Lopes should be the favorite based on better competition

[TheCryingElite]

I’m not sold on Silva like everyone else. Although I’m not sure Lopes will be the one to prove that theory for me. Looking forward to it though.

 

[Hitdepruns]

Well Lopes my lose, but Silva will eat few shots like he never did before, imo. Wont be an easy fight for Silva.

 

[World eater]

Both guys are very good. Both will be tested like rarely before. I also think both will walk away with some damage that will take time to heal. Not sure who wins, but I’m slightly leaning Silva. Very slightly.

 

[The_Renaissance]

Yeah I think Lopes is gonna win too.

 

[Cameron]

Diego isn’t going to wrestle here and he is not going to make adjustments standing.

Silva puts a master class on him and jumps the line for a title shot.

 

[octagonation]

Jean Silva styled on Mitchell who was none threatening but some folks here think, he is a world beater all of sudden because of that. IMO he is gonna get blitz´ed by Lopes who is super aggressive. I like the type of aggression Lopes brings to the octagon, just raw and natural

 

[Kwic]

I like Lopes more but I like Silva's madness too So I hope for a good fight.

 

[Safton]

I think Diego is a credible betting underdog at that price point. He has fought the better levels of competition for sure. He also has the ability to win if he is able to survive Jean's counters, make Silva uncomfortable with his forward pressure, create a dirty brawl, and force the Nerd to taste serious KO power coming back from the opposite direction for once.

And for fuck's sake, Diego absolutely has to remember that he's a grappler. He 10-8'd Brian in Round 1, the only round he shot a takedown and worked his GnP. He went life-and-death against Ige, was hurt and gassed in Round 3... but was able to bail himself out with takedowns and top game.

I don't know if Diego can reliably take Silva down. Jean impressed me with his obvious improvements and the preparation he showed for Mitchell, who I believe to be a more technical wrestler than Diego (albeit lacking the man's level of physicality and BJJ talent). However, Diego needs to at least explore this route rather than conceding it entirely as he did against Volk and accepting a striking match where his only hope is to land a bomb or gas Silva out. A Silva who is worried about the takedown threat is one who is less able to download your patterns and kill you out of nowhere.

That said... I do favor Silva. Stylistically I think the matchup favors him. He seems fairly comfortable fighting off his back foot, using feints and setting traps. He has excellent timing, good accuracy, and legit one-shot KO power. Lopes is a dude who walks forward in a straight line, doesn't move his head, and blocks strikes with his face. That's fine if you're fighting someone fairly pillow-fisted, but the implications of getting jabbed by a volume guy like Volk are far different than those of lunging headfirst into a flush check hook or uppercut from a sniper with the touch of death like Silva.

Jean will definitely catch lopes with big shots, the question for me is whether or not Lopes can take them and keep coming, because that guy has one hell of a chin on him and he's huge for FW.

I really want to echo that last bit. I met Diego in person at the Atlanta event and was fucking shocked how big this man was. I am tempted to post the pictures I took with him.

(And don't let him fucking fool you, he speaks and understands better English than he lets on lmfao)

 

[Mickey Mick]

I actually thought Lopes would be the favorite and I’d be making bank on Silva at plus odds.

Instead, I’ll have to cook up a sinister 10 leg parlay in an effort to build a better tomorrow.

 

[daPROFESSOR]

leg kicks will be the ket if lopes wins imo. bryce was able to land them at will

 

[TheMMAnalyst]

I think Diego is a credible betting underdog at that price point. He has fought the better levels of competition for sure. He also has the ability to win if he is able to survive Jean's counters, make Silva uncomfortable with his forward pressure, create a dirty brawl, and force the Nerd to taste serious KO power coming back from the opposite direction for once.

And for fuck's sake, Diego absolutely has to remember that he's a grappler. He 10-8'd Brian in Round 1, the only round he shot a takedown and worked his GnP. He went life-and-death against Ige, was hurt and gassed in Round 3... but was able to bail himself out with takedowns and top game.

I don't know if Diego can reliably take Silva down. Jean impressed me with his obvious improvements and the preparation he showed for Mitchell, who I believe to be a more technical wrestler than Diego (albeit lacking the man's level of physicality and BJJ talent). However, Diego needs to at least explore this route rather than conceding it entirely as he did against Volk and accepting a striking match where his only hope is to land a bomb or gas Silva out. A Silva who is worried about the takedown threat is one who is less able to download your patterns and kill you out of nowhere.

That said... I do favor Silva. Stylistically I think the matchup favors him. He seems fairly comfortable fighting off his back foot, using feints and setting traps. He has excellent timing, good accuracy, and legit one-shot KO power. Lopes is a dude who walks forward in a straight line, doesn't move his head, and blocks strikes with his face. That's fine if you're fighting someone fairly pillow-fisted, but the implications of getting jabbed by a volume guy like Volk are far different than those of lunging headfirst into a flush check hook or uppercut from a sniper with the touch of death like Silva.



I really want to echo that last bit. I met Diego in person at the Atlanta event and was fucking shocked how big this man was. I am tempted to post the pictures I took with him.

(And don't let him fucking fool you, he speaks and understands better English than he lets on lmfao)

Lopes is tough as nails, has huge power, and is a dangerous submission threat. However, he’s foot-slow, moves in straight lines, and has very predictable attack patterns. Doesn’t really wrestle that well, doesn’t control the distance, doesn’t phase-shift and will just let the fight go wherever it takes him.

Silva is way faster, better footwork, controls distance with adjustments/feints/cutting angles, and is just a more fluid, natural dynamic fighter.

