The UFC continues their Spike TV shows tomorrow night with another Ultimate Fight Night card, headlined by TUF Season 2 winner Rashad Evans. Lets dig right in and get some previews and predictions for the Fight Night card.
Main Card
Rashad Evans vs. Sean Salmon - The main event features two fighters who both have a heavy wrestling background. Rashad was criticized initially in his UFC career for not finishing fights and just taking fighters down and laying on them. Evans surprised quite a few people with list KO victory over Jason Lambert at UFC 63. Salmon has comparable skills as Evans, but hasn’t faced quite the level of competition that Rashad has. When two fighters share the exact same skill set, you’ve got to go with the fighter with experience against the tougher opponents. Winner: Rashad Evans
Jake O’Brien vs. Heath Herring - For those that don’t follow Pride events, you will get your first introduction to Heath “Texas Crazy Horse” Herring, who has spent the majority of his career fighting in Japan with Pride and K-1. Herring has fought and competed with some of the best heavyweights the world has to offer, and he should greatly firm up what was an extremely weak UFC heavyweight division only 2 months ago. O’Brien is a relatively new MMA fighter at only 22-years of age, but he sports a 9-0 professional record. O’Brien could have a nice future in the UFC in the years to come, but fighting Herring will be much different than his prior UFC fights against Josh Shockman and Kristof Midoux Winner: Heath Herring
Hermes Franca vs. Spencer Fisher - Boy, oh boy! If you aren’t excited about this fight, you need to make sure you still have a pulse. This could be the fight of the night, and it is expected that the winner of this fight will be the next one to challenge Sean Sherk for the UFC Lightweight title belt. Hermes Franca is a BJJ black belt and should easily have the advantage on the ground in this fight. Fisher is an MFS product and loves to stand and throw heavy punches with his opponents. As of late, Fisher has become somewhat known for the flying knee knockout he delivered to Matt Wiman at UFC 60. This fight really could go either way, and my gut is telling me to pick Hermes Franca by submission, but who cares what my gut says. Winner: Spencer Fisher
Dean Lister vs. Nathan Marquardt - Lister vs. Marquardt was once the main event for this Fight Night card, and how it has been dropped to “swing bout” status. Either way, this fight is an important one for both fighters. Marquardt is an excellent MMA fights, with a list of credentials a mile long. Lister has spent most of his career in KOTC and Pride FC, and is only 2-0 in UFC events, but is widely regarded as one of the greatest submission artists in the MMA world today. This fight could end up being pretty boring if and when the fight hits the mat, but hopefully the pace stays somewhat active. I’m not really sold on my choice of victor in this fight, because it really could go either way, but I see Marquardt winning by pure brute-force. Winner: Nathan Marquardt
Under Card
Chad Reiner vs. Josh Burkman - Josh Burkman is one of thoe guys that I think has a bright future in MMA. Burkman has wins in the UFC over Sam Morgan, Drew Fickett and Josh Neer, while Chad Reiner will be making his UFC debut. Reiner clearly has the edge on the ground in the submission game, despite Burkman’s wrestling background. If Burkman can keep the fight standing up and keep his pace active, he should take this fight. Winner: Josh Burkman
Ed Herman vs. Chris Price - Ah, good old Ed Herman. “Short Fuse” thinks the world of himself and his skills, but I have a feeling he is in for another disappointed night against Chris Price. Both Herman and Price lost their last fights in the UFC; Herman lost to Jason MacDonald and Price lost to Kendall Grove. This is a fight Ed Herman should win, due his greater experience against tougher fighters. However, I don’t know if Herman has what it takes to compete on a high level in the UFC, and I hope we see a nice performance out of Chris Price here. Winner: Chris Price
Clayton Guida vs. Din Thomas - This should be an excellent fight and is one that I would like to see shown on the televised broadcast. I’ve always been a fan of Din Thomas and his fighting style and this matchup with Guida should be explosive. Clay Guida fights like the energizer bunny and barely takes a moment to breath during the rounds. In 2006 Guida defeated former UFC fighter Josh Thompson and went a full 25-minutes with Gilbert Melendez, who is not considered to be one of the top 5 lightweights in the world. Winner: Din Thomas
Ross Pointon vs. Rich Clementi - This fight seems pretty pointless and I’m wondering why fights like these even take place; obviously, just to fill up a spot on the card. Ross Pointon is 4-8 and has only had a victory in one of his last eight fights. Clementi has over 30 fights to his credit with a record of 23-11-1 and should win this fight easily. Pointon does have heavy hands, but he has an even heavier beer-belly. Winner: Rich Clementi
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YO DR J… I HEAR THAT SPENCER FISHER WAS HURT AND WONT FIGHT TOMMOROW IS THAT TRUE?
