Check out who we’re picking at tonight’s UFC Fight Night 125 in Belem, Brazil!
The UFC heads to Brazil for the first time in 2018, and hits Belem for the fight time ever with UFC Fight Night 125. Our staff picks are in, though thanks to the late-notice cancellation of Dodson vs. Munhoz, we’ll be picking five fights at UFC Belem rather than six!
| Staff Writers | Santos vs. Smith | Johnson vs. Golm | Prazeres vs. Green | Shevchenko vs. Cachoeira | Machida vs. Anders |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paarth Pande (13-4) |  |  |  |  |  |
| Jesse Gillete (12-5) | | | | | |
| Mike Straus (12-5) | | | | |  |
| Dan Doherty (11-6) | | | | | |
| Heath Harshman (11-6) |  | |  | | |
| Eddie Law (11-6) | | | | | |
| Jay Anderson (9-8) | | | | | |
| Mike McClory (7-10) | | | | | |
| Jason Payne (7-10) | | | | | |
| Gabriel Gonzalez (7-10) | | | | | |
After a tough week last week, our staff was looking to bounce back in the picks department. Of the five fights we made selections for, two were unanimous among our team. No one bet against Valentina Shevchenko, who was set to make her flyweight debut in Brazil Saturday night. Given opponent Priscila Cachoeira’s relative status as an unknown, that wasn’t all that surprising.
More surprising was that not a single writer chose heavyweight Timothy Johnson to get his hand raised in Brazil. Instead, every staff member went with Marcelo Golm. This despite Johnson having never lost two in a row in his career to date.
The opening bout of the card, Thiago Santos vs. Anthony Smith in a middleweight tilt, had our writers slightly favoring Smith, despite him heading into enemy territory for the fight. Cageside Press was also split on the catchweight bout between Michel Prazeres and Des Green. Prazeres would have home field advantage in the fight, and also blew weight badly, coming in well over the 155lb limit at 161lbs when weighing in Friday.
Finally, the UFC Belem main event between Lyoto Machida and Eryk Anders saw our staff leaning in favor of a changing of the guard. It was far from a shutout, however, as a number of writers still feel ‘The Dragon’ has more left in the tank.
