UFC 168 Weidman VS Silva and Rousey VS Tate Fight Predictions

Hey UFC fans, if you have made it here it is because you were searching either the  Chris Weidman VS Anderson Silva fight or just hoping to see Rhonda Rousey get a taste of her own medicine by getting her face beat in. It won’t look too different than that ugly face she makes when she is mad.

As you all may know, I love to watch MMA and this New Years Eve card will be one to remember! Not only will the fights be good, but Angel and I are having a UFC party at our house Saturday night as well. Beer pong, corn-hole (known as bags by most), beer, good people making a great time. Pretty stoked to have people over and watch Miesha Tate treat Rousey to some of her own medicine by reversing her arm bar and pounding Rousey out in round 2.

Arm bar is the only way Rousey has finishes her opponents, I’m sure by now Tate knows a few ways to defend and counter it. C’mon Rousey, let’s be a little bit more versatile. Expand the victories with something else, we’re all bored! Miesha Tate has brought new life (and better looks) into this match up and could possibly help make UFC 168 one of the top PPV purchases of the year.

So let’s jump into my picks for this weekends fight:

Chris Weidman (C) VS Anderson Silva

Anderson Silva has been one of the longest title defending Champs in the UFC. You probably remember Silva dancing around Weidman last May and then Weidman capitalizing with a vicious knock out. 

After the fight, Silva said that Weidman earned it and Silva didn’t act like he wanted the rematch. Only days later the UFC announced the rematch for this weekends fight. Silva is coming back to avenge a loss but after Weidman has already fought him, he should know what to expect. That being said, Weidman is going to get the W.

Projection: Chris Weidman, Round 4, Knock Out

Rhonda Rousey (C) VS Miesha Tate

As mentioned in the opening paragraphs of this post, Rousey has finished all of her opponents in the UFC by arm bar in the first round. Also earlier mentioned, she has the ugliest ‘mean face’ I have ever seen on a female fighter. Just looking at her face pisses me off. 

That being said, I hope Tate can land some good punches and take that shit eating face into a fist eating face. Tate lost to Rousey once before, guess how – arm bar. Who would have thunk! Tate is going to come out knowing how Rousey fights and I am 100% positive Tate has been training and practicing reversals for Rousey’s signature move. That being said, Tate is going to bring Rousey into the second round, Rousey will shoot, get the takedown, move in line for her arm bar and Tate is going to reverse it into a leg lock, knee bar, or maybe even pretty up Rousey’s face with some ground and pound, which is the outcome many UFC fans would love to see.

Projection: Miesha Tate, Round 2, Ground and Pound!

Chris Leben VS Uriah Hall

One of the only other fights on the card that brings any real interest to me, the Leben VS Hall bout. If Hall doesn’t know that Leben has a good chin and a big left hand by now, he may find out tomorrow night. However, Hall is extremely explosive and has the potential to get that split second Knock Out. 

Leben has fought only three times in the last three years, losing all three. This is a bang or bust fight for Leben. If he wins, he may get a contract extension, but if Leben loses, it may be the last time we see ‘The Crippler’ in the UFC octagon. Hall has also lost his last two fights and Dana White says ‘Hall is not a fighter.” On top of that, Uriah has some serious mental demons that he needs to deal with if he is going to continue to be a contender in the UFC Middleweight division. I think if Hall is ready for this fight mentally, he will take home the purse.

Prediction: Uriah Hall, Round 2, Knock Out

Here are the rest of the UFC 168 fights as well as my predictions.

Josh Barnett  VS Travis Browne – Winner: Barnett

Jim Miller  VS Fabrício Camões – Winner: Miller

Dustin Poirier VS Diego Brandao – Winner: Poirier

Preliminary card (Fox Sports 1)

Gleison Tibau VS Michael Johnson  –  Winner: Johnson

Dennis Siver VS Manvel Gamburyan – Winner: Siver

John Howard VS Siyar Bahadurzada – Winner: Howard

Preliminary card (Online)

William Macario VS Bobby Voelker – Winner: Voelker

Robbie Peralta VS Estevan Payan – Winner: Payan

Think you have better picks? 

Leave your comments on who you think will win.

