It’s about time! UFC comes home this Saturday live from the MEN arena in Manchester after a long 5 year wait with an array of home grown talent in the form of Dave Lee, Terry Etim, Paul Taylor and are very own Michael "The Count" Bisping all on the bill for quite a night of action.
I unfortunately haven’t got tickets to this one due to a cash flow problem at the wrong time of all times, but I am joining the lads and watching it on PPV, but be assured I will be in Ireland for UFC 72 Franklin v Kampmann in June.
Dana White has stirred up quite a sceptical for this one with a great card put together apart from Forrest Griffin being pulled due to a nasty staph infection up comes the hard hitting David Heath to make a impact against Ryoto "Lyoto" Machida who made easy work of TUF fighter season 1 Sam Hoger in his UFC debut at UFC 67.
Anyway onto to business here is a run down of things for the main televised card.
Both these guys coming off losses against Brandon "The Truth" Vera & Carlmelo Marrero look to push up the rankings with a win and it is a good match up in a tough looking division.
Kongo the Paris native will be looking to use his wrestling & liva livre skills as well as his height advantage against the sheer power of Assuerio and his ground skills, although Vera did submit Silva he did say after the bout that he was relieved as the power factor of Silva was incredible, as for Kongo coming of a split decision and was looked upon as a contender in the division has taken a step back and will look to getting back on track with a intriguing heavyweight bout.
Prediction: Silva by TKO Round 2
Werdum (who is ranked in the top 10 on various websites as well as Arlovski) makes his debut against the former champ Arlovski. Werdum holds impressive victories over Alexander Emelianenko in Nov 2006 by submission, Alistair Overeem & Gabriel Gonzanga.
Altohugh, Werdum is a ground expert and is part of Team Cro-Cop, I feel the ‘Pitbull’ is on a mission to regain his crown and with his TKO of Marcio Cruz who is phenomenal on the ground and his Achilles lock win over Tim Sylvia he has the stand-up and submission talents to get back to the top of the mountain.
Fight of the night for me.
Prediction: Arlovski by Split Decision
Home town hero will be welcomed to a crazy response on Saturday at the MEN and if that’s not enough to push you to a victory then I don’t what is.
Pretty straight forward for Bisping who’ll look to give a show to the paying fans, but end things late on in the first as he did with Schafer with a TKO win.
Sinosic will look to ruin the script though he hasn’t really made a big name for himself in the UFC. He does hold a submission win over Jeremy "Gumby" Horn and win over Cage Rage Mark Epstein, so he is a worthy opponent, but anyone who steps into the cage has a 50/50 chance.
Prediction: Bisping by TKO Round 1
Both put their 9-0 records on the line, which is another great bout for the card. Machida looked in first gear when making easy work of Hoger, so it will be interesting to see how he takes Heath who is a powerful striker and holds nearly half his victories to submission. Heath will press Machida to the cage and look for the takedowns.
Machida holds a several victories over good opponents and the show he put on in his debut was impressive, he didn’t showcase his true potential as the fighter he is known as.
Prediction: Heath by Unanimous Decision
Main Event
No.1 Contender for the Heavyweight Championship
Cro-cop definitely the favourite for this one as was St Pierre against Serra and we know what happened with that one. Gonzaga holds great punch power and is an accomplished wrestler with his BJJ to boot.
We all know what Cro-Cop possesses pin-point punching and outrageous leg kicks which could probably chop a tree down, if your saw the leg kicks Eddie Sanchez received for his efforts to stop the Croatian in his debut.
Cro-Cop to pick up his second victory with a tough battle in Napao who is very under estimated as a heavy weight and for me should have
had a title shot against Tim Sylvia.
Prediction: Cro-Cop by KO Round 3
UFC 74 Title shot against the Natural.
All in all an extremely exciting evening for MMA in Manchester and a great card, I just hope it doesn’t disappoint.
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