Vera vs Jones

Alessio Sakara vs James Irvin:
I am not a big fan of unnecessary muscular mass. You may get big and intimidating but, in general, you'll get winded after a little action because all that muscle needs oxygen and that's when your fit, well conditioned opponent will smile. In the Sandman's case, his muscles actually make him one of the strongest punches in the Light Heavy Weight division. I can only imagine what he would be able to do if he were able to recover well from the cut to 186lbs. Unfortunately I don't think that will be the case. He is already not really known for his endurance, after cutting 20 extra pounds, he is in for a rough night against Sakara who is a seasoned boxer and is very unlikely to repeat the mistake he made against Chris Leben. The Legionary will pick him apart and finish Irvin by the end of the second or beginning of the third round. Sakara by TKO.

Paul Buentello vs Cheick Congo:
I am not sure what Congo accomplishes with this fight. It seems to me that the UFC is throwing him a bone here. If he wins, all it does is that it keeps him from losing 3 in a row because as far as moving up the ladder in the Heavy Weight division, beating the Head Hunter won't really do it. On the other hand, If Buentello comes out on top on this one, people will start paying attention to him and he'll be eligible for a bigger fight, maybe Yvel or Cro Cop. Here is the deal, the UFC is throwing Congo a bone here but this bone may be poisoned. On paper, Congo should get a decision but Buentello does have the 1 punch KO power on his side and because of that, is a very dangerous opponent. Not totally confident but I will say Congo via decision.

Junior "Cigano" dos Santos vs Gabriel "Napão" Gonzaga:
Unfortunately, for Napão, all fights start standing. While I like Gonzaga, I don't think he has the boxing skills to survive Cigano enough time to be able to go for a take down. Even if he does so, is he going to be successful at the take down attempt? If he is, do we really think that Cigano would try to grapple with him? The fact is that Cigano is Minotauro's pupil and definitely knows how to stall and / or get up. When Cigano gets up, Gabe is in deep trouble again, one punch away from La La Land. I do not see this going any other way, even if  the Napão who fought Couture shows up, the result will be Cigano by KO first round.

Vera vs Jones:
It is true that Jones has not fought a striker of Vera's caliber, therefore I don't think he will be as free as he's been in his last fights. One might say "what about Bonnar. Doesn't he have a golden glove under his belt?" Yes, I don't discard Stephan Bonnar (not even after the Coleman fiasco). He is a good striker and I think the only reason he got hit with those spinning elbows was that they were unexpected. People, and especially Vera, have wised up to them. Can Bones land some pretty tricks? Of course, but will they be enough to win? Definitely no. This is why I think this is going to come down to wrestling and that is an area where we have no doubt about who's got the edge.  Bones will ground and pound from either side control or half guard and get a stoppage. Bones 2nd round TKO.

UFC 109 Educated guesses

The UFC has titled it "Relentless" but these guys came up with a better, funnier title: "UFC 109 Can't get it up". While I do think the main event is lame, unless it's 2002 again, and the Serra x Trigg should be a words only fight, at an elderly home weekend bingo or something, I am actually looking forward to the other fights. From the bottom I'll start:

Trigg x Serra: Wrestling goes to Trigg, BJJ to Serra who also has heavier hands. That puts Serra in a pretty comfortable spot for this one, so I'll go with Serra via TKO 2nd round. (But who cares..)

MIke Swick x Paulo Thiago: This fight is tougher than people think and Swick will be in danger of a TKO because Thiago has "1 punch Knock Down power" on both hands and he can smell blood from afar, while Swick relies more on landing sequences a la Wand style, but he, most likely will not be able to land many of those on Thiago. Having said that, I do think Swick will stay away from the big punches and barely out strike Thiago, yanking a split decision on this one.

Nate Marquardt x Chael Sonnen: When I first heard the rumor of this fight I begged Nate (via Twitter) not to take this fight. Henderson was still in the mix and the Silva x Belfort deal was not done yet. Since Silva was still healing from his surgery, I thought Nate could fight either Victor or Henderson but Joe Silva apparently had different plans. I mean no disrespect to Sonnen but he hasn't really done anything to deserve the number 1 contender. Sonnen is a good fighter with a good history and an even better future in my opinion. Having said that, he's got his work cut out for him on this one. Simply put, Marquardt does everything Sonnen does, better. I honestly feel that Nate will give him an ugly beating for 3 rounds and either get a very convincing unanimous decision or a ref stoppage, deep in the 3rd round. Nate will not finish Sonnen because there is no "quit" in that man. Sonnen will take a beating that would make many fighters give up, but not Sonnen and for that, he deserves our respect.
Marquardt by unanimous decision. (10-26)

The main event: Couture x Coleman may be an interesting fight according to a friend of mine and I agree but let's just put it this way: "It will not be up for fight of the year", not even close. I think it will be painfully boring to see two excellent wrestlers pressing against the cage, fighting for under hooks for 13 minutes. On the brighter side, we may get to enjoy a little bit of sub par striking devoid of any knockout power before they clinch for 3 minutes and Coleman gets out of gas and Couture scores a TKO before the bell ends the 1st round. So I'm thinking Couture via TKO before 7:30 minutes. If that happens, we'll actually be able to see Danzig and Rolles Gracie at work. Two very interesting match ups.