UFC 158 Tomorrow - Current Champ GSP VS Nick Diaz

Alright boys and girls, fight fans of all ages - it’s that time again where we have a big fight on the horizon with big names and a 170lb belt up for grabs. As always, I have a good post for you putting out some bold predictions to compliment my past winning record predictions.

This Saturday’s fights UFC 158 on PPV are between some of the top MMA fighters in the world, don’t be a pussy, comment and put yourself out there and tell me what your predictions are for these big Welterweight bouts! 

Major Preliminary Card fight – Broadcast on FX

Patrick Côté VS Bobby Voelker

Okay, I may be a bit biased on this fight because I tend to lean towards fighters I have some type of connection with. I was able to see Bobby Voelker fight a couple of times a few years ago before moving down to Arizona and he is a pretty well rounded fighter. However, only having 4 fights in the last 3 years (three of the four against Roger Bowling), I’m not sure if he is completely ready for Côté. Patrick Côté only has one loss in his last six fights. Coming off a first round victory over Alessio Sakara due to Sakara’s disqualification and a loss to Chung Le, I’m pretty sure Côté will be coming back ready to swing with a ‘Win’ in near sight.

Prediction: Côté wins in Round 2 by TKO

Major Preliminary Card fight – Broadcast only on PPV

Jake Ellenberger VS Nate Marquardt

This is another fight where I had the opportunity to see one of these fighters throw down in person. I believe it was in February 2006 at VFC 12: Warpath in Council Bluffs, Iowa I saw Ellenberger defeat Mark Bear by way of TKO and a cut. Ellenberger is coming off a win over Jay Hieron last October, who I also enjoy watching fight ever since I saw him take a knock out punch and wake up to grab a takedown on the way to falling on the mat. Daniel Nisley is also a big fan of Jay, who fights out of Las Vegas, NV. Despite snatching the Strikeforce welterweight belt from Tyron Woodly by 4^th round KO last July, Marquardt gave it up to Tarec Saffiedine on his next and most recent fight in January, 2013. Marquardt is now returning to the UFC for the first time since his win over Dan Miller in UFC 128, he should be motivated for this big show welterweight fight trying to make his way back up the ladder since re-signing with UFC.

Prediction: Marquardt wins in Round 3 by TKO.

Carlos Condit VS Johny Hendricks

When Condit sees GSP for the first time since he lost to unanimous decision last November, I can only assume he is building up his motivation to fight GSP once again sometime soon hopefully using Johny Hendricks as a live punching bag. I’m sure it is a little bitter-sweet for Condit knowing that he beat Nick Diaz in February 2012 and then lost to GSP in November – now Diaz and GSP fight right after this bout. Winning 13 of his last 15 fights, Condit has made a name for himself in the UFC and hopes to get another title shot – there is only one problem. His name is Johny Hendricks. With a long standing OSU wrestling background, Hendricks has skills on the ground and power in his hands – he went 56-0 his senior year at Ohio State in 2007. Now sitting at a pretty 14-1 MMA record, Hendricks is in a direct line for the title shot against GSP (assuming he doesn’t lose immediately after his fight with Condit to Nick Diaz). With notable wins over Martin Kampmann, Josh Koscheck and 12 second KO over Jon Fitch, Hendricks is on a B-line for the welterweight belt.

Prediction: Hendricks wins in Round 2 by TKO (ground & pound after big head shot)

UFC 158 Welterweight Title Fight

Georges St-Pierre (Champ) VS Nick Diaz

The fight the world has been waiting for, GSP’s dark side to beat Nick Diaz down (assuming the soccer mom in Lodi, CA hasn’t already done it, see pre-fight conference call). If you have a chance to listen to the call, Diaz try’s to defend his ‘good guy, hard working past’ but eventually digs himself deeper by opening his mouth and getting loud with GSP (it could have been Geoff from Craig Ferguson late show) on the phone. Long story short, GSP came back to the UFC after a long injury and looked bigger and better than ever against Condit last November. Having not lost since 2007, GSP needs to not let his dark side over-commit to Diaz as he could land some hard counter punches and upset the 7 time defending champion.  

