This Superbowl weekend, Saturday night on ppv: Randy Couture vs. Mark Coleman Nate Marquardt vs. Chael Sonnen Mike Swick vs. Paulo Thiago Demian Maia vs. Dan Miller Matt Serra vs. Frank Trigg Mac Danzig vs. Justin Bucholz Melvin Guillard vs. Ronys Torres Phillipe Nover vs. Rob Emerson Brian Stann vs. Phil Davis Tim Hague vs. Cris Tuchscherer Mostapha Al-Turk vs. Rolles Gracie Another one of those cards IMO that doesn't appear to be the most exciting that will probably produce many very nice fights. Couture vs. Coleman - What can you say. This has been a long time coming. Too bad both these guys are north of 40 for this their first meeting. I assume that if either has a real dominant performance, they will step into the title picture. I look for Couture to win somehow. Marquardt vs. Sonnen - This fight makes no sense for the title picture, only to keep Marquardt from staying inactive until Anderson fights Belfort. Marquardt is clearly the next in line for a title shot, however he could easily lose his status with a loss to Sonnen. Sonnen is a tough mofo and can be very dangerous, although I don't see him as much of a finisher. Marquardt should win this fight, but not if he is looking past it to his next fight. Swick vs. Thiago - Was supposed to be a rematch between Thiago and Kos, but Kos got injured, so in steps his AKA teammate. This will be the third upper tier AKA WW that Thiago has faced. I can really see this fight going either way, and likely we will see some of Swick's supposedly amazing ground game, because Thiago is a BJJ black belt and will probably want to be on the ground at some point. Swick, however, does have probably the best takedown defense in the WW division. I say this is a very evenly matched fight. Maia vs. Miller - Maia is coming off his 20 something second KO loss to Marquardt and Miller hasn't fought in almost a year. Miller is a good wrestler and we all know how good Maia's BJJ is. It will be interesting to see if Miller can contain Maia on the ground. I'd give a standup edge to Miller, but don't think most of the fight will take place on the feet. Maia by sub. Serra vs. Trigg - This to me is one of those fights that I have little interest in, but like a good highway car wreck, I have to look. I just have zero confidence in Trigg and look for Serra to pull it out either with a KO or a SUB. Since there are no title fights here, I look for several of the undercard bouts to be shown. One of the most interesting for me is the debut of Rolles Gracie. A HW prospect, with the name and a lot of hype coming in. He should be able to handle Al-Turk quite easily IMO. I also find it funny how they keep giving Melvin Guillard opponents whose strengths are ground skills. Melvin has supposedly been training a lot with Joe Daddy, so we will see how much he as learned.
|