UFC 296: Edwards vs. Covington

The official Tapology discussion thread for the event!

Edwards vs. Covington
Colby Covington, DEC
🇺🇸 Chaos all day

Rakhmonov vs. Thompson
Shavkat Rakhmonov, SUB, R3
Prob going to be fight of the night

Ferguson vs. Pimblett
Paddy Pimblett, SUB, R3
Oh Paddy The Baddy

Not age broke Tony, it was Gaethje

Lol still see Justin running away getting dropped what a *****.

Shavkat champ by the end of 2024

Aldana vs. Rosa
Irene Aldana, DEC
Pretty decent turnaround after that Nunes absolute beatdown. Should be a pretty good matchup for the bounce back.

* Edited at 09.27.2023, 10:22 PM ET *

Someday someone finish Paddy "the barbie" in a shameful way, that day I'll be so happy.

In Karol Rosa last fight, she was fighting Norma Dumont, The commentator was saying these girls couldn’t do the basic of MMA and basically calling them awful fighter, then in the next sentence saying this could be a number one contender fight at women 145lb. 

Even tho the fight suck, that was so funny, I will alway remember it

O'Neill vs. Lipski
Casey O'Neill, TKO, R2
Bow down to The King

Edwards vs. Covington
Leon Edwards, SUB, R3
If Leon took Usman down in the clinch, of course he can do the same against Colby. Colby will not respect Leon's wrestling, and that's gonna be his downfall.

Rakhmonov vs. Thompson
Shavkat Rakhmonov, SUB, R3
If it's just on the feet, Wonderboy has a chance, but Shav has great fight IQ, so he'll probably take Thompson down in this fight and finish him on the ground. Certified banger !

Ferguson vs. Pimblett
Tony Ferguson, TKO, R2
Tony to spoil the party with a great TKO !

Luque vs. Machado Garry
Ian Machado Garry, DEC
Luque will probably come with a heavy wrestling gameplan against Garry, but I'm not sure it's gonna work. Garry has a great ability to get back to his feet after being taken down, so, on the feet, he'll probably have the advantage. I'm still not 100% sure about this one though.

O'Neill vs. Lipski
Ariane Lipski, DEC
Am I delusional for thinking Lipski can win here? Far more difficult matchup than Araujo.

* Edited at 09.29.2023, 10:03 PM ET *

@Latrel Dog 

god listen to you dude.

I'm with you on this pick. Ariane is way better on the feet and has shown us that she's improving her TDD. 

Let's go ! It's gonna be a great event. 

Pantoja has to be one of the easiest picks of the year for me.  Royval is a great fighter but he's not champ material.

Pantoja finishes him again... probably the same way he did last time they fought RNC.  

Honestly, most of this card is easy picks, Durdan vs Ulanbekov  and Edwards’s  vs Covinton are the only fights that I’m not confident in,

 This  is  one of the card that will be fun to watch, but I don’t find interesting matchup wise

* Edited at 09.30.2023, 6:02 PM ET *

I simply can't fade Pantoja after that Moreno fight.

I thought dude was absolutely gassed after Round 1, than continued to fight like an absolute maniac for 20 more mins.

* Edited at 10.01.2023, 10:27 PM ET *

Maybe a unpopular opinion but I think Pantoja is destined to be the FLW BOAT by the end of the year he’s gonna rack up a lot of defences 

Pantoja impressed the **** out of me till his chin cracks he is the man, almost felt like UFC was holding him back there.

Don’t think Pantoja will get close to DJ accomplishment, He’s 33 years old and been fighting for over a decade, I think the only fighter more accomplished then DJ is Jon Jones, I can see Pantoja being 2nd best in the division, Just not first

Colby vs Edwards

Leon is champ for a reason, there's no denying that after the last two wins against Usman and the unbeaten-streak before that. But I think Colbys constant forward pressure of takedowns and strikes and his insane pace is going to be to much for Leon. The way to beat Colby is to at least match his wrestling to keep it on the feet, have an edge in striking and great stamina like Usman. I don't really see that with Leon tho. He might win the first one or two rounds but Colby's gonna win a decision.

Pantoja vs Royval

Pantoja should take it all day but I just got a feeling of an upset for this one. Royval by close decision.

Shavkat vs Wonderboy

We all love Wonderboy but let's be honest guys as long as Shavkat doesn't decide to strike with Wonderboy to prove a point and gets sent into oblivion by a headkick he's gonna drag Wonderboy down and finfish him there. Shavkat by submission in round two. Future champ for sure. Wonderboy champion in the hearts for even taking that fight.

Tony vs Paddy

A Tony win would be so great and Paddy might even be a winnable fight for him. But even though Paddy should have lost the fight against Jared we got to admit that Paddy has a pretty decent ground game and based on Tonys last performance against Bobby Green I gotta go with Paddy by decsion in that one. Might even be a submission.

Luque vs Garry
Super fun fight with potential for fight of the night. Luque coming off a solid performance vs Dos Anjos and Garry getting better with every fight. I think the momentum is gonna be on Garrys side and he's gonna get a KO finish in round three.