Got to take Ed “shortfuse” Hearman in his fight. Other that the “Texas Crazy Horse”…I agree with ya. GOOD ARTICLE!!
@Patrick
Nothing is confirmed yet. it was rumored yesterday that Fisher wouldn’t fight, but there is no confirmation.
Several sports books have taken the fight off their listing and BoDog actually is listing Franca’s opponent now as Diego Saraieva.
I’m trying to get in touch with my contacts and get an official word, but nothing as of yet.
i didnt know y ross was even in the ultimate fighter show in the show i thought he had a pretty good record until i looked him up and he sucks and DR J what does swing match mean? and the only prediction i disagree with is i think that dean lister is going to when from what i see hes a beast except for he needs to cover his face more to protect himself from shots
[...] MMA HQ: Ultimate Fight Night Preview [...]
Dr. J i agree with all your predictions, except im choosing Dean lister to win, and Ed herman, even with the weight issue. This should be an interesting fight night. Im most interested in seeing herring fight in the UFC that guys a beast! other than that, im most interested in seeing Dean Listers comeback! after that, the next best is to see spencer fisher fight again, but it seems hes not gonna be a part of this card.. big thumbs down to that one..
Got that one right! “Texas Crazy Horse” ends up on his back. I’m telling you guys, Heath is not that great…but worth a lot more chances to get used to the Octagon.
ya crazy horse came up short, the amount the built it up, they shouldnt have put him against a wrestler but thats the problem, they dont have enough heavyweights that focus on striking. Though he did catch him with a nice right hand near the end heheh. Either way, he knew he was fighting a wrestler and i think he only sprawled once during the entire fight. It would have been nice if o’brien did some more work from the top for entertainment purposes, but a W is a W.
I hoped we could have seen the Marquardt - Lister fight, from what i read it sounded like a good fight. Too bad for Dean, good luck next time.
you could tell Herman wanted that win, very impressive.
Franca - Fisher was a great fight! until the KO punch lol dam it was ugly, and it looked like he had punched himself out when he was finishing him. Who knows, Fisher might have been able to recover from that haymaker. All respects to franca, tho i wasnt feeling the purple hair hehe. Love to see a rematch!
Besides the KO head kick, Rashad showed alot of character when he said he wasnt satisfied that Salmon hasnt gotten up yet. Nobody wants to see a fighter get hurt, great skill, great respect!
we salute you rashad!
So this Fight Night was decent…not spectacular..but decent…that is why it’s a Fight Night.
1) (Franca vs. Fisher) I was surprised by this outcome. I thought it would go the distance
2) (Herman vs. Price) ok..not thrilling of course, but Ed finally popped his UFC cherry.
3) (Herring vs. Obrien) I’m sure I’ll get criticized for this…but I think it was a pathetic fight. I’m so sick of wrestlers. You wonder how if a guy like Herring becomes a legend one day, he will always have bs losses like this one on his record. Obrien was completely inactive on the ground, yet Herring’s performance was sub-par as well, but I did like his style. He looks like he loves to mix it up, but was just not ready for the ways of the UFC. He’s used to having the refs stand it up when the fighters go towards the Pride ropes.
All I have to say is…thanks G-d for Mirko’s sprawl
it would suck if cro crop and rampage lost there matches because in the end its a fight and fights are semi unnpredictable
the bookies seem to think the cro cop fight is very predictable. they have cro cop winning at something like -1151/+850. i dont know if you all know how betting lines work but trust me that a huge difference. silva vs lutter odds are -351/+321 thats about 3 to 1 for silva so just think of the odds for cro cop vs sanchez.
all of sanchezs wins have come by tko or ko so it must mean the guy has got some power and cro crop takes a little time before he gets people with his kick so im saying if randleman can get lucky so can sanchez
oh no doubt everyone has that same lucky punch chance i was saying its pretty funny how the odds pretty much have the fight in the books.