Fight of the night: Marquardt x Sonnen

UFC 100 thoughts and predictions

Here we are once again, just a few days away from a UFC event. Not just any event but one to be considered a milestone: UFC 100. A company that started a little bit as a freak show and a total infomercial for Gracie Jiu Jitsu, went through its fair share of thunderstorms and 16 years later, reigns supreme as the king of paper view. How beneficial it is for one's career it is to be on this fight card. Speaking of fights, I have no shortage of opinions about this one. I actually love the card and for the most part, I think everybody on it deserves to be there, except for Lesnar. I understand he is a huge superstar but the man does not have a record that lands him on this card. He doesn't have a record that puts him against Couture just a few months ago, but the UFC realizes Brock draws a lot of attention and perhaps many new viewers because of his popularity as a pro wrestler. It is a great business decision and who am I to second guess the guys who pretty much developed the fastest growing sport in the United States? Since I started with Lesnar, let's talk about him first:

Mir X Lesnar: Mir is going to sub him again. Plain and simple. My guess is that Lesnar will over protect his legs and leave Mir an omoplata or something. Maybe even a choke. We'll see. Moving on we have...

Bisping X Henderson: This is a tough one to call. I want Hendo to win, not because I'm a big fan or anything, but because it is so much fun to hate on Bisping. Having said that, I think it will be a little bit of a truncated fight, with a pinch of a fun brawl at moments and the Brit will yank a decision in the end.

Tiago Alves X George Saint Pierre: This is actually my favorite fight of the night. At first, I thought GSP would have no problems walking through Alves but as I thought more about it, I ended up changing my mind on it. I think that, if Tiago is able to stuff GSP's take downs, he'll win the stand up battle.I realize that's a big "if", but I think The Pit bull will actually pull it off. I think he's better on his feet and even if GSP tries a little dirty boxing, Alves should be ok. On the other hand, the longer this thing goes, the better it is for GSP. Here is my prediction on record: Alves via KO probably end of 2nd or beginning of 3rd. That's bold, I know. That's what I see though. Gotta go with it.
A couple more things: Really, really looking forward to see Jon Jones working. Also, the UFC is expected to come up with 2 more hall of famers and there has been a lot of speculation on who they are. Many have said that "Mask" should be one of them. I agree that "Mask" should be in the hall of fame but if we're bringing in non UFC fighters, Mr. Helio Gracie should lead that line. The other two names I can think of at the moment are "The Iceman", and I'd love to see it happening, and Matt Hughes. If that is what Dana is doing, I would hope they both are retiring. They have been great champions and have absolutely nothing to prove.I understand they'll be inducted during the Fan expo on Friday but I'm hoping there will be some kind of tribute paid to them during the PPV event. It should be an action packed event and I can't wait to see it. Till then, fight on.

The Dragon

A lot has happenned since I posted on the MMA world last. Busy few days around here.

There was UFC 96, Mir injured, UFC 100 announcement, Rampage earning a title shot just to postpone it the day after, the great decision to have Lyoto vs Rashad and, of course, the tragic loss of Mask.

Let's go one at the time.



UFC 96: I don't think it was a great event. Not necessarily UFC's fault but the action just never took off in my opinion. Gonzaga got carried away trying to exchange punches with a man who has hands that are bigger than Lesnar's. That's insane. Why a BJJ Mundial champion would do that, remains a mistery to me. The main event was potentially great but the boys were a bit too cautious. I think that if one of them had really dominated a round, someone would be more desperate and that's how we could have seen an old fashioned slug fest. Oh well, can't always get what you want. I want to acknowledge my boy Gray Maynard for a good fight and the great improvement of his boxing. Also Brown put on a great performance but, in my opinion, the once promissing Sell isn't exactly top competition right now.



Mir injured: I don't want to hyper spiritualize it but there might be a curse over the heavy weight division. Randy out forever on that lawsuit thing, Big Nog performing like an amateur, Fedor x Randy doomed to never happenning and now Mir x Lesnar postponed. What's next? Wish Mir all the best and hope he can come back soon.



UFC 100: Can't wait to see that card finalized. GSP x Alves is a good start but, come on.... it's the UFC 100 guys.



Rampage: I'm a Rampage fan but I think Lyoto deserved it more so I'm not TOO bummed out. Quinton will be back better than never.



Lyoto Machida really deserved a title shot after the devastation of one of my favorites, Tiago Silva. One way or another, he got it. Can't wait to see him defeating Sugar. (or not)



Mask: Heartbreaking news. The MMA community lost one of the most recognizable faces in the game. Mask will truly be missed. I hope God will show His grace and goodness and comfort in this time of tremendous pain to all the Tapout crew.

Franklin won

Although I do have a couple of biblical manhood related posts brewing, we are in a month innundated with MMA events and eventhough my wife seems to love it even more than I do, I reckon that's kind of manly too, so here we go.

For once in my life I had been right in all my predictions: Toquinho overpowered Horn but couldn't GnP him much less sub him. Davis outboxes Lytle in an old fashioned slug fest. Shogun beat a very tired Hammer and although I was surprised about how poorly Rua performed, he came out with a "W" which is what I thought would happen. No surprises, everything is going as predicted. Coke and Cheetos in hand I fast forward to The main bout of the night. I really thought Rich won the first and the third and had secured a decision. I said to my brother in law: you know, 29 x 28 isn't that bad. After all this is Dan Henderson, one of the baddest dudes out there". The score cards were made public and there were flying Cheetos everywhere. Now, I already hate being wrong like i was on Chuck x Rashad or Werdum x Cigano or Griffin x Rampage or Chuck x Rashad and many others but this one reminded me once again that I should never bet on MMA because even when I'm right, I'm wrong.

See you again for the Affliction on the 24th.

God bless you all.