...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
This weekend's UFC Fight Night 52 event means another chance to make a little money in fantasy MMA via our friends at Kountermove.com. If you've never played a game at Kountermove before, read on for details on the game, some of our thoughts on the available options this weekend, and a link to MMATorch's freeroll for the overnight fight card on Friday/Saturday.
First up, the rules. In Kountermove, each fighter on a given card is given a set salary for that night, and your job is to put together your best five man (or woman) team within a cap of $25,000. Come fight night, each fighter will score points for significant strikes, takedowns/reversals, knock downs, submission attempts, and dominant positions.
Once a fight has finished, fighters receive bonus points depending on how the fight ended. A first round finish brings 100 points, second round 75, with 50 coming for a finish in the third, fourth, or fifth rounds. Additionally, if a fight goes to a decision, any rounds won score ten points for your fighter (example, a 30-27 decision would score 30 points for the winner).
The best combined scores each event will win prize money, which is split up amongst the pool depending on the amount of players, the entry fee, and how much money is available.
For this weekend's event from Japan, we'll take a look at a favorites likely to score a lot of points, my fighters to avoid and why, and a potential underdog winner with a risk/reward factor to having them on your team.
Top Pick
Hyun Gyu Lim ($5400): Though he fell short against Tarec Saffiedine in their headlining fight in Singapore in January, Lim is better than a solid chunk of this welterweight division. He had scored two straight KO wins over lesser competition prior to the Saffiedine loss, and I don't think that's going to change against a fighter in Takenori Sato, who has been stopped by strikes six times before. This represents a significant drop in competition between fights for Lim, and I see no reason to believe he does anything but demolish Sato in Japan.
Fighters To Avoid
Mark Hunt ($5500) and Roy Nelson ($5300): I just don't have a good enough read on how this one's going to play out to suggest going with one over the other, and they both take up a big chunk of your budget at this point. Hunt doesn't have to deal with jet lag at all, which may help him, but he allows himself to be hit consistently, and Nelson hits damned hard. On the other end of things, Nelson had some bad performances against Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier in consecutive fights, and it's possible this could turn ugly as well. And given the way Hunt can land the big shot as well, there's the outside chance Nelson actually gets stopped. There are a lot of variables regarding this matchup that leave you at risk on a big chunk of your bankroll when it could just as easily flip the other direction.
Risk/Reward Dog
Daniel Hooker ($4500): Fair warning, this play is as much about going against the opponent as it is about liking the potential of the underdog. Hooker looked quite good in a win over Ian Entwistle in his UFC debut, and in his 11 wins, he has ten stoppages. As for Blanco, he's been the furthest from consistent you could ask for, and though he's certainly dangerous early on in any fight, the longer things play out, the worse his chances at victory become. If Hooker withstands the early onslaught, I can easily see him taking Blanco out in the second or third round to score a significant amount of points.
Get in on our game at the link below. Move fast because the game fills up quick!
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.