The word on the street is that come May, Thiago Silva and Rashad Evans will square off in the UFC light heavyweight division.  For the second time in three fights, Evans will take on an undefeated opponent, and put the donut in his own loss column at risk.

This match makes all kinds of sense for various reasons, the first being each fighters records.  Evans sits at 11-0-1 and Silva sports a 12-0 record.  The 205lb division could not get anymore crowded, and this should alleviate some pressure. The winner would likely put themselves right on the doorstep of a title bout, which is something that has been rumored for Evans for months now.

Silva and Evans stylistically make for an interesting affair. Silva is a striker first and the quality that Evans has yet to tackle in the Octagon. In the mold of the other Silva we know so well, he comes forward and keeps on coming. Kicks, hands, knees; he puts the pressure on whoever is standing in front of him. Tomasz Drwal and Houston Alexander both found that out for themselves. It will be interesting to see how Evans handles this, its not his game.

Evans relies more heavily on his wrestling ability and strength, with his striking a secondary option.  Evans has seen the later rounds more often than he hasn’t, and his conditioning has held up well.  Silva on the other hand has a history of ending fights early.  Evans will likely be looking to pound out Silva.

Its always nice when we see two fighters of this caliber and such different attacks meet.  Evans’ last two fights have been rather lackluster, and Silva is the type of fighter who will make sure the fight is anything but a snoozer.  Lets hope this fight materializes.

How do Tom Hanks and Saturday night's UFC 78 event relate to one another? Simple. There is one scene in the movie BIG in which Tom Hanks is working at a toy company as an adult when in actuality, he's a boy who was turned into an adult by a wish to an arcade game at a carnival. We have all seen the movie. In the scene, Hanks is in a meeting with the top executives going over quarterly numbers and sales. During the lecture regarding the sales, Hanks is playing with the toy that resembles a building that turns into a robot. Hanks raises his hand and the character played by actor John Heard asks Hanks what the question is. Hanks replies, "I don't get it", in which Heard asks, "What don't you get?". Hanks replies, "I don't get it. It's a building that turns into a robot, what's the fun in that?". A very hilarious scene from a great movie. But what does that have to do with UFC 78? As soon as Evans vs. Bisping ended, I simply stated to myself... I don't get it.

What don't you get!?

Before I seemingly rip into this boring event, I will say that it was perceived by most of us in the MMA community that this card was going to be a disappointment. The laughable attempt by Dana White to hype Michael Bisping and Rashad Evans in some of the conference calls and press conferences never blinded me with visions of grandjeur about the event. With that said, what about this event didn't I get? Take a seat:

• Why was the event card so weak? There seemed to be not one single fight that stood out remarkably in my mind before the event began. I wasn't excited for one particular fight as I have been on other cards. It'd be a much different feeling if there was a fight I wanted to see, but it came up short. I understand that mixed martial arts is unpredictable, but there isn't unpredictability and excitement in a fight I could care less about. My prediction would be... I don't care.
  
  
  
  • There are many thoughts as to why the card suffered. Mainly, many of the champions are injured or coming off recent fights. The lightweight division's top tier is in gridlock due to the Sean Sherk case. The middleweight division just had a title shot. The welterweights are also in gridlock due to the taping of The Ultimate Fighter and the title defense coming out of the show between Matt Serra and Matt Hughes. Quinton Jackson has a broken hand and Randy Couture is in a dispute with UFC's management, as we all know. That leaves the titles in each weight division locked up for now and unavailable for the 78 event.
  
  
  • The matchmaking abilities of Joe Silva have definitely come into question. I mean, Michael Bisping vs. Rashad Evans was terrible. I won't put the blame on matchmaking for it because I imagine Dana White had something to do with this fight coming to life when he couldn't conjure up another bout with so many divisions in lockdown (see previous point). Fisher-Edgar looked like a decent matchup to many fans, but all I thought about was Fisher's decisions and how they stacked up against Edgar's style, mainly a takedown fighter. It didn't bode well at all, and a friend thought I was nuts when I said you might as well run out and get some food while this snoozefest is on. Karo Parisyan vs. Anybody is a bad matchup. I hate to tell ya, but Karo still hasn't worked on his power enough to finish someone. He has slick ground moves, but matching Chonan up with him was disappointing. I would have rather seen Akihiro Gono switched with Chonan. Swap out these couple of fights with some undercard battles, and it would have been a bit more exciting.

Those are two biggest contributing reasons to such a poor card, and the UFC won't be able to avoid more of their events having the same problems. I can understand some of the problems, but having just an overall weak card entirely could have been avoided. There were some very good fights on the undercard that intrigued me as a hardcore fan. Gono vs. McCrory was interesting, and it ended up being a very interesting fight with an unorthodox submission victory. I didn't believe the Reinhardt hype at all, but I am a fan of Joe Lauzon. Chris Lytle vs. Thiago Alves was a matchup that I thought was particularly interesting. It seemed to be a good matchup for both competitors and it delivered. The only problem was that the cut Lytle sustained somehow caused the doctor to stop the fight. Another fight ruined by poor judgment in my opinion.

