And beyond everything else, beyond anything technical about this or stylistically, I can’t pick Vera to win a fight.

It’s just one of those things. Certain fighters show you something where you can’t pick him anymore, you know?

You just can’t. And that’s what Vera’s been doing over his past four or five fights.

I think he beat a Pedro Munoz in the middle of a few of those, but then he lost to Ali.

And that was something a lot of people don’t take into consideration is he got a a crazy amount of damage given to him against Shaun Ali in that rematch.

If you go back and watch that fight I know there is chin is tough.

He should not have been eating all of those shots over five rounds. That’s too many shots to eat and they were big sharp shots getting caught with things right on the chin and he’s still in there and trudging forward and trying to make things happen.

And now he’s losing to the Emmy and Zahab. Now he’s just And normally a Vera fight when he puts his hands up at the end, you’re like, “All right, maybe he could get this [ __ ] [ __ ] split decision robbery.”

But when he puts his hands up after the David Martinez fight and I’m thinking, there’s no way you’ve won that.

You’re just coping at this point. You You can’t change your style. You’re stuck in your ways.

And I I think it’s just going to repeat itself. I think Jordan is going to win a 29-28 decision.

Maybe a 30-27 and Verl will have his hands up afterwards and go judges took my career from me something along these lines and he just won’t do enough.

He’s very hitable and Jordan loves target practice. Very sharp, very powerful and I think he’ll have a very very hitable opponent in front of him plotting forward and an early Jerusalem affiliate in Charles Jordan as well.

By the way, I’ve seen the Adisagna dog jokes on Instagram, but uh I remember he commented on my video ages ago.

I made a video in like 2019 or something saying, “Look out for Charles Jordan.”

And he said, “Thanks, bud.” I don’t know if he’s a grusive affiliate, but you know, we’re cheering for Charles Jordan.

I’ve always been a fan. And I think he’s going to get rid of Vera here.

And I think Vera is going to be done. There you go. That’s how it is for Vera.

I think it’s just stuck in his ways. Can’t make a change of it. And unfortunately, he has to keep fighting killers.

So, I think he’ll lose this one. We move on to the main card already.

Wow. Alonzo Manfield versus Io Batani. I’m gonna go with Io Bannon. It’s dangerous though.

He did get dropped twice by Ibo [ __ ] Alan. So, it is dangerous.

However, despite the look of Alonzo Maniffield being this big ball of muscle for the light heavyweight division, 6 foot stocking, same as he Baronki, but he’s going to look about 10 times or 10 pounds larger than Baronuki out there because he’s definitely got an extra 10 pounds on him.

Manyfield couldn’t make middleweight without readjusting his body composition. I think Baroni could trim a few things and make the the middleweight cut.

I doubt he’s cutting too much for the division is what I’m saying. But Manyfield doesn’t really knock people out in the first round.

He’s coming off one against Mingyang Jang um who kind of got fraud checked when Johnny Walker beat him and he couldn’t get past Johnny Walker.

And maybe we bought into the hype after he defeated the great Anthony Smith, making him curl up into a ball in his retirement fight.

Um and he ended up beating Minyang Jang in a scrap. Both guys landing. Manyfield puts puts him down.

Nasty finish by Alonzo Manfield. He’s got momentum right now, but he’s been chinned a lot and slammed out a lot.

Odeir, I remember him teeing off on Maniffield up against the cage. Even looked like he accidentally KO’ed Alonzo Manfield at one point in their fight.

And he’s had some KO losses. He’s been chinned. Um, and there’s also fights where he’s in there against someone very vulnerable that he should be chinning that he doesn’t end up making quick work of like a Jimmy Crew on the feet.

I remember watching that fight and thinking, “Oh my [ __ ] god, Jimmy Crew looks like he’s stepping over Legos to get to Alonzo Manfield.”

Literally like a giant dwarf fighting with cerebral pausy is in there with Alonzo Manfield right now.

And Manfield was still kind of struggling to put him away, you know. Um whereas Baronki is sharp and he did have that stumble against Dbo Alan but he’s so sharp and there’s a thing about his finishes where he must be hitting different.

He must be hitting different. It’s the first punch he lands. It’s the first exchange that happens.

It’s the second low kick against Junior Tuffer. You know, Tough has been hit by big dudes, heavyweights, chopping his legs, and he’s tanked it and shown weakness in that area, don’t get me wrong, but he’s tanked it.

