Well put.

True, I just hope Overeem works on his takedown defense, cause there's no way Brock's gonna want to stand with him. Overeem has a great guillotine but has never been particularly good off his back (at least he wasn't when he was a LHW) which could spell trouble for him if the fight goes to the ground.

In other news, the UFC 137 main card has basically been switched around. It's now GSP vs. Condit and Penn vs. Diaz. I'm a little disappointed, I was really looking forward to GSP fighting Nick Diaz. Nick didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning, but, I was really hoping for an upset or at least Nick fucking up GSP on the feet. I like GSP but he seems to be missing that fire that he used to have before he was champ. Last time he finished someone was the BJ Penn fight. An ass-kicking might really light that fire in him again. Besides, Nick Diaz is from my hometown so I had to pull for him. The card is still awesome though so no big loss. Glad Condit's getting a shot, he's been on a bit of a tear lately. Been a fan since his WEC days.

Ahhh! You got me!

Seriously, it was a bold yet reasonable prediction, as Schaub had been on a tear (albeit against older "legends"); I guess the Nelson fight should've been a possible clear indicator regarding Schaub's suspect chin. I guess you can't be right all (or any?) of the time, lol.

I still stand by my assertion that "Pride is dead; long live Pride!", however. And that isn't directed at anyone here at all (derived from my lurking the Sherdog forum). With the UFC potentially going full on mainstream on FOX in the US, Pride will be a distant memory within a decade, and it's time for old "diehards" to stop living in the past (lol, this is very easily applicable to metal music as well). Pride was great for what it was, but it's dead and will remain dead. People can clamor for stomps, soccer kicks, and yellow cards all they want, but it ain't happening-get over it.

/rant

(whew, sorry guys. had to bet that off my chest!).

Anyways, Lesnar has nothing for Overeem, Nick Diaz is an overrated can crusher who can't handle the pressure of the main event (although I have no idea who I should root for/against in his fight with Penn), I don't see Condit getting past GSP, Bigfoot Silva's hype train derailed?, Barnett is the only logical choice to take the GP (although Cormier has a damn good shot), Cain/JDS on FOX is a huge introduction to mainstream television (and is a toss up if there ever was one, but I'm leaning Cain), and UFC 136, 137, 139, and 140 are shaping up to be incredible cards. It's a very, very good time to be an MMA fan. Although I'm likely wrong on half of those predictions!

I just hope that it won't turn into another Overeem vs. Werdum type fight, seeing that Lesnar has no good option other than ground play. He got slaughtered boxing with Cain and Carwin (almost).

I can't see this fight playing out the same way, as Lesnar and Werdum are two very different fighters. The only similarity between the two is that they'll try and use mediocre striking to close the gap on Overeem and motion for a takedown. I don't see Lesnar trying to constantly pull guard and butt-scoot across the cage floor as Werdum did; he's not known for his BJJ/bottom game (aside from turtling). Lesnar will likely shoot for a single or double to end up in top or side control while on the ground to try and force a TKO via ground and pound. That's pretty much Lesnar's only shot at winning this fight.

What Overeem needs to work on is the sprawl and brawl and TDD. If he can prevent Lesnar from taking him down, then Overeem will simply outclass him on the feet with his K1 champion level striking and the fight could very well resemble the 1st round of the Carwin or the Cain fight. Lesnar has nothing for Overeem on the feet, and I would love nothing more than to see Lesnar eat an uppercut or an Uberknee while shooting in for a takedown. I don't think that Overeem's tentativeness during the Werdum fight will be a factor here, as he only avoided Werdum on the ground to avoid a submission specialist (something Lesnar is not legitimately know for-the Carwin sub was a fluke).

