UFC Fights Tomorrow

Here's a picture of me with UFC fighter Rob Emerson.

He's fighting tomorrow, but I don't think he'll beat Kurt Pelligrino.

It's been a while since I've put anything up here that was about MMA or the UFC fights I watch, but I thought I would today.

Tomorrow night, on Spike TV, I'll be watching UFC Fight Night. Fight Nights are a chance for fighters that might not have a whole lot of drawing power (people tuning in to see them fight) for a pay per view, to showcase their skills on "free" tv. This helps them build a fan base, and eventually find themselves on a PPV.

Anyway, there should be some good fights. I'm ging with Joe Lauson, Cain Velasquez, Mac Danzig, Anthony Johnson, Kurt Pelligrino, Jake Rosholt, Rich Clementi, Nick Catone, and Matt Riddle to win thier fights.

UFC 91 Picks

UFC 91 takes place this Saturday. I know that these post are usually only read by those who share my interest in the sport, so I'll just get right to it.

This might be one of the biggest fights between heavyweights in a long time, but it sure isn't an easy one to try and figure out a winner.

Randy Couture vs. Brock Lesnar On one side you have Randy who is so experienced, and so smart at coming up with game plans for his fights. Not to mention his cardio is off the charts, and he's strong. Brock is young, athletically gifted, huge, fast, strong, and shows no fear. But we did see that Brock's inexperience and ferociousness cost him his fight against Frank Mir, who was able to capitalize on a mistake, and submit Brock. Randy has been knocked out before, so we know that if he gets caught, it might be game over. They both have strong wrestling backgrounds, so if it stays on the feet, Brock might have a better chance just by sheer strength if he can keep up with Randy. Randy might take it to the ground to test Brock's submission defence. If he can keep Brock on the defencive on the ground, he might be able to catch him in something. Who do I pick?... I'm going with Brock to win by TKO. But who knows? Anything could happen.

I'm going with Kenny Florian over Joe Stevenson. I think Kenny's got better stand up than Joe. If it goes to the ground, I think Kenny will be able to fend off Joe's advances. I do think it will be a war. I'm not sure Kenny's got what it takes to finish Joe, so I'm guessing it goes the distance.

I'm choosing Gabriel Gonzaga over Josh Hendricks by decision. I think they're pretty evenly matched, but I think Gabe my have an advantage in UFC experience. It's Hendricks' UFC debut.

I can't believe I'm choosing Jorge Gurgel over Aaron Riley. Riley is making his UFC return, so he's probably going to have ring rust, so Jorge probably has the advantage there. I don't think Jorge is a finisher, so it will most likely go the distance.

Bocek over Robinson by decision. Pretty evenly matched. Both coming off losses.

Hazelett over McCory. Both also coming off losses, but I think Hazalett is a little higher on the experience meter than McCory.

Demian Maia over Nate Quarry. Nate showed some improvement in his last fight, except in his last fight he had to run down his opponent who ran away from him all night. Maia will take it to the ground and submit Nate. I don't think it will take very long for that to happen either.

Matt Brown over Ryan Thomas via choke.

And I think that does it. I'm not as confident in my picks as I was the last fights. In the last fights, I scored my highest points ever: 220! I had 3 fights that I picked be 100% right, and got bonus points. I still only ranked in the 70s. The top scorer had 100 points more than I did.

So if you have an opinion, put it in the comments.

UFC: Last Week, and This Week

I realised that I didn't put up my results from last week end's UFC fights. Well, I'm happy to report that I received a personal best of 194 points! Not too shabby. I successfully picked 7 out of 10 winners. In two of the fights that I did NOT pick the winner, I had all the other things correct (round, time, and winning method).

Even though I got a personal best score, my ranking has been higher in the past. With this score, I got a ranking of 90 (tied with all others that got the same score). My best ranking was 73 (twice).

All in all, the fights last week were pretty good. Most of the non-main event fights were better than the main event ones. The two main events both went to decision. So they were a little drawn out. I was bummed to hear that Bisping's game plan was to get a unanimous decision. That means he only wanted to do enough to stay ahead on points, and avoid any real fighting. It worked, but still lame. I felt Brandon could have won just as much as Keith, but the judges didn't see it that way. I'm glad we got to see those fights on Spike TV, and didn't have to pay for them.

On to tomorrow's fights...

UFC 90!

I'm looking forward to seeing how quickly Anderson Silva beats Patrick Cote. I chose a first round knock out win.

I have Thiago Alves winning by unanimous decision. I think he'll be too strong for Koscheck, and keep him on the defensive. If all Kos can do is defend, he can't win. But I do think Kos will be able to keep from being finished before the fight end on time.

I'm pulling for Rich Clementi to win over Gray Maynard. I know Gray is strong, but Clementi is crafty. I think it will go back and forth. I think Clementi will try for a lot of submissions to finish the fight, but I think this will go to decision. I picked split decision for Clementi.

A pretty exciting heavyweight fight is on the card. Fabricio Werdum vs. Junior Dos Santos. Werdum is a big guy, and very strong. Dos Santos is just as big, but looks really fast. He's making his UFC debut. Werdum is the favorite to win, but I think Dos Santos will pull out the victory. I even have him winning by TKO.

Sean Sherk will fight Tyson Griffin. I think this will be a fast paced stalemate fight. I think they'll cancel each other out for the most part. They're pretty much the same fighter. I think it will go all 3 rounds, and Sherk will probably win by unanimous decision.

I think Thales Leites will beat Drew McFedries by decision.

I'm hopeing Shannon Gugerty beats Spencer Fisher by a choke submission.

Same for Dan Miller over Matt Horwich.

I think Hermes Franca will win by decision over Marcus Aurelio, and that Josh Burkman will win the same way over Pete Sell.

I see that I've chosen a lot of fights to end by decision. That usually means I think they're pretty evenly matched. One of the great things about MMA is anything can happen during a fight. I hope the fights are exciting, and that the fighters give it their all. I'll let you know how I do next week sometime.

UFC 89 This Saturday...

The next UFC event is this Saturday. It's UFC 89, and it's free on Spike TV. The fights are taking place somewhere in the UK.

Here are my picks for a handful of the fights...

