Get ready, fans! This could very well be one of the most exciting cards put together by the UFC in quite some time. UFC Fight Night 13 will take place on Wednesday night from Broomfield Event Center in Broomfield, Colorado, and it will feature a highly anticipated matchup between Kenny Florian and Joe Lauzon. Thiago Alves will also make a step up in competition against Karo Pariysan, and the event will feature well known names such as Matt Hamill, Houston Alexander, Gray Maynard, Frankie Edgar, Din Thomas, Clay Guida, and recent TUF contestants George Sotiropoulous, Roman Mitichyan, Tommy Speer. This could very well be the “Stacked” event we've all been waiting for. Props to Fightlinker for pushing the idea of making this event a 3 hour live televised card. The UFC won't acknowledge it, but I will. Great job, FL.

Before we get to my picks and Joe's predictions, let me just say.. I'm crazy for picking the fights I did, but I felt that there were some solid upset picks in the bunch.

Main Event: Joe Lauzon vs. Kenny Florian

This is a battle that I've been waiting for since it was announced. Kenny Florian's last seven battles have featured the former TUF contestant against some formidable opponents as he progressed up through the ranks. The climax was his loss to Sean Sherk at UFC 64, but he honorably took the fight to decision against a full load in Sherk. After the loss, he defeated Dokonjonosuke Mishima, a tough and explosive Alvin Robinson, and was putting the elbows on Din Thomas before he suffered a blown knee. Riding a three-win streak, Florian will be looking to stop the up-and-coming Joe Lauzon, and potentially win himself a title shot against BJ Penn.

Lauzon has been on a tear recently. He's won his last six fights in finishing fashion with a huge knockout win over former UFC lightweight champion Jens Pulver. The only real problem that Lauzon has had is that the level of competition he has faced has been subpar since Pulver. Melendez wasn't suited well against Lauzon's grappling, and Reinhardt's record was padded with horribly lopsided competition. Lauzon has the striking power in his hands and some excellent boxing skills, but Florian can counter his grappling and has some decent boxing himself. Florian is also very well versed in using his elbows in the ground and pound, and he's as tough as they come. This should be one exciting battle.

Without letting my biased get in the way too much, I'm admittedly a big Joe Lauzon fan. IT geek turned MMA fighter, who doesn't love it? On a purely analytical basis, Lauzon is great in most areas of mixed martial arts. He has great standup, good ground and pound, and can be controlling on the ground. Florian also has similar skills, and I don't believe Lauzon will be able to completely control him. The x-factor here is Lauzon's training at BJ Penn's facility in Hilo, Hawaii. Could it potentially have improved significantly enough to nullify the ground game? I think Lauzon has some ways to end this fight in which Florian may not be able to unless he can catch Lauzon in a submission.

Leland's Prediction: Joe Lauzon via submission, Round 3

This is an extremely close match-up between two above-average fighters. Florian has the better stand-up, but Lauzon has the better wrestling. Lauzon isn’t great at any one thing, but he is good at everything. Lauzon has decent striking, some decent power, good wrestling, and some ferocious ground-and-pound. Florian has good Muay Thai, and is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-JJitsu. I think Joe will stand with Kenny for a while until he sees an opening to take a shot. From there he will look to work his ground-and-pound, but he will need to avoid Florian’s submissions. I think Joe’s training with BJ Penn will help him on the ground en route to a unanimous decision.

Joe's Prediction: Joe Lauzon via unanimous decision

Karo Parisyan vs. Thiago Alves

Karo has a bit of a task ahead of him in this one. Parisyan has been known recently for winning some weak decisions that were fairly uneventful. Parisyan has some big problems in this fight though, and it's evident if we look at his track record. Parisyan hasn't faced huge power in his last few fights, in fact, his last nine fights haven't featured overwhelming striking. Lytle and Serra could have been seen as potential forces in the standup game, but Serra is mainly a big puncher who hopes for the lucky blow while Lytle was winning his way to decisions back when Parisyan took him on. This will definitely test Parisyan's abilities to avoid the big shots.

