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 Olympic Gold Medal fight
Ugor Makinwa (34-14-1) vs Kelemi Seia (35-13)
Ugor Makinwa comes into this fight off the back of his biggest victory in his MMA career to date, a decision win over Colin Croft who had beaten Ugor in the past. It was sweet revenge for Ugor who was keen to ensure that history did not repeat itself when the two met each other for the second time in the Olympic Light Heavyweight semi finals. He's surprised everyone by getting a victory over Colin Croft, even Colin's manager had him getting gold in the Olympics so perhaps he was over confident coming into that fight. The ITFL Season 2 Alumi comes into this fight wanting to capitalise on the momentum gained from the Colin Croft victory and will no doubt have huge confidence in his ability to go on and win the gold. His KO power is something which can't be taken lightly and while he didn't KO Croft in the Semi's, he has an impressive 30 (T)KO wins out of 34 wins in his MMA career.
Kelemi Seia is the other finalist and the he's on a roll at the minute. He's coming into the fight with a impressive 7 fight win streak with a notable victory over Tiago Renato standing out from those 7. The last two victorious, both of which being Olympic fights, have came via TKO and it looks like we could expect fireworks in this final fight. At 36 years old the Samoan is rapidly approaching the end of his career and will hoping to add an Olympic gold medal to his list of achievements before he hangs up his gloves. With only 2 (T)KO losses in his career, he can be confident of avoiding the (T)KO/ KO and focus on landing heavy shots to get the KO himself but he must tread carefully because as Colin Croft showed, Ugor isn't someone to take lightly.
Judging by the two fighters records, I'm going to make a bold prediction and say that this one isn't going to be ended by submission.... On a more serious note, Ugor is more vulnerable to leg kicks, being hit by 55% of all thrown compared to Kelemi's 41% and with Kelemi landing 62% of his attempted leg kicks, I can see him lighting up Ugor's leg and as a result the longer the fight goes, the more it will go in Kelemi's favour. That being said, looking at Kelemi's recent losses, both being decision losses to a fighter formerly known as Patrick Whales who managed to grind out a decision by taking Kelemi down and controlling him on the ground, so perhaps Ugor could go for a couple of takedowns and take down Kelemi like he did against Croft.
Prediction: Kelemi Seia
Syn Light Heavyweight title fight
(C) Tiago Renato (33-8-1) vs Vincent Vinetto (18-4)
2014 Winter Olympic winner and reigning Syn Light Heavyweight champion Tiago Renato steps into the cage to defend his title for the first time after winning it by KOing Joaquin Fortunado (20-6) with one punch at Syn 404 - Olympics Rd. 2. Tiago Renato has already proven himself to be an elite fighter with his win in last years Olympics and with the whos who of names he's beaten in his career. Unfortunately 2015 didn't go to plan for Tiago Renato and if you were to ask him I'm sure he'd say it was very much hit and miss with him picking up a handful of wins and losses. He's coming into this fight aiming to successfully defend his title and go on a dominant run defending his title multiple times against the best Light Heavyweights in MMA Tycoon and ensuring that he'll be remembered as one of the finest Light Heavyweights to grace the MMA Tycoon world. He's finished his last two fights by (T)KO / KO, can we see a third in this fight?
Challenging for the title is Vincent Vinetto a man who was unable to impress former #1 manager of the world Dean Sutherland and so was released by him but despite this he's unbeaten in 6 fights under his new manager Michael Knight. Will the impressive win streak continue? I'm sure Michael will be hoping it will! He's had one title fight in the past and it was against EVO Hall of Famer Ryo Narushima and was defeated by TKO on that occasion. He will be hoping that this one will end differently and that at the end of the fight it will be his hand raised as the winner and new Syn Light Heavyweight champion.