Lesnar might have trouble even getting the fight to the ground, as he's never faced someone with the size and strength of Overeem. Carwin could fall into that category, but was so gassed in the 2nd round that he was basically a training dummy (hence, the fluke sub). Lesnar was nowhere near taking Carwin down in the 1st round of that fight, as he was getting pummeled by a fresh Carwin (IMO, the fight should've been stopped in the first round). But who else has Lesnar fought that had that size and strength? Mir (somewhat bulky, but not necessarily known for his strength)? Herring (same as Mir)? Couture (way smaller)? Cain (again way smaller)? Admittedly, I don't know enough about Min Soo Kim. I think that if Overeem works on his TDD and cardio (the gassing out after the 3rd round of the Werdum fight could be telling; the Lesnar fight is scheduled for 5 rounds and it could be a long night for Overeem if he gasses quickly), then Brock is in serious trouble and it should (hopefully) be a slaughterhouse in the octagon on 12/30.

Takanori Gomi: Pride is dead; long live Pride!

The old Pride vets just can't hang in today's UFC.

EDIT: I guess the old UFC vets can't hang in today's UFC either (looking at you Matt Hughes)!

EDIT 2: Rampage Jackson: Pride is dead; long live Pride!

(lol, this one is more tonuge in cheek/sarcastic, as he has an overall decent 7-3 UFC record despite looking like shit against Hamill and getting a gift decision against Machida. But I knew that Jones was gonna tool him).

Organizational affiliation has very little to do with anything. MMA burns people out pretty fast. The big Pride names had been active for up to ten years in Pride alone (many of them were already veterans from other leagues) by the time the Zuffa goon squad gutted Pride in 2007. Very few fighters can stay at the top of their abilities for longer than that.

I actually totally agree with you (except for the "Zuffa goon squad gutted Pride" bit; it was a legitimate business transaction on Zuffa's part and they would've been stupid not to make it-just like Strikeforce); when I post stuff like this, it's my sarcastic schadenfreude coming through. It's derived from my disdain of the Sherdog forums (where I am an active unregistered lurker, not a poster) and how they always yammer on about how Pride was the best (disagree), how the unified rules are biased against Pride vets (wholeheartedly disagree), how certain fights today would go differently in favor of the Pride vets if the fight was under Pride rules (agree/disagree, and I'm sure it won't be long until this is retroactively applied to Jones/Rampage), and various other forms of nostalgic disparaging of the current MMA landscape in favor of Pride (especially "teh Zuffa evil empire!!!" bit). I love it when their heroes lose to more current fighters/champions; I get a certain satisfaction knowing that someone, somewhere's night is ruined because their old school hero lost is decisive fashion. In the weeks leading up to Bones/Rampage it was "Bones is a cocky bastard and I want him to get knocked out" and "Rampage has got this with ease", etc. I love it when that's proven wrong.

If you read my prior posts here, I actually pick each fight on a case by case basis and sometimes that might result on picking a seasoned UFC/Pride vet (see above for my backing of Overeem-an arguable Pride vet-over Lesnar). I felt going into the Bones/Rampage fight that Bones was gonna dominate Rampage-up to that point Bones looked unstoppable and diverse in his techniques and that Rampage was too one dimensional (he looked like absolute shit against Hamill). I felt the same about the Shogun fight (at least about the outcome). Old Pride/new UFC had nothing to do with it, aside from your previously mentioned battle wear on the vets.

Maybe some of you MMA guys with some sense can help me out with something. I'm a bouncer in a bar that shows UFC PPVs and everytime we show these things, there is always at least half a dozen fights breaking out among some of these amateur fighter wannabes. Some of them intentionally start stuff with me because I'm a bigger guy. They never lay a hand on me do the fact that they are drunk and I'm a high school wrestling coach. I'm not a fan of the sport, not because I think it's barbaric I just don't get the appeal. So I have a couple of questions I would like you to help me understand.

1. Is this type of juvenile idiotic behavior normal among MMA fan gathering? If so, why?
2. Why does it always seem to be the smaller guys that start fights with the bigger guys? I have my theories on this, but I want an MMA fan's perspective.