Alves has unbelievable Muay Thai strikes, devastating leg kicks, and great striking even when he's backpedaling from danger. I'm going to pick Alves in the upset because of his destructive striking. He finishes fights in crushing fashion, and if Karo allows the fight to go into the later rounds, he has much less of a chance of defeating Parisyan.

Leland's Prediction: Thiago Alves via TKO/KO, Round 2

Alves has done something that is nearly impossible to do: he stopped Christ Lytle in his last fight. However, I don’t think he’s ready for “The Heat.” Karo is extremely durable and brings a relentless attack throughout the fight. In fact, he has only been stopped twice in his career, both by former lightweight champion Sean Sherk. Alves doesn’t have the wrestling to control Karo, and Karo will use his wild stand-up to close the distance and unleash his unique judo game. Fortunately for Karo, I think this is a fight he can actually finish. Expect a submission late in the fight, most likely by kimura.

Joe's Prediction: Karo Parisyan via submission, Round 3

Tim Boestch vs. Matt Hamill

Coined as the most controversial fight of the year by many MMA fans, Michael Bisping vs. Matt Hamill in their light heavyweight clash was one of the closest fights the UFC has seen in quite some time. Matt Hamill, the deaf NCAA championship wrestler, came out with an unorthodox style in that he outboxed Bisping in the 1st round and surprised everyone with his incredibly improved standup. Bisping didn't let that stop him from working his own boxing routine in the 2nd round and 3rd rounds. When it came down to the final decision, Michael Bisping came out on top via a split decision that rocked the MMA world, at least for this weekend. As the scores were read, fans were in disbelief, even the UK faithful to Bisping. Cecil Peoples scored it 30-27 Matt Hamill. Chris Watts and Jeff Mullen scored it 29-28 Michael Bisping to help him secure a win, but certainly didn't convince the fans watching that he was ready for the mid-tier fighters of the division or even Matt Hamill. It made many fans ask the tough question, was this fight rigged? Did Chris Watts and Jeff Mullen see the same fight we did? Is there any evidence to back any of this up? Did the fans of MMA really get robbed? Let's find out.

Overall Fight Breakdown

To be fair in this assessment, Matt Hamill clearly won the first round. He came out with energy and clearly had better boxing in the first round. He was able to land more punches and it was clear he caused more damage to Bisping. Let's unanimously state Matt Hamill won the first round. The third round could be argued for as well, but the majority of the MMA community felt Bisping did pull out the stops in the third round. Hamill was fairly gassed, and Bisping took advantage. That leaves us with the controversial second round scoring. What happened in the second round that really split the community of fans?

The breakdown that I've managed to put together is much like boxing. I broke down the standup because since the round composed of mostly a boxing match, the striking aspect of the fight will have more bearing on the round score. Since Jeff Mullen was one of the referees in the bout, I will reference an interview he did awhile back regarding the Clay Guida vs. Tyson Griffin bout. I respect Jeff Mullen, but I think he made a mistake in this matchup. I'm not going to sit here and tell everyone to hate him. It's his job, and mistakes happen, but for sake of comparing thoughts and to determine a standard for the judging of these fights, I will reference some quotes:

"There's a lot of things you look at," says Mullen. "The things you look at are effective striking, effective grappling, Octagon (ring) control, effective aggression and effective defence. "But the most important by far are effective striking and effective grappling." Judges must adapt to the fight before them, says Mullen. "If 80 per cent of the round is spent standing up, then effective striking is going to carry a whole lot more weight than effective grappling. Whereas say 95 per cent of the fight was fought on the ground, then effective grappling would count more than the effective striking. So it's a sliding scale and you have to adjust it to where most of the fight takes place." ¹

I agree with this statement. If the fight takes place on the feet for 80 percent of the round, obviously the standup will have more bearing on the scorecard. Also note that Octagon control, effective aggression, and effective defense are key points for the judges to pay attention to as well.

