Speed Tape!
Andrey Pulyaev vs Liam Anderson
Anderson is big and strong, but kinda sloppy, and I was ready to pick against him after watching him first - but I don't really know what Pulyaev is good at having watched a couple of his fights, he is taller and rangier, but seems pretty mid. In his fight against Nikita Kondratov (2-1) he got hurt to the body and became a wrestler, but I don't see that strategy working here, so if he falls behind I think he falls behind
hard. I don't think either are particularly good. I really don't want to pick either guy, frankly. Maybe Pulyaev takes an early lead with the more technical striking, but Anderson is tough and hits hard for a guy that would probably be better in top position, so Liam can catch him at any time - but I'll go for Pulyaev in a slow one. Decision. I think I know what the matchmakers are looking for Liam to do, but I just don't think he's good enough to do it, and I don't think he's that guy either.
Michael Aswell vs Bogdan Grad
Grad got blitzed by Tom Nolan last time on DWCS but has won two straight since dropping to 145 and his last win was basically just catching a guy in a guillotine. Aswell is a fast starter, with decent boxing, I think that's probably where this fight takes place. This probably goes one of two ways, Aswell has better hands and damage could start to accumulate on Grad, otherwise Grad probably is slightly better rounded
if the fight is multi-levelled. Grad is a reasonable grappler which explains his horrible TDD, and I think sometimes that suckers guys into trying to wrestle him - which never seems to pay off too well, as Grad has counter-wrestling weapons and seems to read level changes quite well despite never defending the actual takedowns themselves. Will that be a factor? Probably not, unless someone is hurt or tired, I think the pressure is on them to have a striking battle and that should favour Aswell. Like I say, I prefer Aswell's boxing, and this fight doesn't really seem to play to Grad's strengths. Grad is a bit of a sloppy striker better suited to punishing grapplers. [I went back and forth on this one more than the other fights]
Marco Tulio vs Matthieu Duclos
I'm not really sure why Duclos is here, his last fight had a freak injury finish (eye injury) and didn't really show us anything, and his other fights, meh. Duclos becomes a brawler when he's losing, though, maybe that's what the matchmakers like here, especially if Tulio fails to wrestle him effectively in R1, that's probably where the upset becomes most likely - Duclos is a wildman when he's headhunting. Tulio isn't particularly amazing and had a mediocre first round against Belgaroui last time he was on DWCS (he had a mediocre fight, actually, hence not getting signed) but I think he might benefit from Duclos being just technically pretty horrible. Duclos will be spent halfway through round two, and Tulio
must finish him in R2 or R3 to have any hopes of fighting in the UFC, but I kinda think both guys are very meh. So yeah. Duclos is live in R1 if Tulio can't dominate him (which he probably can't), after that, it's a Tulio shut out - but he needs to avoid the cards like the plague. I'm gonna say Tulio gets a TKO late in R2.
I also think Duclos seems like a fence grabber, so I'll be looking for that lol
Malcolm Wellmaker vs Adam Bramhald
Wellmaker is the guy they want to land some spectacular KO, but he wants to avoid unnecessary flashy shit here or he could get himself in real trouble. Bramhald looks tough, he has having a really rough time against Konstadin Enev, then just dropped him with a pretty perfect punch and started taking over. He then out-Muay Thai'd a Muay Thai guy from Brazil! But Bramhald seems a bit more 'normal' than Wellmaker and I guess everyone's relying on Wellmaker to pull something out of the bag here - I hope he just sticks with some
nasty body kicks and whatnot though, I think Malcolm should win here if he doesn't try to force it to impress Dana. I still think he gets the finish early is he's clean and tidy.
Jack Duffy vs Nick Piccininni
Didn't get anything out of Piccininni's fight with Jomar Pa'ac given it was so damn slow and largely on the feet. That's going to be irrelevant as Jack Duffy doesn't touch gloves 'cause he's always in a damn hurry! Piccininni is a D1 wrestler, Duffy is still probably going to close the distance, launch a kick, then try to grab hold of Nick regardless. Piccininni has at least gone to an R4 already in his career, but he looked awfully sweaty in that slow-paced bout against Pa'ac, so I'm not discounting that he could gas - but it's only 3 rounds, so probably not going to be a huge factor. Piccininni also got dropped early in his fight against Freddie Rodriguez, and he does look a bit like a stereotypically overrated powerhouse wrestler that's not quite evolved into an MMA fighter yet. Piccininni is strong as heck, though, extremely physical so if he can stand Duffy up, press him to the fence he'll try to land knees and slow this down, but I dunno, I'm expecting Duffy to be fast as hell and wriggly as shit, I think Nick is going to have a tough time especially
if the fight goes longer.
Give me Jack in an upset pick, if he mixes it all up he could overwhelm Piccininni and show him a level I don't think he's seen yet in his MMA career. If Jack does win, it's either Decision or RNC in my opinion. If Nick wins, I'm not really sure how he gets it done, being strong isn't enough at this level.
Both weeks so far got 4/5.
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