It has nothing to do with being a big MMA fan, anytime you get assholes mixed with alcohol mixed with two guys beating the shit out of each other then you'll have those drunk assholes acting like well, drunk assholes. I've been going to the same bar for the past year and more to watch the UFC fights at night after work and I've only seen once some guys being complete idiots and fighting and getting kicked out and eventually the cops showed up in the parking lot and one of the morons got tased twice.. it's nothing new, but there's a lot of roid-ed out tools that are "fans" of MMA, y'know those dolts wearing the Affliction or Tapout shirts but don't know many names in the sport other than Brock Lesnar or Tito Ortiz.

Now speaking of the Jon Jones/Rampage Jackson fight, Jones is the real fucking deal! He's already a superstar but he's gonna be a legend very soon! Holy shit what a beast, so creative, so fast and so intelligent with his fights - and it doesn't help that he's a lanky motherfucker!

And I totally agree with FirebathDan, Pride is dead, long live Pride! All my favorite heroes that I first got into the sport watching are no longer what they used to be and it's a shame seeing them get beat by some of these new age punks, perfect example being Gomi vs. Diaz. Even the old UFC greats aren't stacking up. I guess it's time for a new generation of "legends" like Jon fuckin' Jones!

Yeah, Jones was on the first card I've ever seen broadcasted live (TUF 10 finale-again, I am somewhat of a relative newbie and became familiar with the sport retroactively) and he just brutalized Matt Hamill, despite losing on a technicality (a legit loss-he broke the rules, he earned a DQ). One of the first guys to impress me as a new fan of the sport. He catches a lot of shit about his personality on Sherdog and elsewhere, but I see nothing wrong (well, I can do without the christianity bit). I think he catches shit because he dismantled Pride legends/fan favorites Shogun and Rampage with relative ease. A lot of people have a hard time accepting new things at the expense of their established favorites (again, can easily be applied to metal music as well).



It think it's a commonly accepted theory that douchebag+booze=bar fight. The_Boss pretty much nailed it right on the head.

Wow... I didn't expect Kenny Florian to get his ass kicked like he did. Jose Aldo is something else, I wonder how he would fare as a lightweight.

IDK if I'd personally call that "getting his ass kicked"-Florian did decisively lose, as it really wasn't close as far as decisions go, but I don't feel he was in any real trouble of being finished in that fight and he held his own against the dominant champion (even winning the first round). Kenny was in there until the very end-at least as I saw it.

Aldo was damn good but that was hardly a spectacular performance (much unlike his win over Cub Swanson). As most UFC champions do (see GSP, Edgar, and Cruz), Aldo seems to have transitioned into a more conservative dominant style, largely fighting defensively towards a decision. Some may call that boring, but it's just a part of the game and I don't mind it one bit. At no point in that fight did I truly feel that Aldo was hunting for a finish. No doubt it was an excellent dominant performance, though.

As far as Aldo at 155, Dana White has actually recently alluded to a superfight between Aldo and Edgar at 145. That would be a damn good fight, but I agree that Aldo will eventually be 155 bound (he's stated numerous time that he's been putting on muscle mass and the weight cuts to 145 are taking a huge toll on him).

Speaking of Edgar, now that was a spectacular performance! To come back from dangling over the edge of a first round defeat for the second time against the same opponent to come back and impose his will on and eventually finish Maynard in the 4th was truly incredible. Any doubts about Edgar's legitimacy have been obliterated. 155 is a shark tank though, and Edgar will have his hands full with numerous contenders (Lauzon, B. Henderson, Guida, and Pettis are all viable contenders, and Gilbert Melendez is en route from Strikeforce).

I've been saying for weeks that UFC 136 was stacked beyond belief, and did it ever deliver. From Lauzon's quick disposal of the way overhyped Melvin Guillard to the fun, sloppy Phan/Garcia brawl, to the main events, this card was excellent.

And seriously, fuck Chael Sonnen. Spectacular performance against Stann, I can’t deny that, but I just hate that motherfucker, lol. I hope Silva dismantles him in the rematch, and sends him packing.

