Only four months remain in 2023 for MMASucka staff picks.
Kicking off the upcoming fall season sees UFC Fight Night 226 set to take place later today, September 2nd from the Accor Arena in Paris, France. This comes as the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s second visit to the country after a successful debut in September of last year with UFC Fight Night 209. Today’s card sees the preliminary card set to begin at 12:30pm ET (9:30am ET) followed by the main card at 3:00pm ET (12:00pm PT) with all fights on ESPN+.
UFC Fight Night 226: Gane vs. Spivak results will be available here at MMASucka.
Stay tuned this upcoming Tuesday, September 5th for our Dana White’s Contender Series: Season 7, Week 5 picks from Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Fights
Top-ranked heavyweights Ciryl Gane and Sergey Spivak will meet in the day’s five-round main event.
Former divisional interim champion, Gane, steps into the cage for the second time of 2023 following a first-round guillotine loss to Jon Jones for the vacant title. France’s own will look for the hometown win once more after securing his eleventh victory in 13 total fights at the Accor Arena debut last September with his third-round “Fight of the Night” knockout over Tai Tuivasa. Gane’s opponent, Spivak, gets his second consecutive headliner with the promotion in fight eleven with the UFC since May of 2019. With six wins in his last seven outings including three straight finishes over Greg Hardy, Augusto Sakai, and, most recently, Derrick Lewis, the Moldovan talent prepares for the biggest test of his career in hopes of breaking out as a possible contender for heavyweight gold.
Taking place in the co-main event sees a likely title elimination bout for the women’s flyweight division between Manon Fiorot and Rose Namajunas. Returning for the first time in nearly a year sees the ten-fight win streak of Fiorot who saw a successful 2022 with her unanimous decisions over former 125-pound championship challengers Jennifer Maia and Katlyn Chookagian. Former two-time UFC Women’s Strawweight Champion, Namajunas, also returns to the octagon after losing the lighter title in a split decision to Carla Esparza in May of last year.
27-year-old Benoit Saint-Denis aims to add upon his current three-fight finishing run in his French country against former RFA/LFA Lightweight Champion Moises, who looks for his third win in-a-row after consecutive defeats to close 2021.
Due to a late main card addition, the featherweight fight between promotional newcomers Morgan Charriere and Manolo Zecchini will not be counted this week. See all the main card fights further below for our UFC Fight Night 226 picks.
Two top 5 heavyweights clash in tomorrow’s #UFCParis main event 🚨@Ciryl_Gane vs Serghei Spivac
[ Saturday | 3pmET / 12pmPT Main Card | Live on ESPN+ ] pic.twitter.com/jDTwnLZKcw
— UFC (@ufc) September 1, 2023
2023 Staff Picks
MMASucka staff picks are composed of five promotions: the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Bellator MMA, ONE Championship, the Professional Fighters League (PFL), and Dana White’s Contender Series (DWCS). UFC and Bellator events feature picks from only main cards. PFL will feature select fights from the main and/or preliminary card while DWCS sees all fights counted from the event. ONE Championship returns to picks for the first time since 2020 and will feature only mixed martial arts (MMA) fights selected from cards with a minimum three matchups.
The WINNER of staff picks at the end of 2023, who picked the most victorious fighters, will have a choice between receiving a custom-made championship belt from ProAmBelts or a chain from Championship Chains. Staff picks in 2022 was won by Wesley Riddle with a record of 264-135.
Find our staff picks and predictions for UFC Fight Night 226: Gane vs. Spivak below.
Staff Records after Dana White’s Contender Series – Season 7, Week 4:
Ben Jamieson: 211-109
Michael DeSantis: 208-112
Jeremy Brand: 202-118
Wesley Riddle: 201-119
Nate Freeman: 201-119
Frazer Krohn: 193-127
Julio Monteros Jr.: 182-102
Andrew Benjamin: 153-130
Jack Goodwillie: 148-83
Brian Knight: 134-80
Tim Wheaton: 105-60
Roemello Reyes: 62-34
Jonathan Andrade: 31-24
Brandon Joint: 12-9
Andrew Harbaugh: 10-7
Joshua Yule: 7-6
Chris De Santiago: 6-6
Antwyn Jackson: 5-6
*Note – not all staff pick for every event*
William Gomis (12-2), -205
vs.
