UFC 198: Werdum vs. Miocic

Date: Saturday, May 14th
Preliminary Card (UFC Fight Pass): 23:30 LP.net / 3:30pm PST / 6:30pm EST
Preliminary Card (Fox Sports 1): 1:00 LP.net / 5pm PST / 8pm EST
Main Card (PPV): 3:00 LP.net / 7pm PST / 10pm EST
Live Streams: http://firstrowus1.eu/




Main Card (PPV)

Fabricio Werdum (20-5-1) vs. Stipe Miocic (14-2) (Heavyweight Championship)
Ronaldo Souza (22-4) vs. Vitor Belfort (25-11) (Middleweight)
Cris Cyborg (15-1) vs. Leslie Smith (8-6-1) (140 lbs Catchweight)
Mauricio Rua (23-10) vs. Corey Anderson (8-1) (Light Heavyweight)
Warlley Alves (10-0) vs. Bryan Barberena (11-3) (Welterweight)

Preliminary Card (Fox Sports 1)

Demian Maia (22-6) vs. Matt Brown (20-13) (Welterweight)
Thiago Santos (12-3) vs. Nate Marquardt (34-15-2) (Middleweight)
Francisco Trinaldo (19-4) vs. Yancy Medeiros (12-3) (Lightweight)
John Lineker (26-7) vs. Rob Font (12-1) (Bantamweight)

Preliminary Card (UFC Fight Pass)

Patrick Cummins (8-3) vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (21-7) (Light Heavyweight)
Sergio Moraes (10-2) vs. Luan Chagas (14-1) (Welterweight)
Renato Moicano (9-0-1) vs. Zubaira Tukhugov (18-3) (Featherweight)

Other

- A lightweight bout between Evan Dunham and The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil 2 winner Leonardo Santos, originally scheduled for this event, was moved to UFC 199 after a minor injury to Dunham delayed the match-up a few weeks.
- The event is expected to feature the long anticipated debut of former Strikeforce Women's Featherweight Champion and current Invicta FC Featherweight Champion Cristiane Justino in a catchweight bout of 140 lbs against Leslie Smith.
- Kamaru Usman was expected to face Sergio Moraes at the event. However, he pulled out two weeks before the event due to injury and was replaced by promotional newcomer Luan Chagas.
- Former UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva was expected to face Uriah Hall at the event. However, Silva pulled out just four days before the event with a clinical condition that indicated acute cholecystitis and required surgical intervention. The UFC wanted to find a replacement for him, but Hall opted against that.

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First impression of the match-ups:

• Werdum vs. Miocic (dunno)
• Souza > Belfort
• Hall > Silva
• Cyborg > Smith
• Rua vs. Anderson (dunno)
• Maia > Brown
• Alves > Barberena
• Santos > Marquardt
• Lineker vs. Font (dunno)
• Cummins > Nogueira
• Trinaldo vs. Medeiros (dunno)
• Moraes vs. Chagas (dunno)
• Tukhugov > Moicano

This card is really good imo, can't wait for it.
Maia being on the prelims says something.

Agree Floofy, great card:

Miocic v Werdum - Pickem, head says Miocic heart says Werdum. I think this has a strong chance of going the distance and being very close on the cards.
Souza > Belfort - Odds are too wide though
Hall > Silva - Probably gonna be terrible but could be awesome
Cyborg > Smith
Anderson > Rua
Maia > Brown - Odds are way too wide
Alves > Barberena
Santos > Marquardt
Font > Linekar - Gonna be close, awesome fight, huge step-up for Font but I think he's ready
Cummins > Noguiera
Trinaldo > Medeiros
Moraes v Chagas - Dunno
Tukgugov > Moicano

I made some bets on this card.

Brown +230
Corey Anderson -205
Stipe +145
Vitor +235

Is Silva even taking the fights seriously anymore?
Hall vs Silva looks to be entertaining on paper, but probably gonna suck ass

Sick card : )

My possible bets:

Miocic TKO/KO +350
Shogun +180 (Maybe I dont touch this bet)
Matt Brown +240 or by TKO +405 (I know he has not a good TDD but I almost always think he has a chance as he has a great hearth)
Cyborg by KO + Anderson +140

Maia is going to finish Brown, imo. The guy is an absolute wizard on the ground and Brown has had troubles with grapplers before. Other than hurting Maia early and finishing him, I don't see how Brown can take this fight. Once it hits the mat he is getting manhandled.

Card is sick. One of the best ever. I am on Lineker at opening odds, thinking about Cummins and Cyborg R1.

Also like Stipe chances a lot, missed the opening lines. Will hope some money come in on Werdum.

Yesterday, I saw several people mention they were parlaying Cyborg Round 1 & Maia ML @ +123. Not sure what the odds are now.

