Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Greetings and welcome to my main event preview for UFC
Saudi Arabia. As always, I'm your host to Luka Furi
from Fury's Fight Picks. Here on the free edition of
the podcast, I'll be breaking down that headliner, which is
Israel Adisania against Nasardine Imovov. Interesting fight in the middleway division. Obviously,
Adasanya was the champion at one point, but he has
(00:22):
certainly fallen off. And I'm not just saying that based
on his results. It's something I've been talking about him
for a while now. This dude's head is clearly not
in the game anymore. I'll get into that more in
a moment here. He's taking quite a bit of a
step down in competition, and this is one of those
sort of classic matchups where you have one fighter Israel,
who in his prime would absolutely stomp Imovov. However, because
(00:45):
he is not in his prime, that makes a matchup
a bit tricky to call. Just how far off has
he fallen and how much has Imavov improved? Are those
enough for Imavov to actually be the better fighter now?
So I'll be getting into that tier momentarily, of course,
if if you want the rest of my breakdowns for
this card. You can get them over on the Patreon
that is Patreon dot com slash Furies Fight Picks. We
(01:07):
also have a bunch more content there, including the official
bets as well. Several of those are up right now.
Check those all out and again Patreon dot com slash
Furies Fight Picks. As for the betting once here at
the main event, currently we have Israel at minus one
sixty at the best available price. Meanwhile, the comeback on
Imavov is plus one forty for starters. I will be
(01:29):
picking Israel in the matchup, but it is a sketchy
one here for the reason that I just mentioned, this
dude has fallen off. I was saying before his last
bout against drinkis du plus c that just look at
the way he's acting at the press conferences. Look at
the way that he's acting outside of the cage. You
can see this dude didn't give a flying f about
(01:50):
that fight. Yeah, he got emotional the conference, one of
them anyways, But you can see when he was like
giving like these terrible, sort of canned answers that he
was trying to trash talk with, like his heart was
just so clearly not in it. He was flat with
how he was saying them, his emotional his whole entire
vibe was just completely dejected, uninterested. And then the fight
(02:11):
comes around. Looked like the dude didn't even train that
seriously for it. He looked awful. One of his worst
performances of his UFC career. And that's not just because
he lost it, it's because of how he actually looked
in it. On top of that, look at all of
his biggest rivals, the fighters in the pascit. He absolutely
hated Alex Bahana, Robert Whittaker. Now he's openly talked about
(02:32):
he has no hate in his heart. He's all goodie, goodie,
buddy buddy with them, just wants to be friends. He's
training with Whittaker, chatting with Alex like they're all totally good. Now.
You see this at the end of fighters' careers, both
in boxing and MMA, when they're just kind of done
with the sport, they start getting kind of soft in
a way where they just don't have that same fire,
(02:53):
and it shows in, for example, their performances at the
press conference, their performances in the cage, and also the
way that they treat past rivals outside of it. When
you have a guy who's still super ultra competitive, still
has rivalries, and he wants to take everything from those
rivals to ruin their life while elevating his. That's a
guy who's actually competitive when all of a sudden, they're like, yeah,
(03:16):
don't really care about the conferences, don't really care about
the fights, don't really care about my rivals. Clearly have
regressed in all aspects of being a professional MMA fighter. Like,
let's call us bea spade here. This dude is clearly
spiraling downwards, and I don't think there's going to be
any kind of resurgence. Maybe he goes out and wins
his fight, because again, I'm still favoring him for reasons
(03:39):
i'll get to, but him actually being a legitimate title threat,
I don't think that's really going to happen again. Maybe
he can get a title shot because the division is weak,
but I certainly don't think he's ever reigning over this
division ever. Again, there's multiple fighters that I would pick
over him right now. It's just that Imobov is flawed
enough that he's not one of them. The biggest thing
for me here is this is a five round fight
(04:01):
and Imabov has shown real cardio issues in the past.
Israel his cardio generally is pretty good. He did slow
down against Driecas last time out, which was a bit
of a concern, but he still should have the better
cardio here, at least on paper. And in the early going,
is ima Bob is going to go out and just
run through him and knock him out. That would be surprising.
