...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Saturday's UFC Fight Night 57 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 Austin, Texas, I'll run down my top pick, the fighter I'm avoiding, and the fighter I believe could be worth the underdog play.
Top Pick: Joseph Benavidez ($5400) - For as much as I like what Ortiz does in the cage, I still see Benavidez as the second best fighter in this division. He got caught against Demetrious Johnson with a knockdown strikes that led to his demise in his last title opportunity, but took out Tim Elliott in flashy and decisive fashion to bounce back from that. Ortiz is tough, but Benavidez is just better everywhere, and is very good at finding ways to finish fights. I think a lot of points are coming his way on Saturday night.
Fighter to Avoid: Brad Pickett ($5400) - Same division, same cost as Benavidez, but with very little return value here. Even if he wins, which absolutely is not a guarantee against a tough fighter in Chico Camus, the misnomer that is his nickname "One Punch" shouldn't fool you. He just doesn't finish opponents with any regularity, and hasn't looked great at flyweight in his two fights in the division thus far in 2014. The fight may very well be entertaining, I just don't think a finish in Pickett's favor is coming.
Risk/Reward Dogs: Juan Manuel Puig ($4500) - Puig's opponent, Doo Ho Choi, comes into the UFC on a nine fight winning streak with several stoppages. Puig got knocked out by Adriano Martins in his UFC debut. That may make you believe Choi is completely justified as the favorite, and maybe that's the case. However, Puig's got a good submission game, meaning if he can get Choi to the ground, he could very well have the edge in this matchup. There's a lot of upside, as a submission finish could very well come for Puig, but that pick has to be tempered, as Choi can certainly still win the fight.
-Join MMATorch's $50 freeroll at the link below. Set your picks soon as games fill up fast!
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.