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/24511-fn-39-mma-oddsbreaker-500-tourney-on-ufc-fight-night-39-minotauro-vs-nelson-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 Fight Night 39 like Roy Nelson ($5800), 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: Thales Leites ($5600): Leites may be a bit pricey here, but I think the risk is worth the reward. The former UFC middleweight title challenger has looked downright spectacular since returning to the Octagon with two solid victories already. Now, he’s facing Trevor Smith, a fighter who’s worse than the two men he’s already returned since beginning his second stint with the UFC. Leites should have a decent grappling edge as well as conditioning so as long as he doesn’t get clipped early, he should be in very good shape. His striking has even started to come around as well. Underdog Pick of the Night Ryan LaFlare ($4800): I’m incredibly high on LaFlaare’s potential. While many wouldn’t consider him a prospect anymore considering he’s 30 years old now, LaFlare still possesses tremendous tools in mixed martial arts. He has the ability to control where the fight takes place with some stellar wrestling skills and he’s begun to back them up with some vastly improving striking. While he doesn’t have a ton of finishing ability, he outworked Court McGee in his last fight and that speaks volumes considering the fact that McGee is one of the highest paced fighters on the roster. If LaFlare can get everything going against John Howard, he could be in store for a field day. Fighter to Avoid Ramsey Nijem ($4600): Nijem is a feast or famine type of fighter. When he’s on, he can score some pretty big points due to his high pace and the fact that he can wear down opponents and potentially score late finishes. The problem? He has a terrible chin and not so great submission defense. That’s a double whammy of problems against Beneil Dariush, an extremely competent grappler with big power who finished a fighter eerily similar to Nijem in style (Charlie Brenneman) in his UFC debut earlier this year. While Nijem could take over late with his wrestling as long as he avoids the submissions, I don’t like his chances here. Complete UFC Fight Night 39 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 Fight Night 39 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 eight total bouts for this event:
Thanks for reading and good luck!