The mixed martial arts (MMA) fantasy website Kountermove is back with another freeroll for MMAOddsBreaker.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 $500 tournament for MMAOddsBreaker.com readers, just click the link below: http://www.kountermove.com/join/23544-mma-oddsbreaker-500-tourney-on-ufc-171-hendricks-vs-lawler-T-free/ 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 its 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 171 like Johny Hendricks ($5900), 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: Alex Garcia ($5100): People have been ranting and raving about Alex Garcia well before he made his UFC debut. The top Tristar talent is downright vicious, and can put away opponents with either his extremely powerful striking attack or with his above average ground game. He can hurt opponents with punches, knees, slams, you name it. Garcia is tenacious and he’s facing someone in Sean Spencer who doesn’t offer much in overall skill that he should be afraid of. When Garcia wins, he wins violently in the first round so there’s huge potential that he racks up a big score on Saturday night. Underdog Pick of the Night Justin Scoggins ($4600): Scoggins is one of my favorite up-and-coming talents on the entire UFC roster, and he’s in a prime position to make a big run in the flyweight division in 2014. The young American Top Team fighter is slated to take on Will Campuzano, who’s gone a combined 1-5 in his UFC and WEC stints under the Zuffa banner thus far. Scoggins is extremely dynamic, possessing one of the most unique striking arsenals in the entire promotion, reminiscent of a younger, more explosive Stephen Thompson. He’s also a big-time finisher so if he connects with his diverse kicks, he could put up some serious points. Fighter to Avoid Jake Shields ($4900): The problem with Shields is even if he wins, you lose. He has solid wrestling and competent jiu-jitsu skills, but he’s not a finisher at the highest level in the welterweight division. Just about everyone has good enough defense in the top 10 to avoid his chokes, so he’s forced to try to smother opponents or wall-and-stall them to win fights via superior positioning and control. So if Shields pulls that gameplan off against Hector Lombard, your team will get about 50 points at best. If he fails, he’s going to have his head knocked into the fifth row inside the first round. It’s a lose-lose situation if you have him on your team. Complete UFC 171 Preview If my fantasy preview isn’t enough for you, Fight Scientist Reed Kuhn, MMA Oddsmaker Nick Kalikas and myself did an extensive preview of the entire UFC 171 fight card in part one of the Premium Oddscast, which was posted yesterday. Feel free to check out our latest episode. There’s plenty of combinations for great teams with 13 total bouts for this event:
Thanks for reading and good luck!