Alright....who else is ready for BJ to go all psycho Cabbage Patch on Nick Diaz tonight? I know there's a ton of Diaz fans floating around out there for some reason (great skill set, terrible personality and tactics), but I truly think that Penn will come out victorious in this fight if he's as motivated as he seemed in the weigh-in. My predictions for the top three fights tonight:

BJ
Mitrione
Nelson (speaking of which, the Grizzly Adams thing is great....)

I'm stoked. This card promises to be fantastic, even with the loss of GSP/Condit (which certainly would've proved to be a brutal knockout by Condit or a technical display of mastery by GSP). Two excellent cards back to back; not much more you can ask for.

I'll take:

Penn over Diaz (didn't know who to root for-can't stand either)
Mitrione over Kongo
Nelson over CroCop (Pride is dead; long live Pride!)
Jorgensen over Curran
Hioki over Roop

It's weird, Penn and Diaz are both pretty spiteful, but they've both been shockingly reasonable relative to what they usually display. Nick has still been inconsiderate in the process though, and if BJ's smart enough to take him down, it's going to be a great match either way.

I wouldn't put much stock in Mitrione just yet. If he hangs in and gets inside, he could make it happen, but he's also going to be throwing down with somebody who made the current heavyweight champ look like a bum on the feet... it just was never there long enough to finish. I won't be surprised if Kongo fucks it up, but he's got a better chance on ability.

Pride is not quite dead yet. Once Big Nog retires, though, I think IT'S AAAAALLLL OVER!

Well, so much for Penn and Mitrione winning. Nelson looked good, though, for sure. Cerrone's tko over Siver was awesome as well.

Did anyone see Munoz/Leben? That was hard to watch for me, being a diehard Leben fan....he just didn't look himself.


JDS and Cain on the 12th - I've got Junior over Cain. Thoughts?

RE: Penn and Mitrione, I wasn't surprised by either result, despite them being my picks. I'm more surprised by how horrible Mitrione looked. He was kicking ass on the undercard, but as soon as he got a whiff of a near top 10 HW, he froze like a deer in headlights. Hasn't quite reached gatekeeper status yet; I'll give him another shot over a second near top 10 fighter before I write him off completely. As far as Penn goes, I was just picking against Diaz cause I can't stand the guy, lol. I don't really care for Penn either. War GSP!

Otherwise, UFC 137 was an excellent card. I'm please to see Roy back on the winning side of things, and the Hioki/Roop and Jorgensen/Curran fights were close back and forth wars.

RE: UFC 138, I missed the main card cause I don't have cable TV. Again, not too surprised by the result, as Leben-while being very durable and having a granite chin-is a fairly (but not totally) one dimmensional brawler. His losses seem to consistently come from more well rounded fighters (Silva, Bisping, Stann, and now Munoz).

RE: Cain/JDS, this is a pick 'em fight. I have to go with Cain. Despite the injury, despite the layoff, Cain's history of mauling everyone that he gets in the cage with (save for Kongo) is the deciding factor for me. I dont see him steamrolling JDS with such ease-the fight will be a late round TKO or a decision-and I would not at all be surpised if JDS pulls out the win here. Should be a classic.

And then we have UFCs 139, 140, and 141, all three of which look to be great to outstanding cards to round out the year.

Ho-ly shit. That was ridiculous. I never, ever expected Cain to get mauled in such a fashion.

Great show, JDS.

(Excellent work by Ben Henderson on the undercard was well).

JDS has always been an absolute beast with his boxing, in every fight he's had in the UFC.

benson vs edgar for the title next. it's good to see edgar against a different top 10 opponent other than penn/maynard. it's hard to bet against him, and bendo is going to have a huge size advantage, we will see if edgar can have his way on the feet with his speed.

Miesha Tate excites me.

No doubt. I was more surprised by Cain and the fact that it ended in a flash. I never expected Cain to be totally dominated like that. I thought it would be much more competitive.