From watching the second round with utter scrutiny, this breakdown is fairly accurate. It is safe to say though that the standup was rather even. Yes, Bisping did have some very good dodgy tactics and good counter punching, but Hamill also was able to land some pretty decent blows in the clinch. Here's Mullen's explanation:

Watch the beginning of the second round closely. When Hamill throws the jab, Bisping slips the punch and hits him with his own counter jab. It is hard to see on camera because Hamill's back is to the camera. His back was also to Goldie who was talking like the beginning of this round was like a continuation of the 1st. If you look you will see that Hamill is facing me giving me a clear view of what is landing. Bisping was landing the jab again and again and not getting hit. Hamill got 2 takedowns in rounds 2 and 3 but did very little with them. Bisping is using an active guard trying to turn for armbars and sweeps, Hamill is doing very little on top. Bisping is keeping him from scoring or improving his position.²

The beginning of this statement is very true, except for the fact that it isn't stated really how many times Bisping kept landing "the jab again and again.". In that first 2 minutes, Bisping didn't land a horrendous amount of jabs nor did he land a lot of his combinations. To be perfectly honest, I found it amazing that Hamill was covering up, and Bisping was still punching into Hamill's forearms. He didn't pick his spots. Later in the round, Bisping landed a few choice jabs by actually pinpointing his shots. He did none of this in the first 2 minutes. I really fail to see where he really landed a lot of jabs consecutively. Late in the round, many fans have tried to make a case, but Hamill blocked a majority of Bisping's total thrown punches in the last minute of the fight. Bisping landed 3-4 solid punches, but have about 8-10 good punches blocked with ease. This was also the case in in the beginning of the match. I felt that Hamill blocked and defended himself against a lot of counters and jabs that judges must have counted in order to really give Bisping a bigger edge.

That brings me to my second point, Octagon control and aggression. As stated in the first quote from Jeff Mullen, Octagon Control, effective aggression, and effective defense are also taken into consideration. The defense point could be made, but Bisping made very good transitions from the ground to his feet to get out of the takedowns. Both fighters were even in defense. Hamill defended many of Bisping's strikes, and Bisping defended himself during the takedowns very well. Octagon control and aggression, however, should have been enough to give Hamill the round. He not only pushed the pace during the 2nd round, but he stalked Bisping around the ring. He also took down Bisping with next to no force. Bisping ate the takedown, and yet Hamill received no praise due to the fact he didn't engage on the ground. Fact is, he aggressively took Bisping down, and Bisping did nothing to stop it. Bisping popped up from the 2nd takedown, but the first one he was effectively trying to limit Hamill. Note, he was "trying to limit" Hamill. The rubber guard is great for setting up all sorts of submission attempts and body control techniques, but Bisping wasn't trying anything except for surviving. Hamill broke it, and still rattled off a few choice punches. Also, Hamill did land some decent uppercuts during the transition from ground to feet on Bisping that also seemed to not count in his overall performance.

This is my formal opinion of the fight, but I will say that I can see why Jeff Mullen scored it the way he did. He did make a post about it that is quoted above, but after watching it many times, I can see where people could feel Bisping won the fight due to effective boxing. I still feel Hamill's aggression and takedowns, along with the fact he was dictating the pace should have went far enough to edge the round in his favor.

Judges' Calls

This isn't the first time we have seen something like this occur, and it won't be the last. If anyone recalls the controversial Clay Guida vs. Tyson Griffin battle, Mullen was also a part of that fight as well except he was the man who went against the grain and ruled the fight in favor of Clay Guida. The MMA community also felt Guida won, but the two judges scoring the bout with Mullen felt Tyson Griffin won the battle. We can't all sit here blaming someone like Mullen for this fight's outcome. Although many disagree with his judgement on this bout, look at the fight more closely and honestly look at Bisping's boxing in the second round. It's much closer than people originally thought.

