The mixed martial arts (MMA) fantasy website Kountermove is back with another freeroll for MMAOddsBreaker.com readers. If you’re not familiar with how the site works, here’s a brief snippet from the site owners, themselves.
Kountermove brings the traditional fantasy format to MMA. Accumulation of points and a salary cap make fantasy MMA more intriguing than your basic “pick ’em” contest. With other industry pros on the site it is the place to be if you know your MMA. The game is fairly simple on its face, games are played over a single night during one event. Prior to the event, players get a total of $25,000 fantasy dollars to pick five fighters for your team. Each fighter is given a specific salary by Kountermove. Kountermove assigns a value for each fighter based on how we believe the fight will go. Points are scored if a fighter scores a finish, wins a round, lands significant strikes, knocks an opponent down, scores takedowns, secures dominant positions or attempts submissions. The more dominant your fighters’performance, the more points you’re going to score. If you score more points than your opponents, then you win the money.
To enter the free $500 tournament for MMAOddsBreaker.com readers, just click the link below: https://www.kountermove.com/join/22262-ufc-170-mma-oddsbreaker-500-tourney-on-ufc-170-rousey-vs-mcmann-T-free/ If you don’t have an account, don’t worry, you can create one for free, but do it quickly, spacing is limited! If you’re interested in a few pointers on potential fighters to pick, I’ll be offering my analysis and potential picks to click. In case you have your doubts, I have a very nice track record of success with the website, having won plenty since its inception. Before I get to my picks, remember that to get the best value out of your team, you have to try to get an average of $5000 per fighter with your team of five fighters and your $25,000 salary cap. That means if you want to pick a big favorite from UFC 170 like Ronda Rousey ($6000), you have to balance it out by picking some underdogs that you think will perform above and beyond. Sometimes it’s not worth it to pick the overwhelming favorite. Without further ado, here are some of the picks that stand out for me: Erik Koch ($5500): At $5500, it would seem a steep price to put a former featherweight coming off two dominant losses and moving up a weight class on your team, but Erik Koch has a picture perfect opponent. Rafaello Oliveira is a decent fighter, but he’s being fed to the lions this time around, just like he was when he was matched against the likes of Edson Barboza in his most recent fight. UFC clearly wants to build the 25-year old Koch back up after some tough defeats and Oliveira is being set up for a giant fall here. If Koch doesn’t score a stoppage victory via strikes, I’ll be very surprised. Underdog Pick of the Night Aljamain Sterling ($4300): For an incredibly cheap price, you can have one of the best bantamweight prospects in the sport on your Kountermove team this weekend. Sterling price is deflated because he was expected to face Lucas Martins on short notice, but then Martins got hurt and was replaced by UFC newcomer Cody Gibson. Now, despite being a significant betting favorite, Sterling is capable of being put on your team for a serious discount. Sterling is solid in all areas, particularly on the ground, and trains at the Serra-Longo gym in Long Island. The undefeated prospect should be in line for a breakout performance this Saturday night. Fighter to Avoid Rory MacDonald ($5400): I actually think MacDonald is going to win this fight, so why should you avoid him? It’s because he has increasingly become very boring inside the Octagon. Boring fighters = very little value in terms of Kountermove points. MacDonald looked great against BJ Penn and completely controlled the Octagon against Jake Ellenberger, but those bouts resulted in extremely low-scoring KM affairs. Simply put, even if MacDonald puts on an unbelievable display of striking skill against Maia, he’s likely not going to deviate much from using his jab on the outside and outpointing the grappler. Hell, Maia might be able to take him down like he did in the Jon Fitch fight, so this is clearly not worth it in my opinion. Complete UFC 170 Preview If my fantasy preview isn’t enough for you, Fight Scientist Reed Kuhn, MMA Oddsmaker Nick Kalikas and myself did an extensive preview of the entire UFC 170 fight card in part one of the Premium Oddscast, which was posted earlier today. Feel free to check out our latest episode. There’s plenty of combinations for great teams with 11 total bouts for this event:
Thanks for reading and good luck!