UFC 87 Results

Georges St Pierre UD Jon Fitch
I really didn’t think Fitch was that tough. That guy takes incredible amounts of punishment and comes out at the start of the next round like its round one! He’s Nogueira-like in his ability to recover from being battered. St Pierre looked great as usual in this fight, but he still looks a little uncomfortable standing up when the other guy can throw good shots back at him. Fitch landed some good body shots in the second round just as Serra was able to do in both of their fights. It’s hard to fault someone like GSP and this is just a minor thing, but it’s something that could get him into trouble especially if he ends up fighting BJ Penn. Penn has excellent hands and will exploit GSP’s lack of inside game if he doesn’t tighten up his defence. Also Thiago Alves is another guy who could very well exploit GSP’s inside boxing game if he doesn’t tighten it up.
Other then that minor thing, GSP looked very good considering the level of his opposition. The only guy I give a good chance at dethoring him is BJ Penn should he move up. This fight needs to happen and the rumours are that it will happen at UFC 91 in November. There’s no one at lightweight who will challenge Penn so this is the logical fight to be made. If Penn wins then there are plenty of guys at lightweight who could make things interesting. You could do what happened back at UFC 39 and 41 with the ‘road to the lightweight title’ and have Kenny Florian, Sean Sherk, Joe Stevenson and Nate Diaz in a four man tournament with the winners meeting at a later event for the interim title or something along those lines.

Brock Lesnar UD Heath Herring (plus Cheick Kongo KO1 Dan Evenson)
As much as I hate to say it, Brock Lesnar is a real fighter. It’s going to take one of the top guys to beat him I think. This guy will get better with each passing fight and I think whoever beats him will either have to have top notch Jiu Jitsu (like Frank ‘Merr” does) or good wrestling to keep him standing up or enough power to land a shot to take Lesnar out. I’ve read a few people calling what Lesnar did ‘lay and prey’ My God people what fight were you watching? Lesnar battered Herring with knees and punches. He used his wrestling in a smart way and didn’t gas himself out but he kept up a good pace and kept Herring from gaining any sort of position where he could defend himself effectively. Herring has only been stopped a few times, and they were by the best so there’s no shame in going the distance with him at all.
A lot of people have been calling for the Lesnar-Kongo fight to be made. I disagree, I say remake the Lesnar-Mark Coleman fight. Lesnar needs experience and Coleman is a very good opponent for him for a number of reasons. 1) Lesnar is the stereo-typical up and comer with a bad attitude while Coleman is the Hall of Famer coming out of retirement; this fight is very marketable. 2) Coleman has equal if not better wrestling credentials then Lesnar so we may get to see how Lesnar fights off his back. Coleman is probably the only heavyweight in the UFC with the ability to take Lesnar down. 3) Coleman is a big name fighter and an all-time great, a win over him for Lesnar is a big deal in his fourth fight not to mention Coleman is 45 so he (on paper anyway) shouldn’t pose too many problems for the up and coming Lesnar. 4) Whoever wins this fight can be marketed for a bigger fight in the future. Even if Coleman wins then you’ve got the Hall of Famer having another run at the UFC title.
These things can’t be said about the Lesnar-Kongo fight. I personally wouldn’t mind not seeing Kongo fight again. His fight against Evenson was pretty bad if you ask me. For some reason he repeatedly tried to take the fight to the ground against a guy who, despite being a Norwegian kickboxing champion (I’m not sure how good that makes him) had no idea what he was doing standing up. His chin was high and his hands were low and he was asking to be knocked out yet Kongo didn’t jump on him like he should have. Lesnar would have no problems with Kongo at all. I would much rather see Lesnar fight Mark Coleman then I would see him fight Cheick Kongo, at least at this stage anyway. I personally would pick Mark Coleman against Cheick Kongo as well.

