Armchair Matchmaker: UFC 118 Edition

(There he goes again, trying to steal the victory. Photo courtesy of CageWriter)
Here’s what we know: Frank Edgar will make his next title defense against Gray Maynard, who routed Kenny Florian on Saturday night. Dana White is done with James Toney, …

Frank Edgar BJ Penn UFC 118 photos MMA
(There he goes again, trying to steal the victory. Photo courtesy of CageWriter)

Here’s what we know: Frank Edgar will make his next title defense against Gray Maynard, who routed Kenny Florian on Saturday night. Dana White is done with James Toney, even though James Toney might not be done with MMA. Nick Osipczak, John Salter, and Gabe Ruediger could very well be receiving "Dear John" letters from the UFC as we speak. As for UFC 118‘s other winners and losers, their fates are yet to be decided. But as usual, we have a few opinions on the subject…

BJ Penn: The Prodigy spent 2007-2009 destroying all the top talent in the UFC’s lightweight division, then looked completely uninspired in two consecutive fights against Frankie Edgar. Either Penn has fallen off his game dramatically or Edgar is just a terrible style matchup for him — and we won’t really know the answer until Penn’s next fight. What’s obvious is that lightweight has been Penn’s most effective weight class in general, and going back up to 170 would be a terrible idea, especially while Georges St. Pierre still rules the roost. The UFC should give Penn a rebound fight against a name opponent who’s a little further down the ladder, but will test BJ’s desire to fight. That’s right, folks, it’s time for BJ Penn vs. Takanori Gomi II. Gomi is born-again after starching Tyson Griffin; add in Gomi’s history with Penn, and you have a co-headliner that any pay-per-view card would be lucky to have.

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UFC 118: Demian Maia Beats Mario Miranda

Filed under: UFCDemian Maia returned to the Octagon for the first time since being humiliated by Anderson Silva in April, defeating Mario Miranda by unanimous decision at UFC 118.

It wasn’t a pretty fight, but it was a fight that Maia won handily, win…

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Demian Maia returned to the Octagon for the first time since being humiliated by Anderson Silva in April, defeating Mario Miranda by unanimous decision at UFC 118.

It wasn’t a pretty fight, but it was a fight that Maia won handily, winning all three rounds on all three judges’ cards.

Early in the fight Maia took Miranda to the ground and proceeded to methodically advance his position and get Miranda’s back. Maia is one of the best Brazilian jiu jitsu practitioners in the world, and it seemed just a matter of time before Maia would win by submission. But Miranda did a nice job of wriggling free and standing back up after a couple minutes of Maia controlling him. The rest of the round was fought standing up without either fighter doing much damage, but Maia clearly won the round because he controlled the action on the ground.



UFC 118: By the Odds

Filed under: UFCUFC 118 in Boston is just a few hours away, so in order to get a perspective on the action from the people who are paid to know winners from losers, let’s examine tonight’s main card betting odds.

With one new champ defending his tit…

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UFC 118 in Boston is just a few hours away, so in order to get a perspective on the action from the people who are paid to know winners from losers, let’s examine tonight’s main card betting odds.

With one new champ defending his title against the man he took it from, and one boxing great crossing over into a brand new sport that he seems to only barely understand, you’d think there would be a vast difference in the odds on the two co-main event bouts. In reality, the two lines are more similar than you might think, and they favor neither the champ nor the big-mouthed boxer.

Let’s break it down below and see who the smart choices are at UFC 118.

Fighter vs. Writer: UFC 118 Predictions With Pat Miletich

Filed under: UFCIf you’ve heard MMA legend and former UFC champ Pat Miletich’s contributions to the Strikeforce: Challengers broadcasts or his analysis on ESPN’s “MMA Live,” then it won’t surprise you to know that Miletich had a lot of really insightfu…

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If you’ve heard MMA legend and former UFC champ Pat Miletich‘s contributions to the Strikeforce: Challengers broadcasts or his analysis on ESPN’s “MMA Live,” then it won’t surprise you to know that Miletich had a lot of really insightful things to say when I called him to play Fighter vs. Writer for UFC 118.

So insightful, in fact, that it immediately made me wonder why I was dumb enough to choose Miletich to go up against, when I’m a dismal 1-4 in this series so far.

So the bad news is that I’m up against a superior MMA mind this week. The good news is that I got to hear Miletich break down the upcoming card, which includes one fight where “The Croatian Sensation” says there’s an epic beating in store for one of the interested parties. Can you guess who?

Yeah, you probably can. But you should still read all about how both Miletich and I see the main card playing out on Saturday night.

UFC 118 Card

Preliminary card * Welterweight bout: Mike Pierce vs Amilcar Alves * Welterweight bout: Nick Osipczak vs Greg Soto * Middleweight bout: Dan Miller vs John Salter Preliminary card (Spike TV) * Lightweight bout: Andre Winner vs Nik Lentz * Lightweight bout: Joe Lauzon vs Gabe Ruediger Main card * Welterweight bout: Nate Diaz vs Marcus […]

Preliminary card

* Welterweight bout: Mike Pierce vs Amilcar Alves

* Welterweight bout: Nick Osipczak vs Greg Soto

* Middleweight bout: Dan Miller vs John Salter

Preliminary card (Spike TV)

* Lightweight bout: Andre Winner vs Nik Lentz

* Lightweight bout: Joe Lauzon vs Gabe Ruediger

Main card

* Welterweight bout: Nate Diaz vs Marcus Davis

* Lightweight bout: Kenny Florian vs Gray Maynard

* Middleweight bout: Demian Maia vs Mario Miranda

* Heavyweight bout: Randy Couture vs James Toney

* Lightweight Championship bout: Frankie Edgar vs B.J. Penn

UFC 118

Main card Lightweight Championship bout: Frankie Edgar vs B.J. Penn Heavyweight bout: Randy Couture vs James Toney Middleweight bout: Demian Maia vs Mario Miranda Lightweight bout: Kenny Florian vs Gray Maynard Welterweight bout: Nate Diaz vs Marcus Davis Preliminary card (Spike TV) Lightweight bout: Joe Lauzon vs Gabe Ruediger Lightweight bout: Andre Winner vs Nik […]

Main card

Lightweight Championship bout: Frankie Edgar vs B.J. Penn

Heavyweight bout: Randy Couture vs James Toney
Middleweight bout: Demian Maia vs Mario Miranda
Lightweight bout: Kenny Florian vs Gray Maynard
Welterweight bout: Nate Diaz vs Marcus Davis

Preliminary card (Spike TV)

Lightweight bout: Joe Lauzon vs Gabe Ruediger
Lightweight bout: Andre Winner vs Nik Lentz

Preliminary card

Middleweight bout: Dan Miller vs John Salter
Welterweight bout: Nick Osipczak vs Greg Soto
Welterweight bout: Mike Pierce vs Amilcar Alves