Talking “levels” of competition even though Silva is unproven against elite opponents, he has shown elite athleticism, skills, and instincts. Lopes to me has an overrated resume - he lost round 3 to a 10 hour notice Dan Ige and his best win is a hugely-declined Ortega who was trying to move to LW before this fight.

People remember the end of the Volk fight but in the first round he dropped Lopes and almost finished him - think of the level of power difference between Volk and Silva and it’ll give you an idea of what Lopes is going to have to eat in order to force exchanges. He doesn’t outfight with a jab or low kicks, he plods into range offering his chin to try to land counters, which is a suicidal approach against Silva.

Silva reminds me of a wild man version of Petr Yan - takes the first half of the first round to play defense and make reads, let his opponent expend energy, then starts building immediately once he gets a bead on the flow of the fight. Against highly technical outfighters or very adaptable boxer/punchers it’s a risky style/approach (prime Volk would be a very tough matchup for Silva), but against brawlers/grapplers it’s kind of a feast of targets for Silva to exploit.

I’m predicting Silva by KO in the middle of the fight.

 

[RockyLockridge]

I’m not sold on Silva like everyone else. Although I’m not sure Lopes will be the one to prove that theory for me. Looking forward to it though.

Most posters are pretty stupid and don't really think with their heads. They let talking heads on TV tell them how good a fighter is without using their own mind or logic.

Who is the best fighter Silva has beaten? bryce?

Do we not all agree that lopes would easily dispatch bryce aswell?

Silva has done NOTHING to suggest he's a top 5 talent yet, Lopes already has better wins than a win against bryce mitchell. They are using the fact lopes lost to volk and jean looked great against bryce.


These same people picked Ruffy to beat BSD. Because BSD is a can or something because he lost a fight with a staph infection then had 1 bad showing against moicano in his first main event. Meanwhile ruffy best wins would get smoked by BSD, Leaving no reason to think Ruffy would win.

 

[Neck&Neck]

Lopes best wins are a washed Ortega or Dan Ige
Silva’s best wins are Mitchell and Drew Dober

Not Too much difference there really

Silva is no Ruffy, he has a legit ground game

Styles make fights and I can see Lord Silva winning this one

 

[FlowchartRog]

Most posters are pretty stupid and don't really think with their heads. They let talking heads on TV tell them how good a fighter is without using their own mind or logic.

Who is the best fighter Silva has beaten? bryce?

Do we not all agree that lopes would easily dispatch bryce aswell?

Silva has done NOTHING to suggest he's a top 5 talent yet, Lopes already has better wins than a win against bryce mitchell. They are using the fact lopes lost to volk and jean looked great against bryce.


These same people picked Ruffy to beat BSD. Because BSD is a can or something because he lost a fight with a staph infection then had 1 bad showing against moicano in his first main event. Meanwhile ruffy best wins would get smoked by BSD, Leaving no reason to think Ruffy would win.

The Moicano fight is a weird one. How tf do you explain that one? Really bad style matchup? Really bad day at the office? He looked terrible.

But he looked like a beast against Ruffy, who everyone thought was the second coming. So BSD is ultimately more legit than not I think, even though he can look really slow and scrubby at times.

 

[scytheavatar]

Do we not all agree that lopes would easily dispatch bryce aswell?

No I don't, on what basis do people say Lopes would easily dispatch Mitchell? Like I said Mitchell would almost certainly easily dispatch Ortega if the two of them fought next. For all the talk about how unproven Silva is, it is not like Lopes has proven more.

 

[scytheavatar]

The Moicano fight is a weird one. How tf do you explain that one? Really bad style matchup? Really bad day at the office? He looked terrible.

But he looked like a beast against Ruffy, who everyone thought was the second coming. So BSD is ultimately more legit than not I think, even though he can look really slow and scrubby at times.

BSD is a Kevin Lee, put him up against a Barboza and he looks amazing. Put him up against a RDA or Iaquinta and he looks like a joke. He is a good wrestler who can't do anything against other good wrestlers.

 

[RockyLockridge]

The Moicano fight is a weird one. How tf do you explain that one? Really bad style matchup? Really bad day at the office? He looked terrible.

But he looked like a beast against Ruffy, who everyone thought was the second coming. So BSD is ultimately more legit than not I think, even though he can look really slow and scrubby at times.

Well, First off

Moicano is better than anyone ruffy has ever fought or beaten, so for all we know, Moicano beats ruffy just as easily as he beat BSD. EXCEPT we know that BSD is a better grappler than ruffy on paper.

also his first main event, in his home country, Nerves and such maybe? It was a catastrophe for him, but it doesn't spell who he is entirely. We've seen better performances from him in the past.

 

[RockyLockridge]

Like I said Mitchell would almost certainly easily dispatch Ortega if the two of them fought next.

You're high.

Lopes looked incredibly game from early on against evloev in his debut

 

[scytheavatar]

You're high.

Almost anyone would dispatch Ortega right now. He's in near retirement mode and has been for a while already. That Yair wasn't able to dispatch him shows how weak of a position he is in too.

 

[RockyLockridge]

Almost anyone would dispatch Ortega right now. He's in near retirement mode and has been for a while already. That Yair wasn't able to dispatch him shows how weak of a position he is in too.

Mitchell has been outmuscled at FW so many times, he's a BW now. ortega is one of the biggest FW's out there. Hes so big he needs to move to LW.

A healthy on weight ortega would do bad things to mitchell. Ortega is a much better striker than mitchell as well.

considering ALL things, I'd still take Ortega to beat mitchell any time of the year