You know, we've seen crazier things than m Mate. Wouldn't
(04:23):
be super shocking, but it'd be surprising. I certainly would
not expect that. And so in all likelihood, Imabov's past
victory is outstriking him for long durations, which means we're
going to see the championship rounds, which means Imovov most
likely is going to gas out, and so Israel can
show up a bit flat and he can still actually
go out there and win rounds against the guy who
is very much technically superior to on the feet, and
(04:47):
maybe he's in some competitive rounds early. Maybe even Imobov
is up to to one after the first three, but
ima Bov should probably guess out and lose the last
two or at least three of the five overall. Whatever
fashion ends up happening in maybe even gets finished as well.
That would not be out of the question here either.
So for me, yes, I have real real concerns about
Israel just not being himself anymore. I clearly think he's
(05:09):
on a noticeable decline. He's clearly regressed in a variety
of ways. However, they're giving him a fighter who stylistically
doesn't really have any real advantages over Israel, and on
top of that, has some real flaws that play somewhat
right into Israel's game. Now. Granted, he's not a robedwalash
Philly who's going out there and winning on cardi un pace,
but we've seen him go out there and win multiple
(05:30):
decisions out volume guys and win clearcut scores on the
judges cards. So I think that stylistically, if this was
in their prime oh Man, terrible matchup for Imabov like
comes down to just landing a lucky punch at that point,
which very very slim chances at least now, he could
potentially get it dejected Israel, especially with such a drop
(05:50):
off in competition here, I would not be surprised at
all if Israel looks flatter than ever, I would not
be surprised if he looks worse than ever. That is
why I will not be better him here in this matchup,
but I will still be picking him just because of Again,
stylistically and skill wise, he is a better fighter, and
he does have the better cardio on top of that.
In terms of their striking, Jim Avov, he has fine offense,
(06:11):
but there's nothing special there and nothing particularly flashy. He
doesn't have crazy power or crazy speed, or super volume
or super pace or anything like that. He's a fine striker,
nothing special. In terms of his defense, he's actually pretty hittable.
So israel I would say it's certainly more technical power
if anything, has at least as much, if not more,
(06:32):
has a better pace, better cardio down the stretch, has
a greater variety to the strikes that he can throw,
has better overall technique offensively and defensively, and has a
better footwork. Again, that's assuming he actually shows up here,
And if he just shows completely flat and dejected, well
then maybe just kind of goes out there and slobs
his way through it and actually gets out box and
ends up losing, whether it's on the cards, cards or
(06:54):
by a stoppage. Again, would not surprise me considering how
much he is regressing fight to fight, but from what
we've seen him from him so far, he should probably
still have enough left in the tank to get by
in this one. Again, I'm not laying the minus one
sixty on him. I just can't do it. At the
same time, not good enough odds on Imovov to be
(07:14):
able to get me to pull the trigger on the
dog here. Ultimately, what we should get is a kickboxing
mashup between one fighter who, again in his prime, would
absolutely curb stop the other. He's fallen quite a bit off,
and the question is has he fallen far enough now
that his opponent is actually above him. I don't think
we're quite there yet. I do think Israel's gonna be
(07:35):
able to get the job done here, But again, even
if he does it in somehow an impressive fashion, I
am not holding out for this dude being any kind
of real title contender. Not to say he can't get
a title shot, but he is just not going to
reign over this division again. I just can't see it happening.
So Israel Atisania will be my official prediction, but not
as much confidence as I would have had in him.
(07:56):
Just a couple of years ago, and that will do
it for the free edition here of the podcast. Remember,
the Patreon does have the rest of the fight breakdowns
up right now. It goes up at the same time
usually as this free one, but also a bunch of
other content, including the cheat sheet article with tape study
notes and write ups and breakdowns. There's also the staff
picks article as well as of course the after show
(08:18):
analysis podcast. It'll be going up after the event, and
most importantly of all, several official bets are already up
right now for this event and more. You can check
them all out on the Patreon at patreon dot com
slash Furies Fight Picks, so hopefully join us over for
those and until then, I'm Luka Fury and thank you
for listening.
