Thursday, December 23, 2010

UFC 125 Prediction Game

How the game works?

• Leave a comment under the blog UFC 125 Prediction Game
• Predict the Whole UFC 125 Card
• If you get EVERYTHING right, I will send you $5 by paypal. Easy $5.
• If there is a tie, the person with the earliest comment wins. That’s the tie breaker.
• If there is a change in the fight card like someone is dropped or changed in the fight, that whole fight will be scratched out and it won’t count against you or for you.
• Please leave your information as follows.

Name:
Email:
• I’ll announce the winner and I will contact the winner by email, so I can send the $5 to your paypal account.
• It’s all for fun and Good Luck.


* Lightweight Championship bout: Frankie Edgar (c) vs. Gray Maynard
* Middleweight bout: Chris Leben vs. Brian Stann
* Light Heavyweight bout: Brandon Vera vs. Thiago Silva
* Welterweight bout: Nate Diaz vs. Dong Hyun Kim
* Lightweight bout: Clay Guida vs. Takanori Gomi

Preliminary card

* Lightweight bout: Marcus Davis vs. Jeremy Stephens
* Featherweight bout: Josh Grispi vs. Dustin Poirier
* Middleweight bout: Phil Baroni vs. Brad Tavares
* Featherweight bout: Mike Brown vs. Diego Nune
* Welterweight bout: Daniel Roberts vs. Greg Soto
* Lightweight bout: Jacob Volkmann vs. Antonio

Sunday, December 19, 2010

UFC 125 Preview

UFC 125 will take place on January 1, 2011 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The headliner for the first UFC event of the new year, will be the lightweight championship bout between Frankie Edgar and Grey Maynard. This will start the UFC on the right foot for the new year, especially with the new edition of the WEC roster.

These are my predictions for the main card.

Frankie Edgar vs Grey Maynard for the Lightweight Championship

This will be a rematch from their first bout that ended in a close decision with Maynard coming out as the victor. He edged his opponent by keeping Edgar down in the 3rd round which gave him the victory. Years later, they both have vastly improved their skills. Edgar's boxing really improved, cadio, and training with Ricardo Almeida made his ground skills a lot sharper. As Edgar showed in his last bout with B.J Penn, you really can't catch this guy anymore with the striking, he makes you whiff like crazy. He mixes up really well to. Maynard also improved, hes as strong as always wrestling wise. He gets you and keeps you down. He gives his opponents a lot of pressure from the top position. The only thing bad to say about him, is that he almost never finishes. 10 wins with 8 by decision. He showed some improvement with his striking against Nate Diaz but he gave a lack luster performance. To me, the revenge factor for Edgar makes the icing on the cake for him. I think hes going to employ a striking clinic against Maynard as he did against Penn.

PREDICTION: Edgar by Decision

Co-Main Event : Chris Leben vs Brian Stann

Chris Leben is on a 3 win fight streak, defeating Jay Silva, Aaron Simpson, and Yoshiro Akiyama. Going into the Stann fight he has all the momentum, hes coming off great performances and has look really good in those outings. Brian Stann looked good with his cut to the middleweight division but I think the step up in competition will be too much for Stann. I have a feeling Stann will be drawn into Leben's fight. Leben will try to stand and bang with anyone and has the power to pull a knockout with one punch.

PREDICTION: Leben by 1st round TKO

Brandon Vera vs Thiago Silva

Both fighters coming off loses the fighters, this fight will see if Brandon Vera is still relevant to the division. Coming off 2 straight loses Vera's job may be in jeopardy. Thiago has power in his punches and if he lands it might be a short night for Vera. Vera's kicks are deadly though. I don't think this fight will get down to the mat. If Vera can chop down Silva's legs the power in his punches will be reduced greatly. Since Vera's future is against the wall in this fight, he may be the more dangerous fighter. He's going to need to keep and in and out pace and keep the fight as technical as possible. I have a feeling Thiago can knock him out but i'm going out and picking Vera.

Prediction : Brandon Vera by decision.

Nate Diaz vs Stun Gun Kim

Nate Diaz has looked great in his debut at welterweight outstriking Marcus Davis. I think his reach will play a huge factor for keeping Stun Gun out of range for any strikes. I will look for Diaz to utilize his jab against Kim. If and when Kim gets to the clinch, it wouldn't be the greatest idea for Kim to keep him on the ground. I'll go with Diaz.