And Balani chops it twice and tough as done. He must have that legendary Polish bone density that Yan Blovic had and some of the other fighters in the heavier weight classes from that region had.

And uh I think I’m going to go with Bannoni here. I think he’s going to get into the pocket, take his time, be a bit patient.

But I also think with Manyfield, when he’s fighting a guy that’s trying to kind of avoid him and pick at him like a Jacobe, maybe he can win those types of fights, he can make it a lot more competitive and he can do well.

Mingyang Jang kind of crashed in against him a bit. But with this one, knowing how powerful Baroni is, I can so see Manyfield fumbling it, you know.

I can so see Manfield fumbling the the the exchange, just being so open, whiffing a big punch and getting caught on the counter and just going down immediately.

I’m going to go with a first minute KO win for Alon uh for Ew Badini here over Alonzo Manfield.

I just think the moment might get to Alonzo. He’s a bit derpy to bring back a saying from a while ago um that’s gone out of fashion.

Maybe should be brought back. He’s a bit of a a herp derp. You know what I’m saying?

I’m going to go with Baroni Bao. Brutal Gable the loophole Stevenson versus Sha Sharaf.

I want Shan Sharff to win, guys. I really do. The loophole must be destroyed.

And they’re now on the press conference. So, don’t be surprised if these odds close up because if Shawn Sharff says some things that he could say, Gable Stevenson might take this a little personally.

Okay. Um, so we’ll see what Shan Sharff gets up to on that UFC microphone.

If he doesn’t say anything, they’ve got him under constraints to protect their little golden child at heavyweight.

But this is a gap in talent. Shan Sharff is, and I hate when they do this in the UFCs here.

There’s appropriate jumps in competition you can make where you’re still giving someone fights to build them, but there it’s a step up.

You know, McMillan’s kind of doing the opposite where he’s just a prospect that is like, “Fuck it.

Give me the toughest guy I can get right now.” Like, who’s the most dangerous guy right now?

I’ll fight them. And that’s their way of building McMillan. I don’t know. It’s a new way of doing it, right?

Because normally you see this with Pimllet, with Ali, with many other names, even a teaagutier.

They’re egregiously doing it with a Tea Gutierre. They started it the same way with Bo Nickel with his opponents as well.

But can we get someone not on a two-ight losing streak for Gable? I’m going to go with Gable Stevenson.

I think he’ll probably get a takedown this fight. Um Sean Traf’s got a decent chin.

I could see Gable showing off a bit of his ground game. Maybe looking for the KO though.

I could see him getting that as well. I’m rooting for Shiraff. I think he’s the better dude.

I hope I hope he wins. Um, but he ain’t got it. Lost to Steven Asplund brutally as well, dude.

The amount of damage ASP did to him in that fight. If there’s a chin changer for your nest matchup, it’s a fight like that with Steven Asplund and Shar goes through that.

And then the fight before that, I’m pretty sure he lost to Junior Tougher by TKO where he got taken down and beaten up as well.

I’m gonna go with Gable Stevenson. I don’t think he’s going to be a heavyweight champion.

I think like Waldo could beat him if if I’m being honest based on the last fight that I saw.

Maybe Gable will make these leaps and bounds in his game and this time next year he’ll be a completely different guy.

Who knows? But as of right now, I’m seeing like Vultar Walker probably leglock submits him.

You know, I know that he can wrestle, but I could see Vultar Walker beating him at this point.

That’s not egregious to say in my opinion. And then I could also see, you know, Waldo just chining him, coming in with a stiff shot or two, even though Waldo looked pretty [ __ ] in his last fight.

Um, so I don’t think he’s ready yet, but he’ll beat Shawn Sharff, unfortunately. Um, Shawn Sharf’s just a bit of a heavyweight blob.

6’2, 76 inches of reach. Tough guy, but not too much KO power. I’m going to go with Gable Stevenson destroying him in the first round.

But I’m going to be looking forward to the press conference later tonight. Um, where Sharf says what needs to be [ __ ] said.

Okay, we move on up the card. Patriceio Pitbull versus Doohoo Choy. Now, Pit Bull’s also a Gerusalem affiliate has come out this week.

I don’t know what’s going on. I’ll post it on Twitter later, maybe, but there was a video of him with his boys wearing the Jerusalem beanie.

I don’t know. [ __ ] wild. Um, I can’t show it on this video because it’s on my phone.

