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From Brandon Thatch to Diego Sanchez, the usual collection of sort of-prospects and definite veterans do war for UFC 196 at the MGM in Vegas.

Some old prospects and old veterans do the octagon tango this March 5, 2016 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The Line Up

Preliminary Card (Fox Sports 1)
Welterweight Brandon Thatch vs. Siyar Bahadurzada
Welterweight Erick Silva vs. Nordine Taleb
Middleweight Vitor Miranda vs. Marcelo Guimaraes
Featherweight Darren Elkins vs. Chas Skelly
Preliminary Card (UFC Fight Pass)
Lightweight Diego Sanchez vs. Jim Miller
Lightweight Justin Salas vs. Jason Saggo
Featherweight Julian Erosa vs. Teruto Ishihara

The Odds

Brandon Thatch -310 Siyar Bahadurzada +255 
Erick Silva -230 Nordine Taleb +190
Marcelo Guimaraes +260 Vitor Miranda -320 
Chas Skelly -155 Darren Elkins +135 
Diego Sanchez +120 Jim Miller -140
Jason Saggo -210 Justin Salas +175 + 
Julian Erosa -200 Teruto Ishihara +170

The Rundown

Welterweight Brandon Thatch vs. Siyar Bahadurzada

The word “bust” isn’t used often. But in Thatch’s case, his whirlwind start and fashion in which he beat his opponents provides a sensation with roots in ‘bust territory’. However, Brandon’s age should have kind of denied him that status altogether, Stephen Thompson notwithstanding. Both guys are 0-2 in their last two bouts.

Part of the problem with Thatch is that we never got a sense of the breadth of his acumen. His fights were too short. Before we knew it, he was fighting former title holders and contenders. He’s still a solid fighter in the division. His clinch work, knees, and general violence in the Muay Thai shark tank are worth the price of admission alone. Siyar is exactly the kind of fighter to accentuate Thatch’s strengths; with a plodding but aggressive striking style that only pays off against the less talented and athletic, Thatch should have no problem dictating the pace in thundering fashion.

Welterweight Erick Silva vs. Nordine Taleb

Speaking of sort-of-prospects, who better than to represent this unique demographic than Erick Silva? I can’t even remember who he beat to receive such brief hype, but going to wikipedia won’t satisfy me. Silva is coming off a loss to Neil Magny, and has a pretty erratic career in the UFC, overall. He’s kind of a punchline when it comes to prospect status, but that’s not to his abilities are a punchline.

He’ll be facing Taleb, who is a clean 3-1 in the UFC. Taleb isn’t uniquely gifted in any one area. He’s rare in that he’s been on TUF, twice, but that’s about it. I would argue that working with Tristar, he’ll be well coached and will have scouted Silva’s flaws. If this fight is back and forth and heading towards a third round, all things being equal, Taleb should actually have a modest advantage. Silva still hits hard enough to be the x-factor long enough to secure a victory.

Middleweight Vitor Miranda vs. Marcelo Guimaraes

This is a pretty classic striker versus grappler matchup. Guimaraes has a sort of tone-deaf approach to wrestling in the modern era, unable to truly transition between the two, but perfectly capable on their own respective axis of doing damage. In that way, Miranda has the nominal edge given how hard he can strike, and how quickly he can add, subtract, multiply, and divide with them.

Featherweight Darren Elkins vs. Chas Skelly

Elkins is still kicking, winning fights some fans would prefer he didn’t, doing things Jon Fitch used to do when he began to struggle in the UFC but still had a place in it. Elkins is coming off a win over Robert Whiteford. Elkins’ brand of striking to stay alive, and grappling to stay on edge has taken him far enough to look back on his 13 fight UFC career thus far, and be proud of it.