Should be awesome. I give a slight advantage to Edgar cause he's proven to be very durable on the brink of defeat (and I gotta rep NJ!), but it would not be shocking at all for Bendo to take the title.

My UFC 139 picks:

Bonnar/Kingsbury-Pick 'em. Don't know enough about Kingsbury to make a sound judgement.
Kampmann/Story-Kampmann, cause after the Diego loss, he's sworn to come super aggressive.
Faber/Bowles-Give it to Bowles cause Faber's had is shot at Cruz' title recently and blew it. Give Bowles a shot at redemption against Cruz for taking his title.
Le/Silva-Le. Wanderlei is done.
Shogun/Hendo-Hendo. He knocked out Fedor. Fedor.

This will be a PPV I skip.



Come on dude...

Holy. Shit. Hendo vs. Shogun...what an epic fucking fight. Seriously, this fight is going to join the annals of the greatest MMA battles of all time. It's right up there with Fedor vs. Crocop, Shogun vs. Little Nog, Diaz vs. Gomi, and Bendo vs. Cerrone. Great event overall as well too. And lol @ people complaining about the decision.

yeah, what a war. Not the greatest fight ever but probably in the top 15.

Made my top 20 for sure.

Damn. I said in my previous post that I'd be skipping this one, what a mistake that was. By all accounts UFC 139 was a stellar card. I will admit that $$$ were my main hindrance.

And I should stop posting my picks ! I'm batting a solid .500 on UFC 139. Thank fuck I'm not a betting man!

I apologize for dredging up an old conversation, but I have seen so many discussions along these lines and so little common sense in any of them.

Firstly, what MMA proved was that in a combat sport with relatively few restrictions you could not be completely untrained in one area of combat, ie. groundfighting. Initially people seemed to think that this meant that many striking martial arts were useless, which is obviously not the case, most of the traditional striking arts are effective provided that they are combined with good wrestling and grappling skills, Machida proved this. The reason that Muay Thai is so much more popular than Wing Chun or Karate isn't really due to an inherent superiority so much as circumstance, for a start Muay Thai is easier to learn giving fighters more time to focus on other areas of their game. One could say a similar thing about why there are relatively few Judo guys in MMA, compared to BJJ, even though from what I have seen high level Judo guys are competitive with the best BJJ guys in groundfighting, it just comes down to circumstances and utility. Also, MMA fans have a tendency to overestimate the value of wrestling/grappling arts in real life situations, given that there are very few situations in a streetfight where you would want to fight on the ground ie, if there are other people around, if you are on a concrete surface. The artificial environment of the cage definitely favors grapplers.

One more thing, anybody who talks about how Kung Fu cannot be used in competition because it is too deadly is simply full of crap. The reason you don't see many of these kind of martial arts in the cage is because it is against their philosophy, but there is no reason why they could not be adapted for MMA if someone wanted to. Alot of armies in Western countries use a hand to hand combat system which is basically MMA, but obviously incorporating far more vicious techniques, this doesn't mean those techniques can't be removed/replaced for civilian purposes. I used to train in Krav Maga and guess what, we learned a combination of Muay Thai, BJJ and wrestling (in other words what is nowadays called MMA), just with an emphasis on real life situations and therefore the use of techniques which would be unacceptable in the cage. Deadly or dangerous techniques do not form the central pillars of any martial art, anybody who makes this claim has no idea what they are talking about.

***

Anyway, sorry for going on that rant, but it is something I wanted to get off my chest. I'm a big UFC fan, all the stupid theatrics aside. I really hope Machida can defeat Jones at 140, he has one of the more interesting styles in the UFC and I'd like to see him win against a top fighter again (Couture was 47 what did you expect???). As for Lesnar vs Overeem, if Lesnar has improved his resilience he might have a chance, but if not he will probably start crying when Overeem starts hitting him.

Another thing, I've heard that Anderson Silva is supposed to have a rematch with Sonnen next year, but will this still be the case if Sonnen loses to Munoz in their upcoming bout?

