Category: UFC

UFC’s Brock Lesnar has sights set on another successful title defense – latimes.com.

The card for 119 is somewhat lackluster, but there a few significant bouts on tap.

Heavyweight: Frank Mir vs Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic. Tough fight to call because both fighters have demonstrated that they can KO or submit opponents or be KO’d. Both seem to be past their prime and they are now fighting for survival in the UFC heavyweight Div. Will both show up with their A game? I think Mir, at his best, is a little more versatile, with both good striking and his superior Jiu Jitsu. If Mir stays clear of Cro Cop’s dangerous kicks he should prevail imo.
Mir by decision.

Light Heavyweight: Rogerio Nogueira vs Ryan Bader: Winner probably gets to fight a top 5 opponent in the division next, so this is an important fight. I’ll take Bader over Little Nog. Ryan Bader was a D-1 All-American wrestler at Arizona State Univ. and has added a pretty good stand up game to his repertorie. Bader is now 11-0 and seems ready to challenge the LHW division elite if he can get past the veteran Nogueira, who is a master of BJJ. He also he good boxing skills. This should be a very interesting fight, but I think Bader’s superior athletic ability will enable him to prevail. Bader by KO/TKO in Rd 2.

Welterweight: Matt Serra vs Chris Lytle: Lytle by submission in round 3. Lytle is on a 3 fight win streak and appears to be at top of his game. Lytle is fighting in his hometown tonight. Both fighters have strong Jiu Jitsu. Serra won by split decision last time these met in the Octagon, but that was four years ago. Although Serra scored a KO in his last fight I think Lytle is the hotter fighter right now. Lytle by decision.

Fight Pick Results: 3 right, 0 wrong.

The UFC brings the fights to Boston tonight and Dana White and Co. have put together a pretty good card imo. Dana is on a roll. I thought 116 (Lesnar vs Carwin) and 117 (Silva vs Sonnen) were both very good and not just for main event fights. Both of those events had at least 4 or 5 entertaining, competitive fights. 118 looks like it may continue that trend. I’m going to make predictions for the three big fights on the card:

First the two Lightweight weights:

Kenny Florian vs. Gray Maynard: This should be a very competitive. Both fighters are near the top of the light weight division. Florian is 14-4, but he has lost only one fight out of his last 9 and that was to B.J. Penn. Maynard has a record of 9 win, no losses and 1 no contest. Maynard is a former All American wrestler (Michigan St.) and has developed a good standup game.
Could go either way, but I think Florian wins via submission.

Light Weight Championship fight pits current Champ Frankie against that man he dethroned, Edgar B.J. Penn. This fight should also be very competitive. Edgar’s last victory was a major upset. I don’t he will beat Penn twice, although Edgar I’m sure will be well prepared and not go down easily. However, I still think that when Penn is at the top of his game he is the best is at 155 pounds. I expect a highly focused and determined B.J. Penn to win his belt back.

MMA legend Randy Couture takes on Pro Boxer James Toney in a heavyweight contest that will be watched with great interest in the MMA world. Both men are past their primes, but this is still a very interesting fight because it is the first time a high level elite boxer will test his skills in the UFC. Although Couture is 47 years old he is still in great physical condition and should win, but there is an element of danger here for Couture because Toney can definitely throw a hard punch. Toney comes in at 237 pounds and did not exactly look cut ( the man is 5’10”) at the weigh in, but I’m sure he still has KO power. Couture has to use his superior wrestling skills to bring this fight to the ground and in doing so negate Toney’s boxing skills advantage. Couture should be able to pound Toney into submission. I predict Couture wins within two rounds.

POST Fight thoughts.

Tough night for my picks. I went 1 & 2, which brings my overall record to 26 and 13. In retrospect I let my bias toward the more established fighters, in Penn and Florian, influence my judgement too much. Maynard and Edgar represent the future of the lightweight division, while Florian and B.J. Penn represent the past. It is not coincidental that both Maynard and Edgar both have backgrounds as elite wrestlers at the college level. Fighters with a strong wrestling base have peformed quite well in the UFC lately, witness the success of Brock Lesnar, Chael Sonnen, Jon Fitch, Rashad Evans, Jon Jones and others. Maynard and Edgar are continuing that trend. Oh, and speaking of wrestlers, I was happy to see Randy Couture use his wrestling skills to quickly put James “Lights Out” Toney down and then choke out the big mouth boxer within the first round.

I went 3 and 0 on my predictions and I’m pleased with that, although I wasn’t going out on a limb with any of my picks (SIlva, Fitch, Dos Santos). Still, wins are wins, and I’ll take them.

Fitch and Dos Santos won tough fights, but did so decisively. Anderson Silva, on the other hand, barely survived his battle against Chael Sonnen. As I noted in my 117 prediction post I was rooting for Sonnen and thought he was capable of pulling the upset. Sonnen dominated the fight for 4 1/2 rounds, until Silva found a away of putting Sonnen in a triangle choke and submitted him before the final round ended. Submissions have always been Sonnen’s Achilles Heal and, unfortunately for him, Silva was able to take advantage of what might be Sonnen’s only real weakness. Hopefully, we will see a rematch between these two. Ironically, Sonnen’s reputation in the MMA world has been elevated in defeat because he showed the world that the seemingly invincible Anderson Silva can be beaten.