The main event is Micheal Bisping vs. Chris Leben. This should be a great fight. Both of these guys like to get after it right away. They both have a fast pace, and like to control that pace from the get go. Since they both like that style, it might come down to whom ever has to bend their game plan first will make the first mistake, and that's all it takes to lose a fight. With that being said, I think Bisping will keep his mental edge longer. It's his home crowd and his will to win will be strong. On the flip side, that could be a lot of pressure, and Leben could capitalize on that. I have Bisping to win, TKO in the 2nd round.

The other big fight on the card is Keith Jardine vs. Brandon Vera. Both of these guys have huge wins, and both have huge losses. Brandon had a string of wins early on in his UFC career, but has lost the last few. Keith just hasn't been consistent. He'll win a big fight, and lose the next to a lesser opponent. He's got to string a few wins together to be a contender. I think they'll work hard for 3 rounds, and go to decision. I have Brandon by unanimous decision. Should be a great battle.

Luiz Cain vs. Rameau Sokoudjou. Sokoudjou I guess, used to be a big name fighter in Pride, but has yet to be a big threat in the UFC. Luiz Cain is newer to the UFC but has been impressive in his fights. I have Juiz Cain to win by TKO in the 2nd.

Paul Kelly vs. Marcus Davis. Paul Kelly and Marcus Davis are both coming off losses. Paul had a 3 round battle loss to Paul Taylor, and Davis had a 3 round battle loss to Mike Swick. For both of them, this is their redemption fight. No one wants two losses in a row. I think Marcus will be better equipped to win, but Paul will be tough to beat. I have it going 3 rounds with Marcus winning by unanimous decision.

Paul Taylor vs. Chris Lytle. This is a tough one to call. Both guys give it their all inside the cage. But I think Chris can out work Paul, and if he stays busy and pushes the pace, he'll pull out the win. I 'm going with Chris to win by unanimous decision.

After that, I don't really know the fighters that well. I'll have to wait and see if they get some air time so I can remember them for the next time.

I noticed that about half of my fight picks are ended by decision. I guess when it's so hard to figure out who has the edge, I figure they'll go back and forth to the end, and the judges will get to pick who they thought won. I don't mind fights going all 3 rounds as long as both guys are still trying to finish the fight. If one of them is just trying to hold on till the end because they think they have an advantage on the score cards, that's what makes for a "boring" fight.

Anyway, just wanted to get this done sooner rather than later. I have a busy weekend ahead of me.

UFC 88 Breakthrough PPV picks...

The next UFC PPV is UFC 88 Breakthrough this Saturday night. That means I better get to picking my fights... so here are my picks:

The main event is Chuck Liddell vs. Rashad Evans. I think this will be a really good fight. Rashad held his own with Tito Ortiz earlier this year (in my opinion, he should have won), and showed he can hang with the "top" 205ers. Rashad's still on the up-swing of his career, and he could give it a huge boost with a win over Chuck. But Chuck is a former light heavyweight champion, and not a push over. He's was very dominant as a champ, and is looking to get his title back. A win over Rashad would put him pretty close to a title shot in the very near future. With that all said, I think Chuck will probably come out with the win, but I think it will be by decision.

The other huge fight on the card is Rich Franklin retuning to the 205 weight class and fighting Matt Hamill. Matt Hamill is a bear to wrestle with. He lost an extremely close fight to Michael Bisping (and in my opinion probably should have won) last year, but has taken that loss and used it to improve his skills. His striking has improved by leaps and bounds as of late, and that makes him more dangerous. Rich Franklin back in the 205s adds a lot to that division, and I'm excited to see him fight at that weight. He has a ton of experience over Matt in MMA, and is a very smart and technical fighter. This fight has the chance to steal the show. I think it will go the distance, and probably a split decision in favor of Rich.

I'm interested to see the Martin Kapman vs. Nate Marquardt fight. I think Martin is underrated as a fighter. There's not been a fight I've seen him in that I didn't like. He uses quite a few of different techniques in his fights, particularly on the ground. His win over Drew McFedries is one of my favorites. Martin's been sidelined with some injuries the past 6+ months, so I'm sure he's pumped to be back in the octagon. Nate Marquardt has really turned the corner in his career in the past year. His loss to Anderson Silva was an eye opener for him. I think he should have won against Thales Leites back in June. The ref took unnecessary points from him during that fight. I enjoy watching both of these guys fight, and often route for them, but I think I'm going with Nate to win. I think he'll be able to out punch Martin, and on the ground, I think he'll be stronger. I think it will be a TKO victory.

Karo Parisyan vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida. I'm not a big fan of Karo, so I'm going with Yoshiyuki to win by TKO probably somewhere in the 3rd.

Dan Herderson vs. Rousimar Palhares (Kyle might have to give us the phonetic pronunciation in the comments section). Dan Henderson lost both of his Pride titles last year. He could really use a win. Rousimar just made his debut in the UFC recently with a quick win over Ivan Salivary. He looked very dangerous on the ground (BJJ black belt), and will be a hand full for Dan. But I think Dan can win if he keeps it standing and throws some heavy hands at Rousimar, and defends the takedown. If he does end up on the ground, I think he'll be able to do some damage as long as he stays on top. Dan to win, TKO.

Thiago Tavares Vs. Kurt Pellegrino. Thiago has shown he gets tired in the later rounds, and Kurt is pretty close to the top of the lightweights. I think they're both coming off losses, so I win would be very important. I think Kurt will pull out the win, probably with a submission.

Tim Boetsch Vs. Michael Patt. I think Michael Patt is making his UFC debut that night. That's a lot to handle, and then he also has to fight Tim Boetsch. I'm going with Tim to win with probably a TKO.

Dong Hyun Kim Vs. Matt Brown. Everyone on the last season of TUF steered clear of Matt Brown, but he was beaten. I think he has a ton of heart, but I don't think he'll be able to beat Dong Hyun Kim.

