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Guess who's back again, Maniacs?
While I may be gone as a regular writer, I'm not going to take with me an opportunity for you to win free money. Expect a preview article and a tournament for every major show!
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:
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 30 like Lyoto Machida ($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:
Norman Parke ($5100): Parke is a very talented grappler. While his opponent Jon Tuck has been lauded as a decent prospect, I feel like this is a showcase fight for Parke's skills. Parke won The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) Smashes in the lightweight division, dominating his opponents with superior ground control while Tuck didn't make it into the house on TUF season 15. I know it's more complicated than this, but Parke seems like a pretty safe and relatively good bang for your buck. He'll also have the hometown advantage fighting in his home country so that should help as well.
Underdog Pick of the Night
Melvin Guillard ($4500): It's a little scary to put money on Guillard especially considering his tendency to flake out, but what "The Young Assassin" has going for him is an opponent who doesn't hardly ever use submissions. Jiu-jitsu has been Guillard's kryptonite throughout his career, but Pearson will likely want to stand and trade. Guillard has immense power on the feet and that was evident in his last fight when he destroyed Mac Danzig with a first round knockout. Pearson has been caught on the feet before by Cole Miller and Cub Swanson and in my opinion, Guillard hits harder than both of them. When Guillard wins fights, he usually scores a quick stoppage and that would net you some big points here.
Fighter to Avoid
Alessio Sakara ($4800): Perhaps the most frustrating and confusing fighter in the entire UFC, Sakara has talent with some big power on the feet, decent grappling skills and some technical boxing but he has perhaps the worst fight IQ in the sport. He goes for takedowns when he should stand and trade, he stands when he should use his wrestling and most recently he blasts his opponent in the back of the head and gets himself disqualified after having them in big trouble. Even if he wins, he finds a way to lose. He's not worth the price even if he was free, in my opinion.
Thanks for reading and good luck!
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