The Doctor's Stoppage MMA Blog

 We're back this week and we'll have the full post as normal. Last week was very condensed because of my travel schedule, but with all of that behind us, the betting aspect of these posts is back to normal. We're in for what should be a pretty solid Fight Night card. It won't be the best of the year, but we do have a solid night of competition with some solid matchups. Other fights could end up pretty exciting to watch even though they may not be the highest level fight ever. The main event makes this event though as it is as good a Fight Night main event as we've had all year. A win for Arnold Allen may put him firmly as the number one contender for the next shot at Alex Volkanovski's title. At worst, he would be one more win away. Kattar is looking to bounce back after a controversial loss to Josh Emmett and put himself right back into that conversation himself. It should be a great fight and I'm looking forward to it. Just to be clear,  my picks will be i

 It's a Friday with no full preview, but I wanted to get through the rest of this card. Since I do the picks and betting on Saturdays before the event, I know I'll be able to say everything I need to there for Calvin Kattar vs Arnold Allen. UFC 280 got off to a bit of a slow start as the prelims lacked a bit of excitement, but it really picked up heading into the main card. There were a few fights that were pretty important for their weight classes, so there's a lot to say as some of these fights need to cover both the winner and the loser. Let's not waste any more time. The first winner of the night was Karol Rosa in a bit of a strange fight. Rosa came in as a heavy favorite against an aging Lina Lansberg and didn't always look as good as we expected. The first round was pretty close as Rosa got dropped with a right hand early, but she bounced right back up and controlled the rest of the round. She was winning the second round until she got a point deducted due to

 The co-main event of UFC 280 flew under the radar a bit as Aljamain Sterling was making his second defense of his bantamweight title. Former champion TJ Dillashaw projected to be a really tough test, but unfortunately for us, he came into the fight severely compromised and was unable to put together a legitimate performance. That resulted in some general disappointment, but Aljo looked really good from what we got to see. This fight will probably be talked about more for it's implications in the pre-fight medical process than the actual ramifications of the result, but it is what it is. Let's just get right to it. Like I said, there isn't much to say in terms of actual performance because Dillashaw's shoulder came out of socket very early on, but from what we did get to see, Aljo was looking pretty good. Not that it is a surprise, but he was looking huge and very strong. He caught a kick I believe and that is what led to the takedown attempt where Dillashaw injured his

 It's been awhile since I've been back into the routine here, but I'm glad things are returning to normal. There's not better time either as we are coming off of a pretty huge event, even though a lot of MMA fans are complaining about it (to no surprise really). The main event was probably the most anticipated fight of the year from the MMA community as a whole. Islam Makhachev fulfilled what seemed like his destiny to become a champion and he did it in as impressive of a fashion as someone can. It was an absolutely incredible performance and he shut down Charles Oliveira from the jump. Islam looks like he is set to go on an all time title run, but I do recognize that this is a pretty common narrative every time we get a new champion. Maybe Islam isn't an all time champion, but if he fights the way he did this past weekend, it's hard to imagine him losing any time soon. There's a lot to talk about when it comes to this fight, so let's start. In terms of

 Alright guys. I'm finally done with all of my interviews and after being in 4 cities over the last 5 days, I'm absolutely exhausted. This is going to be a bit of a lazy one this week, but I want to get the picks out for continuity purposes. I'm just going to list out the picks and try to keep the reasoning short this time. There isn't going to be a best bets or bets to consider section like normal this week as I just don't have it in me to do on Friday night and the card starts early tomorrow so I don't even have time to do it in the morning. If I have the energy, I'll put my bets at the end, but I may just take the week off from betting in general, depending how long it takes me to do the rest.  Just to be clear,  my picks will be in the bolded font , and  the real results will be listed next to it in italics  after the fight is official. Official bets will be at the bottom. Bets are now being officially tracked at  BetMMA  as well. Oh and I haven't up

 We're finally back with another fight card and I honestly think it's a solid one. It won't be a card of the year candidate, but it isn't nearly as bad as some people will lead you to believe. I said yesterday that even if some of these fights aren't that great or aren't your cup of tea, then they shouldn't stick around too long as I expect most of these fights to finish. I also said yesterday that I'm not going to be able to give the normal pre-fight stuff that I normally would because I am traveling all week for a series of interviews. I'm going to try and squeeze out a reaction to this card on Wednesday to post Thursday, but there won't be anything UFC 280 until the picks and bets Saturday morning. The betting took a step back last week but has generally been pretty solid since I added it in, so we're looking to get back on track there. The picks on the other hand have been very mediocre for a bit of a stretch, so that needs to be turned a