Predictions: I think Lyoto Machida will defeat in Shogun Rua in the Light Heavyweight fight. Rua appears to be good condition again and poses a threat to Machida, but I have go with Machida in this fight because he is undefeated and has the skills to deal with anything Rua will throw at him imo. Right now I think there is only one fighter in the UFC that Machida would be an underdog to and that fighter is Anderson Silva.
In the Heavyweight bout I predict Ben Rothwell will defeat Cain Velasquez. This is a tough call because I have not seen Rothwell fight at all and I have only seen Velasquez once, in his fight against Kongo. I’m basing my pick on what I saw in that fight. Velasquez displayed his great wrestling ability against Kongo and that is what carried him to victory in that fight, but he also showed that he vulnerable to big fighters that punch hard. Kongo dropped Velasquez a couple times but could not capitalize on due to his lack wrestling ability. Once the fight went to the ground Velasquez was able to recover and gain the upper hand. Rothwell has extensive MMA experience and appears to be a much better all around fighter than Kongo and at 6′ 5″, 260 lbs he has a significant size advantage over Velasquez, who is 6’1″, 240 lbs. So, even though Rothwell is the underdog I think he can take Cain Velasquez.
I think both fights will be very competitive and hard fought. I expect both to end by KO or TKO.
gmf journal 