Shillan & Duffy: UFC St. Louis Preview

Keith and Ben preview "UFC St. Louis" with detailed predictions and picks for all 13 fights. Side topics of conversation include former troubled basketball star and current activist/motivational speaker Chris Herren; onetime MMA flyweight contender, convicted murderer, and notorious age cutter Alexis Vila; and, of course, Bo Nickal.
0:00 On the road again (hallelujah)
10:21 J.J. Aldrich (13-6) vs. Veronica Hardy (8-4-1)
21:36 Jared Gooden (23-9) vs. Kevin Jousset (10-2)
28:28 Charles Johnson (14-6) vs. Jake Hadley (10-2)
38:28 Billy Goff (9-2) vs. Trey Waters (8-1)
48:37 Tabatha Ricci (9-2) vs. Tecia Pennington (13-6)
1:02:20 Terrance McKinney (15-6) vs. Esteban Ribovics (12-1)
1:18:26 Chase Hooper (13-3-1) vs. Viacheslav Borshchev (7-3-1)
1:33:07 Waldo Cortes-Acosta (11-1) vs. Robelis Despaigne (5-0)
1:44:11 Alex Caceres (21-14, 1 NC) vs. Sean Woodson (11-1-1)
1:57:53 Diego Ferreira (18-5) vs. Mateusz Rebecki (19-1)
2:09:17 Alonzo Menifield (15-3-1) vs. Carlos Ulberg (9-1)
2:21:55 Joaquin Buckley (18-6) vs. Nursulton Ruziboev (34-8-2, 2 NC)
2:34:53 Derrick Lewis (27-12, 1 NC) vs. Rodrigo Nascimento (11-1, 1 NC)
2:49:10 A quick rundown of all the picks
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#UFCStLouis
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[@eremiassandbk7403]

New listner here, im surprised how funny you guys are, and how good this show actually is. Like ive been listening to Zane simon and connor rebusch for like...13 years, this is kind of like that level of quality. Surprised i found out now. 3 hours of pure joy if you ask me

[@benduffy6219]

Thank you! I've been a fan of Zane and Connor (and before them, Connor and Patrick) for years and years. Those guys and the old Sherdog roundtables hosted by Jack and/or TJ and featuring Jordan Breen are the standard I try to live up to - at least in terms of preparation; I know Keith and I get a little goofier than they usually do/did.

[@MrTheLuckyshot]

Wonder what Brandon from New Jersey is doing right now.

[@benduffy6219]

@@MrTheLuckyshot My money is on "giggling uncontrollably."

[@keithshillan627]

Thank you brother. I am a fan of Zane and Connor

[@rodstone1365]

Thank you, guys. My new fav. Love the info.

[@sherdog]

Thank you for checking us out! Hope you join us for the recap on Saturday; we'd love to hear your take on the fights.

[@devgoesfishing765]

Good job Keith and Ben!

[@sherdog]

Thanks for being down as always, sir. Now go verify that Trey Waters is actually 6-foot-5.

[@keithshillan627]

Thank you sir. But you shouldn't be listening because you should be working on your basketball skills. You vs Portia is the showdown we need

[@MattPauley630]

Begin my week with the show like always. Great job gentlemen

[@sherdog]

We really appreciate you, sir.

[@keithshillan627]

My man!

[@MMARAX]

Nice job as always gentlemen, please post the Bayou Saints outro song soon 😉

[@keithshillan627]

Thank you very much

[@Portia_Baines]

Just glad my basketball skills are finally being recognised, haha. Wales is all about rugby. Btw this main event should be Lewis vs Rozenstruik and its madness that its not.

[@sherdog]

UFC Cardiff: Lewis vs. Rozenstruik. Make it happen, Dana. It even works because I'm pretty sure Lewis is a Welsh surname, innit? Probably spelled with a bunch of random Ws and Ys thrown in.

[@keithshillan627]

You vs Dev goes fishing is the 1 on 1 game we need

[@brianmcginley7215]

Quality comments and analysis guys, as always. I now tend to listen to your pre-event predictions every time and see how they match up to my own picks. Keep it up!

[@benduffy6219]

Thank you for listening! And as my partner Keth says, we never said we were good at this. 😂 If you ever think we're out of our minds on a pick, let us know and if you're right, we will shout you out on the recap.

[@keithshillan627]

Thank you for listening. Good luck with your picks

[@KyleLawheed]

lol the visual of Johnny Walker going full Gibbon and ripping down the octagon like Samson gave me a great chuckle

[@benduffy6219]

It feels like he could do it, especially to the smaller Apex cage.

[@garrettclemmons3991]

Lol at yall describing woodson 😂😂😂

[@benduffy6219]

Just know that it's all love. We're both big fans of his huge creepy self!

[@garrettclemmons3991]

@@benduffy6219 yea I know it is 😭😭

[@keithshillan627]

I have met him in person and he is scary tall

[@adamgriffy7575]

This is gonna be the first UFC event ill be attending and i think its a really solid card to be fair

[@sherdog]

It should be a really fun one to take in live. Let us know how it goes!

[@rcnordo4366]

As opposed to liquid or gas, certainly

[@mikeoxlong1434]

The boys☝️

[@keithshillan627]

Thank you for listening

[@marcusmustard8285]

@ 31:25 its actually a 'skullet.' The skullet is a close relative of the mullet. First cousin, if I remember correctly. It is in between the rat-tail and mullet.

[@944CoyoteV8]

Ulberg has learned on the job. He needs experience and cage time but keeps lighting dudes up. Eugene Bareman was trying to get him to throw his cross but he didn't have the confidence. The one time he threw it, he dropped Jung. I think he'll have another hiccup or two, but he might be a future champion.

