Welcome back fight fans to another version of MYSTIC PICKS! Since I haven’t posted in a while, these picks will be on the house! Thank you all always for tuning in and reading!
The UFC never shy’s away from delivering a scorching hot end of the year card! If you haven’t seen the line up for UFC 269. Take a look!
That’s just the main card! The prelims have a lot of potential fight of the year contenders! Let’s begin with my picks!
Charles Oliveira vs Dustin Poirier - UFC Lightweight Championship
I couldn’t think of two fighters who deserve this spotlight more. It took Oliveira 28 fights in the UFC to get to a title shot. It took Poirier a long time to get back to a title shot after defeating former two-weight Champion Conor Mcgregor twice in one year. Making this decision is probably my toughest to call on this card. Oliveira who holds the record for most submissions in UFC history has shown massive improvements in his stand-up, knocking out former Bellator Lightweight Champion Michael Chandler to claim the title. It used to be an easy breakdown with Charles, saying if he got it to the ground it was his fight to win and if they stand up Dustin would have the clear path to victory. But this can no longer be said anymore. Dustin has been in a lot of wars in the past couple of years, but at the end of these wars he has come out on top. Something in my gut just keeps telling me Oliveira try’s to get Dustin out early but can’t and ends up succumbing to Dustin’s 5 round fight experience.
Poirier by TKO
Amanda Nunes vs Juliana Pena UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship
Well as much as I want to go into a deep breakdown of this fight, it’s not really needed. I love Pena’s grit, I love her want to beat Amanda and the opportunity to fight one of the best mixed martial artists ever. But this is just not the time to fight Nunes. She is in the prime of her career and is only showing improvement after every fight. Pena on the other hand has traded wins and loses, though she does have a couple of wins over top-tier Bantamweights. Her wrestling pedigree could be a factor if she can make it to the later rounds. Nunes does have to cut a lot of weight to make 135, so the later rounds she could possibly tire. I don’t see that happening here.
Nunes by Submission
Here are some picks for the rest of the card! The one’s I have in bold I feel are to keep eyes on!
Geoff Neal -110 < Santiago Ponzinibbio -110, welterweight
Cody Garbrandt -140< Kai Kara-France +120, flyweight
Sean O'Malley -310 > Raulian Paiva +260, bantamweight
Josh Emmett >Dan Ige +145, featherweight
Dominick Cruz -110 > Pedro Munhoz -110, bantamweight
Augusto Sakai -110 < Tai Tuivasa -110, heavyweight
Bruno Silva -360 >Jordan Wright +280, middleweight
Andre Muniz -155 < Eryk Anders +130, middleweight
Miranda Maverick -150 > Erin Blanchfield +125, women's flyweight
Alex Perez -330 >Matt Schnell +260, flyweight
Ryan Hall -220 > Darrick Minner +180, featherweightRandy Costa -200 >Tony Kelley+170, bantamweight
Gillian Robertson -400 > Priscila Cachoeira +310, women's flyweight
Hope everyone enjoys this amazing card from top to bottom! I’ll be checking in via Instagram live this week, to see how everyone is feeling about this card!