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 $250 tournament for MMAOddsBreaker.com readers, just click the link below: https://www.kountermove.com/join/30976-fn-47-mma-oddsbreaker-250-tourney-on-ufc-fight-night-47-bader-vs-saint-preux-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 47 like Sara McMann ($5600), 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: Ryan Bader ($5100): Plain and simple, Bader has faced significantly better competition throughout his career and trains at a better gym than Ovince St. Preux. St. Preux has been on a nice run, that’s not in question, but he’s also been put on his back by Gegard Mousasi for three rounds and if Mousasi can do it, Bader should be able to do it too. Bader has relied on his wrestling much more in recent fights so it’s likely he’ll be able to score several takedowns on Saturday night. With this being a five round fight, a wrestling-centric approach isn’t as much of a liability in regards to Kountermove points as if it were a three round affair. The only major concern is Bader’s chin, which has been cracked in the past. If he avoids getting hurt badly by St. Preux, he should be in for a significant amount of points. Underdog Pick of the Night Zach Makovsky ($4500): Makovsky has been stellar in his UFC run thus far, winning back-to-back fights against top challenger Scott Jorgensen (on short notice) and Josh Sampo. This time, “Fun Size” has a full training camp to prepare for a very stern test in Jussier Formiga, but in all honesty, he should not be an underdog at all. In reality, he’s a significant betting favorite likely due to his superior wrestling and stand-up skills compared to Formiga, but he’s shockingly very cheap on Kountermove so you need to get him while you can! Fighter to Avoid Frankie Saenz ($4800): Saenz is making his UFC debut on Saturday but I don’t believe it will bode well for him considering he’s going to be undersized at bantamweight (normally fights at 125 pounds) and is 34 years old compared to his opponent’s 26. Saenz has a wrestling-centric style and that doesn’t sound like something that’ll be scoring big Kountermove points against Nolan Ticman, especially because Ticman has a decent wrestling background in his own right. All that combined with the two times Saenz has been stopped by strikes means he could be a big liability for your KM teams come fight time. Complete UFC Fight Night 47 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 fight card on The Premium Oddscast, which was posted earlier this week. Feel free to check out our latest episode. There’s plenty of combinations for great teams with 10 total bouts for this event: UFC Fight Night 47 Preview
Thanks for reading and good luck!