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: http://www.kountermove.com/join/25380-ufc-172-mma-oddsbreaker-500-tourney-on-ufc-172-jones-vs-teixeira-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 172 like Jon Jones ($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: Phil Davis ($5400): Davis isn’t exactly a powerhouse in terms of knockout ability, but he has all the potential in the world to still put big Kountermove points on the board if he employs his wrestling and submission game properly. In my opinion, Davis has a huge opportunity here against the returning Anthony Johnson. Johnson does have that knockout power, but he’s been susceptible to strong wrestlers and ground fighters in the past and Davis is the biggest and strongest ground fighter that Johnson has faced thus far in his career. Davis likely won’t put a lot of big striking stats on the board, but if he pulls off a submission stoppage, you won’t regret having him on your team one bit. Underdog Pick of the Night Jessemyn Duke ($4600): The prices for fighters are surprisingly high for almost all the betting favorites on this card, so that means we have to find an underdog with potential. Enter Jessamyn Duke. Duke has a youth, height and significant reach advantage over Brazilian opponent Bethe Correira. If she’s able to employ them properly, she should be in good shape. Correira is a decent compact striker with possibly more one-punch power than Duke and she might even be able to mix in takedowns, but I feel Duke’s ground game is superior and she could even score a submission or sweep from her back. If all else fails and Duke doesn’t get a stoppage, a decision should still result in a decent chunk of overall points especially for a cheap price. Fighter to Avoid Charlie Brenneman ($4600): Brenneman’s only method of potential victory against Danny Castillo would be a very anti-Kountermove point-scoring strategy. Both men are solid wrestlers but if Brenneman wants to win, he’ll have to take Castillo down and lay on top of him for as long as possible. Brenneman should be at a significant strike and power disadvantage on the feet so even if he pulls off a win with his takedowns, I don’t expect him to score many points. The only fighter with a realistic chance to score a stoppage in this bout is Castillo, who’s heavy hands could definitely put “The Spaniard” in a world of hurt. Complete UFC 172 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 172 fight card in part one of the Premium Oddscast, which was posted yesterday. Feel free to check out our latest episode. There’s plenty of combinations for great teams with 10 total bouts for this event:
Thanks for reading and good luck!