Prediction : Diaz by 3round submission

Clay Guida vs Takanori Gomi

As much as anyone and myself love Clay Guida, I think Gomi will stuff his takedowns. Guida has improved his striking but Gomi will keep it standing and outsrike Guida. I think after the Griffin fight Gomi showed me a flash of the OLD Gomi.

Prediction : Gomi by decision.

George St. Pierre vs Jake Shields= Not exciting?

GSP just got off his one sided jabfest of Koscheck's right eye. He shut him down so easily, that Koscheck couldn't even see or even react to GSP's jab. That one sided domination, brings an argument for St. Pierre for cleaning out everyone in that division. The only relevant person for him to fight is Jake Shields. After that, its a clean sweep. Personally, that fight could potentially be the most boring fight in MMA history. It would be a takedown marathon I would think for Jake Shields, maybe that might be St. Pierre's weakness, fighting someone who can bore him to death more than he bores other people to death.

I'm not trying to diss them, they are amazing fighters but they give very lackluster performances. GSP doesn't take any risk and makes sure he gets the win and doesn't take the risk to go all in and finish the fight. He used to finish fights when he was younger, but he'd rather take the safe approach and win. Which doesn't always translate into an exciting fight for the fans.

Jake Shields, don't get me wrong hes a good fighter but, I never seen him in an exciting fight. He comes to wrestle and grapple. He puts the fight into his greatest strength which is a smart game plan. But he also does the lay and pray technique at times. Which many people labeled him to a boring fighter. The most exciting moment I've ever seen him in a fight is when Hendo almost knocked him out. That was the best.

Do you guys think this will be an exciting fight?

Friday, December 17, 2010

The Best MMA kick landed EVER!!!

Although I was wrong on my prediction with the Benson Henderson and Anthony Pettis fight last night, Pettis showed a real set of skills and a no fear attitude to commit to this kick. Its probably the best kick i ever seen landed, it was flashy as hell. To bad Henderson didn't get KO'd from it. Enjoy.






Highlight

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Final WEC Fight Card

Tonight, the last the world will ever see the WEC banner producing fights. This will be the final fight card due to the merger with the UFC. Two titles will be on the line, the WEC Lightweight Championship and the WEC Bantamweight Championship. This will be a showcase for these WEC fighters, to show the UFC what kind of talent they had there. Here are my predictions for the fights of the main card.

First on the main card is :


Bart Palaszewski Vs. Kamal Shalorus

Kamal Shalorus is a very decorated international wrestler. But he uses it to keep the fight standing and use his stand up to keep the fight in his element. He loves to throw all his power into his punches and if it lands, your going to be in huge trouble. But, I'm going to give his fight to Bard Palaszewski. Hes a crafty veteran and has much more experience than his opponent. He also pulls out a lot of crafty wins. He can finish you with his stand up or pull a crafty submission, but I see a 2nd round submission by Palaszewski.

Donald Cerrone Vs. Chris Horodecki

Honestly, I don't see where Horodecki is better than Cerrone. They got stand and bang. But with Cerrone's experiences with top flight guys in their division, I think he'll pull out a Horodecki leg battering decision. Expect Horodecki to be hobbling after the fight.

Dominick Cruz Vs. Scott Jorgensen

As much as I hate saying this because I consider Jorgensen one of my favorite Bantamweight fighters, Dominick Cruz pulls another decision. Hes going to have to stay on the outside and use his long reach to keep Jorgensen on the outside. Expect a GSP jabfest to Jorgensen's face. Jorgensen's straight forward pressure may go against him in this fight running into the punches. Cruz by 5 round decision.

Ben Henderson Vs. Anthony Pettis

The winner of this fight will face the winner of Edgar/Maynard bout in January. This fight has a lot on the line for these to, this will show who will be the last WEC Lightweight Champion before going to the UFC. Anthony Pettis has amazing stand up, very dynamic. He also has amazing triangles off his back. But, Henderson has a threshold that nobody ever seen. He doesn't tap, its like trying to choke out a zombie, it won't work. Henderson finishes this in 3 rounds by TKO . Ground and Pound, nobody ever seen Pettis really get rocked so this will test if he can eat Henderson's ground and pound assault.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

The Ultimate Fighter Season 13 Coaches

Although there is no coaches set for the next installment of the Ultimate Fighter, there has been various options of who will coach this season. Dana White has thrown around the idea of a Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir. This would set up a rubber match between the two to finish the trilogy. Personally, I would probably like to watch the animosity towards each other. Trash talking would be the amusement factor. Everyone knows they hate each other, why not have great footage. But who knows. Other speculations would be a Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva season. This would be an interesting match up but who knows if Chael Sonnen will be the same person, will he be humbled after his incident or will he be the trash talker he is. Having Wanderlei in the season means that there will be subtitles for sure. Who knows though, we'll just have to see what the UFC has in store. Personally, ill go with the Lesnar vs Mir just so these gigantic dudes will have some anger towards each other, which will lead to a great fight in the cage. What do you guys think?