Got sent on my phone. Um, but either way, uh, Patriceio Pitbull, Doohoo Choy, I love this matchup.

I’m going to go do Hoo Choy. Respect Patricio Pitbull. In the clip, it’s actually his coach saying, “Uh, we love the MMA guru.”

You know, Guru knows what he’s [ __ ] talking about. And I don’t know if that was like a move to get me to pick Pitbull, but I I just I think Ank’s time has come.

And Doo Chroy is a big featherweight for him to be standing off against in this one.

Um, and he took some damage against Pico. He got cracked with some big shots.

I can see Duchoy putting him away by TKO. I like Pitball. I think he’s a legend of the game.

I think he’s criminally underrated and um has been throughout his career and you know I think he’s had a really good career like I think he’s really did put on for the outside of the UFC MMA scene in terms of Bellator and all of the stuff that he did there and then when Chandler came to the UFC there was still that Pitbull KO loss looming over his head a little bit.

So I’ve always rated Pitbull but I’m leaning towards Doohoo Choy here. Du Choy looked really good in his last fight.

And I know he took some damage, but that’s the good that I I need to see from Choy.

I need to see him be able to grit down and show that durability and show that in pocket fighting and ripping the body.

And Daniel Santos is a beast. You know, he’s not he’s got wins over other guys on this card.

Um he’s a crafty fighter is Daniel Santos. And Doo Choy just kind of like withstanded him, took his shots, landed back, and eventually found his range and [ __ ] broke the guy nastily.

I think Pit Bull’s very sharp, but he’s a pick and move type of fighter.

And I think the way to beat Choy is to pressure him. But I think if it’s too much of just you go now I go and then I go and then you go and then you go and I go and now it’s my turn your turn and we’re both kind of just at range doing the kicks and the the punches.

I think eventually Choy will start to land the bigger shots. I think he has a power advantage.

I think he has a chin advantage at this point. Um I don’t see him getting held down by Patricio Pitbull.

He’s been in the game so long. He’s going to have been working that takedown defense for a long time.

Um, I can see Choy kind of picking up where Pico left off and I’m going to lean towards the minus 270 favorite in Doohoo Choy here.

Shout out to Pitball. Um, but I’m going to have to lean towards Choy, the young upandcomer.

And it will just make it even more impressive if Pitball wins. You know, I saw an interview of him saying that he wasn’t impressed with his UFC performance so far and the the version of himself that he showed in the UFC.

Um, so I’m looking forward to seeing if he makes some adjustments and it would be very impressive as a win, but I think Choy is going to be able to pick at him and land on him and he’s got a reach advantage over him and Pitbull can be crafty, but I just don’t think it’s crafty enough to result in a KO win, to result in a submission win at this point.

And I think Choy, if he starts thinking, this guy can’t chin me. I’m I can walk through these shots.

I can throw with Pit Ball in combination and start tracking him down. I think we could see a Choy finish.

So, I’m going to go with Doo Hu Choy by TKO. Could be a big coming out party for him into the rankings of the featherweight division.

Um, yeah, it’s a tough matchup for a 39year-old Patriceio Pitbull as well. By the way.

That doesn’t go without saying, you know, featherweight as well to be that old. And even once he left Bellator, I think he lost in the uh Rising, didn’t he?

Got KO’ed at Ryzen by an Asian fighter as well. So maybe this brings back some kind of like Asian opponent PTSD.

And maybe that plays an effect. Who knows? But shout out to Pitull for being gruesome affiliated.

I’m leaning Doohucho. Um we move on up the card. Armon Serukian versus Mauricio Hafir.

I really want to pick half here. I’ve got a feeling. I don’t know what I’m going to go with yet.

Okay, guys. Listen. Logic tells me and it’s telling everyone this, right? Everyone’s thinking this.

Benois Sandini took down Mauricio Huffy finished him on the ground. We found out that Benoisen is actually not all that and Armond Tukian is all that and he’s better than Benois Sander and he’s been working on nothing but his grappling over the past year or so that he’s been out and he’s been taking all of these grappling events and working on his wrestling.

Surely he’s going to be able to take down Mauricio Huffy and do the same thing.

And I’m gonna side I’m actually on an initial vibe. I’m siding still towards Armond Serukian.

I really think Huffy’s got a serious chance though. And I would odds make this fight slight favorite Arman Serukian.