Jason Lambert Vs. Jason MacDonald. I like both of these guys. They've both had great fights in the UFC. Lambert's had a string of bad luck in his fights with getting caught, and MacDonald has also lost a couple tough fights as well. I think this will be a good fight. I'll be looking for MacDonald to try and catch Lambert on the chin, so I'm sure he'll try to keep it standing. As strong as Lambert is, and as heavy as his hands are standing, I think he'll do best to try and get this fight to the ground, and pound out a victory. When It's all over, I think MacDonald will have the "W", either by KO or armbar.

Roan Carneiro Vs. Ryo Chonan I think these guys are both coming off of losses, and need to get a win. I'm going with Roan.

Well that does it. Those are my picks. One of the exciting things about MMA is anything can happen. So everything I just said here, the opposite could happen just as easily. Even the guy who looks like he's beating the snot out of his opponent can get caught and it's all over. Or the reverse... One guy may be taking the beating of his career, but be able to catch his opponent with one punch or quick submission, and pull out the win. Good stuff!

Muay Thai, baby!

I talk a lot about MMA (mixed martial arts). Some may ask, "What martial arts do they mix?". I would say there are four main components to today's mixed martial arts (in no particular order): Wrestling, Boxing, Ju Jitsu, and Muay Thai kick boxing. Of course there are fighters that incorporate other types of fighting styles as well like Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Sambo, Judo, Pankration, and so on.

But this is about Muay Thai. If you're interested in watching some straight up Muay Thai kickboxing, done by guys that specialize in that art, you're in luck. On the Versus channel, there is a new series titled The Contender Muay Thai.

I didn't get a chance to watch the whole premier episode yet, but what I did see looked good. There are two teams, they compete in challenges, the winners choose the fight, and the loser of the fight goes home. So the cons to this show look to be that there will only be one fight per show and that we'll have to see the drama between fighters, but the pros are you get to see how these guys train, and that Muay Thai is a global art. There is only one American on the show.

So if you can, try to squeeze in some Muay Thai. You'll be glad you did.

WEC this Sunday...

This Sunday on the Versus channel the WEC is having some fights.

But not just any fights, ... there are 3 title fights that night! The WEC is not as well known as the UFC (no other MMA promotion is for that matter), but the WEC is owned by Zuffa, and Zuffa owns the UFC. The production value, and quality of coverage is the same as the UFC, so you know it'll be a good show.

I'm somewhat familiar with the Champs in the WEC, and they are great fighters to watch.

Brian Stann is the light heavyweight champ. He's still undefeated! That's almost unheard of in pro MMA. He's a former marine, and has even served a tour in Iraq before becoming a pro fighter. This will be his first title defence.

Carlos Condit is freaky in his abilities in MMA. He's not "the natural born killer" for nothing. He's the welterweight champ (170). This guy is amazing to watch. His ground game is top notch. I'm pretty sure he'll win in the first round.

Jaime Varner is the new lightweight champ in the WEC. He beat up the former champ quite handily, and was quite impressive in that fight. He'll have his hands full, but I think he'll be able to pick apart his opponent and get the "W".

Other notable fighters on the card are Damacio Page (a featured fighter in last season's TapouT show), Brock Larson is quite good, Micah Miller is a good fighter and freakishly tall for his weight class, then Blas Avena Vs. Dave Terrel should be a very exciting fight. For the full fight card you can go here.

It should be good.

MMA stuff...

If you're looking to get an MMA fix this weekend, you're in luck. There are two places to go on Saturday night for some MMA action.

If you have cable or satelite, Spike TV is airing UFC 84 Saturday night 9pm ET/PT (I have DirecTV, and for some reason, I get the Eastern feed for Spike TV shows, so for me it'll start at 6pm. Check your local listing to make sure what time it's on in your area.). UFC 84 features the main event of BJ Penn fighting Sean Sherk for the Lightweight Title (unofficially the undisputed lightweight title). You can read my take on the fights here. And when you're done watching the fights, you can check out my post fight comments here.

The other MMA fights happening are on CBS. It's their second EliteXC show, and the main event is a rematch from their first show on CBS, between Robbie Lawler (the champ) vs. Scott Smith. Their first fight ended early due to a finger in the eye of Lawler from Smith. I don't remember if it was deemed a "no contest", or if they disqualified Smith, or what ever. But this is their "unfinished business" rematch. That's really the only fight of note on that card. There is a female MMA fight on the card though, so if you'd like to get familliar with female MMA, you might want to check it out. Oh yeah, and also Nick Diaz is fighting too. I'm looking forward to seeing him fight again. His younger brother Nate is awesome, so I hope Nick does well.

In other MMA stuff, I've recently began frequenting an MMA blog called cagepotato.com. They cover all sorts of MMA related news and information. I've been learning a lot about the MMA world outside of just the UFC, and it's pretty cool. If you're interested in going a little deeper into the MMA world, you might want to check them out.

That was all, carry on.

UFC FN recap...

Here's my UFC Fight Night Recap...

I'll start with the main event. The highly anticipated debut of Anderson Silva, the current middleweight champ (185 lbs.), fighting as a light heavyweight (205 lbs.). Taking on knockout artist James Irvin. The build up hype, the elongated entries, the overly emphasised introductions from the ring announcer, the referee instructions in the center of the octagon, last about a thousand times longer than James Irvin did in the fight! They came out and sized each other up for a few seconds. Silva lands a big leg kick, and Irvin tries to answer it. They "dance" again for a moment or two, another kick from Silva, maybe a fake jab or two are thrown, and Irvin loads up for a body kick. Silva catches Irvin's leg, and throws a straight right that lands right on the jaw of Irvin. Silva continues to hold the leg, and Irvin lands on his back and immediately goes into fetal position. Silva stands over Irvin and unloads a barrage of rights onto the side of Irvin's head. They seem to be doing little damage, so Silva changes his punch angle and lands two other punches right on the button, and sends Irvin to la la land. This all happened in 61 seconds. Awesome! Silva is indeed, the pound for pound, greatest fighter in the UFC today.

Brandon Vera vs. Reese Andy. I was really hoping to see the Brandon Vera of a few years ago. Coming out strong and aggressive and finishing his fight. That wasn't the case. He gave a lot of "respect" to Reese, and by the second round they were both pretty gassed. Brandon was able to remain busier, and out work Reese, but it was a pretty uneventful fight. Brandon won by unanimous decision. I hope as he becomes accustom to fighting at 205, he'll be back to his old winning ways.

