UFC

The Ultimate Fighter Team Jones vs. Team Sonnen is on ESPN at 1am Tuesday/Wednesday, fuck knows why it's on at that stupid time!!! If anyone finds it on the net feel free to post it, cheers.

ESPN 2am Saturday/Sunday



UFC Open-weight Predictions Grand Prix II

UFC on FX: Belfort vs. Bisping

Middleweight - Vitor Belfort v Michael Bisping - Bisping Dec
Middleweight - Daniel Sarafian v C.B. Dollaway - Sarafian Sub
Heavyweight - Gabriel Gonzaga v Ben Rothwell - Gonzaga TKO
Lightweight - Thiago Tavares v Khabib Nurmagomedov - Nurmagomedov Dec

List of fighters coming over from Strikeforce to the UFC.

Heavyweight:

Daniel Cormier (vs. Frank Mir on 20/4/13)

Light Heavyweight:

Gian Villante
Gegard Mousasi

Middleweight:

Luke Rockhold
Ronaldo Souza
Tim Kennedy
Roger Gracie
Lorenz Larkin

Welterweight:

Nate Marquardt
Tarec Saffiedine
Jordan Mein (vs. Dan Miller on 16/3/13)
Roger Bowling
Robbie Lawler (vs. Josh Koscheck on 23/2/13)
Jason High
Tyron Woodley (vs. Jay Hieron on 2/2/13)
Bobby Voelker (vs. Patrick Cote on 16/3/13)

Lightweight:

Gilbert Melendez (Title Fight vs. Benson Henderson on 20/4/13)
Josh Thomson
Caros Fodor (vs. Sam Stout on 23/2/13)
K.J. Noons
Ryan Couture
Isaac Vallie-Flagg (vs. Yves Edwards on 2/2/13)
Pat Healy
Bobby Green (vs. Jacob Volkmann on 2/2/13)
Adriano Martins
Kurt Holobaugh

Robbie Lawler v Josh Koscheck could be a good fight, Lawler's 3-5 over the last 3 years but I can see this fight being a bit like when he fought Nick Diaz.

last strikeforce event was a bit of a damp squid, too many pointless one sided fights. Be good to see Jacare, Cormier and mousasi in the ufc. Dana has also said Gil Melendez will probably get a sort of unification fight with Ben Henderson.

Middleweight - Vitor Belfort v Michael Bisping - Bisping tko
Middleweight - Daniel Sarafian v C.B. Dollaway - Sarafian sub
Heavyweight - Gabriel Gonzaga v Ben Rothwell - Gonzaga dec
Lightweight - Thiago Tavares v Khabib Nurmagomedov - Nurmagomedov sub

If it was purely to help hype the fight a little, then the fist to the chin was a smart move by Belfort... I like Belfort, but my fingers are crossed that Bisping earns his title shot, finally.

Below is from one of my favorite YouTube channels.

UFC Open-weight Predictions Grand Prix II

UFC on FX: Belfort vs. Bisping

Middleweight - Vitor Belfort v Michael Bisping - Bisping DEC
Middleweight - Daniel Sarafian v C.B. Dollaway - Sarafian DEC
Heavyweight - Gabriel Gonzaga v Ben Rothwell - Gonzaga TKO
Lightweight - Thiago Tavares v Khabib Nurmagomedov - Tavares DEC

UFC Open-weight Predictions Grand Prix II

UFC on FX: Belfort vs. Bisping

Middleweight - Vitor Belfort v Michael Bisping - Bisping Decision
Middleweight - Daniel Sarafian v C.B. Dollaway - Sarafian Decision
Heavyweight - Gabriel Gonzaga v Ben Rothwell - Gonzaga Submission
Lightweight - Thiago Tavares v Khabib Nurmagomedov - Nurmagomedov Decision

I thought it was a poor show from Bisping, he looked a bit nervous. It didn't take much for Vitor to finish it, Bisping kept holding back when going forward which is gonna take away any power you have in your punch. It was obvious Vitor wasn't gonna go crazy early on given it was a 5 round fight & knowing Bisping has great cardio, Bisping should've gone for a take down in the second. It was a brief but poor show.

He needs to find a defining factor to his game, something that can win him a fight at the drop of a hat or number 1 contender fights may be the top of his career!

That said it was typical UFC treatment of Michael Bisping, giving him Vitor Belfort, a fighter who doesn't care about the middleweight division & is focused on the light heavyweight title. When you give a fighter a number 1 contender fight it's against another title contender, where they've both got the same pressure.

This fight was a joke, Vitor's going into it thinking if I win I want another light heavyweight title shot & why shouldn't he given he knew even with a win he wouldn't be fighting Anderson Silva. You can't help but get the feeling that this is what the UFC wanted so they can keep the Silva v GSP/Jones talk going.
As much as I thought it was a poor show from Bisping, It was equally as poor an opponent choice by the UFC!!!

MMA Middleweight Rankings 13/1/2013

1. Anderson Silva
2. Chael Sonnen
3. Chris Weidman
4. Luke Rockhold
5. Vitor Belfort
6. Hector Lombard
7. Yushin Okami
8. Michael Bisping
9. Constantinos Philippou
10. Ronaldo Souza

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Chris Weidman v Luke Rockhold for the number 1 contender spot with Bisping being forced to fight Philippou or Souza, or typically Hector Lombard.

I'm a big fan of Vitor & I'd love to see him fight Lombard, it wouldn't last long but would be a lightning bolt of a fight.

Grand Prix table will be up after next Saturday's show.

UFC on Fox: Johnson vs. Dodson Live on ESPN 1am Saturday/Sunday

Main Card
Flyweight Title - Demetrious Johnson v John Dodson
Light Heavyweight - Quinton Jackson v Glover Teixeira
Lightweight - Donald Cerrone v Anthony Pettis
Featherweight - Erik Koch v Ricardo Lamas

Preliminary Card
Lightweight - TJ Grant v Matt Wiman
Featherweight - Clay Guida v Hatsu Hioki
Middleweight - Michael Kuiper vsJosh Janousek
Light Heavyweight - Ryan Bader v Vladimir Matyushenko
Heavyweight - Mike Russow v Shawn Jordan
Welterweight - Mike Stumpf vPascal Krauss

Bisping looked terrible I thought. From his ring walk, prep point and into the cage, then the way he half heartedly fought, was really poor. He was waiting for Belfort to attack him. If you stand around and wait for your opponent in the biggest fight of your life, against a killer like Belfort, you've got no chance! Thought he had a bit more about him than that. It's not like he's an Anderson Silva who can wait and be elusive then finish the fight with a lightening counter. Bispings' a top ten fighter but that's his limit now for me, he's doesn't possess that special something that can lift him out of the pack. He doesnt have a signature skill, something he can fall back on to get him out of trouble and change a fight. He's good at a number of different things but a master of none. There's no ko punch or strike in his locker, no submission ability, no real wrestling or effective ground game that can put rounds in the bank. All the fighters with a chance of fighting for the title have something, one punch, strike, submission, good wrestling..

If he loses his next fight then any chance he had of a title fight is finished. Mark Munoz, Weidman, Philippou and Lombard on his last display will all beat Bisping for me. Then there's tough fights like Okami and Tim Boetsch who's been calling him out for ages. I think he's looking at an Alan Belcher or a Cung Le maybe Francis Carmont or Ronald Souza from Strikeforce.

Tough fights the lot of them.