I thought maybe I put in the picks a little too late last time. This time, I’m taking all of the favorites.
Main Card Bouts:
-B.J. Penn (#7 Lightweight in the World)* vs. Sean Sherk
Uh … BJ. Only possible way for Sherk to win is if he can hold BJ down and ground and pound or lay and pray. BJ’s not easy to take down – even St. Pierre had trouble doing it and I don’t see it being easy for him. I don’t think Sherk can stand with BJ either. I do question BJ’s gas tank though. He’s had issues with it before, but should be in shape now. We don’t need to question Sherk’s gas tank. He can go for 25 minutes no problem as he’s done many times. I’d say that BJ dominates and wins by KO most likely. Sherk’s probably not an easy guy to submit because of his short neck. I think he can power out of any armbar as well.
-Lyoto Machida (#5 Light Heavyweight in the World)* vs. Tito Ortiz (#10 Light Heavyweight in the World)*
Machida. Tito can’t stand with him. Tito could be able to take him down and do the same as Sherk, GnP/LnP. I think that Machida will have his game with takedown defense and potshot Tito to victory.
-Keith Jardine (#6 Light Heavyweight in the World)* vs. Wanderlei Silva (#8 Light Heavyweight in the World)*
The only possible upset of the night that I see can happen is if Wanderlei has some issues with Keith Jardine’s reach. Jardine did a good job against Liddell and I’m thinking that Houston Alexander was a fluke now. That said, if we see a crazy aggressive Wandy, he might be able to get Jardine just like Alexander did.
Beats me for the next 2 … Silva/Gouveia? I haven’t seen their opponents, so I can’t say.
-Thiago Silva vs. Antonio Mendes
-Wilson Gouveia vs. Goran Reljic
Preliminary Bouts:
-Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (#9 Light Heavyweight in the World)* vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura
Sokoudjou – he’s a judo fighter too. He’s also got KO power. I think he’ll take Nakamura by KO. Too bad Joe Silva doesn’t allow these guys to take out some of the TUF guys. They’d put on a clinic. Anyways, I think Nakamura will eventually get caught.
-Yoshiyuki Yoshida vs. Jon Koppenhaver
I like Koppenhaver, but have no clue who Yoshida is.
Don’t know about the rest of these guys either.
-Rousimar Palhares vs. Ivan Salaverry
-Shane Carwin vs. Christian Wellisch
-Dong-hyun Kim vs. Jason Tan
-Terry Etim vs. Robert Emerson
