The UFC is bringing an action-packed card to Wisconsin this weekend, and it’s headlined by a slugger’s dreamfight between Dan Hardy and Chris Lytle.
Hardy is currently on a three-fight losing streak while Lytle is trying to come back from a loss from earlier this year. Hardy’s losses were to Georges St. Pierre, Carlos Condit and Anthony Johnson.
Also on the card, lightweight contenders Jim Miller and Ben Henderson will fight for a chance at the UFC lightweight championship.
Donald Cerrone makes his second appearance in the Octagon when he takes on young prospect Charles Oliveira.
The opening bout on the main card, which will be broadcast on Versus at 9 p.m. ET, is Amir Sadollah vs. Duane Ludwig.
These are my predictions for knockout, submission and fight of the night.
Fight of the Night: Dan Hardy vs. Chris Lytle
It’s really hard to pick a fight of the night for this card. Miller vs. Henderson has the potential to take it, but I think that will be more of a technical grappling war than the brawl that this one will probably be.
If the losing streak hasn’t taken any confidence away from Hardy, expect him to come out looking to stop Lytle. It won’t be easy considering “Lights Out” has never been stopped in a career of over 50 fights except for two cut stoppages. This means fans are guaranteed a great fight. Hardy also has a good chin of his own.
Lytle has five Fight of the Night awards already, including wars with Paul Taylor, Thiago Alves and Marcus Davis. He also has two Submission of the Night awards as well as a knockout of the night bonus.
I don’t see a stoppage happening in this fight, and that gives it the perfect chance to go long enough to take the Fight of the Night bonus. Both are going to leave it all in the Octagon on Sunday.
Submission of the Night: Amir Sadollah
The fight between Sadollah and Ludwig is the only fight I see being finished from the main card. There are a bunch of undercard bouts that have the potential to end by submission.
Sadollah is 5-2 in MMA and in the UFC. He has two submission victories, but one was by elbows. His first was an armbar submission win against C.B. Dollaway.
Ludwig is 20-11 in MMA and 3-2 in the UFC. Of his 11 losses, he has been submitted five times and knocked out five times. He’s not one to lose by decision.
Ludwig fought most of his career at lightweight. I see Sadollah being the bigger man and eventually wearing Ludwig down to a submission win in the third round.
Knockout of the Night: Jared Hamman
The two hardest hitters on the card are going to be fighting in the main event and both have the chins to withstand each other’s blows. It’s probably going to be an undercard bout that takes the knockout of the night award if one even occurs. The last time no KOTN award was given out was at UFC 119.
NCAA Division I wrestler C.B. Dollaway will be facing Jared Hamman on the undercard, which will be shown live on Facebook.
Dollaway suffered a bad loss in his last fight, losing via first round KO to heavy-handed wrestler Mark Munoz. It occurred just 54 seconds into the first round.
Hamman suffered a similar knockout in his UFC debut. He was knocked out in 41 seconds by Alexander Gustafsson. Since that fight, he has gone 1-1 in the UFC, taking back-to-back Fight of the Night bonuses for his efforts.
Most notably, Hamman is dropping from the 205-pound division to fight at middleweight. It will be interesting to see if he carries his power down to the 185-pound division.
This may go either way, but it has a good chance of ending by knockout.
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