Cecil Peoples also had pretty much the same explanation as Mullen.³  He did state that he thought Bisping was more aggressive, but I still stand firm on the point that Hamill did push Bisping around the ring and did push the pace more than Bisping did. Hamill also landed some nice punches near the end during the last flurry, while Bisping had nearly all of his combos blocked in the middle of the fight, some toward the end. Peoples is also no man to shy away from a controversial fight. He judged the controversial Griffin vs. Ortiz battle. Overall, judging in MMA is obviously a tough as hell job to do. I think a very good solution would be to have MMA specific judges that are either re-trained from being boxing judges or must prove their judging is bar none unflawed. I realize that's a huge feat, but it seems that the other aspects besides effective grappling and striking are being discounted even though they are always stated to be a part of the official scoring.

Hook, Line, and Sinker

I'm with the MMA community on this battle. Matt Hamill won the fight. The one thing that I do disagree with is that the fight was a blowout win for Hamill. It was by far one of the closest battles of this year. When you watch this fight over and over during the second round, it is honestly very tough not to give the standup to Bisping based on better strikes. I believe Hamill landed a tad more, but essentially made it an even landed vs. thrown punches on the feet. In my analysis, I think Hamill's aggression and Octagon control was overlooked just because he didn't do much with his takedown. Mullen even admits in his Metronews interview about the Guida fight that takedowns that stun opponents count for more, but even basic takedowns account for Octagon control.⁴ I think this was overlooked and ultimately sunk Hamill's chances for being awarded that second round.

With the outcry of the decisions, Dana White already making comments about how bad judging wouldn't be a factor if the fighters had finished it before the end of three rounds⁵, and the ultimate idea of a rematch, this issue isn't going to be dying soon. But maybe, just maybe something will come of this from a judging standpoint. More trainings, more tape reviews, more.. something to better the judging of these events. I will say one thing, I may not agree with the decision, but the decision ultimately brought the beast out of Michael Bisping into the public eye.⁶

THE BREAKDOWN: DAN HENDERSON VS. QUINTON JACKSON

Dan "Hollywood" Henderson comes into this fight with a 22-5 record with his most recent win over Wanderlei Silva at PRIDE 33: The Second Coming to win the PRIDE Middleweight Championship Belt. He became the only MMA fighter to ever hold two belts simultaneously and only the second fighter to actually attain two championships in two different weight classes, PRIDE Middleweight and Welterweight.

He also won the RINGS Tournament in 1999, in which he fought three consecutive fights in one night against Gilbert Yvel, "Minotauro" Nogueira, and Renato "Babalu" Sobral. He has a consistent record with big wins over Wanderlei Silva, Vitor Belfort, and Murilo Bustamante in his most recent fights.

Henderson is a member of Team Quest, which has gyms in Portland, Oregon and Murietta, California. The California location is ran by Henderson himself. Team Quest trains fighters such as Matt Lindland, Ed Herman, Jason "Mayhem" Miller, Rameau Sokoudjou, and Gabe Ruediger. In the past, fighters such as Randy Couture, Evan Tanner, Nate Quarry, and Chris Leben were all members of Team Quest. Randy Couture is actually credited by Dan as to getting him involved in MMA.

With this impressive resume of experience and accomplishments, Henderson obviously has a well rounded MMA skillset. Henderson is best known for his strong standup skills even though he has a very strong wrestling background. He was involved in the '93 NCAA Championships and was a member of the '92 and '96 U.S. Olympic Wrestling squad in Greco-Roman Wrestling. Even with this incredible background, Henderson has won by knockout in 10 of his 27 bouts and only won by submission once. He has 11 fights that headed to decision in which he won. His 5 losses were mostly lost by decision except for two losses to "Minotauro" Nogueira via armbar.

So what does all this statistical analysis say about Dan Henderson? Obvioulsy he has a strong standup game. He also has very good cardio considering he has had many of his fights go the distance. Not to be compared to Chuck Liddell, Henderson does have similar traits to the former UFC light heavyweight champion. He seems to be using his wrestling primarily to escape the ground game or for body control on the ground to pound out opponents. He rarely tries to position himself for the chokes much like other wrestlers try to do.