The victory by Junior Dos Santos puts him in line to fight the winner of the Brock Lesnar vs Cain Velasquez fight. Good luck with that Junior.

The UFC event tonight looks like it will have a great card from top to bottom. Kudos to UFC President Dana White and his organization for providing some excitement in the sports world at what is normally a very slow time of year for sports fans in America (I’m sorry, mid season baseball isn’t exactly riveting).

Tonights fights are tough to pick too because of the competitive nature of the fighters and the style contrasts in some cases. I’m going to pick three of televised fights:

Silva vs Sonnen: I think Anderson Silva will win by KO or TKO by the third round.

Fitch vs Alves: Fitch by unanimous decision.

Dos Santos vs Nelson: I think Dos Santos wins by KO/TKO in second round.

Just for the record I am rooting for Chael Sonnen and Big Country Nelson to win, but my picks above reflect who I think will prevail and not who I want to win. That said, I do think that both Sonnen and Nelson have legitimate outside shots to win their fights. Both are very skilled and are capable of upsetting in my opinion.

UFC 116 has some pretty interesting fights on the card, but this event is really about the main event. The heavyweight battle between Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin will be a true battle of titans. Both of these guys will probably be well above the 265 lbs weight limit come fight time.

This is a very difficult fight to call because both fighters are very skilled and both have KO power. I don’t think this fight will go past 2 rounds, one way or another, because both of these behemoths will likely be throwing bombs at each other with their huge fists.

I agree with conventional wisdom that Carwin has the edge in standup fighting and Lesnar probably has the edge on the ground with his world class wrestling ability.

Lesnar’s WWE antics definitely alienate a significant portion of the MMA fan base and I understand that, although I think he is an entertaining character. I also admire Lesnar because he is all business when it is fight time.

Despite the long lay off I think Lesnar will be sharp in this fight and I expect him to win by taking Carwin down and stopping him via ground and pound in the 2nd round. Will I be shocked if Carwin KO’s Lesnar? No. He is more than capable of doing that if Brock gives him an opening, but I think Lesnar will be very conscious of that power and try to take away Carwin striking advantage by putting this fight on the ground.

UFC 116 Post Event observations:

Well, the main event, Lesnar vs Carwin, certainly lived up to expectations. It was a great fight, and as I noted in my prediction, could indeed have gone either way. Shane Carwin came very close the KO’ing Lesnar in the first round with a brutal barrage of strikes and elbows that put Lesnar on his back and doing all he could to protect himself. Lesnar regroup between Rd 1 and Rd 2 and came out looking to take Carwin down, which he did fairly easily, using his world class wrestling ability. This where Lesnar a real advantage over most other heavyweights. Lesnar moved quickly to end the fight with a triangle choke that Carwin had no chance of breaking free from.

However, UFC 116 was memorable for far more than just the main event. There were at least 4 or 5 other fights on the 116 card that were exceptional, especially the Akiyama vs Leben fight. Chris Leben took the fight on two weeks notice and won in spectacular fashion in the closing seconds of the 3rd round.

I’m not going to make any picks for UFC 115 because there are too many question marks on this card, especially the main event, featuring Chuck Liddell vs Rick Franklin. Both Liddell and Franklin are not anywhere near what they once were and who knows what kind of shape these guys will be in. Unfortunately, both former champs were KO’d in their last fights’.

The rest of the 115 card seems pretty weak to me. Frankly, this card seems to have a lot of no-names or guys are that have performed poorly in recent fights and are now just trying to stay in the UFC.

UFC 114 looks like it will have a pretty good card, with at least 4 or 5 fights that could be very entertaining. Of course, it is the main event, with Rampage Jackson vs Sugar Rashad Evans that is the major draw and with good reason. It is a very compelling match-up between two top light heavies that seem to intensely dislike each other. Jackson vs Evans is the only fight at this event that I have made a pick on and I’m going with Rampage in what I expect to be a close hard fought fight. I did not make predictions for any other fights because there are many match-ups where I am familiar with one fighter, but not the other, so I would making more uneducated guesses than I am comfortable with.

I think Rashad Evans has a chance to win if he keeps the fight on the ground and uses his superior wrestling skills to his advantage, but he has to avoid Jackson’s dangerous striking and the KO power that is packed in Rampage’s punches. In the end I think Rampage’s strength will prove too much for Evans.

I picked Anderson Silva, BJ Penn and Matt Hughes to win their fights and posted my predictions on Twitter prior to the fights. I went 2 and 1 because BJ Penn lost in a shocking upset. He was a heavy favorite to win over Frankie Edgar.

Anderson Silva won easily, but he damaged his reputation because he did not conduct himself in a professional manner. He taunted and toyed with his opponent, Damien Maia, over the course of 5 rounds when he could have ended the fight in one of the early rounds. UFC President Dana White was disgusted and embarrassed by his antics. I think White should arrange a fight between Silva and Light Heavyweight Jon Jones. I think Jones, with his superior athletic ability and wrestling background would truly challenge Silva.