Have a hard time understanding why people think Stipes chances are so good. I'm reading everywhere people picking him or thinking it's a flip.

Werdums thai clinch and BJJ completely neutralize and dominate Stipes wrestling. And Werdum has beat a lot of good strikers with his striking lately. Wrecked Cain, Browne, and KO'd Hunt.

Not sure what Stipes done to impress everyone so much. Most of the strikes he landed against JDS were because of clinch. Either coming off the clinch, or faking it and making JDS drop his hands to avoid the clinch then landing. This won't be problem for Werdum because he doesn't care about getting taken down and will go for the Muay Thai clinch, somewhere Stipe really doesn't want to be.

Other than that he flash ko'd Arlovski which doesn't say a lot to me because it's Arlovski, and decision'd Gonzaga, Nelson, and got KO'd by Struve.

Not to say that it isn't impressive, just nothing that indicates he's a better striker than Werdum is now.

I feel this fight will mostly be fought at a distance since Stipe won't want to grapple, and Werdum will have the advantage with his kicks. If he tries to pressure Werdum I see him ending up in the clinch a lot eating knees.

I also think Werdum has a solid cardio advantage. Stipe usually seems pretty tired by the 3rd while Werdum is doing kip ups.

Rest of card

Jacare grapple fucks Vitor
Silva vs Hall - hard to say, Silva is completely washed up and Hall is just a headcase. Good chance they both stare at each other for 15 minutes and nothing of great significance happens, or one lands a super ninja ko.

Rua vs Anderson - hard to say, Shogun looks god awful these days. He's looking fat as shit right now too. Dunno

Maia grapple fucks Brown

Stipe has been improving at a very fast rate since his loss to Struve. You underestimate him a lot here Stim.

He has better footwork, wrestling and boxing and is more athletic than Werdum. Obv Fabricio is more crafty, has more experience, great clinch and BJJ. Imo this is a very close and intriguing fight.

I can easily see Stipe using his footwork to box Werdum up mixing in some takedowns as well. If he can stay away from the clinch and can hang on the ground with Fabricio it is his fight to lose and he has all the skills to do so.

Also don't see Werdum to have solid cardio advantage here. Miocic has a very good cardio himself, one of the best in the HW div.

At over +150, Stipe is a great value. This fight is a flip for me.

Eh you might be right, I rewatch some old fights and his boxing is faster/more crisp than I expected.

I guess his JDS fight just sticks in my mind. While he did surprise everyone with how well he did, he looked gassed/zombie mode from like round 3 on, but to be fair both took a bunch of heavy leather early so they were pretty beat up.

Besides that we haven't seen much striking from him lately. super quick KO against Arlovski, wrestle fest on Hunt, fight with JDS, and super quick KO over brawldanado. Then theres the Gonzaga fight where he lost the first round.

Dunno, his speed and length might give Werdum troubles. It's probably closer than I first expected.

I used to believe Stipe was going to take this one but the more I think about it I think Werdum wins.

Stipe is a technical tight grinding boxer, he isnt a counterpuncher waiting for Werdum to open up, I think this kind of fighter doesnt do great vs Werdum striking wise, for example Travis Browne allowed Werdum to go wild with his kickboxing kicking at will, the same applies to Cain, they are strikers that arent trying to get the perfect timing to KO you, so Werdum can do whatever the fuck he wants, kick, sloppy combos into clinch etc.

I think this fight might look a lot like Werdum vs Browne.


BTW on Silva vs Hall I cant remember a fight with so much potential to be fight of the year or being worse than Kimbo vs Dada

got the miocic, souza, anderson silva, corey anderson, maia parlay. plus another + cody garbrandt a week later,

I feel like stone does that some of the fights seem locklike but the odds arent there.

maia ML + cyborg rd 1 at +123 is intriguing i will take that all day. gonna look it up but i dont see how. cyborg had rousey like odds (over -1k and maia -300. parlaying and just putting rd 1/3 drops it that much?)

Think werdum could easily win and originally thought he would but ive watched a couple fights and think miocic may outbox him, stay on the feet, maybe win a decision

i like cummins vs nog too. is the younger one any better than his bro or his he also a washed up bum (no disrespect)

On May 10 2016 06:50 traxamillion wrote: maia ML + cyborg rd 1 at +123 is intriguing i will take that all day. gonna look it up but i dont see how. cyborg had rousey like odds (over -1k and maia -300. parlaying and just putting rd 1/3 drops it that much?

Cyborg's money line (ML) had "Rousey-like odds," not her Round 1 prop.

Cyborg's R1 prop is currently -160 on 5dimes. Maia's ML is currently -300.

my heart wants vitor to win hes one of my favorite fighters but i just dont see it. maybe he can snap off a lucky headkick before he gets dropped to the mat. prob bet it for a sweat/hedge if he goes much over +300