My UFC 84 picks...

UFC 84: ILL WILL, takes place this Saturday, May 24th, in Las Vegas. There are some EXTREMELY exciting, and difficult to call, fights happening that night.

The main event is a Lightweight Title fight between current Champ BJ Penn vs. Sean Sherk! Many are calling this fight the biggest lightweight fight in UFC history. Sean Sherk was stripped of the title in 2007 for having a banned substance in his system during a fight (he, of course, has an issue with that whole thing, and claims innocence), and feels that no one "beat" him to have the title. BJ won the interim lightweight championship fight against Joe Stevenson, and when Sean was officially stripped of the belt, he became the undisputed champ. There's no love lost between these two, and the fight will answer once and for all, who is the rightful Lightweight Champ!

Let me show you my picks for the whole fight card, and then I'll make some explanations...

Bout / Your Choice
Method
Round
Minute

MAIN EVENT BJ Penn v. Sean Sherk Winner: BJ Penn
Split Decision
5
5

Tito Ortiz v. Lyoto Machida Winner: Tito Ortiz
Split Decision
3
5

Wanderlei Silva v. Keith Jardine Winner: Keith Jardine
Split Decision
3
5

Wilson Gouveia v. Goran Reljic Winner: Goran Reljic
Technical Knock Out
3
1

Thiago Silva v. Antonio Mendes Winner: Thiago Silva
Knock Out
1
2

Rameau Sokoudjou v. Kazuhiro Nakamura Winner: Rameau Sokoudjou
Technical Knock Out
2
3

Jon Koppenhaver v. Yoshiyuki Yoshida Winner: Yoshiyuki Yoshida
Unanimous Decision
3
5

Jason Tan v. Dong Hyun Kim Winner: Dong Hyun Kim
Knock Out
1
3

Ivan Salaverry v. Rousimar Palhares Winner: Rousimar Palhares
Submission (Choke)
1
3

Christian Wellisch v. Shane Carwin Winner: Shane Carwin
Unanimous Decision
3
5

Rich Clementi v. Terry Etim Winner: Rich Clementi
Technical Knock Out
3
4

(Hopefully you can understand the picks the way they are posted.)

For the main event: This really is a tough one to call. Sean is a beast at 155. You don't get the name "muscle shark" for being a slim guy. He's freakishly strong, and have a tremendous work rate, meaning, he remains active in the fight at a pace that most can't keep up with. But Sean wasn't able to put Kenny Florian away in their fight, he won by out working Kenny and remaining "dominant". BJ Penn is a black belt in BJJ (Brazilian JuJitsu), but so are a lot of guys. But BJ can do things with his limbs that most guys cant. His flexibility is off the charts, as well as his muscle control, and take-down defence. He's considered to have heavy hands and great accuracy. He has been known to be lacking in his conditioning though, so that might play a factor in the later rounds, especially against Sean. Ultimately I think BJ will win. I think it will be close, and that each of them will have times of dominance during the fight. I think BJ will win because of his take-down defence. An "attempt" is a fail, and I believe that Sean will have lots of "attempted" take-downs. I think BJ will be able to put Sean in more "danger" as far as submissions, and that BJ will be able to out strike Sean as well. If BJ tires before Sean does though, it might be a completely different story. I can't wait to see what happens!

Another big fight on the card is Wanderlei Silva vs. Keith Jardine. Silva just lost a big fight against Chuck Liddell, and Keith beat Chuck Liddell before that, so this is to see where these two line up against each other. Keith has a pretty unorthodox fighting style that's hard to adjust to, and he's got heavy hands. Silva likes to go out there and stand up and trade punches. He's a brawler. It will be interesting to see if Keith stands in there to trade punches, or if he'll try to take the fight to the ground where Silva might be a bit less dangerous. I think it will be a great fight to watch.

In addition to the other big fights is another one with Tito Ortiz battling Lyoto Machida. Lyoto is undefeated with 12 wins! That's almost unheard of at this level of MMA. He's a strong striker and likes to counter his opponents. Tito is a ground and pound guy. He uses his punches to set up take downs, then uses his wrestling to get position, and then unleashes a furious flurry of strikes till you can't defend yourself. Outside of that formula though, Tito is less successful. Ultimately I think Tito will be able to take Lyoto down and beat him there. Lyoto has survived other wrestlers too, so we'll see if Tito can give him his first loss.

Other fights of note...

I'm hoping to see Thiago Silva fight. He beat Houston Alexander quite handily, so I want to see if he can do that to the next guy.

I hope to see Rich Clementi's fight. He's improved vastly since his time on The Ultimate Fighter, and I hope to see him have more success.

Jon Koppenhaver is an exciting fighter to watch, I hope we get to see him fight.

I'm hearing a lot of good things about new-comer Shane Carwin as he makes his UFC debut, and hope that we get to see him in action as well.

I think that covers it. Any and all of this is debatable, and maybe tomorrow I'll have some doubts, but this is how I see it for now.

I'll let you know how I did sometime after Saturday night.