Lately, predicting the winner of a mixed martial arts fight has been like trying to rob David Copperfield. The money is never where you think it is.

Everyone thought Tim Sylvia would put a beating on Randy Couture like a gorilla mauling a senior citizen, but “The Natural” chopped down the giant, stole his magic goose and took the belt back to the retirement home.

Matt Serra looked like a Teddy Ruxpin next to Georges St Pierre but that didn’t stop him from clubbing the French Canadian champion like a baby fur seal.

Fans everywhere were looking for the high kick knockout in the fight between Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic and Gabriel Gonzaga but who thought the Brazilian with enormous nostrils would toss his wide, hairy leg into the temple of the Croatian maniac cop?

Finally, Chuck Liddell was the favorite to send Quinton "Rampage" Jackson back to the dawg pound but who’s the champion now? Shave off your Mohawk and put on an NWA album; the howling bald dude with the chain around his neck has the belt. Even the writers behind “Lost” couldn’t come up with mind-bending plot twists like that.

What’s next? Your guess might be just as good as mine, but probably isn’t, as the UFC heads to the home of Liam Neeson, C.S. Lewis and the IRA; Northern Ireland.

Rich "Ace" Franklin vs. Yushin Okami

If I were preparing Franklin for this fight, I’d have him doing 15-minute rounds running full-speed on a treadmill while someone hits him repeatedly in the head with two frying pans.

That sounds ridiculous, but that’s what fighting Okami is like. Just ask Mike Swick, Kalib Starnes or Alan Belcher. Okami destroyed them like a Japanese fishing boat going through a school of tuna, and he just might turn Franklin into man-sashimi as well. Sure, “Ace” has a long list of knockouts, but it’s against a bunch of guys who were dumb enough to stand and trade skull-bombs with him, like Nate Quarry, Evan Tanner and Jorge Rivera.

Okami is like the long-lost Japanese cousin of Randy Couture. He punches you square in the nose and then he tackles you like a rescue worker extinguishing a man on fire by violently smothering him. Franklin has never fought a grappler of his caliber and, as insane as it sounds, Okami has an excellent chance of winning. Still, he has losses to Jake Shields, Falaniko Vitale and Amar Suloev, none of whom are currently more than bathroom attendants and parking valets in the MMA hall of fame. Yes, Okami has a win over middleweight champion Anderson Silva but it’s because Silva got DQ’d for kicking Okami in the gyoza. My Guess: Franklin by TKO.

Source: sports.bodogbeat.com