UFC Fight Night: Dolidze vs. Imavov

The official Tapology discussion thread for the event!

I would like to know why there are so many people thinking Dober is a really good fighter. Yeah, he has power, but his striking skills are totally dependent on his power.

If he doesn't get you against the fence, he can't do anything. He was getting pieced up against Bobby until he found the finish.

Moicano is not a phenomenal striker, but he has been evolving in this area. If he's healthy like I imagine he is, I see this one going similar to Moicano x Riddell (with the only difference that Drew has that one-shot ko power and could make things interesting). 

I'm going with Money Moi by submission Rd2.

* Edited at 12.12.2023, 10:21 PM ET *

Nobody said he's a really good fighter, you guys are the ppl disparaging Dober acting like he's got no technique or ground game and Moicano is some 2nd coming to Jesus in grappling

Saying Dober's on a decline is lying for 1. There is 0 proof he's on the decline as of rn.

And 2. He's a very fundamental striker not just some power striker, you said "if he can't get you up against the fence."

Name 1 person he hasn't gotten up against the fence due to a mix of his footwork, power and speed, he got Nasrat, Dariush, Riddell, McKinney, Alves, and even Frevola and Islam were on the edges of the octagon. Win or lose, Dober very rarely goes backwards and gets every single one of his opponents against the fence and holds down the center of the octagon. 

Are we going to forget he ended R1 on top of Islam Makhachev after staying calm and not getting submitted for like 3 mins. after Islam shot a beautifully technical single leg takedown, that Moicano definitely doesn't have. 

* Edited at 12.12.2023, 11:30 PM ET *

Its 100% money  moic  fight to lose he has way more ways to win.
Good chance he can win on the feet if he wants.

@CrimsonChinGuru 

I think that you are focused to much on Dober's side of the fight only, defending Dober's skills and completely overlooking the dangers that moicano can bring to him. Moicano trains at ATT and like he said in his post fight interview he has been working in his grappling alot with really good guys.

To quote Renato:
Moicano doesn't give a ****!  I can beat these guys on strike, I can beat on wrestling, because right now I am all American wrestler brother. I train at ATT, Steve Morco, Parrumpinha, Mike Brown, all these guys show me how American wrestler now I am brasilian wrestler. 

I am confident that he will take the fight to the ground and sub Dober. 

I definitely could be just overlooking Moicano, I just don't understand how people think he's elite and how Dober has no ground game.

He might not be solid in the ground aspect, but his patience against Islam was so impressive to me! Most dudes don't get out of R1 in the position Dober was in against the P4P #1, and Islam had to keep spamming takedowns to keep Drew from stomping forward.

To me this all comes down to if Moicano can stop Dober from moving forward with heavy combos, and I just don't think he can.

* Edited at 12.13.2023, 6:48 PM ET *

In all fairness, I haven’t really watched tape on this fight since it’s so far out, so I’m just going off of what I remember from their fights But, to explain my reasoning for the moicano pick:

I was never saying he’s elite, he does have elite back takes tho; his ability to take tbe back and lock in RNC’s is really impressive. Dober’s grappling isn’t bad(I was exaggerating a bit when I first said that), but he has historically struggled against grapplers. I agree the islam performance was a solid performance by dober (as solid a fight with Islam can go) but the difference between Islam and moicano is the submission style. Islam is going to take you down and go for an arm triangle where moicano is going to test his standup and go for a back take when he rocks you. 

Now obviously trying to stand with dober usually ends badly, but it’s not like it’s impossible to trade with him. His chin is absurd but it’s not like he can’t be hurt. There was the Frevola ko but besides that we’ve see him dropped by McKinney, hurt by Bobby’s jab, rocked by riddell (i haven’t seen this fight in a while but pretty sure he got hurt), & more. Now, moicano’s chin isn’t great, but it’s not like it’s glass. He can’t eat a shot from dober, especially if he gets him up to the cage but at range I think his striking is absolutely good enough to win minutes. He doesn’t even need to get a knockdown or anything (in all honestly, I believe that he could), he just needs to stun him or make him slip up so he can capitalize. I don’t think Dober’s bjj is good enough to successfully defend moicano’s rnc; I don’t mean that out of disrespect, I just simply think there is a level between the two in that specific area. Now if moicano tries to take him down, then dober will likely be able to defend.

I don’t believe moicano is a lock, but I do think he has the skills to control this fight and get a finish. Dober has been very consistent throughout his career and this fight being in the apex does benefit him but I don’t think the striking gap is really that wide, despite the 10 wins by submission moicano is a striker who tries to hurt his opponents & despite having no knockouts he is a pretty capable striker. Dober is still consistent but I do think there is a slight decline to his overall game. His chin is still amazing but he has never been known for his defense & we have seen him rocked many times; he is human after all. I dobt moicano will get a knockdown but I think he could at least stun him and get a sub. His takedowns aren’t great but I think he could get a takedown if he wants. 