I wouldn’t have him over 3 to one. I’d have him at about 2 to one tops over Mauricio Huffy.

And the reason being is Armon’s offensive grappling. It worked on Dan Hooker. Okay. And he looked good against Dan Hooker with his offensive grappling.

And I think it’s his takedown defense. And listen, I’m someone who shared the ring with him and tried to take him down.

And actually, I believe need him in a p pair of broken ribs. I didn’t break them, but I found out after, you know, when I was saying that he went and then he threw me down after I need him in the body during when I won on damage.

I found out later that in that position, he actually has two broken ribs. So, I’m not saying I think I might have clipped the broken ribs.

This guy might be chinny to the ribs, okay? And Huffy can target the body pretty well.

Um, and that might have triggered Armon to just humiliate me in the ring and, you know, show why I’ve never [ __ ] wrestled a day in my life.

Um, but Armon’s takedown defense is good. His scrambles are good. Is Dan Hooker the benchmark to and I know Benoir took down Dan Hooker and beat the [ __ ] out of him but struggled early on because of those guillotine attempts and even Armanat to gate a roll out of a couple of those and then he ended up on top but it took him a while to get that position in round one.

Eventually, he finished from that position in round two, and it was after he landed a kned a face on Dan Hooker in the pocket that swole up Dan Hooker’s face.

But I think Dan Hooker’s been done for a long time, you know, secretly. And I just don’t know much else about Armon’s dominant grappling game.

He beat Joel Alvarez with his grappling. The Wim Silva fight was relatively competitive from from what I remember.

Um, I do think he beats Mauricio Huffy with his grappling though. I’m going to pick him to win it, but I think Huffy is so dangerous on the feet.

And sometimes with Armon, he does things that can really get him in trouble. He’ll throw a double jab moving in sometimes and just be stood there in front of his opponent.

His head gets popped back by Dan Hooker. His head gets popped back by someone else.

Wim Silva cracks him with a left hook. Um, Olive, but he This is the thing though about Armond and this is something that really did sway me towards Armond Serukian.

Despite me thinking that Olivivera’s submission attempts being at the end of the rounds should make them valued more because I truly believe if the only reason you escape a submission attempt is because the bell sounded, then it should almost double in value.

When it comes to the scorecards. Armon did take down and control Olivea which as we know is incredibly [ __ ] difficult to do.

So I am going with Arman Sukian and it was that Olivea fight and rewatching it and you know he really did do some good work to Olivea and he was in guard and he was somewhat comfortable there.

You know, Olivera had his submission attempts at the end of round two with a triangle and he had a hold of the arm and found himself in the dar when he made a bit of a reversal in the third and but in between those moments there were like multiple minute long sequences where Armon was just in full guard on top and landing some really good shots.

It reminded me a lot of like Diego Lopez versus Mavsar Evlov in a way that matchup.

Um I’m going to go with Armon but Mauricio so dangerous dude. The the punching, the angles on a shorter opponent as well.

He’s so wide. He’s so long. Armond’s going to have to shoot singles, but I think he can chain things together and shoot round to the back.

I don’t think Huffy’s going to have made up the difference in his game that he needs to.

I do think that the Benois fight was a mentalitybased grappling loss more than it was a technicality thing.

Of course, if he had better technique, he would have stuffed to the takedowns of Benois regardless.

But I do think that he was under that impression that he didn’t have to punish a guy for failing a takedown and he just sort of stayed and separated from Benois.

No, someone fails a takedown on you, you [ __ ] punish him for it.

Um, but he’s so dangerous on the feet, man. So dangerous on the feet. But there are a lot of Huffy fights where he does have to wear himself into the later rounds.

You know, if he gets full control and he knows it’s going to be a striking match, he can put on that first round TKO.

If he gets the corpse of Michael Chandler, he can put on that spectacle performance.

But then round two and three is normally where we start seeing him get into that bit of a flow against that next step in competition that he takes on.

You know, when he fights Physizv, it takes him a while to figure out that code.

And I could see him clipping Huffy, though. I could see him clipping Armon. I think there will be a moment where Armen might get wobbled or cracked and come out of this fight with a a shiner under his eye.

You know what I’m saying? Something along those lines. Um, but I do think the grappling is going to be the difference.

And Armon is good at being in and out. He is good at being in and out.

And I think he knows that this is a dangerous counter striker and that’s going to change the way that he approaches it.