Both guys are elite fighters but I've noticed Tiago Renato hasn't been KO'd before so the fact that 72% of Vincent's wins have came by either TKO or KO might not play a huge deal in deciding this fight as it really seems that Tiago can take a good punch on his noggin. Tiago has shown in the past that some fighters can get the better of him in the stand up, with recent losses to Kelemi Seia and Vagner Love highlighting this, where those two fighters took the fight to Tiago and got in his face and didn't let him get comfortable. Vagnar Loss nearly paid the price for getting cocky in the last round of his fight as he was rocked and dropped before the fight ended. I feel that Tiago is the more aggressive of the two fighters given that he on average throws 28.7 head strikes landing 57% compared to Vincent's 15.4 head strikes landing 66% of them. With Tiago never having been KO'd and being the more aggressive fighter, I feel he'll land more punches and even if he does get hit by a couple of hard punches, it wont be enough to put Tiago away and that's why I think Tiago will be the one walking away the winner.
Prediction: Tiago Renato
Olympic Bronze Medal fight
Colin Croft (20-2) vs Happy Forclit ( 17-9 )
Colin Croft comes into this fight eager to make people forget about the upset loss against Ugor Makinwa by putting on a dominant performance against Happy Forclit. He's only had two loses in his career and weirdly enough he's beaten both of those fighters before. I'm guessing he was complacent coming in against Ugor having beaten him before and paid the price for it. After losing to Joaquin Fortunado (20-6), Croft bounced back with two dominating TKO wins, one in Havoc and the other in the first round of the Olympics, with the fight in the first round being a rematch to Joaquin. Big things are expected of Colin Croft and being guided by former #1 manager Dean Sutherland, we can be sure he'll be known as one of the best Light Heavyweight fighters in MMA Tycoon if he isn't already.
Happy Forclit comes into this with everything to gain and nothing to lose. He knows he's the underdog coming in against one of the biggest upcoming Light Heavyweight stars but he would also know that there isn't probably a better time to face Croft with him coming off a big upset loss and will be looking to capitalise on his recent loss while Croft's confidence is low. Happy will be out there looking to protect his chin whilst also looking to work his dangerous ground game, landing some heavy ground and pound and maybe go for a submission if he gets Croft to the ground. Croft couldn't avoid being taken down by Ugor and so I'm sure that will give Happy extra confidence coming into this fight.
This will be an interesting fight to watch because we know Happy hasn't got a great chin and Colin has some serious KO power but we also know that Colin has been taken down before in the past and if it happens in this fight against Happy, I can see Happy inflicting a lot of damage and getting a TKO or submission win. That being said I feel that Colin will look at Happy's most recent fight and look to gas him early just like Seia did and get the (T)KO win.
Prediction: Colin Croft
Cedric Murphy ( 24-8-1 ) vs Raphael Bowie ( 24-9 )
Cedric will be looking to put behind the last two disappointing losses behind him and focus on winning this next fight. Having looked at the opponents Raphael Bowie has fought and where he has fought prior to this fight, I see Cedric as a strong favourite and I'm expecting him to outclass Raphael in this fight.
Raphael is a submission specialist and while many fighters haven't attempted to take Cedric down, those who did were quite successful. If Raphael has high level take downs, he'll be able to get this to the ground and when it's their he's going to be extremely dangerous. Cedric has 2 submission losses (25% of total losses) and so has shown before in the past that he may have a weakness there which Raphael can exploit. At 38 years old, Raphael really needs a couple of wins to go his way to make on final push for a title fight in one of the top organisations before he is forced to retire.
I have my doubts about whether or not Raphael will be good enough to get the fight to the ground, if he doesn't I don't think this fight will end pretty, he'll get gassed quickly and then Cedric will punish him and end up with the (T)KO win and that's what I think will happen.
Prediction: Cedric Murphy
Evgeniy Malkin ( 33-13-1 ) vs Jimmy Diaz Jimenez ( 17-9-1 )
Evgeniy has only really lost to top quality opponents in recent times and the former champ will be eager to go on another winning streak which could get him in contention for a title shot. The former ITFL Season 2 fighter has a wealth of experience to his name having been competing in Syn since ITFL Season 2 finished. He seems to have quite the rivalry with Tiago Renato having fought him a total of 5 times with Tiago winning two, losing 2 and drawing 1.
