UFC 234: Whittaker vs. Gastelum

Date: Saturday, February 9
Preliminary Card (UFC Fight Pass): 00:30 LP.net / 3:30pm PST / 6:30pm EST
Preliminary Card (ESPN): 2:00 LP.net / 5pm PST / 8pm EST
Main Card (PPV): 4:00 LP.net / 7pm PST / 10pm EST
Live Streams: http://www.fìrstrow.eu/




Main Card (PPV)

Robert Whittaker (20-4) vs. Kelvin Gastelum (15-3) (Middleweight Championship)
Israel Adesanya (15-0) vs. Anderson Silva (34-8) (Middleweight)
Rani Yahya (26-9) vs. Ricky Simon (14-1) (Bantamweight)
Montana De La Rosa (9-4) vs. Nadia Kassem (5-0) (Women's Flyweight)
Jimmy Crute (9-0) vs. Sam Alvey (33-11) (Light Heavyweight)

Preliminary Card (ESPN)

Devonte Smith (9-1) vs. Dong Hyun Ma (16-8-3) (Lightweight)
Shane Young (12-4) vs. Austin Arnett (16-5) (Featherweight)
Kai Kara-France (18-7) vs. Raulian Paiva (18-1) (Flyweight)
Teruto Ishihara (10-6-2) vs. Kyung Ho Kang (14-8) (Bantamweight)

Preliminary Card (UFC Fight Pass)

Lando Vannata (9-3-2) vs. Marcos Rosa (6-4) (Lightweight)
Jalin Turner (7-4) vs. Callan Potter (17-7) (Lightweight)
Wuliji Buren (9-5) vs. Jonathan Martinez (9-2) (Bantamweight)

Other

- Ryan Spann was expected to face Jim Crute at the event. However on January 25, it was reported that Spann was forced to pull out due to a hand injury and was replaced by Sam Alvey.
- Alex Gorgees was expected to face Jalin Turner at the event. However, it was reported on January 27, that Gorgees was pulled from the card for an undisclosed reason and he was replaced by Callan Potter.

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First impression of the match-ups:

• Whittaker > Gastelum
• Adesanya > Silva
• Yahya > Simon
• Rosa vs. Kassem (dunno)
• Alvey > Crute
• Smith > Ma
• Young > Arnett
• France > Paiva
• Kang > Ishihara
• Vannata > Rosa
• Turner > Potter
• Buren vs. Martinez (dunno)

I'd say if anyone makes an upset in the middleweight its gonna be Gastelum atm. He is very inconsistent though, so Whittaker takes this almost always in theory

Also Silva please retire man...

Is it only me or this PPV is really weak outside of main and co main?

Just like with Aldo last time can we consider Anderson Silva at 5.50 (+450) as a value bet?
I feel like the difference in skill cannot be that much and these odds are all due to the hype surrounding Adesanya.

I think Adesanya might be in for a surprise. I remember Daniel Cormier having a lot of trouble with Silva's striking at UFC 200, although this was long time ago.
This match is gonna be pure striking and one could argue that Adesanya is a better striker that Cormier, but I don't think it would be that easy for him to suggest such odds.

What do you guys think? Am I crazy to think that Adesanya is way too big of a favorite?

On February 07 2019 11:13 PacnyTuH0 wrote: . I remember Daniel Cormier having a lot of trouble with Silva's striking at UFC 200,

wat, it was one of the easiest fights in Cormers career.

On February 08 2019 01:48 Baalim wrote: Show nested quote + On February 07 2019 11:13 PacnyTuH0 wrote: . I remember Daniel Cormier having a lot of trouble with Silva's striking at UFC 200, wat, it was one of the easiest fights in Cormers career.

The only thing people remember from the Cormier/Silva fight is that DC laid on Silva for the entire fight and didn't attempt much damage, as well as the one front kick that Silva landed on Cormier's belly that made him flinch a little bit.

Silva had recently got out of the hospital (appendix removal or something) and was at the UFC event that Cormier was on to watch it live. Someone pulled out of that fight on short notice, so Dana asked Silva if he would fill in, and Silva accepted the fight. Cormier fought like he knew Silva was weak, and didn't want to do any serious damage.

