UFC 202 is Coming

a blog by La Kifo

Tomorrow marks the day many poorly speaking english fighting fans have waited for, Conor McGregor v. Nate Diaz 2.

Kinda crazy how these two are set to fight each other for the second time in a little less than half a year and Jon Jones has fought Daniel Cormier once over the past two years. Hopefully we will get some concrete good news about Jon Jones in the days/weeks to come regarding the failed out of competition drug test. I wouldn't say I trashed Jones, but I did write a strongly worded blog against him and it seems like I was wrong about most of the things I said in it, so if we do get positive Jon Jones news, either removing his suspension or giving him 6-months as opposed to 2 years, then I will acknowledge being wrong and take back whatever false statements or speculation I made. 

But right now is about the UFC premier rivarly, Diaz and McGregor. It's easy to tell that these guys don't like each other.

So catty. Meow.


Besides the Main Event, which without a doubt will be worth the $60 they make you pay by itself, this event has a medley of interesting fights. 

The preliminary card is as follows.

You can catch this action on Fox Sports 1 starting with the Randa Markos v. Cortney Casey fight at 8:00 EST. The fight out of this bunch which I do not find entirely interesting is the opening fight, Randa Markos v. Cortney Casey. We got one fighter out of Iraq, and another whose record is one loss away from .500. Although, it is intriuging to watch Markos out of Iraq, first I didn't think Iraq still had a stable government, second I didn't know that Iraqi women were allowed to have jobs, three a big prop bet coming out for this weekend should be how much of Markos body will be covered in black robes, four I clearly know nothing about Iraq. 

Markos is ranked while Casey is not, but take that with a grain of salt. Markos has never gotten a KO, let alone a TKO she is mainly a submission fighter, while Casey has finished the majority of her fights with a KO/TKO. Big advantages for Markos is her submissions, takedowns and experience. Casey has never won a fight that has gone the distance in her professional fighting career, while Markos has. Big Advantage for Casey is obviously her striking and that is pretty much it. While it may seem all the chips are staking up on Markos, I'm going with Cortney Casey to win by TKO in the second round. Markos is seemingly a non threat with her striking, the only way for her to find success is by taking down Casey. While that may seem as easy as it sounds, it ain't. Casey has pretty good takedown defense and is managable on the floor. 

Team Diaz v. Team McGregor starts off with Artem Lobov v. Chris Avila. This is not a fight you are gonna want to miss. These two teams hate each other, and these two are sure to start off the night with some fireworks. At least Lobov will be starting out with some fire, due to the fact that this fight may very well be his last in the UFC. The Russian Hammer is 12-12-1, which if you ask around, is pretty bad. When on the MMA Hour he claimed that even if he did lose this fight, no matter what, he would ask for his release from the UFC. Lobov may have the name and the mouth but he doesn't have my pick. I'm going with Chris Avila, he comes from the Cesar Gracie academy with the Diaz brothers, so he has outstanding BJJ. Also, Avila is a legit UFC prospect. Who knows whether or not he'd be in the UFC right now if it were not for the fued between Nate Diaz and McGregor, but he is definetly worthy of the opportunity. I just think Avila is a better all-around fighter than the hammer. 

The next fight between Raquel Pennington and Elizabeth Phillips, I have no clue about. I don't know either fighter, I should know Pennington. But since I don't know shit about either gal, I'm not going to blindly guess.

The last fight of the prelims and possibly the best, Cody Garbrandt v. Takeya Mizugaki. I'm just going to cut to the chase, I got Cody on this one. Cody is a high school wrestler who boasts extreme skill in boxing, wrestling, and BJJ. The 25 year old kid is 9-0 as a pro, and 32-1 as an amatuer boxer. He's got insane skills, and likely will be the next big thing in the bantamweight division. Garbrandt is always looking for the KO, which makes him extremely dangerous in the early rounds and that is where I got this one ending, KO 2nd round Cody Garbrandt. Not to make light of Takeya Mizugaki, he is a dangerous bantamweight in his own right. Mizugaki beat Bryan Carraway, and has won 7 of his last 10. The pro since 2005 also has an master degree in eletrical engineering. He's a smart fighter who wins majority of the time by decision. If he can execute his gameplan and take Garbrandt past the second round, Cody might have a lot of trouble trying to win on the cards.

Picks on the main card will come tomorrow.