So, I’m going to lean Armon. But God knows I wanted to pick Mauricio Huffy so bad.

I’ve had a vibe about it for a long time. But it was re-watching that Olivea fight and knowing that Makashev got down Olivera in round one and Olivera straight up got back up and Makashev only took him down because in every lightweight fight Makashev cheated by hooking the gloves to get takedowns.

He did the same thing to Armen Serukian. He did the same thing twice against Alexander Vulcanowski.

He did the same thing against Bored. But nobody cares. We’re moving on about it.

I’m not not still coping about that. It’s the truth though. Um, but Armond straight up took down Olive and we know how much Olive has improved his grappling particularly, you know, with his entries and his defense and his scrambles.

I’m going to go Armon. I’m going to go Armon. But I so couldn’t you just see Armon doing some silly baby double jab and Huffy lean back, look away, left hook, shovel hook right on the tip of Armond’s chin or his temple.

I almost have a vision of that, but I’m going to go against it because of just the amount of gap that there is in the grappling in here.

I’m going to go Armon Serukian. And I’m going to take Armon to Serukian by third or fourth round finish, maybe even a decision, but third or fourth round finish for Armen.

I don’t think it’ll be early and quick. I think Huffy will have at least made the improvements to survive positions.

I’m going to go third or fourth round for Armen TKO. We move on to the main event.

Joshua Van versus Alejandre Pantoia. I know Pantosia is now Jerusalem affiliated. Dude, I’m very aware Alejandre Panto is now an official honorary member.

He’s repping Jerusalem proud. I’m about to do him dirty though because I can’t pick based on Jerusalem affiliation unless it’s Sha Maui.

Or Patty Pimlet as we all know because they’ve served time. They’ve done the time, you know.

Uh but I’m going to have to go with Joshua Van over Alejandro Pantoia here.

And it hurts me to say because you know what? I like Van, but I’m starting to think like, all right, buddy.

All right, BIG FOR YOUR BOOTS. IT KIND OF WOULD be nice for a bit of a humbling to be honest with you.

Like the good the feelgood story here. What I mean by that is Van is definitely being the sort of villain role here, right?

Like the feel-good story would be Pantosia coming back and getting his belt back and the guy that was kind of underrated the whole time before the van fight happened finally gets his moment in the sun and the glory and stuff like that and everyone recognizes Pantosia for the potential goat that he is.

And that would be the feelood story of it all with the time off at his age with the injury and also when you watch back some of Pantosia’s fights there’s a lot of really competitive ones in amongst a lot of very clear-cut wins.

He did very well against Kai Karaf France. He did very well against Kai Asakura.

He did very well against you know Alex Perez. But then in between that is the Moreno fight, you know, where someone with good scrambles, good takedown defense, good survivability and jiu-jitsu positions, and wicked striking and durability, um, is able to really make a tough fight for him.

Steve Urs is another one of those matchups that ended up being the same way.

I’ll tell you this as well, Roy Val fights, I know on paper it will show you that Pantosia just controlled Roy Val for five, you know, and then in this in the first fight he choked out Roy Val.

It looked like Roy Val was about to take away the victory in the first Pantosia fight and he’s a great scrambler and scrambled with Tara very well and was able to escape his bad positions and make him work on the feet and he didn’t finish Pan uh Tra like Van did.

If I said Pantora, I meant Tara. He didn’t finish Tayra like Van did, but he was able to show the blueprint to where Van picked up on it and, you know, scored a great performance.

Um, and even in a second Roy Val fight, you know, Pantosia does have these moments in fights where if the scrambling does get tough, he does take his foot off the gas and he starts covering up a bit and he does take a bit of a beating and there’s those momentum shifts in a Pantosia fight where you start thinking, are they going to finish him with body shots up against the cage any second now?

The body shots up against the cage a calling for me to make the prediction again.

I do it all the time. It’s been a while since I’ve called a body shots up against the cage finish.

Used to be a crafty one in my repertoire, but I kind of left it on the burner because nobody goes to the body in MMA.

But I might bring back the crafty body shot up against the cage TKO in combination for Joshua Van in like round three or four against Alejandro Pantoia.

I’m going to go with Joshua Van. Pantosia is good. He’s going to be aggressive early.

I think his big chance is to put Van in that danger early and to get on his back straight away.

