UFC Fight Night Kattar vs. Emmett Preview: The Buckler


This is the first week of a new set of articles for MMA. I’ll be picking 6 fighters each week to create The Cash God’s lineup.

It’s time for the picks.

I’ll start with Cody Stamann. Stamann is poised to beat Wineland harder than I beat my dick every morning. At $9.5k he is the highest-priced fighter on the slate, but you’ll get him at half the ownership of Adrian Yanez directly below him. He’s gotten blasted in his last 3 fights but is a massive favorite on Saturday. They call him The Spartan for a reason. I expect him to bounce back this weekend and slap Wineland into retirement.

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The next play I like is Ricardo Ramos. Don’t let him only weighing 146 pounds trick you into thinking he can’t knock anyone out with one swing of his sack. Having said that, he is a BJJ specialist with 7 career submissions. He’s lost 2 of his last 3 fights, but is facing a much weaker opponent this weekend and has the third-best odds (-230) on the card.

Another fighter I like is Kyle Dickhouse. He is by far the best play in the $8k range. Dodging chalk here is extremely important and you aren’t really getting any worse odds of a round 1 finish (+375) or an inside-the-distance win (+170) than any of the more popular fighters. You’ll also be able to get leverage off of the highest projected owned fighter on the card in Calvin Kattar (projected 40% at $8.8k). 9 of his 11 wins have come via pretzeling his opponents into the mat and forcing a submission, he’s a great play this week.

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These next three are going to be underdogs so if it doesn’t go well we will be able to fall back on telling ourselves it was just bad variance.

My favorite play in the $7k range is Joe Lauzon. It looks like he is going to be severely under-owned (11%). He’s fighting Donald Cerrone, who is the second-highest projected owned fighter on the slate at 40%. The leeeeeeeverage is very clear. This is a fight of the geezers with Lauzon being 38 and Cerrone at 39. J-Lau hasn’t fought since 2019, but he’s in a great spot to pull off a bit of an upset here and dick dust 40% of the field in the process. This is likely the top leverage spot of the night and Lauzon has the best odds (+500) of a round 1 finish of any fighter in the $7ks.

The next play is Joaquin “The Buckler” Buckley. The Buckler is a much more appropriate name than whatever the fuck they call him. He is a knockout specialist with 3 of his last 4 wins coming via KO/TKO. I’m not sure how he’s only projected to be 14% because he’s going to shit down Albert Duraev’s throat all night on Saturday. He has the same odds as Lauzon (best in the $7ks) for a round 1 finish. I expect a first-round KO if they stay on their feet enough.

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The final play is a bit of a dart in the $6ks. The name is Tony Kelley. I’m hearing they call him PrimeTime and he will have to live up to that name on Saturday. He’s won 3 of his last 4 fights but faces some long odds (+240) in this one. He will be one of the lower-owned fighters and provides massive leverage if he beats Adrian Yanez (the highest owned in the $9ks). We are playing to win fucking GPPs not cash games here. These types of plays are necessary. Disclaimer: I’m hearing this sack dragger didn’t make weight. I’m expecting him to still fight, but it is worth noting.

Final Cash God Lineup:

Cody Stamann ($9,500)

Ricardo Ramos ($9,300)

Kyle Dickhouse ($8,700)

Joe Lauzon ($7,900)

Joaquin “The Buckler” Buckley ($7,600)

Tony Kelley ($6,800)

I’ll be back next week.

-CashGod-

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