[@benduffy6219]

You may be right! He has enormous potential, and kind of like 185, 205 doesn't have a ton of elite wrestlers to "protect" him from.

[@keithshillan627]

I like Ulberg a lot. Kid. looks good

[@NinjaKittyRetro]

Now the question I have.... could Kalib Starnes last more then 18 seconds of running away from Despaigne?

[@sherdog]

Depends on the size of the Octagon. Anything smaller than a regulation American football field and I'm going with "no."

[@keithshillan627]

He could run miles around that Octagon

[@FindMe04]

Lewis could be champ...hes always dangerous

[@sherdog]

[ben] I'd love to see it, but at this point he's lost badly to several of the guys ahead of him in the rankings, and there isn't much reason to believe it would go differently next time.

[@MrTheLuckyshot]

Champ at what?

[@keithshillan627]

Gonna respectfully disagree. While obviously he could land a haymaker on anybody and put them out, I don't he could go on the winning streak to earn the title shot

[@bobchimpson7703]

Lot of tightly contested bouts. Shout out my underdog if it hits. Charles Johnson: One of the most talented and athletically gifted flyweights on the roster. When he puts it together and shows up with the right mentality there's not many guys that can beat him, probably no one can beat him in a 5 rounder as shown when he fought Brandon Royval, he was breaking him in the 3rd round. He is his own worst enemy, so if the Charles Johnson with low output on the feet and lazily giving up takedowns shows up Jake Hadley is winning a split decision with his boxing and sub attempts on the ground. If not Charles should embarass him and send that inbred goblin back packing to the UK and out of the UFC. Goff: Love his pressure, tenacity, grit. Trey Waters's durability is not going to hold up for long at 170, seeing a guy like Goff who pushes an endless pace and infamous for upsets, I highly recommend taking a stab on him asap, just got him at +123 and the lines only closing in Hooper: He's cooked on the feet but his tall wiry build could really help him drag Slava Claus down with like an upper body BJJ takedown and tap him out Caceres: Crafty unorthodox vet that can't be replicated, I don't even think he knows what he's doing in his fights half the time, he just uses his experience to adapt and go with the flow but sometimes to his own detriment. He could do what Julian Erosa did and catch a sub on Woodsen late in a scramble, I still like Woodsen to stick to his game and outbox him CDF: Easy Underdog. I don't see how Rebecki wins, CDF is impossible to hold down scrambles like a cat in a bath. Striking and power very underrated. I have loved this guy since he upset Mairbek Taisumov in Abu Dhabi, over 90 degrees and just put a beating on him on the feet. Mixes up his combinations and kicks in weird angles with a high volume. Don't think the calf kicks are going to be a problem for him as CDF constantly switches stances Alonzo: Has shown to be a very underrated grappler, has become more cerebral on the feet as far as defense goes but still raw and stiff. Hits like a truck though so if he catches Ulberg its gonna be brutal especially if its out of the 1st round. Unfortunately, I do think he gets caught first Ulberg's just too accurate.

[@sherdog]

Love the takes here, Bob. Johnson is definitely better than his record in the UFC so far, or maybe it would be more accurate to say that he's clearly capable of more than he's shown. Goff: full co-sign. Keith and I both picked him to spring the slight upset. Hooper, it's almost a coin flip. I picked Slava, but if Hooper can get him down, especially early in the fight before he's too beat up, Borshchev is borscht. Caceres is a live dog too, for some of the same reasons as Hooper. CDF, I would have agreed with you wholeheartedly three years ago, but that incredible tenacity and slipperiness on the ground just seemed to evaporate during the Dariush-Gillespie-Gamrot losing streak. If that was due to those three just being that good on the ground, and Rebecki isn't up to the same task, Ferreira becomes a much more intriguing underdog (and as I said on the show, I would love to be wrong here).

[@scottbutler5421]

I got my tix

[@Chris75717]

Jealous

[@keithshillan627]

Enjoy the fight my man

[@scottbutler5421]

@@keithshillan627 it was such a great night and I was sitting in the FRONT ROW!!!

[@JL-ix2sc]

whoever porche is , she not blocking my jump shots either

[@keithshillan627]

Let's book it

[@marcusmustard8285]

@ 1:20:00 tapology shows hooper as 5-3 in UFC, not 7-3. If you include his DWCS, 6-3. Despite this small error, the point still stands. 5-3 is a lot of UFC experience.

[@sherdog]

Nice catch. I'll have to amend my notes on him.

[@rcnordo4366]

UFC on ESPN 56: Event

[@sherdog]

"Of all the hundreds of events the Ultimate Fighting Championship has put on over the last three decades and change, this is definitely one of them."

[@rcnordo4366]

@@sherdoglol

[@Beau_sabreur]

Billy Goff defends punches with his face. Takes to many clean shots

[@benduffy6219]

Our friend, Sherdog associate editor Jay Pettry, once described a fighter* as a "Boston-style face-first striker." (He didn't necessarily mean it as an insult, either!) That description killed me, and it's stuck with me ever since. And Goff is absolutely, positively, 1000% a BSFFS. 😅 *I think it may have been Alex Karalexis

[@keithshillan627]

Headbutting your opponent's fist is a solid strategy

[@marcusmustard8285]

44:20 Goff was in a car accident. Based on an interview with korean John and AllStarMMA youtube channel. I think there was other ailments as well. Dont remember the exact quotes of the interview.

[@sherdog]

Thanks for this insight!