Dare I say, I thought the Joe Doerksen vs. Ed Herman fight was probably one of the most exciting fights on the card for the pure fact that it was a back and forth battle. Herman showed potential and improved strength in his abilities as a fighter. It was clear that he was stronger than Doerksen and was able to control top position easily, but the BJJ skills of Doerksen came into play during the end of the second round. Herman was saved by the bell. Herman's sloppy standup striking managed to win him a third round KO though. Definitely a back and forth battle of ups and downs.

Final Thoughts

The UFC could have done a better job with this card's main card lineup. When a fight like Herman vs. Doerksen makes a run for fight of the night, there is obviously something wrong with the top fights. Matchmaking a few decision fighters against other decision fighters isn't acceptable. Come on UFC! I understand making the casual fans happy is where it's at, but can you throw the hardcore fans a fight?

UFC 78: Validation will roll into the Prudential Arena in Newark, New Jersey on Saturday night. The card features a main event between two TUF winners, Rashad Evans and Michael Bisping. In a light heavyweight matchup, Houston Alexander will be looking to continue his domination of the division by taking on a heavy handed Thiago Silva. Spencer Fisher also looks to keep a good thing going in an explosive battle with Frankie Edgar. The card also features a number of good undercard matchups that should either excite the crowd or bore the fans to death, we'll see who shows up to win. Let's take an in-depth look into what many consider the UFC's weakest card to date, but take a closer look and you may find some gems.

Rashad Evans vs. Michael “The Count” Bisping

Arguably, both of these fighters could definitely cut down to Middleweight and make the division worth a damn, but instead we will see both fighters try to make a run at moving themselves up toward the upper heap in the Light Heavyweight division. Rashad comes into the bout sporting a 10-0-1 record, but has yet to fight any of the top competition. His last bout against Tito Ortiz caused a small controversy due to Ortiz grabbing the fence causing the score for the round to be a draw. Ortiz won the first round 10-9 and lost the last round 9-10 to Evans. It caused the fight to end in a draw and a promise of a rematch. It's rumored that the winner of this matchup will fight Ortiz.

Bisping is also coming off a controversial fight that is considered one of the worst decisions by a judging crew in MMA this year. Many fans believe Matt Hamill won their matchup at UFC 75. Bisping also comes into this matchup with an undefeated record of 14-0, but like Evans, hasn't fought top competition.

This battle will be a matchup of conflicting styles to an extent. Bisping definitely would rather stand and Rashad seems to like to work the standup enough to set up his wrestling abilities. Bisping showed some good boxing technique against Hamill and seems to have improved his standup significantly, but he showed hesitation in running through Hamill because he was a wrestler. We could see the same thing from Bisping in this battle unless he somehow works on being aggressive against a wrestler. Obviously, he wasn't comfortable in his abilities enough to get into the zone of a wrestler in his last bout, but Hamill didn't try to do much when taking down Bisping. Bisping also had zero takedown defense against Hamill. It should definitely be a gauge for Bisping to learn from. Evans has some decent standup with a combination of kicks and punching. His defense is okay, but his wrestling ability will be the skill that could propel him to win this fight.

My pick for this fight will be Rashad Evans based on the pure fact that Bisping's sprawl was non-existent in his last bout. I believe Evans will shoot his hips and put Bisping to the floor pretty quickly, and I don't think Bisping has the massive power to knockout Evans very quickly. Bisping has knocked fighters out, but in the UFC, he remains cautious. He doesn't want to overextend his stride and get caught or get taken down quickly. Rashad doesn't really have finishing power, so I'll take him by decision

Pick: Rashad Evans by Unanimous Decision.

Houston Alexander vs. Thiago Silva

Houston is somewhat of a sensation in the UFC currently. He came in to fight Keith Jardine as a late replacement likely to lose to Jardine and ended up spectacularly knocking him out instantly. His raw power is uncanny in providing him knockouts. His last bout against Alessio Sakara proved to be a quick fight and wasn't entirely a test to Alexander's abilities. Alessio came out before the battle stating he was going to try to fight with Houston's strength because he felt he had a better boxing game. Bad idea playing into Houston's strength. Will Thiago have a better gameplan?