Hermes Franca vs. Frank Edgar. The 155 pound weight division is always exciting, and this was no different. Both guys came out and fought at a blistering pace. Hermes was looking for that big punch to land, and Frank was looking to take the fight to the ground. For the most part, frank was able to avoid any major punches, and was also able to take Hermes down to the mat quite often. Once on the mat, Frank was able to land a lot of damage; punches, elbows, hammer fists, etc. Hermes is world class in ju jitsu, but Frank was able to pull out of the numerous submission attempts. Only by the very end of the 3rd round was Hermes finally able to land those big shots he had been looking for the whole fight, and if Frank wasn't careful, he was going to be looking up at the ceiling lights asking "what happened?", but time ran out and the fight was over. Frank won by unanimous decision.

Cain Velasquez vs. Jake O'brien. These heavyweights came to fight! They both came out aggressive, but it was Cain that was able to get the upper hand early, and put himself on top of Jake's chest with both of Jake's arms pinned down. Jake's left arm was trapped between Cain's legs, and the right was pinned down by Cain's head, which allowed Cain to wail on Jake's huge head undefended for what seemed like a really long time. Jake tried to buck him off, and get his arms free, but he couldn't get out, and the ref had to stop it. That fight lasted a little over 2 minutes, but it had a ton of action. Cain will find himself a contender for the heavyweight belt before he knows it if he keeps it up.

Anthony Johnson vs. Kevin Burns. Anthony likes to knock guys out, but Kevin was able to withstand any punches, and was able to land quite a number of his own shots on Anthony. You could tell early that Anthony was getting frustrated. Anthony was complaining about getting fingers close to his eyes during the fight. Kevin even got a warning about having his fingers out in his jab. Kevin was able to take Anthony down, and work on him from that position. Kevin looked like he was winning the fight. He kept Anthony on the defensive for most of the fight. In the 3rd round, about halfway through, Kevin throws a jab, and one of his fingers goes into Anthony's right eye. Anthony lets out a yell and falls to the ground. The ref ends the fight. Most people are figuring that Kevin just lost by disqualification due to the warning he got earlier about fingers in the eye. After a commercial break, we find out the official decision... Kevin wins by TKO? That was a surprise. Not that Kevin didn't earn it per say, he was winning the fight, but he did inadvertently put a finger in Anthony's eye. During the post fight interview, we learn that Kevin in unable to throw a regular left punch due to constantly breaking his hand doing so, so he has to throw a palm strike. The crowd was unimpressed with his apology and explanation. In a real show of class, Anthony tells the crowd not to boo Kevin, he fought a great fight, and didn't deserve the boos. It was still an unfortunate way to have a fight end though.

Jesse Taylor vs. CB Dollaway. For some reason, I don't remember a whole lot about this fight. I must have been distracted by the kids or Anna or something. What I do remember though is the sweet submission CB used to win the fight. CB was in a side control position with Jesse's elbows and knees on the mat. CB reach over Jesse's shoulder and under his other arm. Then CB put his leg over Jesse's head while cranking on his neck from his overunder grip, and Jesse had to tap. It's a choke submission called a "Peruvian necktie". Nice.

The last fight we got to see was between Rory Markham and Brodie Farber. Both guys looked to stand and trade punched in the opening moments, and it doesn't take long for Brodie to land the better punches and start rocking Rory. Rory does his best to answer the punches, but only ends up getting punched more. He's got a good chin because he's taking some pretty clean shots. Rory starts to circle out to avoid the bigger shots, and Brodie follows him with more punches. Rory was able to create a slight distance between himself and Brodie while he circles out, and as Brodie winds up for another punch, his hands are slightly down, and Rory shoots off a high kick that lands cleanly on Brodies head, and knocks him out instantly! Brodie hits the mat like a corpse. Yikes! Brodie came to a few moments later, but Rory definitely put the stamp on that fight. We'll be seeing that on highlight reels for years to come.

An excellent night of fights. The one thing I noticed with watching the fights on Spike was the ratio of fights to everything else (the hype, the introductions, the commercials, the entrances, etc.) is actually pretty low. Luckily I was watching the fights a little later in the evening so I was able to fast forward through most of the non-fight stuff. BUT if all I have to do is wade through that stuff to get free fights... I'll do it. It sure beat having to fork out money to see the same quality of fights.

"But Ken, how did you do with your picks?" Well, I'm glad you asked. Of all the fights I had an opinion on, the only one I didn't pick correctly was CB Dollaway winning over Jesse Taylor. There are even a few fights that I picked the correct method of winning. But I won't pat myself on the back too much, the next UFC PPV is August 9th, and in MMA, anyone can win at any moment, so I'll make some picks, and we'll see how I do with that one.

Fight Night...

This Saturday night, Spike TV will be broadcasting UFC Fight Night live, nation wide, starting at 6pm pacific time. That means FREE FIGHTS! We won't have to shell out for a PPV! They should do that more often.

The UFC isn't giving us a bunch of second rate fighters for free either. We get to see the greatest pound for pound fighter in the UFC, or the world, for that matter, Anderson Silva. He's taken out all of the top contenders in the 185 pound division (some of them twice), so he'll be fighting at 205 pounds to take on his next challenger.

I'm skipping going through the UFC fantasy league thing this time. I just don't have the time to look into each fighter and how they're preparing for the fights. Plus half of the fight card are guys making their debuts, so I don't know anything about them to begin with, so that makes putting together an educated guess that much harder. I'll be focusing on the fighters I know for my picks this time around.

The main event is, like I mentioned earlier, between Anderson "The Spider" Silva and James "Sandman" Irvin. This fight is a Light Heavyweight fight meaning Silva is fighting at a heavier weight. He's the Middleweight Champ (185 lbs.). James Irvin normally fights at 205, so he'll be used to it. I pick Anderson Silva to win. He's an accurate puncher with heavy hands, and that's just the beginning. He's also a black belt in Brazilian Ju Jitsu, so if/when it goes to the ground, he'll tie you up tighter than a pretzel. Irvin also has heavy hands and accurate punches, but it seems to me that he's more one dimensional that way. I think the only ground game he has is defence, and in Ju Jitsu, it's like chess. They get you to defend one thing so you'll put yourself in danger for the next thing, and so on, till they get you. I would love to see Silva KO Irvin, but I don't think that will happen. I think this will end from the ground. Possibly a TKO or choke in the second round.