He’ll need more than Pride to beat Skelly, who does a lot of things similar to Elkins, but with a little more silk and sprite. Normally I’d go with youth here, but Skelly is only a year younger than Elkins. Both guys grind it out in places people don’t talk about at parties. But for both men, they need that clinch on that wall. And so close quarter combat will be the rule of law for the day. I feel like Skelly’s striking in close should be the difference, but these aren’t the kind of strikes that catch the judge’s attention, so a bad decision (after the last UFC, we’re all but desensitized at this point) could be in order.

Lightweight Diego Sanchez vs. Jim Miller

Sanchez is functionally done. His bizarre, ff kilter demeanor used to be kind of charming. But he’s in an admittedly scary phase of his career, where all of the stories of indiscretions and personal mistakes seem fueled by more than just personal judgment, and stupidity. I’m kind of done watching him fight ironically.

Apologies if I’m being the party pooper, and I say this as someone fully acquainted* with brain trauma yet still accepts the inherent yet specific hazards that grown men must be made aware of. But Diego is just done. The hallmark of any shot fighter is the inability to accrue offense while shell defending. And this is basically what Diego does these days; intervals of offense and then nothing else. Jim Miller, who has had a much tougher strength of schedule, at least remains competitive in moments. This would have been a great fight four years ago. Today it’s just Jim Miller’s to lose.

Lightweight Justin Salas vs. Jason Saggo

Saggo is the guy who made me acutely aware of just how limited Paul Felder was before he ever started riding the coattails of Irishdom. Saggo made a real game of it, dragging Felder down with persistence, and minimizing the damage Felder could inflict. Still, Felder’s a good fighter obviously and certainly better than Justin Salas, who got knocked out by Joe Proctor recently. It will be competitive in spots, but expect Saggo to drag Salas down as much as possible, utilizing confident, but slick movement to top control his way to victory.

Featherweight Julian Erosa vs. Teruto Ishihara

With Erosa’s height, I have a hard time seeing anything other than Erosa winning this one fairly comfortably. Teruto has the hands to punish Erosa in close, but with coaching the way it is in Japan, Teruto ends up like a lot of Japanese fighters; as fluid, organic, and violent in a vacuum as they come, but without the minds for how to transition from one violence scene to the next. This could be a solid action fight of Erosa gets caught playing with his food, but I doubt it. Teruto’s hands will command his respect, and with that respect, victory will follow.

Predictions

Thatch by TKO

Silva by TKO,

Miranda by KO

Elkins by Split Decision

Miller by TKO

Saggo by Decision

Erosa by Decision

*This is basically how I ended up here, because it sure as hell isn’t for these previews. Thanks science!

Jose Aldo joins Jacare Souza, Thomas Almeida and Felipe Arantes as the fourth Brazilian fighter to score a deal with Reebok.

It took some time, but Jose Aldo has finally joined Reebok.  According to Combate, the former UFC featherweight champion had been in negotiations with them for the past year and finally settled for a two-year deal.

Even though the negotiations began back when Aldo was still the titleholder in the 145 lbs division, the brutal knockout loss to Conor McGregor last December did not halt the conversation with Reebok.

Now, Jose Aldo joins Ronaldo Souza, the first Brazilian fighter to agree to the deal, bantamweight prospect Thomas Almeida, and his teammate at Chute Boxe, Felipe Arantes. The official announcement should come in a press conference this Thursday, held by Reebok with all four fighters present.

Aldo has been critical in the past about the UFC’s sponsorship deal with Reebok, calling it “sh*t” and saying that the fight kits “suck” and make them look like Power Rangers.

Since losing to Conor McGregor, Jose Aldo has not been scheduled for a next fight, although he does insist on a getting a rematch with “The Notorious” or a new title shot at featherweight, no matter the opponent.

Bellator 149 “Shamrock vs. Gracie 3” happened last month (Feb. 19, 2016) inside Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. The Spike TV event was headlined by Ken Shamrock vs. Royce Gracie and Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson vs. Dhafir “Dada 5000” Harris.

Shamrock, who was stopped by technical knockout (TKO), was none too pleased with the results of his third Gracie fight. Two days after the conclusion of the match, he filed a formal complaint with Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR), protesting the finish.