As I understand it, Sonnen/Munoz is a title eliminator-if Munoz wins, he's the #1 contender for Silva's title. Even if I misunderstand it and it's not explicitly a title eliminator for both, there's no way Sonnen can be taken seriously as a #1 contender coming off of a loss to Munoz if that was to happen (and Munoz would have beat the consensus #2 middleweight, making a legit claim to contendership). Sonnen chose to take this fight rather than wait the 7 or so months for Silva to recover from shoulder bursitis.

That being said...WAR Munoz! Fuck Fael/Jael Sonnen!

UFC 140 this weekend. A great card on paper; too bad I'll be gigging and will ultimately miss it.

My picks:

Hominick/Jung-Despite KZ's awesome twister on Garcia, I've got to go with Hominick here. Hominick is far more consistent and he took Aldo to the limit (at least that's how I feel).
Ebersole/Patrick-I personally don't have a clear favorite here. Don't know much about Ebersole aside from the weirdo chest hair thing. Don't know anything about Patrick.
Ortiz/Lil' Nog-I wanna see Ortiz win here. He's on his retirement kick, and I wanna see him win his last few. Lil' Nog has been unimpressive (2-2) in the UFC.
Mir/Big Nog-Give me Mir. I would like to see Mir back in the title mix.
Jones/Machida-I just think that Jones is unstoppable right now and Machida's not gonna be the one to dethrone him.

I'm gonna have to disagree on all your picks man. Well, disagree is probably the wrong word, but I could never hope against the Nog brothers (long live Pride! ) and I'm a huge Machida fan. Still, I think Jon Jones has a very good chance of winning and will prove himself as one of the most dominant champions in the history of the sport if he does win. As with every Tito fight, I'm just hoping he gets KTFO. Probably won't happen though, Lil Nog seems to have trouble with wrestlers. And I'm just hoping for another glorious victory from Big Nog. That also probably won't happen though.

Goddamn it Big Nog, why did you have to be so foolish?! Mir was stunned on the ground and a couple of punches away from KO/stoppage, why try to submit him?

I really thought Machida was capable of winning, he certainly had the upper hand with his fast combos in the first round. What a nasty elbow and choke by Jones in the 2nd though.

Jon Jones stats for 2011:

-4 top 10 wins (Bader at the time was top 10)
-1 championship win
-2 title defenses against former champions
-All finishes

There is no doubt in my mind that Jones is/was the best fighter in 2011. He's had a better and more productive year than any champion in any division in any organization that matters. He gets a ton of hate, but for me, he's one of the few fighters I call a favorite. He is an unquestionable legitimate champion and I just don;t see anyone beating him anytime soon. The only viable contenders are Henderson and Evans (maybe Mousasi and King Mo if the Strikeforce major players get absorbed to the UFC), and I see them as tough challenges, but ultimately winnable fights for Jones. And I see him doing fairly well at HW if he gives it an earnest effort.

Fuck the haters, Bones is without a doubt the real deal and my fighter of the year for 2011.

Glad to see Mir win-nobody gave him credit for the first Nog win (excuses, excuses-staph infection for Nog) and I'm happy to see Mir legitimize that win. Mir's the first guy to both KO and sub Big Nog. Impressive achievement.

And the flyweights are coming. Awesome. Glad to see that the UFC was able to secure the consensus #1 flyweight in Ian McCall for the mini tournament. They also were able to procure Yasuhiro Urushitan, the consensis #2/#3 flyweight. So this is legit. I see McCall over Demetrious Johnson and Joseph Benavidez (two UFC bantamweights dropping to flyweight) to take the title. They just need to sign Jussier da Silva and you have a semi-stacked new division.

Otherwise, as time has proven, I suck at MMA picks.

The fuck is wrong with Herb Dean, for real? Fedor faceplants and dude is jumping out of his shoes to stop the fight, Mir is laying face down for multiple seconds and he just stands there saying "watch the back of the head". c'mon negro.

Took the words right out of my mouth. A little more of that ground and pound and that would be it for Mir, but NOOOO...! Hope the broken arm would remind him to be less stupid in the future.