Quinton "Rampage" Jackson is fresh off his UFC title win over Chuck Liddell with a huge knockout victory in the first round that stunned the MMA community. Before that fight, Rampage had started to train with Juanito Ibarra and claimed that he was in the best shape of his life. Juanito's training regiment was featured on UFC: All Access before UFC 71. With a notably better
trainer in Rampage's corner, Rampage looks to be coming off one of the biggest wins in his career and into a dead standup matchup with Dan Henderson.

Rampage's resume is also fairly impressive with notable wins over Kevin Randleman, Murilo Bustamante, Ricardo Arona, "Ninja" Rua, Matt Lindland, and Chuck Liddell twice. His highest achievement in the ring was his title matchup with Wanderlei Silva at the Middleweight Grand Prix known as PRIDE Final Conflict in which he suffered a devastating loss via knee strikes.

Striking is Rampage's game. He has very heavy hands and packs a lot of power into his fists. He's physically very strong and able to pick up opponents and slam them at will as we've seen in the Arona and Sakuraba fights. He is so physically strong that he is very hard to control on the ground and is able to easily break from guards and escape to his feet. Rampage has proved even in losses that he has some skills that some MMA fighters cannot match up against. His chin is unbelievably strong. In both the "Shogun" Rua matchup and the Wanderlei Silva matchup, he took an unbelievable amount of knees to the chin and face that didn't drop him immediately. Especially in the Shogun fight, Rampage remained on his feet until the end of the fight after taking a brutal beating. It should be noted however that in that fight, he suffered a broken rib early in the fight and really was unable to keep going, but kept fighting nonetheless. He's also shown a decent ability to escape chokes, especially in the Matt Lindland fight.

Recently in an interview with Stephen Quadros, Rampage also stated that he has been training with Brandon Vera and Cheick Kongo for an added element to his striking game. I believe this is most likely to prepare for Henderson's power punches.

PREDICTION

Historically, I would think this fight may go to a decision because due to the high amount of bouts that both fighters have had go to a decision, but that wasn't in five round title matchups. Also, both of these fighters have heavy hands and that doesn't make for a particularly long fight.

Henderson has had 4 out of his last 5 fights go to decision, which tells me that his fists have been avoided for the most part recently. It's obvious that his heavy hands are more avoidable that MMA fans would be led to believe. Gono and Chonan absolutely got steamrolled by Henderson's aggressive advance which equaled brutal knockout victories in both bouts. If Henderson can be more aggressive in this bout than in previous bouts, he may be able to do the same thing that Wanderlei and Shogun were able to achieve in their matchups. If the bout becomes a standup fight in which both fighters are trying to pick each other apart, Rampage may have the advantage considering his chin has been proven much more than Dan's.

Rampage is a very underrated fighter. He has excellent takedowns, excellent defense, and he can really do damage in the clinch. Henderson has proven in the last few fights that his style is basically roaming the ring and landing huge punches. His standup really isn't much but his huge guns looping at your face. I'm going to pick Rampage in this matchup via TKO/KO in the 3rd round.

THE BREAKDOWN: MIRKO "CROCOP" FILIPOVIC vs. CHEICK KONGO

Mirko will be coming into this bout with a 22-5 record, fresh off a loss to Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 70 via a brutal headkick in which CroCop later admitted that the ground game that Gonzaga used on CroCop led to blurriness in his vision and resulted in reacting late to the kick. After the initial shock of the loss, Mirko was quoted as saying he wasn't training very hard at all, and didn't train in a cage setting whatsoever. In response to his loss, Mirko has brought in Gilbert Yvel and Remy Bonjarsky as striking coaches and Dean Lister as a BJJ expert as well as setting up an Octagon in his basement. He will no doubt be heavily prepared to fight in the Octagon and most likely have his striking at 100%.