Road to UFC Finals will be after this card on UFC Fight pass, 9:30 Pst. 17 fights in one night, Fun!

17 fights & only 2 of them are main card worthy 🤣

Well ufc can make bellator  cards now there dead. 

Am I crazy for thinking Nate can actually get this done, this kid is kind of overrated and barely edged out a dec against Tyson Naam whos way past his best days at this point…I will def bet on Nate, hoping he is a big underdog here lol

@PickemMMA 

I think there is a chance. 

Only because I was impressed with how well his TDD held against Gravely, but then of course his TDD looks weak when he was up against bosses in Ulanbekov & Nurmagomedov. I was real hyped up on Azat's TDA pre UFC but being stuffed by so much by Tyson means we need to see more.

So, if it has to stay standing I think Azat has the edge in volume & speed, but because I have seen multiple pre UFC fights where he gets hit & hurt I think Nate has a punchers chance

Azat struggled in his debut but I don’t think it’s really as bad as people think. Sure, it was competitive and not very exciting but considering Nam has been right outside the top 15 his entire career, the fact that Azat was competitive with him in his debut is very impressive. 

However, the reason Azat looked “bad” (I don’t think he did, but he didn’t show what he’s actually capable of) is because nam is just an awful style matchup. Nam is a massive flyweight (he gained 20 pounds after weigh ins against ode) where Azat is on the smaller side, and has always had very good takedown defense. Being a wrestler, this forces Azat to fight where he is weaker. His standup is still pretty solid but obviously not his strong suit. He didn’t throw a lot on the feet but I don’t really blame him; you cannot make any mistakes against nam, he hits super hard and was one of the best counter strikers in the division (for anyone who doesn’t believe me just watch any nam highlight reel). Nam landed more but azat was holding his own and (imo) won the fight by landing the more powerful shots.

Maness is dangerous but he definitely doesn’t have the counter striking of nam. Hes very tall and hits hard but there’s almost no volume from him and honestly I’ve never been all that impressed with his striking. I also don’t know how his chin is at 125, it wasn’t amazing at 135 & I don’t imagine it’s any better at 125. Azat isn’t the best striker but he’s got very good power for the division (reminds me of taira a little). The biggest thing here is the wrestling; maness has okay defense but that’s due to his height, when you chain attempts together he struggles. Maness is 4-2 in the ufc and definitely a little underrated, but I’ve never been all that impressed with him; the only clear win he’s had in the ufc was his last one, and that was because Mendonca fought one of the worst game plans I’ve ever seen. Every other fight maness has had, he either gets dominated, gets a comeback win, or gets a robbery (Munoz fight he got hugged against the cage the whole fight and did nothing). He could totally finish azat but I don’t see maness doing enough for 15 minutes to win a decision. I could also see azat finishing him, we haven’t seen maness’s chin tested at this weight class

* Edited at 12.18.2023, 4:00 PM ET *

@AyyLmaonnaise 

= Tapology Champion (in all Weightclasses hah)

Fun fact - Feb 3rd 1997 is Natalia Silva's birthday

@Kniferusty 

She is going to give herself a W as a gift. 

This fight goes only two ways: Natália gets a quick KO by landing a head kick due to a mistake of Viviane or more Lively she wins a clear decision by being faster, having more volume and never stop moving so Viviane can never get her offense going.

@VicStrk 

her TDD was proven against Jasudavicius & Bleda (how Araujo wins most her fights) plus her speed & technique is an outlier for all women’s MMA. Araujo (lets not forget) got dropped by Andrea Lee & Ribas (although I don’t know why it’s not counted as a knockdown by ufc stats) so hoping for a Silva TKO/KO has is higher possibility imo

I agree that Natália has great speed and technique but not that there is a higher possibility of a TKO/KO.  

One thing that I noticed after watching her fights in the UFC a ton of times is that her finishes came from either her opponent getting melted/outclassed and just quitting the fight ( Victoria Leonardo) or in the case of bleda, Natália was going for a spinning body kick but bleda shoot for a takedown at the same time and got hit fush in the head for the finish.

There is a chance that in her high volume of strikes she is going to catch Araújo with something but she seens happy to just pick her opponent apart with non stop movement only engaging when she wants to and getting a clear dominant decision win. 

I’ll make my debut we’ll worth it.

@MarQuel24 

Goodluck, that knee you hit on DWCS was nasty. 

Def will be paying attention.

Funny he commented because mederos vs quinones was my pick for FOTN. Very well matched fight