Light Heavyweight bout:
Alexander Gustafsson vs. Thiago Silva (KO) -- I really feel that Thiago Silva is overrated, he doesn't have great striking defence and I don't think he'll be able to take Gustafsson down. If Gustafsson is "on" tomorrow this could look a lot like Thiago's fight vs. Machida.
Middleweight bout:
Brian Stann vs. Alessio Sakara (KO) -- I've seen this movie before, it's called "Alessio Sakara vs anyone with good punching power" and it pretty much always ends the same way.
Welterweight bout:
Paulo Thiago vs. Siyar Bahadurzada (sub) -- Not sold on Bahadurzada being able to handle this level of competition. His wrestling's good but I think Thiago is going to be able to catch him with a choke off of a scramble or sloppy takedown attempt.
Featherweight bout: Dennis Siver vs.
Diego Nunes (dec) -- I think this one could go either way. Nunes is pretty relentless in staying active and keeping pressure on guys but he never really *does* anything once he has a guy in trouble. Siver is gonna be way bigger than him as well. That said, it doesn't look like Siver's cut went very well so I'm gonna bet on him gassing and dropping a decision.
Welterweight bout:
DaMarques Johnson vs. John Maguire (dec) -- another one that's kind of a coinflip, DaMarques looks great in some fights and real bad in others. I'll go with him here based on experience but I can see Maguire wrestling his way to a win based on his debut performance.
Bantamweight bout:
Brad Pickett vs. Damacio Page (sub) -- I don't think Page can keep up with Pickett for three rounds. The biggest question for me is whether he makes it the distance or gasses out and gets subbed before then.
Preliminary card:
Welterweight bout:
Papy Abedi vs. James Head (KO) -- Head looked pretty bad in his UFC debut against Nick Ring. Hopefully Papy can live up to the hype I've heard about him now that he's not being thrown to the wolves like he was in his debut.
Light Heavyweight bout: Cyrille Diabate vs.
Tom DeBlass (TKO) -- this could be a tough late opponent switch for Diabate. The guy he was gonna face (Kruth) is an aging Swedish kickboxer that Diabate was probably counting on being able to beat up on the feet. Deblass looks to be more of the prototypical well-rounded American MMA fighter who I think could cause a lot of problems for Diabate if he can put him on his back.
Middleweight bout:
Francis Carmont vs. Magnus Cedenblad (dec) -- Carmont looked pretty impressive in his UFC debut. Don't know anything about Cedenblad except that he looks like
Gary Busey so this is admittedly just picking the guy I've seen fight before.
Lightweight bout:
Reza Madadi vs. Yoislandy Izquierdo (sub) -- no such luxury here as I've never seen either guy fight. Pure Fight Finder pick.
Welterweight bout:
Simeon Thoresen vs. Besam Yousef (sub) -- ditto.
Featherweight bout:
Jason Young vs. Eric Wisely (dec) -- Young got a pretty tough welcome to the UFC but actually didn't look bad against either Poirier or Omigawa. Wisely's a pretty big step down from those two so I like Young's chances here.
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driving to Stockholm in 30 minutes.
