UFC 311 Pick Analysis

The UFC has once again hosted an amazing night of fights. We like to keep it interesting here at Striking Central. Let’s take a dive on how we did.

Let’s start with the first prediction of the evening: Talbott v Barcelos. Going into the fight, I thought Payton Talbott was automatic. This guy had so much hype, and I thought he was a lock because he’s been on a 9-fight win streak. He certainly has hands, but his takedown defense is horrible, and that cost him the fight. I believe he’ll be back, but I missed the mark here

Holland v RDR: I predicted Holland would win this fight by KO. A couple of things here that we should unpack. First and foremost, I was unfamiliar with RDR’s game. I saw one of his One Championship fights, and I was not impressed, so I went with Holland. Secondly, I don’t think Kevin Holland’s mindset going into this fight was what it should have been. I haven’t listened to it, so I could be wrong, but I read on X that Holland said he didn’t care about this fight on Rampage’s podcast. True or not, the rumor is enough for me to put this guy on the blacklist. GG RDR

Almeida v Spivak: Almeida has some heavy hands. I thought he’d get it done by submission, but he elected for ground and pound. On to the next

Prochazka v Hill: Jiri put on a clinic last night. His striking looked sharp, and he was reading Jamahal like a book. I don’t think anyone is surprised he took that one. Jiri by KO proved to be easy money

Dvalishvili v Nurmagomedov: I had Umar by KO going into this one, and for the first 3 rounds, I really thought he was going to get it done. Umar has some of the cleanest hands in the promotion, and he was letting Merab have it. Then Umar broke his hand, and Merab slowly started to break him. All I have to say is EPO is a hell of a drug, and I am very confident we’ll see these 2 fight again

Makhachev v Moicano: Did anyone really see this one going any other way? Islam by submission = money in the bank

All in all, we were 3-3 on picking winners tonight, and 2-4 on methods. Check out the “Picks” tab for a spreadsheet showing the success rate of my picks, and be sure to follow us on X to get picks for this week’s upcoming fights and Adesanya vs Imavov on Feb 1