CroCop's resume is extensive and very impressive. He has beaten Josh Barnett three different times in his career, as well as devastated Wanderlei Silva in an openweight Grand Prix, beaten Coleman, Randleman, Aleksander Emelianenko, and eventually lost to decision to the great "Last Emperor" Fedor Emelianenko. The loss was still very impressive because Mirko's ground game shined in the matchup. He was able to fully avoid the brunt of Fedor's attack, but he did lack a crisp standup game in the fight. Fedor dominated the world renowned striker in the standup department during the 2nd and 3rd
rounds to cement the decision victory.

Mainly a kickboxer, Mirko has been training in Brazilian ju-jitsu, and his new trainer, Ivan Hippolyte, is a legendary Muay Thai champion. Could we possibly see Mirko add the knees to a clinch in the UFC? It's quite possibly he's added some big skills to his game with his already devastated standup kicks. He also has a very good boxing game. He's very quick, and moves in and out of range from his opponenet. Counter punching is his specialized way of boxing against opponents and it can be definitely seen in his fight against Wanderlei Silva in which he caught Silva with a stiff jab while Silva tried to aggressively move in on Mirko.

On the UFC 75 Countdown show, Mirko stated that in his last fight when Gonzaga knocked him out that "shit happens" and that's all he can really say about it. He looked to be training very hard in elbows, defense, and in the cage. He looks to be in better shape for this fight as well, and a bit bigger strength wise.

Cheick Kongo is 10-3 with a recent win over Assuerio Silva at UFC 70. He has been training out of the Fimeu Gym in Paris, in which in his UFC Countdown interview considers it to be one of the best gyms around. He has been training in MMA since he was 5 years old and began with Muay Thai, Kendo, and Karate. He also have some Greco-Roman wrestling training to supplement his standup game.

Kongo hasn't had many notable wins in his career. His last fight against Assuerio Silva was his most notable win and it was fairly lackluster. Kongo primarily kept the fight up, which was a good strategy, but had a few chances to rain punches down on Silva. He respected Silva's ground game and was fairly hesitant because of it. Kongo has been training at Big Bear with Bisping and Jackson, so we should most likely see some improved counter punching and striking from the French man.

PREDICTION

Mirko is coming into this bout off a devastating loss. He's most likely going to head to London, England with the mindset of showing the UFC what he worth and what he's improved on. Mirko's recent interviews and press coverage of his camp have only solidified the fact that he's serious about winning this matchup. Bringing in two premeir strikers and a world class ju-jitsu fighter who has seen the cage helps tremendously in his ground game and cage awareness. He also stated that he has been extensively working on elbows and defending against the elbows. His trainer, Ivan Hippolyte, is also a legendary Muay Thai fighter. He will be perfect practice for Crocop to get familiar with Kongo's style of fighting.

Kongo's best chance is to use his powerful striking to catch Crocop. Crocop has demonstrated numerous times that his boxing tactics are fairly crisp. He's a very quick jabber and moves in and out of range a lot. He also feasts on looping punchers. If this fight goes late and Kongo begins to gas, look for a straight punch knockout. Otherwise, I look to see Crocop win via a kick in the 1st or 2nd round

THE BREAKDOWN: MICHAEL BISPING vs MATT HAMILL

The hype surrounding this fight has grown and grown over the past few weeks in this much anticipated matchup between the TUF 3 contestants. Bisping obviously ended up winning the Ultimate Fighter. Hamill, on the other hand, was not allowed to fight after he suffered a concussion before the TUF 3 semifinals. He has stated numerous times that he thinks he would have won the Ultimate Fighter had he not been injured. This has fueled the fire between both of these competitors.

Bisping is primarily a kickboxer, but has a bit of ju-jitsu in his game along with some strong striking skills. He has won a good number of his fights via ground and pound, but hasn't been tested extensively in the Octagon. His last win was against Elvis Sinosic in which he did show some resilence in the ring. He took a heavy knee and recovered and also was able to pull away from being submitted in the 2nd round. He has a perfect 13-0 record in MMA, but did record a loss in a kickboxing match against Cyrille Diabate at one point in his career. Diabate was the man who suffered a head stomp loss to "Shogun" Rua in PRIDE at one point.