Greetings and welcome to my main event preview for UFC
Saudi Arabia. As always, I'm your host to Luka Furi
from Fury's Fight Picks. Here on the free edition of
the podcast, I'll be breaking down that headliner, which is
Israel Adisania against Nasardine Imovov. Interesting fight in the middleway division. Obviously,
Adasanya was the champion at one point, but he has
(00:22):
certainly fallen off. And I'm not just saying that based
on his results. It's something I've been talking about him
for a while now. This dude's head is clearly not
in the game anymore. I'll get into that more in
a moment here. He's taking quite a bit of a
step down in competition, and this is one of those
sort of classic matchups where you have one fighter Israel,
who in his prime would absolutely stomp Imovov. However, because
(00:45):
he is not in his prime, that makes a matchup
a bit tricky to call. Just how far off has
he fallen and how much has Imavov improved? Are those
enough for Imavov to actually be the better fighter now?
So I'll be getting into that tier momentarily, of course,
if if you want the rest of my breakdowns for
this card. You can get them over on the Patreon
that is Patreon dot com slash Furies Fight Picks. We
(01:07):
also have a bunch more content there, including the official
bets as well. Several of those are up right now.
Check those all out and again Patreon dot com slash
Furies Fight Picks. As for the betting once here at
the main event, currently we have Israel at minus one
sixty at the best available price. Meanwhile, the comeback on
Imavov is plus one forty for starters. I will be
(01:29):
picking Israel in the matchup, but it is a sketchy
one here for the reason that I just mentioned, this
dude has fallen off. I was saying before his last
bout against drinkis du plus c that just look at
the way he's acting at the press conferences. Look at
the way that he's acting outside of the cage. You
can see this dude didn't give a flying f about
(01:50):
that fight. Yeah, he got emotional the conference, one of
them anyways, But you can see when he was like
giving like these terrible, sort of canned answers that he
was trying to trash talk with, like his heart was
just so clearly not in it. He was flat with
how he was saying them, his emotional his whole entire
vibe was just completely dejected, uninterested. And then the fight
(02:11):
comes around. Looked like the dude didn't even train that
seriously for it. He looked awful. One of his worst
performances of his UFC career. And that's not just because
he lost it, it's because of how he actually looked
in it. On top of that, look at all of
his biggest rivals, the fighters in the pascit. He absolutely
hated Alex Bahana, Robert Whittaker. Now he's openly talked about
(02:32):
he has no hate in his heart. He's all goodie, goodie,
buddy buddy with them, just wants to be friends. He's
training with Whittaker, chatting with Alex like they're all totally good. Now.
You see this at the end of fighters' careers, both
in boxing and MMA, when they're just kind of done
with the sport, they start getting kind of soft in
a way where they just don't have that same fire,
(02:53):
and it shows in, for example, their performances at the
press conference, their performances in the cage, and also the
way that they treat past rivals outside of it. When
you have a guy who's still super ultra competitive, still
has rivalries, and he wants to take everything from those
rivals to ruin their life while elevating his. That's a
guy who's actually competitive when all of a sudden, they're like, yeah,
(03:16):
don't really care about the conferences, don't really care about
the fights, don't really care about my rivals. Clearly have
regressed in all aspects of being a professional MMA fighter. Like,
let's call us bea spade here. This dude is clearly
spiraling downwards, and I don't think there's going to be
any kind of resurgence. Maybe he goes out and wins
his fight, because again, I'm still favoring him for reasons
(03:39):
i'll get to, but him actually being a legitimate title threat,
I don't think that's really going to happen again. Maybe
he can get a title shot because the division is weak,
but I certainly don't think he's ever reigning over this
division ever. Again, there's multiple fighters that I would pick
over him right now. It's just that Imobov is flawed
enough that he's not one of them. The biggest thing
for me here is this is a five round fight
(04:01):
and Imabov has shown real cardio issues in the past.
Israel his cardio generally is pretty good. He did slow
down against Driecas last time out, which was a bit
of a concern, but he still should have the better
cardio here, at least on paper. And in the early going,
is ima Bob is going to go out and just
run through him and knock him out. That would be surprising.