Another interesting match up on the card is Brandon "The Truth" Vera fighting (again!) a guy named Reese Andy in the Light Heavyweight division. This is Brandon's first fight in that division. He normally fights in the heavyweight division. I think because he's lost two questionable fights recently as a heavy, he's finally going down a size to test the waters there. I don't know anything about Reese Andy (other than he's got a last name for a first name and a first name for a last name), but it wouldn't matter. I've been a fan of Brandon's since his debut in the UFC, so I'm picking him to win. He's got great Muy Thai, and I'm sure he'll be using it. Particularly his kicks, so we might see a head kick KO if Reese Andy doesn't watch for that. Actually I think Reese is a wrestler, so I'm sure we'll see this fight go to the ground, and I'll look forward to seeing Brandon finish this fight with a submission.

We'll get to see Hermes Franca fight Frank Edgar. Is this Hermes' first UFC fight since his suspension last year? If so, there might be a significant amount of "ring rust" he'll have to wade through. He's been known to gas in the latter rounds, so this might be tough for him. Frank Edgar is a "come right for you" type of fighter, and that won't give Hermes much recover time between bursts of combat. I like Hermes as a fighter, but there's a good chance Frank could out work him. I think this will go to decision with Frank Edgar getting the win.

Cain Velaquez vs. Jake O'Brian. I believe these guys are both from wrestling backgrounds, so they probably both prefer a "ground and pound" fight. I think they'll spend a lot of time standing up to set up a take down, and that whom ever gets caught on bottom will work to stand back up. Cain looks like he can be very aggressive, but Jake has a lot more experience as a pro fighter. There's a good chance they'll cancel each other out and it will go to decision. I'm guessing Cain will out work or out "score" Jake, so he'll probably take the decision.

Anthony Johnson vs. Kevin Burns Both of these guys are coming off impressive wins. Anthony with a first round KO, and Kevin with a 2nd round submission. Anthony likes to stand up and throw bombs with his heavy hands, so we'll probably see Kevin stand up a little to try and set up the take down. Anthony does have some wrestling background, but Kevin's got some solid ju jitsu and an active guard. I'm going with Kevin Burns to win by submission in the first round.

Jesse Taylor vs. CB Dollaway. These guys were on the most recent season of The Ultimate Fighter, and a lot of people thought that they would be in the finals against each other. That didn't happen (on many levels), so this is the "could have been, should have been?" fight that people were looking forward to. (Personally I'm glad Amir won.) Jesse is physically strong, and that helps him out of sticky situations in the octagon, but he tends to fight without "vision", meaning he's just in there throwing what ever and hoping they land (at least that's how I see it). But I guess that works for him. CB seems a bit more thoughtful in his fight, but we've seen him get complacent and leave his guard down just enough for his opponent to capitalize. Both of these guys are looking to redeem themselves, so I expect it to be a fast paced, exciting fight. I think Jesse will win. Probably going to decision.

Tim Credeur vs. Cale Yarbrough. Both of these guys were on the most recent season of Ultimate Fighter as well. I think they might have both been semi finalists, but whatever. I like Tim's fight style and general attitude. Cale is a young guy and pretty new to pro fighting, but has a bright future. I think Tim will work hard to win. He'll be wanting to stick around in the UFC for a while, and a win will do that. I'm going with Tim to win, probably by submission.

After that, there's 4 fights that I don't know either guy yet, so I'm not making any picks in those fights. If the "bigger" fights have early stoppages, I'm sure we'll see a prelim fight or two, and then the next time they fight, I'll have an opinion. See how that works?

So don't forget to watch Spike TV this Saturday the 19th at 6pm pacific to catch UFC Fight Night, and then come back here and let me know what you thought about the fights.

Till then, keep your hands up and your chin down!

UFC 85 report card...

Among the many other things that were going on last weekend, there was also a UFC PPV. It was UFC 85 Bedlam, at the O2 arena in London England. Because of it's location, the live airing of the fights was 12:00pm (noon) that Saturday. I needed to watch and record it on DVD so I could take it to Kevin's house on Sunday so he could watch it, and then he would send it to Kristi and Jason in Bullhead.

The fight card was stacked with great match ups. I'll get to that in a minute. Here's my report card...

The report card indicates my picks. The red I got wrong, the green I got right. There's an awful lot of red on there. Out of 11 fights, I got 6 of the winning fighters right. That's not too horrible.

Here are the official results...

My rants on the fights:

Matt Hughes vs. Thiago Alves : First of all, Thiago didn't make weight for the fight. He came in at 174 instead of 170. He has to cut a lot of weight to fight at 170, which makes him a big 170-er to begin with. Then add that he didn't look at all dehydrated, which is a common weight cutting technique, which to me says he didn't try that hard to lose that last 4 pounds. If you're not dehydrated, you retain a lot of your energy. There's a trend in fighting that an opponent will purposefully not make weight, so he retains his energy or size, and the guy he's fighting, who cut the weight, takes the fight anyway because he's spent the time training and cutting, and the guy with the extra weight now has an unfair advantage. Sure the guy that didn't cut the weight gets a percentage of his winnings taken away and/or fined, but he still gets the win. I don't like that. In addition to the fighter giving up a part of his winnings, I think the guy that can't make weight "forfeits" the fight, meaning he has the loss, and if his opponent takes the fight and loses, he still gets the "W" because he made weight when the other guy didn't. I think that would force guys to have to make weight. I hope that makes sense. There's a part of me that thinks Thiago knew that Matt would take the fight even if he didn't make the weight, and used that as an advantage in the fight.

Thiago had good punching, good take down defence, and just out fought Matt. The reality might be that Matt hasn't been able to keep up with the level of skill needed to be successful in the UFC anymore. He says he wants to fight Matt Serra before he retires, so I'm sure we'll see that this year sometime.

