Guess who's back again, Maniacs?
The mixed martial arts (MMA) fantasy website Kountermove is back with another freeroll for MMAmania.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 MMAmania.com readers, just click the link below:
http://www.kountermove.com/join/15198-ufc-fight-night-26-shogun-vs-sonnen-2/
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 it's 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 26 like Conor McGregor ($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:
Michael McDonald ($4600): The recent UFC bantamweight title challenger is as underpriced as it gets here, particularly due to the fact that he has a penchant for nasty first round knockouts (100+ points). "Mayday" almost put Renan Barao away with one punch, so you know he's got power. The other factor that makes this a a great value is that McDonald is facing Brad Pickett, a top 10 bantamweight who was recently on the receiving end of a vicious beatdown courtesy of counter puncher Eddie Wineland. There's a very good chance we see a repeat performance here if Pickett is too aggressive and walks into another heavy shot.
Joe Lauzon ($5000): The last time Joe Lauzon fought in front of Boston, he managed 19 strikes, two takedowns, multiple dominant positions and the a fight ending submission in just two minutes. Needless to say, he gets fired up fighting in front of his hometown. Lauzon is a potential fantasy treasure trove and he's facing an opponent in Michael Johnson who's lost via submission in six of his eight career losses and was dominated on the ground in his last two fights. If Lauzon is as aggressive as I expect, he won't just win a bonus on fight night, he'll make you some nice fantasy dough as well.
Underdog Pick of the Night
Travis Browne ($4400): This one's a bit risky considering he's going in there against the former Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem, but Browne is still on the upswing in his career, trains out of Greg Jackson's gym and has a penchant for very violent first round finishes. His athleticism might be just the edge he needs to land a big shot and put Overeem away. Overeem was knocked out earlier this year by Antonio Silva and he's been finished in nine of his 12 career losses so if Browne wins, it'll probably score you a ton of points.
Thanks for reading and good luck!