The mixed martial arts (MMA) fantasy website Kountermove is back with another exclusive game 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 tournament for MMAOddsBreaker.com readers, just click the link below: http://www.kountermove.com/join/45314-mmaoddsbreakers-25-gpp-bisping-vs-leites-fantasy-mma-game-on-fantasy-mma-bisping-vs-leites-718-T-0-1/ 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 72 like Joseph Duffy ($5700) 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: Stevie Ray ($5100): Ray enters his fight against Leonardo Mafra with huge advantages in technical striking, wrestling and durability. Mafra is a decent brawler but he can get hurt pretty easily and Ray has the precision to really hurt him on the feet. In terms of ground game, Ray is great at obtaining top position and punishing his opponents. Mafra does not have very good submission defense and he could give something up if Ray softens him up first on the ground. I favor Ray heavily here and expect a dominant performance. Underdog Pick of the Night Vaughan Lee ($4600): Lee has an advantage in pure striking, volume striking and conditioning against Patrick Holohan. Holohan is a solid Irish fighter with great length for the division, but he doesn’t use it. Lee will likely be able to push a heavy pace on the feet against Holohan and his ground game is as good as the Irishman’s as well. The longer this fight goes, the better Lee will do and as long as he doesn’t get finished quickly by Holohan, he’s going to be in great shape to pull off the upset. Fighter to Avoid Joanne Calderwood ($5400): At this point, Calderwood is a huge risk. She was finished quickly on The Ultimate Fighter and then finished quickly again in her last fight against Maryna Moroz despite being a massive favorite, both via arm submissions. Calderwood has plenty of striking talent, but she hasn’t finished an opponent in over two years. She’s just not worth the risk, especially against a very talented grappler and gritty fighter like Cortney Casey-Sanchez. Casey-Sanchez has several finishes via armbar in her career including a flying armbar in her stint as an amateur. That’s terrifying for Calderwood backers because her submission defense is not good at this point. Take a pass. Complete UFC Fight Night 72 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 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 11 total bouts this event: UFC Fight Night 72 Preview
Thanks for reading and good luck!