Brandon Vera vs. Fabricio Werdum: This fight was shaping up to be a war. There was going to be a lot of action and so on. I guess no one told the ref that these guys were going all out and that they can take the abuse. Shortly after the first round began, Fabricio found himself in a mount on Brandon and was unloading. Brandon looked to be defending well enough, though he wasn't able to do anything offensively, and before you know it, the ref stops the fight! What?! Right away you see Brandon upset at the stoppage, yelling at the ref, and complaining. Yes, the refs are there to protect the fighters from taking unnecessary damage when they aren't able to defend themselves anymore, but Brandon was defending, just not returning any punches. Man, that sucked. I'm sure we'll see Brandon again soon, he didn't get injured, and I'm sure he'll want to fight again to now get redemption for two fights (losses). Oh yeah, that was the first fight of the night, so it wasn't a great start for the PPV.

Michael Bisping came out guns blazin' and put Jason Day away rather quickly.

Marcus Davis and Mike Swick had a war! Swick had fast hands, and Davis' face was proof of that. Davis got beat up, or at least that's the story his face told. He hung in there though, and showed a lot of heart. Swick looked good, though he wasn't able to put Davis away. It was a good fight.

Nate Marquardt wasn't able to put Thales Leites away either. Thales' face told the same story Davis' did in his fight. He got beat up! Thales did land a few pretty devastating punches. One put Nate on his back for a moment, but I thought Nate, over all, dominated the fight. Unfortunately, Nate had not one, but TWO point taken away during the fight. One was for an illegal strike to the back of the head, though the replay clearly shows that it was not, and I missed the other one somehow (I must have had to help Anna at that time for something). With those 2 points gone, and the fight going to decision, Thales took the win. Man, that was lame too.

Martin Kapmann took care of Jorge Rivera pretty quickly with a choke in the first round. Kapmann has a kickboxing back round, but has terrific submission skills. He'll be contending for the belt soon, I'm sure.

Matt Wiman and Thiago Tavares had a very technical jiu jitsu style fight going for most of the first round. I like seeing two guys so well versed in MMA jiu jitsu trade positions and submission attempts. But in the first minute of the second round, it was a punch that ended the fight. A huge KO win for Matt.

We saw UFC newcomer Luiz Cane put Jason Lambert away in the first round with a TKO win.

We got to see a clip of UFC newcomer Kevin Burns triangle choke brazillian ju jitsu black belt Roan Carneiro. I believe it was the "submission of the night", meaning he got a bonus from the UFC.

We also got to see some clips of the Eddie Sanchez - Antoni Hardonk fight. I guess Eddie was getting the better of Hardonk, but Hardonk landed a huge punch that marked the beginning of the end for Sanchez, and gave Hardonk the TKO win.

We didn't see any of the Paul Taylor, Jess Liaudin fight. But I'm glad Paul Taylor won.

All in all, not a bad night of fights. There were definitely some unfortunate outcomes though, and that's never fun for the viewer or the fighters. I know my score card would look a whole lot greener if Nate and Brandon didn't have the referee mistakes interfere with the outcome. But that's how it goes.

The next UFC event is the season finals for the Ultimate fighter. That takes place Saturday, June 21st. We'll know the finalized fight card after Wednesday, the 18th, when we find out who the two finalists are. Should be good stuff.

UFC 85 picks...

The UFC is starting the early summer with a flurry of events. The next one being UFC 85 this Saturday, June 7th.

It seems like there are two types of UFC PPV formats: One is get a hugly anticipated main event or two, and fill the undercard with relative unknowns, or guys coming off losses, or a lot of dubut fighters no one knows. The second one is have a non-title fight between a high profile fighter or two, and fill the undercard with a bunch of other well known and well liked fighters, so the PPV seems worth the expence.

This UFC 85 feels like the second type. There's no belt on the line. But there are a lot of great fighters all through out the fight card. I like seeing guys I know fight, and I like to pick them to win. With this fightcard though, I've had to make a lot of choices betwen two fighters I normally would have sided with if they were fighting other guys.

I've tried a different format to show my picks, hopfully it's not too small. But these are my picks...

In the main event I have Matt Hughes winning. I think he will have rededicated himself to training and that we'll see him go back to his roots of brutal takedowns and ground and pound. Almost against anyone else I would have chosen Thiago Alves to win. He's a good fighter, and fun to watch.

Michael Bisbing vs. Jason Day. I don't know Jason Day, but that doesn't matter too much because I think Bisping is going to be really hard to beat at 185lbs.

Probably the toughest fight to pick in the whole PPV is the fight between Marcus Davis and Mike Swick. I'm a fan of both of these fighters. Mike Swick's early UFC career saw him finishing fight after fight in super fast fashion in the middleweight (185lbs.) division. As he moved up the ranks, wins were getting difficult, and losses began to happen. He's dropped down into the welterweight division, and with a less than stellar win against Josh Burkman, he's looking to get back to his winning ways. As a fan, I hope he does too. Marcus Davis has almost an opposite story. He's a boxer turned MMA fighter, and early in his MMA career, he was a bit one dimentional and lost a couple fights. He dedicated his training to learning the ground game (wrestling and jujitsu), and since then has been winning fights. Not just with his boxing skills, but with his new submission skills as well. He's a natual welterweight, and is strong for his size. I route for him on a continuing basis. But I had to make a choice. Ultimatly I went with Mike Swick. I think he needs a good fight and a strong win to put him back in belt contention. One thing I've noticed recently in the UFC is, even if you lose a big fight, if it's a great fight, you don't fall far in the rankings, and for a fighter on the way up, it almost pushes them forward like a win would (only not as far as a win would). I guess that boils down to excitment and respect for ones heart in the fight. I hope this fight does that for both of these guys. Mike could use the win more though, but that's just my opinion.

Another fight I'm looking forward to a lot is the return of Brondon Vera after his loss to Tim Silvia. In that fight, Brandon busted his hand early on, and that distracted him enough that he couldn't do anything else but survive. He lost by decision. He's healed up and ready to get back to his winning ways, and moving up the heavyweight division ladder. He'll have to beat Fabricio Werdum to get there though. Fabricio is not as well known, but he does have a current win over the popular Gabriel Gonzaga. Fabricio and Brandon have very similar styles and skills. It will be interesting to see who will put this fight away first. I'm a big fan of Brandon, so I'm pulling for him in this fight.

