The UFC is making its first trip to the state of Ohio for UFC 68: The Uprising and overall it looks like the MMA fans in Ohio are in for a pretty decent fight card. Four former or current UFC champions will be fighting on the card, so lets take some time and break down the event a little.
For those that are interested, you can watch the live weigh-ins Friday at 4pm EST at NBC Sports UFC site.
Main Card
Tim Sylvia vs. Randy Couture - Ahh, the return of “Captain America” Randy Couture to the UFC. Randy’s return has been met with mixed emotions from the MMA community and this fight with Tim Sylvia is a pretty hot topic right now. Love him or hate him (as most of you do) Tim Sylvia is the UFC champ and he is the champ for a reason; he is a good fighter. Tim’s standup game is good and its tough for anyone to fight someone who is 6′8″. That being said, Randy has promised that he will push the pace the whole fight and make Tim “earn” a victory instead of just fighting defensively to “prevent” a loss.
I believe Randy is planning on doing what he says, but I just wonder if he can push the pace for a full five round fight at his age after being out of the octagon for a long time. Randy definitely has a chance to win in this fight by taking Tim down early and often and working his ground game. In the end, I think Tim will keep his belt again and have a few months to train before he gets the crap kicked out of him by Cro Cop. Winner: Tim Syliva
Matt Hughes vs. Chris Lytle - Matt Hughes returns from losing his belt to Georges St. Pierre to face Chris Lytle, who I feel should have won the finale of The Ultimate Fighter 4. We all are familiar with Matt Hughes credentials and I know Matt will be ready to fight. Chris Lytle posseses some great striking but I don’t expect him to be able to use it much as Hughes will most likely take him down and ground-and-pound him. Hughes should pull this one out in the second round. Winner: Matt Huges
Drew McFedries Vs. Martin Kampmann - Drew McFedries is making his second appearance in the UFC after somewhat suprising victory over Alessio Sakara at UFC 65. His opponent, Martin Kampmann has fought twice in the UFC defeating Crafton Wallace and Thales Leites. I look for Kampman to use his kickboxing background to control this fight, but wouldn’t be surprised to see McFedries land some solid punches early in the fight that could rattle Kampmann. Winner: Martin Kampmann
Rich Franklin Vs. Jason MacDonald - Another former UFC champ returns after losing his belt, and Rich Franklin is looking to get back to the top. The winner of this fight will have a title shot against Anderson Silva, and that is all the motivation Rich Franklin needs. Jason MacDonald has surprised quite a few people with his victories over Ed Herman and Chris Leben, both by submission. As impressed as I was with MacDonald in his first UFC fight, I was that unimpressed with his second fight against Leben. If MacDonald keeps his hands down and just nonchalantly walks into Franklin with his head down, he is going to get knocked out pretty early on in this fight. Winner: Rich Franklin
Jason Lambert Vs. Renato Sobral - We finally see Babalu Sobral back in the octagon, where he hasn’t fought since his loss to Chuck Liddell at UFC 62 last August. In that fight Liddell ended Sobral’s rather impressive 10 fight winning streak rather convincingly. I actually just rewatched that fight a few days ago, and to this day I still can not figure out what Sobral was trying to do in there. Jason Lambert has had a nice streak himself winning 8 out of his last 9 fights against some pretty solid competition. This should be a good fight and Sobral will have his hands full. In the end, I think Sobral’s quickness and experience will be too much for Lambert. Sobral by submission in the third round. Winner: Renato Sobral
Undercard
Rex Holman Vs. Matt Hamill - Winner: Matt Hamill
Jon Fitch Vs. Luigi Fioravanti - Winner: Jon Fitch
Gleison Tibau Vs. Jason Dent - Winner: Gleison Tibau
Jason Gilliam Vs. Jamie Varner - Winner: Jamie Varner
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What can I say Dr. J? Right on…..as usual
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most of the time…
VERY NICE DR J
Tim getting the crap kicked out of him by Mirko is going to be classic.
whether Tim keeps the belt or Randy steals it.. Cro Cop is taking it in the end
i dont know if i want to make any predictions after that pride event, now i’m sure ANYTHING can happen in an mma fight.
i know most of you think tim is too much for randy to handle, and in a way i do to but maybe its the oldschool in me that still believes randy is the man. i’m thinking sylvia wont chase couture to hard because of the takedown i can see him trying to keep couture at the end of his jab and wait for a chance to land a big one. couture is very good at getting inside and working the clinch and he works extremely hard on the ground. i also read some were that he has been work a lot on submissions and we all know how hard it is to make sylvia tap.
i think rich franklin is going to have a tough fight but i think he will come in with a hunger like never befor. franklin never really lost his drive at all he just fought a better fighter. silva has insane muay tai skills and franklin made a huge mistake in that fight by thinking he could win the clinch game. long story short franklin is gonna knock out macdonald because he has to if he wants his title back someday.
matt hughes is plain and simply going to lay a beating on lytle. any other time i would say this would be a good fight but hughes is a beast and i’m sure he wants to rip through everyone till he’s back on top.
i’m not going to make anymore predictions partly because i’ve gone on long enough and partly because i just dont know there is some fairly good match ups.
the weight ins are today and i’m getting hyped. i’m going to do my best to watch at 4:00pm tonight, so i will do my best to let everyone who didnt get to see it know how it goes. maybe i will try to record it and upload it somewhere for everyone to see. no promises but i will try.
Couture & Lytle will pull off upsets this saturday. You heard it here first.
LOL JASON PUT DOWN THE CRACK PIPE
@Jason
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
@PATRICK
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
@patrick
i think gatties is a pretty smart dude. and if your going to pick some upsets thats a good place to start. you could very easily put franklin on that list too. i would have never thought dan henderson could beat wanderlei silva but he did. thats why mma is the best sport ever because there is so many way to fight and win and just when you think you have a clue about what might happen they do something totally unexpected and all you can say is wow i didnt see that one comming.
@RJ
Come on bro….Dan vs. Wendy was a no brainer.
Happened just as said…Dan KO second round.
Hate to repeat myself but,
Fantastic Four will dominate their opponents….
Tim
Matt
Ace
Babalu
CAN I GET AN AMEN HOLLA!!!
@dennis
while it is very possible that henderson can beat silva (obviously) i dont think it was a no brainer. you can say that now because it happened but if you guessed the other way it would be just another wrong guess and i might be arguing my point was a no brainer. again that why i love this sport, unpredictable! does anyone here know what the records look like for title defenses? well if you dont look it up you might surprise your self two or three wins with a belt around your waist is what the top guys are doing. of course you have people like hughes(7 title defenses) and fedor(4 title defenses) who just rack up the wins like no tomorrow. the point i’m trying to make is everytime you step in to the ring you might lose no matter how good you are!
don’t forget Chuck!
Look for Drew McFedries to steal the show from Martin Kampmann.
Kampmann wins by triangle!!!
Back in the saddle again?
RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY RANDY
Ummm…who’s laughing now???
Infact, here’s my post from yesterday…
http://www.gatties.us/?p=190
Does that say Couture via decision???
My other upset didn’t happen, but you gotta give Lytle credit.
i had sylvia to