UFC Fight Night |Jacaré vs. Hermansson| - PREDICTION RESULTS | ANALYSIS | WHAT'S NEXT

Prediction Results : 10 - 3

Perfect Picks (Method & Round) : 6/10

Pick and Method : 7/10

Confident Pick/s : 3/3

Main Event Picks : 0/1

OVERALL RESULTS [Since UFC Fight Night Barboza vs. Gaethje]

Prediction Results : 34 - 16

Perfect Picks (Method & Round) : 13/34

Pick and Method : 18/34

Confident Pick/s : 7/8

Main Event Picks : 2/4

Best Performance/s of the Night:

[1] Jack Hermansson : Easily the best performance of the event goes to Hermansson. He has improved significantly upon his standup and cardio, and boy he had THE performance of a lifetime. May be Jacare underestimated his opponent coming into the fight ... may be his motivation wasn't that high ... there could be many reasons BUT Hermansson took the opportunity and he performed with an A+. He out-struck Jacare, sharp with his strikes and even trued to submit the BJJ legend (of course Jacare with the text-book submission defense...that was brilliant as well). Many wouldn't venture that legendary guard of Jacare, and Jacare for my surprise did nothing offensive from his guard ! The Joker will definitely be in the Top #5 in the rankings now and within a month he is Top 5 from being unranked.

[2] Glover Teixeira and Jim Miller

Both the veterans managed to beat the young lions convincingly and especially impressed with Glover as he weathered the early storm and damage to come to the next round and submit the young opponent. That showed a big heart, the desire to compete and win even at his age and experience did pay dividends.

What is Next ?

• Jack Hermansson - from unranked to  (to be) ranked Top #5 Hermansson showed improvements  in his game coming from the Leites fight. Perfect execution of his gameplan and responding well in and after the  later rounds against jacare's agression (especially in 3rd round). He showed some A+ level fight IQ which some very talented fighters in the game lacks and dude to which they lose. 185lbs division is now in some craziness with Adesanya winning the interim title and Whittaker being out. Plus, Rockhold is eyeing 205lbs division. I would like to see Hermansson face either Weidman or Romero next. I would still love to see Romero vs. Jacare, but I doubt UFC will book that now.
• Jacare Souza - Honestly speaking, I am rating Jcare's performance against Hermansson way below average. Or I would say it sucked. Jacare is for good, one of the best middleweights of all time. I think he wasn't motivated for his fight against Hermansson. He wanted Romero and he was eyeing a title shot with a win against Romero. With that he looked past Hermansson as a challenge, in my opinion and that really cost him. THAT AND Jacare not using his bread and butter, BJJ. Many argued that no one wants to take Jacare down because of the danger even in his guard. But against Hermansson he wasn't doing anything offensive at all with his guard. That was surprising, he was a bit exhausted at that time but STILL! (Have to give props for that amazing guillotine choke defense .. that was brilliant). Another factor is Jacare relying too much on his one punch KO power. Yes, it worked against Weidman, but the thing is it doesn't work all the time. Many fighters nowadays, who claim to have one punch KO power or coming off of a spectacular one punch KO rely more on that in the following fights and lose the next fights. They need more volume, have to have a back-up plan, if the KO doesn't come. Have to win scorecards too sometimes. With Jacare he should have taken a page out of Glover's book. He should have gone for the takedown and tried to use the weapon what he is definitely good at.
  Anyhow I feel really sad for Jacare. Whenever he deserved a title shot, UFC shut him down because of politics and whenever UFC even considered giving him a title-eliminator kind of match, he came up short. It's going to be difficult for him to get that opportunity now (I really do hope he can get a title shot and that he uses his BJJ skills to win a title rather than gassing himself out trying to power punch the opponents). I would love to see him facing Romero again, but the winner of Anderson Silv vs. Cannonier fight would be good too. Want to see that Silva vs. Jacare fight we always wanted to see, it's bit late but still :D