You know, we've seen crazier things than m Mate. Wouldn't
(04:23):
be super shocking, but it'd be surprising. I certainly would
not expect that. And so in all likelihood, Imabov's past
victory is outstriking him for long durations, which means we're
going to see the championship rounds, which means Imovov most
likely is going to gas out, and so Israel can
show up a bit flat and he can still actually
go out there and win rounds against the guy who
is very much technically superior to on the feet, and
(04:47):
maybe he's in some competitive rounds early. Maybe even Imobov
is up to to one after the first three, but
ima Bov should probably guess out and lose the last
two or at least three of the five overall. Whatever
fashion ends up happening in maybe even gets finished as well.
That would not be out of the question here either.
So for me, yes, I have real real concerns about
Israel just not being himself anymore. I clearly think he's
(05:09):
on a noticeable decline. He's clearly regressed in a variety
of ways. However, they're giving him a fighter who stylistically
doesn't really have any real advantages over Israel, and on
top of that, has some real flaws that play somewhat
right into Israel's game. Now. Granted, he's not a robedwalash
Philly who's going out there and winning on cardi un pace,
but we've seen him go out there and win multiple
(05:30):
decisions out volume guys and win clearcut scores on the
judges cards. So I think that stylistically, if this was
in their prime oh Man, terrible matchup for Imabov like
comes down to just landing a lucky punch at that point,
which very very slim chances at least now, he could
potentially get it dejected Israel, especially with such a drop
(05:50):
off in competition here, I would not be surprised at
all if Israel looks flatter than ever, I would not
be surprised if he looks worse than ever. That is
why I will not be better him here in this matchup,
but I will still be picking him just because of Again,
stylistically and skill wise, he is a better fighter, and
he does have the better cardio on top of that.
In terms of their striking, Jim Avov, he has fine offense,
(06:11):
but there's nothing special there and nothing particularly flashy. He
doesn't have crazy power or crazy speed, or super volume
or super pace or anything like that. He's a fine striker,
nothing special. In terms of his defense, he's actually pretty hittable.
So israel I would say it's certainly more technical power
if anything, has at least as much, if not more,
(06:32):
has a better pace, better cardio down the stretch, has
a greater variety to the strikes that he can throw,
has better overall technique offensively and defensively, and has a
better footwork. Again, that's assuming he actually shows up here,
And if he just shows completely flat and dejected, well
then maybe just kind of goes out there and slobs
his way through it and actually gets out box and
ends up losing, whether it's on the cards, cards or
(06:54):
by a stoppage. Again, would not surprise me considering how
much he is regressing fight to fight, but from what
we've seen him from him so far, he should probably
still have enough left in the tank to get by
in this one. Again, I'm not laying the minus one
sixty on him. I just can't do it. At the
same time, not good enough odds on Imovov to be
(07:14):
able to get me to pull the trigger on the
dog here. Ultimately, what we should get is a kickboxing
mashup between one fighter who, again in his prime, would
absolutely curb stop the other. He's fallen quite a bit off,
and the question is has he fallen far enough now
that his opponent is actually above him. I don't think
we're quite there yet. I do think Israel's gonna be
(07:35):
able to get the job done here, But again, even
if he does it in somehow an impressive fashion, I
am not holding out for this dude being any kind
of real title contender. Not to say he can't get
a title shot, but he is just not going to
reign over this division again. I just can't see it happening.
So Israel Atisania will be my official prediction, but not
as much confidence as I would have had in him.
(07:56):
Just a couple of years ago, and that will do
it for the free edition here of the podcast. Remember,
the Patreon does have the rest of the fight breakdowns
up right now. It goes up at the same time
usually as this free one, but also a bunch of
other content, including the cheat sheet article with tape study
notes and write ups and breakdowns. There's also the staff
picks article as well as of course the after show
(08:18):
analysis podcast. It'll be going up after the event, and
most importantly of all, several official bets are already up
right now for this event and more. You can check
them all out on the Patreon at patreon dot com
slash Furies Fight Picks, so hopefully join us over for
those and until then, I'm Luka Fury and thank you
for listening.
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