Yanis Ghemmouri (12-1), +170
Featherweight Division
– 145 LBS. ~ 65.8 KG. –
Jeremy Brand: Gomis via Unanimous Decision
Wesley Riddle: Gomis via Round 2 TKO
Michael DeSantis: Gomis via Unanimous Decision
Andrew Benjamin: Gomis via Unanimous Decision
Frazer Krohn: Gomis via Unanimous Decision
Nate Freeman: Gomis via Unanimous Decision
Julio Monteros Jr.: Gomis via Unanimous Decision
Ben Jamieson: Gomis via Unanimous Decision
Staff picking Gomis: 8
Staff picking Ghemmouri: 0
Volkan Oezdemir (18-7), -185
vs.
Bogdan Guskov (14-2), +154
Light Heavyweight Division
– 205 LBS. ~ 93.0 KG. –
Jeremy Brand: Oezdemir via Round 2 TKO
Wesley Riddle: Oezdemir via Unanimous Decision
Michael DeSantis: Oezdemir via Round 1 TKO
Andrew Benjamin: Oezdemir via Unanimous Decision
Frazer Krohn: Guskov via Round 1 TKO
Nate Freeman: Guskov via Split Decision
Julio Monteros Jr.: Oezdemir via Round 2 TKO
Ben Jamieson: Oezdemir via Round 2 TKO
Staff picking Oezdemir: 6
Staff picking Guskov: 2
Benoit Saint-Denis (11-1), -166
vs.
Thiago Moises (17-6), +140
Lightweight Division
– 155 LBS. ~ 70.3 KG. –
Jeremy Brand: Saint-Denis via Round 3 TKO
Wesley Riddle: Saint-Denis via Unanimous Decision
Michael DeSantis: Saint-Denis via Unanimous Decision
Andrew Benjamin: Moises via Round 2 SUB
Frazer Krohn: Saint-Denis via Unanimous Decision
Nate Freeman: Saint-Denis via Split Decision
Julio Monteros Jr.: Saint-Denis via Unanimous Decision
Ben Jamieson: Saint-Denis via Round 2 TKO
Staff picking Saint-Denis: 7
Staff picking Moises: 1
Manon Fiorot (10-1), -198
vs.
Rose Namajunas (12-5), +164
Women’s Flyweight Division
– Co-Main Event –
– 125 LBS. ~ 56.7 KG. –
Jeremy Brand: Namajunas via Unanimous Decision
Wesley Riddle: Fiorot via Split Decision
Michael DeSantis: Fiorot via Split Decision
Andrew Benjamin: Namajunas via Split Decision
Frazer Krohn: Fiorot via Unanimous Decision
Nate Freeman: Fiorot via Unanimous Decision
Julio Monteros Jr.: Fiorot via Split Decision
Ben Jamieson: Fiorot via Unanimous Decision
Staff picking Fiorot: 6
Staff picking Namajunas: 2
Ciryl Gane (11-2), -205
vs.
Sergey Spivak (16-3), +170
Heavyweight Division
– Main Event –
– 265 LBS. ~ 120.2 KG. –
Jeremy Brand: Gane via Round 4 TKO
Wesley Riddle: Gane via Round 2 TKO
Michael DeSantis: Gane via Round 3 TKO
Andrew Benjamin: Gane via Unanimous Decision
Frazer Krohn: Gane via Unanimous Decision
Nate Freeman: Gane via Unanimous Decision
Julio Monteros Jr.: Gane via Round 2 TKO
Ben Jamieson: Gane via Round 5 TKO
Staff picking Gane: 7
Staff picking Spivak: 0