Haha, UFC 140 was fucking AMAZING!!! I picked Lil Nog, Mir, and Jones - got all three right for once. I felt pretty bad for Hominick, the dude looked so embarassed after the fight. Big Nog's arm, HOLY FUCK!!!! I've seen some awesome pictures of him laying there, just looking at it. The main event was nice -first round went to Machida, I don't give a shit what the judges had it as. That's the most successful offense against Jones that we've seen to date, and all was going well until that elbow of doom. K-Sos getting all comatose was awesome, as well. I think the only fight that didn't get finished was Bocek/Lentz...

Mir was never completely limp and just flopping, he constantly had his arm on that single leg, whereas Fedor just flattened completely out and for 2-3 seconds completely lost control of his appendages. It was NEVER a tko or ko, whereas Hendo put Fedor's lights actually out. There's more to determining a ko than merely a faceplant.

There's nothing wrong with Herb Dean, he's actually one of the better refs in the business, short of Big John. He's made a few small errors here and there, but nothing to write home about in it's massiveness, like Mirigliotta (TERRIBLE REF), Lavigne, or Mazagotti.

Goddamn! Cyborg is an absolute beast!

There really is no one in women's MMA that can give her a challenge. Certainly not Carano (undoubtedly the Lesnar of women's MMA) and Coenen, and in all likelihood not even Rousey or Tate. The way she obliterated Yamanaka last night was truly a sight to behold. And the cries of "early stoppage"are total bullshit; Cyborg outstruck Yamanaka 12-0 in 16 seconds. Nuff said.

There is literally nothing left for Cyborg at women's featherweight. She's gotta drop to women's bantamweight and dominate that division.

I truly believe that she could actually be a major problem for a good majority of the men's feather, bantam, and flyweight divisions.

Yeah she pretty much is on another level, it is quite obvious. Carano was always a joke to me, I never even found her very attractive or charismatic, I think Tate is way hotter and a better "Face" of the sport if they have to consider you know what.

UFC 141 tonight! Should be a good one. Here's my picks:

Jim Hettes vs. Nam Phan: Don't know much about Hettes aside from and undefeated, all submission finish record and I don't care much for Phan. Give this one to Hettes.

Vladimir Matyushenko vs. Alexander Gustafsson: Both of these guys have pretty good records, but Gustafsson has been on a tear with 4 finish wins in his last 5 fights, and is younger and hungrier. The Janitor has done well for himself lately with 3 finishes out of 4 wins in his last 5 fights (his only loss in this time was to the unbeatable Bones Jones), and I expect this to be a damn good sleeper fight, but I give the edge to Gustafsson.

Jonny Hendricks vs. Jon Fitch: I personally am a fan of Fitch's dominant style-some may call it boring, but whatever. There's a reason Fitch is the perennial #2 welterweight, and I don't see that changing here, despite a formidable challenge in Hendricks. I see Jon Fitch improving his record tonight.

Nate Diaz vs. Donald Cerrone: Don't care for Cerrone, but I despise the Diaz bros, so I give the nod here to Cerrone.

Brock Lesnar vs. Alistair Overeem: 3 months ago when this fight was announced, I was behind Ubereem all the way (and proclaimed such in this very thread). Now I'm not so sure. Since then we've seen Overeem: split from Golden Glory and the ensuing surrounding drama, split from Xtreme Couture to independently train in Holland in order to deal with his mothers's sickness, and the NSAC testing and conditional license debacle. Plus, he's already made public statements looking past Lesnar to see how he matches up with JDS. I just don't see Overeem's head being in the game for a high profile fight of this magnitude-his first true high profile test against a top 10 opponent at heavyweight. I think Lesnar comes in way more focused and determined to win and prove himself. As much I I want the opposite to happen-I really want Overeem to destroy Lesnar-I feel that Brock Lesnar will have his hand raised tonight in a very short (2 rounds at the most), very brutal fight.