Training out of Big Bear with "Rampage" Jackson, Brandon Vera, and Cheick Kongo, look for much improved striking from Bisping. I imagine his trademark aggressive style and throwdown attitude will be seen throughout this fight.

Hamill is a completely different fighter than his counterpart. Hamill is a Division-III NCAA Wrestling Champion with some standard ground and pound abilities. His most recent victory was over Rex Holman, who was a Division-I Wrestling Champion at Ohio State. During his interview on the UFC Countdown show, Hamill said that fight was a turning point for him because it proved he could hang with wrestler with better credentials and win.

Hamill's training has been extensive in the boxing arena. He trains at his own gym in New York state and is taking full advantage of training with Kimdu Bethel, a 3x Boxing Champion,  according to Matt Hamill's website. It looks like he's stacked on the striking training to silence his critics. Hamill comes into this bout with a 3-0 record in MMA, but against very unproven opponents. It will be interesting to see how Hamill plans to counter Bisping's aggressive style along with his heavy hands.

PREDICTION

This very well could be the upset pick of the event. Hamill's wrestling ability is vastly superior to anything Bisping can offer on the ground. If Hamill can manage to get past an initial onslaught by Bisping or neutralize it with a takedown, he may be able to control the fight. Hamill has stated that during the show, he took all the training seriously and was criticized by Bisping for that. He also thinks because of that, and the fact that he manhandled Bisping in wrestling drills during the show that he will be able to takedown Bisping.

To be honest, I'm going to take a safe prediction and pick Bisping via TKO 1st or 2nd round. I will probably lay some money on the Hamill upset however because I feel he looked much stronger during his TV interview, and Bisping had flashes in the Sinosic fight where he could have lost, especially after the knee to the head. Bisping's standup may be so much improved that Hamill just won't be able to compete with it, and I'm sure "Rampage"'s camp trained him well in takedown defense. It will be a very interesting matchup to say the least, the classic ground fighter vs. standup fighter.

THE BREAKDOWN: HOUSTON ALEXANDER VS. ALESSIO SAKARA

Houston Alexander, out of Omaha, Nebraska, is coming off an upset victory over Keith Jardine at UFC 71. He showed the world that he had unbelievably heavy hands and was able to pound Jardine with punch after punch ending the bout just :48 seconds into the first round. Alexander is primarily a Muay Thai fighter with a heavy emphasis on Boxing. He also has stated in an interview with Gary Alexander of the Ultimate Podcast that he has a ground game that people will be very surprised with. Alexander just recently got back into the MMA game this year with a couple of wins in a smaller organization in March. He was on a layoff for 2 years before that but stated in an interview with UFCJunkie that he had fought over 200+ amateur MMA fights. Many call this "bullshit", but Alexander insists he fought a majority of them in Sioux City, Iowa.¹ 

Alessio Sakara comes into this bout off a win over Victor Valimaki at UFC 70 in a impressive first round knockout. Alessio is primarily a Brazilian ju-jitsu/Boxing fighter from Brazil. He also holds an amateur boxing record of 6-1, mainly fighting in Italy and Brazil.² Sakara comes into this bout looking to prove that Alexander is a fluke, but this matchup is proving to have the makings of a slugfest. Sakara is very good inside, scoring many heavy uppercuts against opponents. He has a good takedown defense and is great a dodging punches.

PREDICTION

This fight is definitely a decent test for Alexander. It isn't a step up in competition however. It really looks like the media hype over Alexander in his last fight has caused the UFC to be tentative in matchmaking Alexander. He should be tested though. Sakara has heavy hands, and some ground game to boot. Look for this fight to be a standup war, but Sakara may be able to really push the pace with his excellent boxing skills. This is another bout that may have the makings to be an upset. Alexander is favored to win slightly, but I believe Sakara's superior boxing skills and heavy inside presence may be able to lift him to the victory. I'd pick Alexander based on his power and extensive boxing experience, but you may want to make a play on Sakara to win. I'm going to go out on a limb and pick Sakara for the upset in the 1st round...