Monday, December 13, 2010

Alistar Overeem Debate

On Sherdog.com Heavyweight kickboxer Alistar Overeem is rated the number 8 heavyweight in MMA. Is he a legit heavyweight that should be in the top 10. Some people say yes and others no. Recently Overeem had just won the K-1 World Grand Prix 2010 Final. He used his strength to bully the competition he had. But is he really a legit top 10 guy, this is my opinion.

Honestly, Overeem is a great fighter. No disrespect to him, but hes win streak right now, with his last MMA fight being Brett Rogers, isn't really too impressive. Rogers, Fujita, James Thompson, Tony Sylvester, and Gary Goodridge are not even top guys or even remotely close from being top flight competition. Yet to mention, he has barely even defended his Strikeforce belt. He needs to actually fight a guy that is in the top 10 or even a bigger name to even have him considered to be up there. Nobody is really testing him, he needs to fight a tougher opponent to actually be up there. Good fighter but not a top 10 material type of fighter just yet.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

UFC 124 Main Card

It was a good night for the UFC with its much anticipated event in Montreal, Canada. The poster boy of the welterweight division, champion, George St. Pierre's defended his title against the American Kickboxing Academy product Josh Koscheck. The event drew many fans of the champion and many Koscheck haters.

The first fight of the main card was a stand up battle between Muay Thai strikers John Howard and Thiago Alves. This match up was a stand up battle. Alves looked very good in this bout and made weight unlike prior events. He had been working with Mike Dolche on his diet. The battle was the classic battle of power vs technique. Alves technical approach, kept Howard guessing with the occasional leg kick to his lead leg. Howard could not land the 1 shot knock out on Alves, due to Alves's high guard with his hands and in and out approach. Alves battered Howards lead leg and at the end of it , Alves won the decision.

The next fight was a lightweight affair between Ultimate Fighter Winners Joe Stevenson and Mac Danzig. The fight was only seen standing and did not hit the floor until Joe Stevenson fell face first. They were exchanging punches and kicks until Joe Stevenson mounted an attack. While backing up, Danzig throws a perfect left hook and floors Stevenson immediately. The hammerfists at the end were just an added bonus to keep him down. Danzig pockete the $100k knockout of the night bonus.

The next fight was a lightweight battle between underrated Jim Miller and up and coming Charles Olivera. As soon as the fight hit the ground the prospect Olivera was already working his active guard to catch Miller in a submissions. Miller avoided all the submission attempts by the young Olivera. Miller tried his own submission of his own, he attempted attack his opponents leg with a what it seemed to be a straight ankle lock and quickly changed it to a kneebar. Olivera tried to fight through it with punches to Miller's body but gave up. Miller pocketed the $100k Submission of the Night Bonus.

The co-main event tilt between heavyweight prospects Stefan Struve and Sean McCorkle. There was a lot of animosity between the 2 fighters due to McCorkle's rants about Struve. It ended very quick. Struve worked a kimura sweep from guard and ended up pounding out McCorkle till it was stopped.

The main event was very anticipate by the hometown fans. The roar of the crowd when the champion George St. Pierre came out, must have gave GSP some advantage. But, on to the fight. Basically to save you from watching 25mins of your time, I can summarize it pretty easily. St. Pierre basically jabs Koscheck to death. And every now and then he would throw a superman punch/leg kick combo in succession. Koscheck ate many, many jabs. Due to that, Koscheck's eye swelled up closed and he was very tentative about letting his hands go. It let GSP dominate him easily with his precision striking. GSP retains the title with a 25min decision.

Fights I Hope to See

GSP vs Jake Shields

Only because Shields should be the contender but this should be an easy picking for the champ, because honestly i think GSP would pick Shields part on the feet, just like against Koscheck.

Stefan Struve vs Jon Madsen

This would be a test for Struve due to Madsen's wrestling pedigree.

Jim Miller vs any top 10 ranked lighweight

He needs to prove hes able to compete against the upper tier fighters.

Thiago Alves vs Another Striker (Anthony Rumble Johnson or Dan Hardy)

I think this fight would make fireworks