Jimmy on the other hand has only had 1 loss in 6 fights during his time at Syn. Unbeaten in 3 fights, if he beats former champ Evgeniy Malkin, I think it'll really increase his chances of getting a title shot. He's shown he has got KOpower with his last 2 wins in Syn coming via (T)KO.
Evgeniy has been KO'd by very powerful strikers before in the past, if Jimmy gets a KO over him, we'll know that he's got serious legit KO power because I have my doubts about how much KO power he has having looked at the fighters he's KO'd in the past. With Jimmy having been beaten before by submission, he also really struggles to defend the takedown and all of this is just making Evgeniy a happy man because he's been very successful in his career getting the fight to the ground. I'm predicting another submission win for Evgeniy.
Prediction: Evgeniy Malkin
Landon Austin ( 18-5 ) vs Kool Keith ( 18-4 )
Landon is coming in on a 2 win streak, he came to Syn after going unbeaten in 13 fights, he won his debut fight before suffering his first loss by KO. Since then he's lost a further 4 times, every time by KO which is suggesting he's a bit chinny unfortunately for him. That being said he's an entertaining fighter to watch for the fans having only went the distance 3 times in his 23 fight career.
Kool Keith has been a title holder in two different organisations and must hoping that Syn will be the third organisation added to that list. He has only been KO'd once in his career so this fight may be a test for his chin. With Kool getting 3 wins in 3 fights at Ascension, I can see him rising up the rankings fast at Syn and it might not be too long before we see him fighting for the title.
Looking at the skills of the two fighters, Landon has the better stand up whereas Kool has the better ground game. Landon favours the leg kicks and I can see him really lighting up Kool's legs with some hard nasty leg kicks which will slow him down making him an easier target for Landon to hit with heavy punches. Both fighters are very comfortable in the clinch and so it'll be an interesting battle to see who wins the clinch fight should it go there, given Landon's dodgy chin, I could see Kool landing a couple powerful uppercuts in the clinch before it's lights out for Landon.
Prediction: Kool Keith
Devin Styles ( 36-17 ) vs Antonio Ronaldo ( 18-9-1 )
I find it strange seeing Devin Styles so far down the main card and it saddens me in a way. After that win against Scotty Bennet (41-12), he was at the pinnacle of his career having aken on and beaten some very big names in the Heavyweight division. Since then he's been quite inconsistent and I only hope he considers a return to the Heavyweight division to see if he can regain the sort of form he had before his Light Heavyweight fight with AJ Hearts. With Devin on a 2 fight loss streak, he'll be looking to bounce back with a win in this fight.
Antonio Ronaldo is also on a losing streak albeit a slighter worse one, he's currently riding a 3 fight losing streak and has been tasked with a very hard job of regaining winning ways by being given a fight against a former #1 p4p fighter in Devin Styles. Devin hasn't got the best of chins but I doubt Antonio's striking will be good enough to effectively test it. Failure to win in this fight could see Antonio edge closer to being released by Syn and so we might see him go all out to get the victory, if we do, we could see fireworks.
Devin Styles will prove that he is still a quality fighter and win this fight. I'll be very surprised if he loses.
Prediction: Devin Styles
David Judah ( 20-11 ) vs Borden Chantry ( 19-10-3 )
The once dominant CCF fighter David Judah will be hoping to gain his first Syn win in this fight against Borden Chantry. He has been KO'd in both of his previous Syn fights and so will be looking to tuck his chin in and avoid it being cracked hard otherwise he might be going to sleep again in his third Syn fight. At 37 years old, time is running out for David if he wants to win another title in his career before retiring and he needs to start winning in this fight against Borden for that dream to become reality.
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