UFC 93

ufc93

Rich Franklin v. Dan Henderson is a great headliner to start off the New Year. UFC 93 is also stacked with other bouts such as Coleman v. Shogun and the UFC debut of Denis Kang.

The Franklin/Henderson fight will be a great matchup. These guys’ style will make an exciting fight. Henderson has bombs in both hands whereas Franklin is very well-rounded and take the fight on the feet or on the ground. Both fighters are smart and will he who has the best gameplan coming into the cage will win. For Franklin to win he will need to keep his punches down the middle and avoid a slugfest with Henderson. Franklin will need to utilize kicks to keep his opponent at bay and use ring generalship to control positions and wait for Henderson to tire out from throwing his boms. For Henderson, he’ll need to get to the inside and his wrestling background will help him with that. Henderson should put pressure on Franklin early on by pressing him up against the fence utilizing the clinch and take him down ala Randy Couture style.

My Picks:

Mauricio Rua beats Mark Coleman
Denis Kang beats Alan Belcher
Rousimar Palhares beats Jeremy Horn
Marcus Davis beats Chris Lytle
Martin Kampmann beats Alexandre Barros
Eric Schafer beats Antonio Mendes
Tomasz Drwal beats Ivan Serati
John Hathaway beats Tom Egan
Dennis Siver beats Nate Mohr

UFC 82

ufc82

From the words of UFC’s iconic announcer Bruce Buffer, “It is time..!!!!” for UFC 82. Headlining the event is Anderson Silva defending his title against Dangerous Dan Henderson. Not only is this for the Middleweight title, but it’s for the unification of PrideFC’s Middleweight title that Henderson holds.

Dan Henderson is only fighter to hold two titles in two seperate division in PrideFC. Last year Henderson lost his Lightheavy weight title to UFC’s current Champ, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson. And now Henderson is now fighting a fighter who is considered one of the top pound for pound fighter in the sports of mixed martial arts. It seems UFC is not giving Henderson a break at all. Henderson has his hands full with Silva. Silva has a superior and technical striking game whereas Henderson is a big slugger with KO power in each hand. So this contrast in styles will likely play in Silva’s hands as long as he doesn’t get caught with one of Henderson’s haymakers.

We’ve seen Silva’s great striking abilities, and his slick BJJ, and his clench game is second to none. But there’s one spot where Silva has not been put in yet. And that’s being pressed up against the cage and get worked by some dirty boxing or crowded in the corner against the fence getting pounded. The reason why we’ve never seen him in that situation is because Silva is smart and utilizes his footwork and to put himself in position to use his weapons. But if there’s one person who can force him against the cage and into a corner it would be Dan Henderson. Henderson is a pedigree wrestler, Greco-Roman that is. If Henderson can close the gap on Silva and get put his back against the fence it would neutralize Silva’s devastating knees, kicks, punches. But then it’s always easier said than done.

My pick is Silva. Silva has too many ways to win, and Henderson has nothing that Silva has never faced. Unless Henderson catches Silva with an over hand right that stuns or KO Silva it’s going to be another loss for him in the UFC.

My Picks:

Cheick Kongo via stoppage
Chris Leben via submission
Evan Tanner via decision
Jon Fitch via submission
Andrei Arlovski via KO
Luke Cummo via stoppage
Josh Koscheck via stoppage
Diego Sanchez via submission
Jorge Gurgel via decision