Rob Emerson KO1 Manny Gamburyan
Gamburyan was just asking to be knocked out fighting with his chin that high in the air. I’ve got a little bit more respect for Emerson’s skills after that, but I think anyone with a good right hand could do the same to Gamburyan if he keeps fighting like that.

Kenny Florian UD Roger Huerta
Huerta isn’t top notch right now, but I think he can come back and reach that level in the future. Florian clowned him and showed that he is a level above him. Huerta is just too wild and doesn’t set anything up and no matter how aggressive you are, thats not going to work against a guy with Florians experience. Huerta just needs a few more fights under his belt and he could be ready again. It’s not one of those devastating losses that will effect his career, he’ll learn from this and come back better. As for Florian, he’s definately one of the top lightweights in the World and will give anyone (apart from BJ Penn and Sean Sherk) a really hard fight. A fight I would love to see is Florian vs Joe Stevenson.

Demian Maia Sub3 Jason MacDonald
Maia is so good to watch on the ground. MacDonald surprised me with his submission defence, but Maia was just too good. I expected him to have a little bit more trouble taking MacDonald down, but his wrestling was a lot better then I gave him credit for. Maia is definately a player in the middleweight division, and with other top notch BJJ guys in the division like Ricardo Almeida and Rousimar Palhares there’s the potential for some really top notch ground fights to happen in the UFC

UFC 87 Predictions

This card sort of snuck up on me. I didn’t realise it was on this weekend until yesterday and apart from the three main fights (St Pierre vs Fitch, Florian vs Huerta and Lesnar vs Herring) I didn’t know who else was on the card. This is an excellent fight card. It might not be the most stacked UFC card of all-time but it’s certainly an entertaining card. The Florian-Huerta fight alone makes this fight card good. Anyway for the handful of people who read this rant and want to plagiarise my predictions (not sure why anyone would want to with my recent form, although I did get every Affliction fight right) here are my picks and thoughts on the fight card.

Main Card
Jon Fitch vs Georges St Pierre
(UFC World Welterweight title)
Prediction- St Pierre 2nd round knockout
I know how good Fitch is, but I just don’t see how he can succeed where others have failed before him. St Pierre is a better wrestler then Fitch, he’s a better striker then Fitch and he’s got better submissions then Fitch. Fitch has to do one of two things; he has to either get his decent at best stand-up and catch GSP with a knockout shot or he has to somehow put the guy with the (in my opinion anyway) 2nd best takedown defence in MMA (behind Liddell) on his back. GSP will feel him out on his feet then either proceed to take Fitch down and pound on him until he can’t take anymore or submit him, or he’ll keep the fight standing and destroy Fitch there. The smart move for GSP would be to take the fight to the ground so there’s no repeat of the first fight with Serra (Serra hits harder then Fitch, but Fitch has enough power to knock GSP out if he lands), but I’m sure whatever gameplan he implements will work fine. GSP by stoppage in the 2nd round, I think it’ll be with repeated punches from the mount.

Kenny Florian vs Roger Huerta
Prediction- Huerta on points
The smart pick with this fight would be Florian, he’s more experienced and he’s proven time and time again that he’s a top tier lightweight. Huerta though just has the fight in him. He reminds me of the stereotypical latino boxers who repeatedly go through anything and everything to get the win. I think Florian will beat him up in the first round before Huerta turns it around in the 2nd round and outworks Florian to take a unanimous decision in what should be fight of the night. Huerta has the edge in boxing in this fight, but Florian’s muay thai skills are very dangerous and could counter Huerta’s hands. On the ground I think Florian will struggle to use his jiu jitsu skills from underneath Huerta. Florian could very well be too much too soon for Huerta, but this is a fight that makes sense. This should be a great fight, I’ll be disappointed if it isn’t.

