Friday, August 28, 2009

UFC 102 Predictions

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is all set to unleash some powerhouse action at UFC 102. The UFC will invade Portland Oregon for this show, which is missing a catchy moniker. How about UFC 102: The Road Back, or When Legends Attack, or better yet UFC 102: The Old Ones. I mean honestly, I could give a shit less if Couture or Minotauro win. I like Couture but judging from Nogueira's last performance, he's only got a couple of "Legend" fights left. It looks like Nogs has Greg Oden Syndrome. You know, he looks twice his age. I just can't get an ounce of excitement brewing for this matchup. Unfortunately one of these dudes will get to fight for the title again because the heavyweight division is so thin in talent. The rest of the main card is loaded with intriguing fights. There is no way I'm missing that Maia-Marquart fight. Or Jardine-Silva. That will be a slobber knocker. Ha ha, I really like that term, slobber knocker. Seriously I want to see every other fight. I really hope Vera gets beat up, too. I just can't handle that little dance thing he does. It makes me want to puke. The undercard looks pretty good on paper also, should be a couple of barn burners. Well anyway, here are the predictions and we're looking to do better than our UFC 101 picks, which were absolute crap. Did we draw names out of a hat? Sure seemed like it. Here they are and enjoy the fights.... RESULTS added Sept 1st.

UNDER CARD
Aurelio def Dunham by Choke DUNHAM
Munoz def Catone by TKO
Duffee def Hague by TKO
Russow def McCully by TKO
Gonzaga def Tuchscherer by KO
Simpson def Herman by Unanimus Dec

MAIN CARD
Soszynski def Vera by Split Dec VERA
Maia def Marquart by Arm Bar MARQUART
Rosholt def Leben by Choke
Jardine def Silva by TKO SILVA
Couture def Nogueira by Unanimus Dec NOGUEIRA
Well another shitty round of predictions. On the bright side we improved to 6-5 for the event. The main cards seem to be the weakness as we're 2-9 from the last 2 pay per views but 9-2 on the undercards. Couture-Nogueira fight was by far the best off the night. Good back and forth battle that went the distance. I think Marquart earned the next shot at the Spider's titles. Christ, that was a devastating KO. How about that Todd Duffee. Not only is his profile picture look bad ass, he set a UFC record with a 7 second knockout. And a reminder that The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights is right around the corner. See ya in a couple weeks.

Friday, August 7, 2009

Tiger Woods Farted?

2009 Buick Open...

UFC 101 Predictions

Here is theSportStew's predictions for this weekends UFC 101: Declaration and some bonus picks from WEC: Torres vs Bowles on Sunday.. It should be known that the tiebreaker in determining the battle is the weight in pictures. It's amazing what you can learn from a couple of pictures.

Lenox over Villafort by TKO
Sotiropoulos over Roop by Choke
Riddle dec. Cramer
Leites over Sakara by Choke SAKARA
Howard over McCrory TKO

Nelson over Riley TKO RILEY
Neer over Pellegrino by Choke PELLEGRINO
Grove over Almeida by Arm Bar ALMEIDA
Sadollah over Hendricks by Choke HENDRICKS
Silva over Griffin by TKO
Florian over Penn by Split Dec. PENN

Bonus Picks WEC Torres vs Bowles
Mizugaki over Curran by Unanimus Dec
Benavidez over Cruz by TKO CRUZ
Torres over Bowles by Choke BOWLES

Enjoy the fights and have a great weekend!!

Wow, we suck at this. Not sure what the hell was up with Griffin. After watching MMA this weekend, here are some new predictions. Brian Bowles, Mike Brown, GSP, and Anderson Silva are by far the best in the world at their weight classes and it will be awhile before any of them lose the belts.

Brock is a Better Bad Guy

The excitement is growing for UFC 101 but let’s take a quick look back at the epic card of UFC 100. The aftermath of UFC 100 was quite interesting. Well, first I should say that was a great night of fights. Brock Lesnar surprised us all with such a dominant dismantling of Frank Mir. It was very impressive and Lesnar looked unstoppable. And then, weirdness prevails. Lesnar got in Mir’s face and was trash talking him. Hey Brock, you just kicked his ass, I think he knows all about it. Next, Lesnar proceeded to slobber and spit all over the camera like a rabid dog. I actually liked his post fight interview with Joe Rogan though, the way he antagonizing the crowd was great. He might have gone too far by dissing Bud Light; after all they’re a major UFC sponsor.

Brock’s whole demeanor got me thinking. Did Dana White just pull a Vince McMahon? White is the President of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He definitely comes off as brash and arrogant but that guy is a business genius. He has helped grow the UFC from bankruptcy to the biggest MMA draw around. In case you don’t know who Vince McMahon is, he is the Chairman and primary stockholder of the WWE, World Wrestling Entertainment. McMahon also has strong business sense, having taken a family owned business and turning it into a multi million dollar company. I think that White instructed Lesnar to act like an ass and, to steal a term from the pro wrestling business, turn heal. White knows that heavyweight is by far the weakest weight class in the UFC, and probably all of MMA. What better way to build excitement for upcoming cards than have a champion that no one likes. People will shell out the bucks to see an arrogant ass get the hell beat out of them.

Look over the roster of UFC’s heavies and there are very few that will generate a lot of prefight hype. You have the crowd favorites Couture and Nogueira. Lesnar already knocked out “the Natural” and “Minotauro” looked like a sack of crap against Mir. The top contenders appear to be undefeated up-n-comers, Shane Carwin and Cain Velasquez, who I think fight each other in an elimination bout for the #1 challenger spot. Velasquez is a great wrestler but hasn’t shown huge power in the fights I’ve seen. Carwin, who has the size and power, should supply the best matchup. Can either of these guys stop Lesnar’s takedowns? The other options just don’t get my pulse racing but in MMA, an upset victory is only one punch away. There definitely isn’t a light heavyweight that would move up a class to take on Lesnar. He has to cut weight to make the limit. The heavyweights that would generate the most excitement are all outside the company. I would love to see Fedor or Bobby Lashley join the UFC. Lashley should continue to get better but would make dramatic strides if he dropped the pro wrestling bit.

Until some other fighters evolve, or some new talent is brought in, the UFC needs Brock Lesnar to be the guy that everyone wants to lose.