Here are some of my other picks-

I like Martin Kapman and think he'll beat Jorge Rivera on the ground.

I think Jason Lambert will want to get back in the win collumn with a win over Luiz Cruz.

I think Eddie Sanchez will be able to take out Antoni Hardonk.

Matt Wiman will probably find a way to win against Thiago Tavares.

Because of all the fights as a whole, this has all the makings of one of the best PPVs this year. We'll see if that's what happens.

It happened twice!... (w/update)

For those that need the "cut to the chase", both of my MMA events were cut off at the end this weekend!

For the details, keep reading.

If you've been keeping up on my blog, you know that there were two MMA events this past weekend that I was planning to watch. If you haven't been keeping up on my blog, first of all, why not?, and second, the two events were EliteXC's network debut on CBS, and the WEC on the Versus channel. EliteXC was Saturday night, and WEC Sunday night. I wanted to make sure I didn't miss them, so I set the TiVo to record them.

Saturday night, Jason and Kristi were over and spending the night before they headed home to Bullhead City, Arizona. They are MMA fans too, so we started watching from the beginning. The event had already started, but because of the TiVo, we can start watching from the beginning. There were some pretty good fights. Gina Carano's fight was really good. That was my first time seeing her fight MMA. I've seen her fight Muy Thai before, and if you search "muy thai" in Google image, the second image is of Gina as "Crush" from American Gladiators.

Gina Carano

Another fight I was interested in was Scott Smith challenging for the middleweight belt against the champ Robbie Lawler. Both of these guys have previously fought in the UFC. It was an ok fight. Neither guy looked that great. It ended with a poke in the eye of Scott Smith. He said he couldn't see out of that eye, but wanted to keep fighting. The ringside doctor stopped the fight. Turns out, telling the Doc. you can't see is a bad idea if you want to keep fighting. Oops. After that fight, was the main event featuring Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson, a street fighter turned pro MMA fighter. I was looking forward to seeing him fight, just to see how long his opponent would last.

Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson

But guess what happened?... the show was scheduled for 2 hours, so the TiVo records for that 2 hours, but the show is running late and the last fight didn't record! GGGGGRRRRR!!! You can set your TiVo to record past the end time, but why would I think to do that? It was on a national network channel! Don't they keep a tight show schedule? Man, I was so ticked. I haven't done so yet, but I'll have to try and find it on youtube so I can see it. Poopy.





Well, at least I'll have the WEC fights to make it all better Sunday night!...





There's no point in trying to watch fights when the kids are awake. Not so much because they'll see it (they don't really care if it's not one of their shows), but because they'll make too much noise, and need too much help with whatever, that I can't just sit and enjoy the fights. So it's usually best to wait till they're in bed. The two fights I was looking forward to the most were the two Championship fights. One for the Bantamweights (135 lbs.), and the other at Featherweight (145 lbs.). There was a pretty good Light heavyweight (205 lbs.) fight that saw a 6' 6" guy get knocked out during some ground and pound by a shorter guy. The bantamweight championship fight was really good. Both fighters had great stand up, and the majority of the fight was on the feet. There were times when the fight went to the ground, and the Champ, Miguel Torres, like an "octopus in quicksand" (his words), on the ground, so his opponent didn't want to be there long. The fight ended after the 3rd round due to the challengers right eye swelling shut. It was decided that he couldn't continue. I agree. He wasn't going to win that fight anyway, and it's better to stop while one eye can still see.

WEC Bantamweight champ- Miguel Torres

That meant the next fight was the Featherweight Championship featuring the Champ, Urijah Faber vs. MMA veteran Jens Pulver.







But guess what?... It cuts off!!! Just after Jens enters the cage, and before Urijah makes his way to the cage, it stops. NO WAY!! Not Again! I can't even begin to tell you how bummed I was. Luckily, Versus channel was re airing the fights immediately afterward, so I set the TiVo to record those fights too, and set the stop at 30 minutes after the fights were scheduled to end. A championship fight is five, 5 minute rounds, with 60 seconds between rounds, so hopefully, if it went the distance, it still records it all.



I hope that happens less from now on.

**fight spoilers in this update**

I went to watch the second WEC recording I set to record, and it too was cut off at the end! The first show going over made the second show run even longer over it's sheduled time!

Luckily for me, there are people that put stuff on youtube really fast. I was able to find the Kimbo Slice fight. Looks like if you can survive the first round with Kimbo, you might have a chance if you protect your chin. Kimbo had his first taste of the receiving end of some ground and pound, and it wore him out pretty quickly. Luckily for Kimbo, the ref stopped the fight either due to a cut on his opponents ear or the ref thought his opponent was not defending himself. My only thing about that is, that was the third time the fighter was taking that kind of damage, and he was able to continue fighting the other times, why stop it this time? There was also a time in the fight that Kimbo was pinned down in the second round, and he was not able to defend himself, and took dozens of blows, and the ref allowed it to continue. It felt a whole lot like EliteXC wanted to make sure their money maker won that fight. whether that's true or not, that's what it felt like to me.

The WEC fights were up on youtube as well. It took a little longer to find, but I found it. One of the things about a list of videos you're scanning, is you see more than you want. I was looking for the fight, but also saw that there were 5 rounds of fight listed. That meant that I knew before watching the first round, the fight has at least 5 rounds. It makes it a little less exciting. The 5th round was the most exciting because even though it's the last round, you have no idea if it goes the distance or finished by one of the fighters. It did go the distance, and Urijah was able to do more damage in each round, so he won by unanimous decision. It was actually a pretty action packed fight all though out. Good stuff.

My UFC 84 report card...

I got a chance to watch UFC 84 Monday afternoon with my brother Kevin. There were a lot of great match ups on the fight card. I forgot to print out my picks so I could track how I was doing during the fights. It's pretty easy to remember who you've picked to win, but difficult to remember the other details. Anyway, here is my "report card"...