I’m not a big fan of Nick Diaz, nor his brother Nate; however I do know that Nick has been in the fighting game for a long time and his most recent fights other than losing to Condit have been more than impressive. I’m thinking that GSP will want to bring this fight to the ground and not want to bang it out with Nick, which hopefully they will give the fans a show and keep it on their feet.

Predication: Diaz wins by TKO in 4^th Round (GSP’s dark side is going to over-commit and get him KTFO)

Watch Joe Rogan and Dana White Podcast about GSP and Diaz fight

Fight Predictions for UFC on FX: Belfort vs. Bisping

Are you ready for a busy weekend? I’m not. Our plans are to sleep in Saturday morning, wake up and lay in bed half the day and probably watch a movie together while the kids play oh-so-nice together for a few hours. I think we will be going over to Matt and Kacey’s house to celebrate Matts birthday that was Wednesday the 16^th and then probably end up watching UFC on FX at their place.

Regardless of our low key Saturday, it should prove to have a good ending. Vitor Belfort is fighting Michael Bisping on FX for FREE – Yepp, that’s the best part, free money. 

Thought about hitting up Big Ryan (RyKno) and seeing if he wanted to hit Hooters on Mill Ave for the fights but the truth is, I’m just getting over a cold, Matt is just getting over a cold, Lucas just came down with a cough and Ashlyn has been coughing for a month or so now..

So, to the point of the post – Fight Prediction:

Vitor Belfort VS Michael Bisping

To start off, Vitor is old – but still has some fast hands. Bisping is coming off a win over Brian Stann which was pretty controversial. Vitor has way more experience than Bisping but to his credit, Bisping has had over 15 fights in the UFC spotlight since his first appearance in The Ultimate Fighter in 2006. Also, Vitor is a bit more hungry than Bisping since he is coming fresh off a loss last September to current UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones. Vitor has won 7 of his last 10 fights only losing to Dan Henderson, Anderson Silva and as mentioned current champ Jones.

Projected Winner: Vitor Belfort, Round 3, TKO

Daniel Sarafian VS C.B. Dollaway

I didn’t watch too much of this seasons TUF so I don’t know too much about Daniel Sarafian other than he is coming into this fight with C.B. with four consecutive wins and looking to make his way up the middleweight ladder with Anderson Silva in sight. He will have to win a few more fights before he gets there but if he continues to get his hand raised, he will make it soon enough. I like C.B. Dollaway, met him on Mill Avenue once a few years ago at the old library. Though he hasn’t had the best performances in his last few fights, he did pull out a win of Jason Mayhem Miller last May, regardless, that was 9 months ago and I’m assuming he is going to come out in top shape.

Projected Winner: C.B. Dollaway, Round 2, Rear Naked Choke

Gabriel Gonzaga VS Ben Rothwell

Gabriel Gonzaga used to be a big name, many remember him for his infamous head kick KO to Mirco CroCop back in 2007, but it has been 5 years, he has lost a lot of resepect and fights including losses to Shane Carwin, Junior dos Santos and recent TUF winner Brendan Schaub. Despite Gonzaga being old, Big Ben doesn’t deserve to be in the UFC, they should have cut him after his losses to Andre Arlovski and Cain Velasquez in 2009. Maybe they paired these guys up because Rothwell beat Schaub just last year in only 1:10 seconds of the first round.

Projected Winner: Gabriel Gonzaga, Round 1, TKO

Thiago Tavares VS Khabib Nurmagomedov

To start off, Angel hates Thiago Tavares, which makes me like him even more. He is coming off a two fight win streak over notable names Sam Stout and Spencer Fisher (who I almost bought a pitbull puppy from when I lived back in Iowa). I’m pretty sure Angel doesn’t like him because when he wins, he slashes his throat with his thumb..she says he is too cocky. Nurmagomedov is from Russia and his record is 18-0. He recently beat Gleison Tibau and Kamal Shalorus…and another 16 Russian bums dating back to 2008 in events much smaller and less known than UFC, WEC, Strikeforce and Pride – basically means he was fighting people who didn’t know what the fuck they were doing and got 16 W’s from it. Tavares will be a challenge for you Nurmagomedov, get ready.

Projected Winner: Thiago Tavares, Round 3, TKO

Go ahead and comment on FB or on my blog on your thoughts, let’s see if you can go 4-0 tomorrow night, I know I will be.