UPDATE: Sakara did an interview saying he was going to come out and just try to outbox Houston Alexander, so I'm picking Alexander via KO in the 1st round.

UNDERCARD BRIEFS

Paul Taylor vs. Marcus "The Irish Hand Grenade" Davis

Marcus Davis is quite the mystery. He compiled a 17-1 boxing record in the New England circuit before suffering a huge knockout loss that literally caused him to quit boxing. He then became excited for the new challenge that MMA presented and here we are now with Marcus sporting a 11-3 record with 4 fights under his belt in the UFC. Marcus sports impressive boxing skills and knockout abilities along with an 8 fight win streak leading into the fight with Paul Taylor. Taylor will be coming in with an 8-1 record and fighting on his home soil in England. He hasn't fought any huge names in MMA, but has fought recently some fighters with fairly decent records, a step up from the fighters he was going up against early. Taylor looks to have some power and ground skills, but he is definitely a fighter that looks to stand and fight. Davis has much more superior boxing. When you are considered one of the top boxers in the U.S. and on the verge of breaking into the big time like Davis once was, it's very hard to pick Taylor winning a standup fight. Davis via TKO/KO in the 1st.

Gleison Tibau vs. Terry Etim

Both of these guys have very good ju-jitsu backgrounds, but Etim is coming into this fight undefeated with 10 wins, 9 by submission. Etim also has only went into the second round 3 times in the 10 fights, winning most of his fights via submission in the first round. Tibau is fighting out of American Top Team, and is very versed in submissions as well. He does like to throw the leather though, and this makes me believe he is more of the complete fighter in this matchup. Etim hasn't fought very good competition, and wasn't that impressive in his last victory. Look for Tibau to finally show his skills on the ground in this fight. Tibau via submission in the 2nd.

Tomasz Drwal vs. Thiago Silva

Both fighters in this matchup have impressive records, but haven't fought really any top notch competition. Silva has just come off a win over James Irvin. Silva has some impressive standup skills and just like any fighter out of Chute Box, has great kicking ability with knockout power. Drwal also has impressive knockout ability, but did that against a lot of guys who've been knocked out a lot. Look for Silva's superior Muay Thai fighting and black belt in ju-jitsu to shine in this bout. If Drwal's standup actually stuns Silva, this fight can be won on the ground by Silva. Drwal has a puncher's chance in this bout with his knockout power though and may be worth laying a small bet on. I'm actually going to take Silva by submission instead of KO because I think he will try to avoid Drwal's standup. I watched a few of Drwal's fights and he won those via KO, but they were somewhat unimpressive in that the competition he fought was simply bad at defending themselves.

Naoyuki Kotani vs. Dennis Siver

Kotani is primarly a submission fighter with an impressive 13 submissions out of his 17 wins. He was able to take Tavarez the distance in his last bout in which he lost. It does prove that his escape techniques and style were able to fend off an excellent ju-jitsu fighter. Siver is also a submission fighter with some knockout power. His last bout was very unimpressive losing to Jess Liaudin via submission in the first round. Look for this fight to hit the ground quick, and for Kotani to win via submission in the 1st round. Siver seems to have a weakness against superior submission specialists, and Kotani has had some very good experience in the past against guys like Aurelio.

Anthony Torres vs. Jess Liaudin

Anthony Torres was a contestant on Ultimate Fighter 2, losing to Luke Cummo early in the show, but has since won his UFC debut over Pat Healy via submission by rear naked choke. Jess is coming into this fight with a 11-8 record, hardly impressive, but he is on a 4 fight win streak. Jess has some impressive ju-jitsu skills that don't compliment his record. Jess has also looked in much better shape in his current four fight streak than he has in previous fights. With that said, I think Liaudin comes in takes this via submission in the 2nd round.

Most writeups sourced Wikipedia.org for data, and various Google searches turned up videos on each fighter, Sherdog.com for fight records.