If you want to go by stats:

• Cormier got 3 take downs (1 TD per round), and was on top of Silva for 10 minutes and 33 seconds out of 15 minutes
• Silva landed a total of 17 significant strikes in 15 minutes
• Cormier landed a total of 33 significant strikes in 15 minutes
• Cormier landed between 28 to 36 strikes per round in Rounds 2, 3, 4, and 5 against Gustafsson, and was only on top of Gustafsson for 3 minutes and 32 seconds of a 25-minute fight

I consider the Cormier/Silva fight as a fake fight, as nothing really happened, and it was clear what DC was doing, and why he was doing it.

Robert Whittaker (185) vs. Kelvin Gastelum (184)
Anderson Silva (186) vs. Israel Adesanya (185)
Rani Yahya (135) vs. Ricky Simon (135)
Montana De La Rosa (125) vs. Nadia Kassem (124)
Jim Crute (206) vs. Sam Alvey (205)
Devonte Smith (156) vs. Dong Hyun Ma (156)
Shane Young (145) vs. Austin Arnett (145)
Kai Kara-France (125) vs. Raulian Paiva (125)
Teruto Ishihara (136) vs. Kyung Ho Kang (136)
Lando Vannata (156) vs. Marcos Mariano (155)
Callan Potter (156) vs. Jalin Turner (155)
Wuliji Buren (136) vs. Jonathan Martinez (136)

Whittaker is out of the fight just 3 hours before the card started.

He has a hernia in his abdomen.

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My final picks:

• Adesanya > Silva
• Yahya > Simon
• Rosa > Kassem
• Alvey > Crute
• Smith > Ma
• Young > Arnett
• France > Paiva
• Kang > Ishihara
• Vannata > Rosa
• Turner > Potter
• Martinez > Buren

Crazy 1-rounder between Kang and Ishihara!

Korea > Japan

Fuck I was excited for the main and comain : (

my stream died. wtf happened with crute - alvey?

Crute TKOs Alvey, it was a good stopage imo but Alvey was complaining

Sucks for Alvey.

My night also ended once Alvey's ended.

its very odd that whittaker pulled out 3 hours before thefight, huge wtf. did he suddenly discover that he had a hernia in the abdomen? more likely the ufc knew about it for sometime now and only now decided to cancel the main event for ppv purposes

i didnt know TJ was fighting lol.

Marcos Mariano, aka Anderson Silva's friend, is fucking TERRIBLE!

my stream is down again. fuck this shit.

Anderson Silva looked like he intentionally gave Round 3 away, as if it was a passing of the torch moment.

Such a sad sight to see.

On February 10 2019 05:15 PuertoRican wrote: Anderson Silva looked like he intentionally gave Round 3 away, as if it was a passing of the torch moment. Such a sad sight to see.

Yeah he did good in second round and third round he started clowning like he didnt care to win only wanted to have fun ...

moving on.

cain vs ngannou, does ngannou have a chance? i am thinking of betting on him.

Silva is just the GOAT. I feel his problems were not really connected to fighting at all. Nobody kicked his ass when he was on point like today. Weidman did catch him but he looked like he was at that point in his life where he just checked out already.

Id argue that weidman kicked his ass in both fights albeit the 2nd one ended in an unexpected way. You cant take his merits tho, he still dominated him in the 1st round. But i partially agree with you in the way that he's "never" been "ran over" by anyone or took a beating for 5rds. The exception is clearly the DC fight where silva didnt look like belonged in there

I just wished him and Jones got to fight in their primes. Pre weidman he just wasn't there anymore and was just clowning people. It all started in that Maia fight he's never been the same guy since. After him and Dana soured the relationship I feel like he would just goof around if the fight didn't end in round 1.

Jones would have destroyed Silva with ease.

I think Anderson has some serious mental issues very deep down, all his post-fight interviews seem so unsincere, the bawling after the Diaz fight, the excessive bowing, I dont think its just him not adapting to fighters who don't just swing recklessly, I think something broke in him around the time of the Maia fight.