Point Score: 172
Your Ranking: 95 out of 19355

YOUR FIGHT CARD RESULTS: = Correct Answer, = Incorrect Answer, = Bonus Points Awarded
Fight Card/ Your Choices /Winning Method /Round /Minute /Point(s)
BJ Penn Vs Sean Sherk BJ Penn Split Decision 5 5 16
Tito Ortiz Vs Lyoto Machida Tito Ortiz Split Decision 3 5 6
Wanderlei Silva Vs Keith Jardine Keith Jardine Split Decision 3 5 0
Wilson Gouveia Vs Goran Reljic Goran Reljic Technical Knock Out 3 1 22
Thiago Silva Vs Antonio Mendes Thiago Silva Knock Out 1 2 21
Rameau Sokoudjou Vs Kazuhiro Nakamura Rameau Sokoudjou Technical Knock Out 2 3 22
Jon Koppenhaver Vs Yoshiyuki Yoshida Yoshiyuki Yoshida Unanimous Decision 3 5 15
Jason Tan Vs Dong Hyun Kim Dong Hyun Kim Knock Out 1 3 15
Ivan Salaverry Vs Rousimar Palhares Rousimar Palhares Submission (Choke) 1 3 20
Christian Wellisch Vs Shane Carwin Shane Carwin Unanimous Decision 3 5 15
Rich Clementi Vs Terry Etim Rich Clementi Technical Knock Out 3 4 20
POINT SCORE: 172

(The report card indicates what my picks were and if I got them right or wrong.)

Here are the official results...

OFFICIAL EVENT RESULTS:
Fight card /Bout Winner/ Winning Method/ Round /Minute
BJ Penn Vs. Sean Sherk BJ Penn Technical Knock Out 3 5
Wanderlei Silva Vs. Keith Jardine Wanderlei Silva Knock Out 1 0
Wilson Gouveia Vs. Goran Reljic Goran Reljic Technical Knock Out 2 3
Tito Ortiz Vs. Lyoto Machida Lyoto Machida Unanimous Decision 3 5
Thiago Silva Vs. Antonio Mendes Thiago Silva Submission (Other) 1 2
Ivan Salaverry Vs. Rousimar Palhares Rousimar Palhares Submission (Arm Lock) 1 2
Rameau Sokoudjou Vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura Rameau Sokoudjou Technical Knock Out 1 5
Rich Clementi Vs. Terry Etim Rich Clementi Unanimous Decision 3 5
Jon Koppenhaver Vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida Yoshiyuki Yoshida Submission (Choke) 1 0
Jason Tan Vs. Dong Hyun Kim Dong Hyun Kim Technical Knock Out 3 0
Christian Wellisch Vs. Shane Carwin Shane Carwin Technical Knock Out 1 0

All in all, a pretty exciting night of of fights. Out of eleven fights, only 2 went to decision, and only one of those aired. Because so many fights ended early, we got to see 8 out of the 11. That's a lot of fights.

Here's my take on the fights we saw...

The Main Event. BJ and Sean both came out standing and boxing. Both looked to want to establish a stand-up game plan. BJ had a few inches of reach advantage, and that played a key roll in the early rounds. Sean's face was getting pummeled from their exchanges. BJ looked hardly touched. Sean seems to cut easily, and had cuts under both eyes by the end of the second round. BJ had one takedown attempt on Sean, and Sean had several take down attempts on BJ. In the 3rd round, both were still trading punches, Sean looked unusually tired or fatigued and after an exchange, back pedaled all the way to the cage, as he came forward from the spring of the cage, BJ is running up to him, Sean ducks, and BJ lands an excellent flying knee that puts Sean right back against the cage and on his back. BJ follows up with a flurry of punches and looks to finish the fight before the bell. The ref didn't stop the fight, the bell sounded, but Sean could not continue. BJ retains the belt, and becomes the undisputed lightweight champion. BJ was patient, he had great hand speed and accuracy. Great take down defence, and finishing skills. He saw his opening and took it.

Keith Jardine and Wanderlei Silva. This looked like it was shaping up to be a slugfest war. But once the opening bell sounded, Silva was in Keith's face, much like Houston Alexander did in his fight with Keith, and Keith found himself on his heels and then on the floor getting knocked out in less than a minute! I chose Keith in that fight. Oops.

Tito Ortiz vs. Lyoto Machida. Both fighters met at the center of the ring after the opening bell, and sized each other up. No real combinations thrown, just single shots. Lyoto seemed to land at will, Tito had a more difficult time landing anything cleanly as Lyoto was VERY ellusive and was able to avoid any real damage. Lyoto has a strong Karate backround, and uses those skills to land punches and kicks from many different angles and land those punches and kicks in many different locations. You may see the kick coming, but you don't know where it will land. Tito was very frustrated with Lyoto's elusiveness (backward and side movement), and the crowd was getting frustrated with Lyoto not standing in front of Tito to brawl. Even when the few times that Lyoto and Tito clinched, Lyoto looked pretty strong. He was able to sweep, and escape without much apparent effort. But if that's not in your game plan, and you're as diseplined as Lyoto is, it's not an option. This wasn't the most exciting fight I've ever seen, but it was nice to see someone with highly technical skills use them so effectively.

I ended up choosing quite a few UFC debuters to win their fights, and I did well with that...

-Wilson Gouviea lost to newcomer Goran Reljic. There were a lot big hits exchanged in this fight. It was Goran that added his up first, and got the TKO.

-Newcomer Shane Carwin wowed the crowd with a superfast knockout win over Christian Wellisch.

-Yoshiyuki Yoshida, making his debut a memorable one by choking out Jon Koppenhaver in under a minute as well.

-Rousimar Palhares took a little longer in finishing his debut fight against Ivan Salaverry. He ended his fight with a wicked armbar in the second minute of the first round.

-One newcomer that didn't do as well was Antonio Mendes. Thiago Silva has a perfect fight record and kept it that way by submitting Antonio in the second minute of the first round.

The next MMA fights I'll be watching...

- EliteXC on CBS Saturday, May31, 9pm eastern time. Fight card.

- WEC on Versus (cable channel), June 1, 9pm eastern time. Main event: Featherweight (145 lbs.) championship fight, Urijah Faber vs. Jens Pulver Fight card

- UFC 85 on PPV, June 7th. Here's the fight card.

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.