UFC Vegas 71 community picks and predictions (NEW!)

Petr Yan headlines UFC Vegas 71. | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

See who the BE readers think will win this weekend. Bloody Elbow is stepping into a brave new world soon. And we’re blown away with how many of you have a…


UFC 280: Petr Yan v Sean O’Malley
Petr Yan headlines UFC Vegas 71. | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

See who the BE readers think will win this weekend.

Bloody Elbow is stepping into a brave new world soon. And we’re blown away with how many of you have already signed up to join us. On March 31 we are leaving the Vox network and becoming an independent site, owned by the newly created BE Publishing LLC.

To support those efforts we started a Substack for premium and exclusive content. So many people have bought a subscription to us that Substack are calling us a ‘rocket’ publication and are pitching in to make sure our content there gets even better.

Something I’m doing for Substack subscribers is a new ongoing feature: BE Community Picks.

All paid subscribers on Substack receive a poll where they can enter their picks. In this article you can see the results and learn who the BE community thinks will win each fight. I’ll be tracking the results so we’ll be able to see how accurate we are as a community.

If you want in on the fun, get on Substack and subscribe today.


Here are the results of our first Community Picks survey. 32 folks participated in this and I hope you all stick with it and more of you jump on in. As you can see the BE Community believes Petr Yan will rebound with a win over Merab Dvalishvili. The community also expressed that the headliner is by far the fight they are most interested in on this card. However, they think Fight of the Night honours may go to Nikita Krylov vs. Ryan Spann (a fight which Krylov is favoured to win, by a smidge).

You’ll also notice there’s no Carlston Harris vs. Jared Gooden fight here. When I sent out the polls we still had Harris vs. Nurmagomedov scheduled.

Petr Yan (65.5%) vs. Merab Dvalishvili (34.4%)


BE Community pick: Petr Yan

Alexander Volkov (53.1%) vs. Alexandr Romanov (45.9%)


BE Community pick: Alexander Volkov

Nikita Krylov (53.1%) vs. Ryan Spann (46.9%)


BE Community pick: Nikita Krylov

Said Nurmagomedov (90.6%) vs. Jonathan Martinez (9.4%)


BE Community pick: Said Nurmagomedov

Vitor Petrino (56.3%) vs. Anton Turkalj (43.8%)


BE Community pick: Vitor Petrino

Lukasz Brzeski (37.5%) vs. Karl Williams (62.5%)


BE Community pick: Karl Williams

Raphael Assuncao (40.6%) vs. Davey Grant (59.4%)


BE Community pick: Davey Grant

Sedriques Dumas (78.1%) vs. Josh Fremd (21.9%)


BE Community pick: Sedriques Dumas

Mario Bautista (68.8%) vs. Guido Cannetti (31.3%)


BE Community pick: Mario Bautista

JJ Aldrich (68.8%) vs. Ariane Lipski (31.3%)


BE Community pick: JJ Aldrich

Tony Gravely (37.5%) vs. Victor Henry (62.5%)


BE Community pick: Victor Henry

Tyson Nam (53.1%) vs. Bruno Silva (46.9%)


BE Community pick: Tyson Nam

Which fight wins Fight of the Night Award


BE Community pick: Nikita Krylov vs. Ryan Spann (37.5%)

Which fighters win a Performance of the Night Award


BE Community pick: Said Nurmagomedov (50%), Petr Yan (43.8%), Alexandr Romanov, Ryan Spann and Nikita Krylov (31.3%)

Which fight are you most excited for?


BE Community pick: Petr Yan vs. Merab Dvalishvili (75%)


About the author: Tim Bissell is a writer, editor and deputy site manager for Bloody Elbow. He has covered combat sports since 2015. Tim covers news and events and has also written longform and investigative pieces. (full bio)


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