But I don’t think he finishes Van. Van has got this next level composure in those positions that I didn’t think he’d have when these guys first faced off because I was thinking, man, Van’s only really just fought Roy Val.

Other than that, he’s not really been in front of any big crowds. You know, he’s lost to Charles Johnson, got chinned, and he has been in trouble in fights, and he does get wobbled a bit more than people would like to admit.

Um, but his composure in the grappling positions, and his ability to like just get back up against Tara, who’s a master of positional control, we saw it against Moreno, a guy who Panto struggled to control, even against Roy Val.

Like, Tara did have moments where he just straight dominated the control time of the round.

Um, but then they were mixed in with moments of him not moving his [ __ ] head and Roy Val eventually building momentum and making him shoot bad shots and the rest is history in that matchup.

But Van is so good at scrambling. He’s and I think it’s because of how small and baby he is for the division.

He’s a little gnome, you know, short stocky legs. Kind of got a bit of a Crash Bandicoot build going on.

Short stocky legs. I mean, he’s smaller than Panto. They’re the same height, but I’d say he’s a little smaller than Pantoia.

Uh short stocky arms as well. There’s like not a lot of limbs to hold him down with and to pin him with.

And he can very easily like post on his arm and get his legs under him and cradle a little bit on the ground, cradle a little bit on the ground like a baby rocking back and forth and then he’s up, you know, and his feet are under him again or he’s in a good position to scramble and scoot his hips out.

And it’s a lot of that with Van. And I think if that keeps happening to Pantoia here and then they’re back on the feet and Van starting to dig and land and open up some scar tissue on Ankh, you know, and maybe talk a bit of [ __ ] and get his mojo on, I think it could be a problem for Pantosia.

So because I believe that Pantosia needs to win this in the first two rounds and because I know that nine out of 10 flyweight fights end in an absolute barn burner back and forth and going to a decision.

I think that’s Van’s type of fight and it was that composure against Tara and that little bit of extra time that he got.

If this if you take me back, I would pick Pantosia again in the first fight based on the information we had about Van.

But you know, I think that experience, that moment he became champ, he gets that extra, he’s such a new guy to the sport.

He gets that extra bit of time, all that money into his rehabilitation and now it’s legit and I’m the champ and I got to keep this [ __ ] thing and I’m young and I could go down as a goat.

All of these things are going on in his head now, you know? Um, and now he’s got the money in and he he takes the terra fight and then this was supposed to be booked and Pantosia ended up pulling out, remember, because he wasn’t or he wasn’t ready to come back just yet if I’m not mistaken.

So, it’s not like he’s just quickly healed up and been training this whole time, you know, and then Van gets this on this card and now they’re doing it here and he’s had that extra bit of time and it’s just a lot against Pantoia.

I’m leaning towards Joshua Van. I think Joshua Van’s going to win this one by third or fourth round TKO.

Pantosia does a good job with like body kicks. He does a good job with like head kicks and like big dynamic shots for a flyweight which you think we would see more of, but they really do somewhat stick to fundamentals a lot of the time, especially Joshua Van.

But there are a lot of moments in his fights if you watch him back where there are like 30 second periods where he is just moving and covering.

And if Van is in front of him in those moments and no longer fearing the takedown, jab low, jab high, uppercut as Pantosia tries to crowd him, steps out the way, right hand and he’s walking him down composed Panonesesque.

Folds him. I think he could fold him up against the cage in round four.

I’m rooting for Pantoia, though. I would love to see the feelood story of the guy nobody gave the credit to coming back and putting himself back on top in the flyweight division.

And I think Pantoia is a cool dude. I’ve always liked Pantoia other than the Ursk fight where I was really pulling for old Ursk, but uh Joshua Van I think gets this one done.

It’s tough skin. Old Van is going to pull it off, I reckon. Even just like if Pantosia body kicks him.

I can see Van just answering it straight away with like a straight right right on his chin.

Pantoia stumbling backwards on one leg. Momentum. Momentum. He’s got him up against the cage.

He’s taking shots that he don’t really want to take to get Van off of him.

Yeah, Van’s going to be a problem. I know he said that he’d love to fight if he could fight anyone alive or dead, he’d love to fight Pio Yan.

I’m I’m so down to see super fights between flyweight to featherweight and whether that be bantamweight moving up to featherweight, whether that be flyweight moving up to bantamweight.

I’m so down to see those matchups right now. And I think we have the champions that could give us those with Van Yan and Vog.