“The World’s Most Dangerous Man,” however, isn’t sitting idly by waiting for the TDLR to come back with a ruling on the official outcome, recently releasing an open letter to his Brazilian nemesis detailing his issues with their fight.

“As you know, our last (Trilogy) fight ended in a wrong manner that is unsettling to both me and our fans from around the world–and hopefully to you too. Due to the obvious missed illegal foul, I have challenged the outcome of our bout and I’m confident that the commission will render a ‘No Decision’ nullifying the result of our last fight.”

Shamrock believes Gracie will agree, based on the fact he did the honorable thing back when they fought in 1993.

“We had a similar situation where you caught me with a choke which caused me to tap. You let go, but the ref did not see the tap and told us to ‘fight.’ You yelled at me ‘you tapped!’ I remember how badly I wanted to say ‘no’ but I could not bring myself to lie. In my heart, I thought of my children and other children I had been mentoring at the time. I could only tell the ref ‘yes, I tapped.’ I remembered how badly I wanted the fight to continue on, but in the end — telling the truth was the right thing to do and that’s what I did.”

In short, Shamrock’s view is that the uncalled foul in their fight led to a finish that wasn’t honorable or truthful.

“At our recent fight, you chose to not extend common courtesy for your low-blow and give me my time to recoup. You fought on with no regard that I had stopped fighting you back. In delivering you this message, my greatest hope is to help you see that a failure to step up and do the right thing will not play out well, going into the future, for your image or the legacy of your father’s training.”

Read his full letter here.

Will Shamrock’s appeal to honor and pride sway Gracie to “do the right thing” and petition the TDLR on his behalf?

Time will tell.

To check out the latest Bellator MMA-related news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive news archive right here.

Bantamweight contender Amanda Nunes hopes Ronda Rousey doesn’t return anytime soon to the UFC, as she feels she would lose another chance to fight for the title.

Brazilian bantamweight contender Amanda Nunes prefers if Ronda Rousey just stays away from the Octagon as much she wants, as she believes “Rowdy” would most definitely leapfrog her for a title shot if she decides to return sooner rather than later.

As Nunes told Combate, she feels this is her time to pursue the belt.

“I hope Ronda doesn’t come back. If she does, I think she will go straight for the belt and then it will start all over again, it will be another endless wait to fight for the title. I hope she gets some rest. I think she should make some movies and leave that opportunity to the others. I have been here for a long time, since Strikeforce. I was always among the Top 5, but never got my shot. Who knows, if I beat Valentina, the UFC might give me that title shot.”

Amanda Nunes is set to take on Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 196 on March 5, in Las Vegas. The card will also feature a women’s bantamweight title fight between champion Holly Holm and Miesha Tate.

Jon Jones recently declared that a rematch against Alexander Gustafsson — not Daniel Cormier — is the one that would do more for his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) legacy and erase any doubt that may be lingering.

It’s a rather important declaration, seeing as how “Bones” is currently lined to up face “DC” — the current light heavyweight champion — in the main event of UFC 197 on April 23, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Upon catching wind of Jon’s statement, “The Mauler” took to Facebook to warn “Bones” about concentrating on the current task at hand.

Should he regain his title, then the two can pick up where they left off a few years back.

Jones and Gustafsson initially squared off in the main event of UFC 165 in 2013, a back-and-forth brawl that saw “Bones” retain his title via unanimous decision.

While a rematch has been one fight fans have been clamoring for, a lot of things have to go right before it happens.

Should “Bones” reclaim his title, Gustafsson currently finds himself on a two-fight losing streak, coming up short against the aforementioned Comier at UFC 182 last October in a 205-pound title fight. Prior to that, “The Mauler” was knocked out by Anthony Johnson.

He’ll undoubtedly have to earn a couple of high-profile victories before he challenges Jones for the strap. Then again, should Jones lose to “DC,” that opens up the door for UFC to set up the Jones vs. Gustafsson rematch, as both men will be coming off a loss.