Silva, if you hadn't noticed, is a Chute Box fighter, hence the last name. Like many of the Chute Box fighters, he possesses some outstanding Muay Thai skills and a good ju-jitsu base on the ground. Silva is the type of opponent the UFC looks to be setting up for Houston to punch out. Although Silva has some great standup, Houston's power could be a potential problem for Silva. Interestingly enough, many people said that about Tomasz Drwal. I found it odd how people picked Drwal who seemed to have horrible standup, but a ton of power. Drwal's looping punches were evident in many of the fights leading up to the bout and it almost seemed as if he was just swinging for the fence with no regard as to how he would defend the counter. Silva took advantage. Houston seems to have a better gameplan for strikers though. If he can't catch you standing, he will catch you in the clinch. Silva has had some impressive battles, but I believe Alexander's strength will be no match. The X factor is Alexander's cardio. Will he be able to continue battle if it hits the second round?

Pick: Houston Alexander via first round (T)KO.

Frank “The Answer” Edgar vs. Spencer “The King” Fisher

A battle of a couple of bangers, this fight looks to have the makings of a great back and forth battle. Fisher has experience on his side sporting a veteran record of 20-3, Edgar is fairly new with a 7-0 record. I'll make this a brief breakdown since I'm rather interested in seeing how this fight will pan out because it's a fairly tough battle to determine. Both fighters are very well-rounded, tough as nails, and have had some very good success. Edgar took out Bocek recently at UFC 73 and a very tough Tyson Griffin at UFC 67. Fisher is coming off an exciting battle against Sam Stout at UFN 10.

This is going to come down to who can outstrike their opponent before they decide to hit the mat, if they do at all. Fisher is unbelievably tough to beat and has only been stopped once, the other two losses being by decision. Edgar seems to also be the type of fighter who has a tendency to go the distance much like Fisher has done recently. I believe Fisher's experience, toughness, and overall ability to recover should push him through on this one.

Pick: Spencer Fisher via Unanimous Decision.

Karo “The Heat” Parisyan vs. Ryo “Piranha” Chonan

Finally, Karo will fight again and try to make a claim that he deserves a damn title shot already. He comes into this fight at 17-5 with a long layover after his fight with Josh Burkman at UFC 71 in which he made Burkman miss haymakers nearly the entire fight. Pariysan is strictly a judo fighter who loves to put down the hip toss in his matches and dominate his opponent with ground work and fleet footedness. He isn’t overly powerful and has in fact won 7 out of his last 9 fights via decision. To be perfectly honest, I’m not a huge fan of Pariysan for the mere fact that I believe he will get overwhelmed at the top of the heap. He seems to have a great way of avoiding damage, but can’t deal out enough damage to stop an opponent, leaving open the possibility of being beaten in later rounds. Will he be able to stop the “Piranha” from defeating him? I believe he can.

Chonan is a veteran ex-PRIDE fighter with a background in judo. He is most famous for being completely dominated by Anderson Silva in their PRIDE Shockwave 2004 matchup, but somehow pulling off one of the most difficult submissions in the flying scissor heel hook. Quite an impressive fight. Chonan has problems with power as evident in his losses to Dan Henderson and Phil Baroni, and he’s susceptible to the better submission fighters as evident in his loss to Paulo Filho. He was beaten inside the first round by the Brazilian ju-jitsu expert. Although he’s taken some big losses to some strong opponents, Chonan is fairly well-rounded with decent striking skills and an overall excellent judo game. He’s a bit small at 185, but he will be bigger since he is dropping down to 170 for the UFC. Look for him to have a bit more power and size on Parisyan.

A tough matchup indeed. I believe Chonan has the judo skills to really stop Parisyan from moving in on him for big hip tosses and judo moves that could temporarily put Chonan in bad positions. Parisyan is still very well rounded and active in his fights early. Parisyan should be able to keep working Chonan tired and end the fight in a decision win. It’ll be interesting to see if Parisyan shows up with some more power since he’s been off for months and hopefully gaining strength and training during that time.

Pick: Karo Parisyan via Unanimous Decision.

Thiago “Pitbull” Alves vs. Chris “Lights Out” Lytle

Alves is an American Top Team prospect with power in his hands. He has 7 fights in the UFC, 5 wins, with his most notable victories over John Alessio, Tony DeSouza, and Kuniyoshi Hironaka. He has some hard striking that could overwhelm the veteran Chris Lytle. Lytle has been around for quite awhile. He’s a very good submission expert with a number of losses against some big name fighters, but he has been able to been nearly everyone that isn’t near the top of the heap. He’s lost to Matt Hughes and Matt Serra most recently, both by decision. He’s only been stopped once in his 14 losses, losing 13 by decision, making a statement for Lytle’s longevity in his fights.

Alves’s main weakness is his submission defense. In two of his losses, he suffered submissions to Spencer Fisher and Derrick Noble. Problem is, Alves’s power is a huge factor for Lytle, but Lytle seems to avoid the big punches and take the fight to the ground. This is going to be my small upset pick of the night, I’m going to go with Chris Lytle via submission.

Pick: Chris Lytle via submission, second round.

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.