NIKLAS BACKSTROM vs NOAD LAHAT BETTING TIP
In his last fight, Niklas Backstrom was brutally knocked out against Mike Wilkinson. The Swedish fighter came out with supreme confidence, but his disdain for Wilkinson’s skills cost him his consciousness. Backstrom went into that fight far too cocky and far too confident and I believe that this loss will help him improve as a fighter. Backstrom is very talented and he could be a force in the Featherweight division, but his performance against Wilkinson showed that he still has a lot to learn. Getting knocked out by Wilkinson should help him to realise that he is not invincible and that he needs to respect his opponents and control his aggression in order to win. After studying Lahat and Backstrom’s last few fights, I believe that this should be an easy fight for Backstrom… Backstrom holds significant advantages over Lahat when it comes to striking and he’s tricky on the ground with good takedown defence. Backstrom should be able to use his 5 inch reach advantage to stay out of Lahat’s range and blast him with his more diverse range of strikes. Backstrom is an accurate striker who uses his length to keep the pressure on his opponents. He does a really good job of landing unorthodox strikes with no wind up, which makes his strikes difficult to block and hard to see coming. Lahat has very poor striking defence and I believe he will find it difficult to deal with Backstrom’s unorthodox style of fighting. Lahat’s only chance of winning this fight is to lay and pray for 3 rounds. This won’t be easy because Backstrom has reasonably good takedown defence and he’s very active off his back. Lahat doesn’t have the power to knock Backstrom out and he’s not skilled enough on the ground to catch Backstrom in a sub. Lahat is also at a disadvantage because he has shown poor cardio throughout his career and Backstrom fights at a very high pace. Lahat’s cardio issues are largely down to the fact that he doesn’t use good technique to take his opponents down. This means that he uses more energy and this causes him to gas out faster. Backstrom is well rounded and he fights with a crowd pleasing style. I believe that the UFC are trying to build Backstrom as a star and Noad Lahat is the perfect type of opponent for Backstrom to showcase his skills. [adrotate group=”95″]MY BETTING TIP: 3 Units [3% of your bankroll] on Niklas Backstrom to win at odds of 1.44 | -227 | 11/25
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ALAN PATRICK vs MAIRBEK TAISUMOV BETTING TIP
Mairbek Taisumov and Alan Patrick are two fighters with a lot of hype behind them right now. Patrick is 12-0, whilst Taisumov has built up an impressive record of 23-5. On paper this looks like it could be an exciting matchup between two top prospects, but when you dig a little deeper, you start to realise that Mairbek Taisumov is a significantly better fighter than Patrick… Alan Patrick is 31 years old and he’s built up an undefeated professional MMA record of 12-0 by beating an extremely low level of opposition. Most of his wins have come against fighters who lack the ground game or takedown defence to neutralize his high level Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Mairbek Taisumov’s record of 23-5 is a lot more impressive, with most of those wins coming against decent opposition in M1 Global. M1 Global is a major MMA promotion in Russia and the standard of MMA is very good. Many Russian fighters in the UFC built their careers fighting in M1 Global and Taisumov’s well rounded skillset is a reflection of the decent level of opposition he has faced throughout his career. I give Mairbek Taisumov an advantage over Alan Patrick in almost any area that this fight could take place because he’s tough, he’s well rounded and he has cardio for days. Mairbek Taisumov is several levels above Alan Patrick when it comes to striking. If this fight stays standing, Patrick will get destroyed. Mairbek Taisumov is similar to Albert Tumenov because he throws a wide range of strikes, he covers distance well, he’s extremely fast and he also does a great job of blasting his opponents with 5 or 6 strike combos. Alan Patrick fights out of the Southpaw stance, but he’s not a skilled enough striker to utilize this advantage against an experienced striker like Taisumov. One of Taisumov’s most dangerous weapons is his powerful body and leg kicks and Alan Patrick’s Southpaw stance will open up his body and leg’s to Taisumov’s powerful kicks. It’s also worth noting that Taisumov is only 26 years old and seems to be getting better with every fight. Patrick on the other hand is now 31 years old and it’s likely that he has already reached his full potential. Very few fighters improve past the age of 30, with 32 being the natural age in which fighters start to decline. The younger fighter wins around 60% of the time when there’s a 5 year age gap in a fight, which further validates our decision to bet on Taisumov to win. Alan Patrick has strong Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, but he struggles to take his opponents down. His wrestling is very low level and when he gets guys on the ground, he struggles to keep them there. Taisumov has won several European Jiu Jitsu Championships and he’s a strong wrestler who uses his grappling skills to fend off takedowns and scramble back to his feet. Taisumov’s ability to scramble out of bad positions was highlighted in his fight against Michel Prazeres when he was able to scramble back to his feet twice within 1 minute of being controlled in full mount. Alan Patrick has been branded as a high level Brazilian Jiu Jitsu fighter, but we haven’t seen him use his Jiu Jitsu against another high level grappler in MMA. We cannot assume that Patrick will have an advantage on the ground over Taisumov, because we’ve seen many high level BJJ guys struggle to deal with strong Russian Sambo fighters over the last couple of years. I don’t know if Taisumov has an advantage on the ground, but I do know that he has excellent takedown defence, good enough scrambles to get back to his feet and good enough Jiu Jitsu to neutralize the threat of Patrick’s submissions. I believe that Taisumov will use his grappling in reverse to keep the majority of this fight standing. This will enable him to pick apart Patrick with his far superior striking. This is a really good fight for Mairbek Taisumov because Alan Patrick is the perfect type of opponent for him to add another impressive clip to highlight reel. [adrotate group=”52″]MY BETTING TIP: 3 Units [3% of your bankroll] on Mairbek Taisumov to win at odds of 1.63 | -160 | 63/100
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