Heath Herring vs Brock Lesnar
Prediction- Herring 3rd round knockout
Herring’s lack of takedown defence makes me nervous in this fight, but despite Lesnar’s size I really can’t see him doing what guys like Fedor Emelianenko couldn’t and that’s finishing Herring with ground and pound (I’m fully aware Herring was stopped by Fedor, but Fedor beat the bejesus out of him for the first 8 minutes of the round before Herring reversed him and survived, the fight was stopped on a cut). Herring is as tough as they come and he’ll take some finishing. He has a huge edge standing up and I think he’ll use his leg kicks to wear down the bigger man and he’ll use his uncanny ability to survive on the ground. Lesnar will come out and take the fight to Herring and probably have a good first few minutes, after that when he doesn’t finish Herring and Herring starts landing with his leg kicks we’ll see what sort of fight Lesnar has in him. Herring to kick Lesnar’s legs out from under him and knock him out in the 3rd round.

Rob Emerson vs Manny Gamburyan
Prediction- Gamburyan 1st round submission
Really, why is Rob Emerson in the UFC? He’s an average fighter who won’t go far with not much personaility (apart from that he likes to wear a thong which I find really disturbing, not because I have a problem with anything like that, it’s just strange that such a normal sort of person has a thong fetish, it’s not even like he’s trying to be funny or something, he seems to just like wearing it) and for some reason he’s on the main card? Gamburyan’s going to fuck him up before winning by first round kimura.

Demian Maia vs Jason MacDonald
Prediction- Maia 2nd round submission
I’m looking forward to this fight between two top grapplers. Maia has been very impressive in his two previous UFC outings, earning submission of the night on both occasions. MacDonald has pulled off two submission victories over guys that on paper he wasn’t meant to beat in Herman and Leben. I give the edge in the grappling to Maia, but the edge in wrestling and stand-up to MacDonald. MacDonald should really keep this fight on his feet and avoid going to the ground with someone as dangerous as Maia. However, I think it’ll only take one takedown for Maia to win this fight by submission and that MacDonald won’t be able to keep Maia off him for the full three rounds. Maia by 2nd round armbar submission and his third submission of the night victory.

Preliminary Card
Dan Evenson vs Cheick Kongo
Prediction- Kongo 2st round knockout
I don’t know a whole lot about Evenson but if he has good wrestling he could cause an upset. I don’t think the UFC would have brought him in though if he was anything but cannon fodder for Kongo. Kongo by big first round knockout.

Chris Wilson vs Steve Bruno
Prediction- Wilson on points
Bruno is a well accomplished fighter making his UFC debut against ‘that guy who last fought Jon Fitch’ Chris Wilson. I was impressed with Wilson in that fight, he showed good stand-up and takedown defence, he just doesn’t have the game yet to compete with someone like Fitch right off the bat. The fact that he went to a decision with Fitch shows he’s good. Considering the ’octagon jitters’ are out of the road for Wilson and not for Bruno, I think this gives Wilson a huge edge. Wilson should start well, before Bruno finds his feet and makes it close in the latter stages, but doesn’t do enough to take the win.

Ben Saunders vs Ryan Thomas
Prediction- Saunders on points
I don’t know much about either guy other Thomas has a grappling background with most of his wins coming via submission and Saunders was on the Ultimate Fighter and didn’t really look like anything special. I’m very tempted to go with Thomas by submission but I always go with the guy I’ve heard in this situations. Saunders to win over the distance.

Luke Cummo vs Tamdam McCrory
Prediction- Cummo on points
McCrory is a dangerous dude. He’s shown that he can bang and also has shown he has the ability to finish the fight on the ground (although he was fighting Pete Spratt). However, I think Cummo’s unorthodox style will give him fits and Cummo’s conditioning will allow him to keep in control of the fight and take a pretty clear unanimous decision.

Andre Gusmao vs Jon Jones
Prediction- Jones 2nd round knockout
Jones seems to be a solid prospect and I think Gusmao is in over his head in this fight. Jones to repeatedly take Gusmao down and pound on him until the referee stops the fight.