UFC 126 Undercard Predictions

Preliminary card Welterweight bout: Mike Pierce vs Kenny Robertson Mike Pierce is one of the most underknown and underappreciated welterweights. I’ve got Pierce winning this. Light Heavyweight bout: Kyle Kingsbury vs Ricardo Romero For whatever reason, Romero seems to pull out the victories at the end of the day. I lean towards Romero here in […]

Preliminary card

Welterweight bout: Mike Pierce vs Kenny Robertson

Mike Pierce is one of the most underknown and underappreciated welterweights. I’ve got Pierce winning this.

Light Heavyweight bout: Kyle Kingsbury vs Ricardo Romero

For whatever reason, Romero seems to pull out the victories at the end of the day. I lean towards Romero here in the underdog position.

Lightweight bout: Paul Taylor vs Gabe Ruediger

Taylor should eat Ruediger up as Ruediger is rather poor on his feet, but good on the ground and Taylor is excellent on the feet and mediocre on the ground. Taylor should win this fight via decision.

Preliminary card (Facebook Stream)

Bantamweight bout: Norifumi Yamamoto vs Demetrious Johnson

Kid Yamamoto against a guy I don’t know. I go with Yamamoto everytime.

Preliminary card (Spike TV)

Featherweight bout: Chad Mendes vs Michihiro Omigawa

I know Mendes is likely to win, but you can’t write off Omigawa so easily either. Mendes is -357 to Omigawa at Intertops. With crazy skewed odds I’ll go with Omigawa.

Lightweight bout: Donald Cerrone vs Paul Kelly

This is going to be a great fight. Kelly is tough as nails, Cerrone is as well. I don’t think Cerrone has faced someone as strong as Kelly yet. I think Kelly wears em down and takes the decision.

Main card

Bantamweight bout: Miguel Torres vs Antonio Banuelos

Miguell Torres is likely to win, but I’m avoiding this due to the odds being out of bounds.

Light Heavyweight bout: Jon Jones vs Ryan Bader

This is my favorite fight on the card. I got Jon Jones winning this fight. Intertops has it -357 for Jones and +240 for Bader.

Welterweight bout: Jake Ellenberger vs Carlos Eduardo Rocha

One of the best fighters to bet on is Ellenberger. However, this fight is tricky. Rocha is a absolute jiu-jitsu ace and has a ton of leg related sub victories. I’m passing here as I think Rocha could pull off an insane upset. However, the oddsmakers look like they are thinking like me and Ellenberger is not such a large favorite in this one.

UFC Fight Night 22 Aftermath: Press Conference Highlights, Bonuses, Apologies + More

(Props: Heavy)
The UFC handed out $40,000 performance bonuses to five fighters following UFC Fight Night: Marquardt vs. Palhares, including two separate "Submission of the Night" awards. The honorees are:
Knockout of the Night: Brian Fo…

(Props: Heavy)

The UFC handed out $40,000 performance bonuses to five fighters following UFC Fight Night: Marquardt vs. Palhares, including two separate "Submission of the Night" awards. The honorees are:

Knockout of the Night: Brian Foster, for his 67-second storming of Forrest Petz, which was the lone stoppage on the preliminary card. Petz now drops to 0-2 in his current UFC stint, and will most likely be shown the door.

Submission of the Night (1): Cole Miller, for dropping Ross Pearson with punches in the second round of their fight, then icing him with a rear-naked choke. Miller has scored the SotN award in three of his last five appearances, and officially enters the UFC Performance Bonus Leaderboard.

Submission of the Night (2): Charles Oliveira, who pushed his record to 14-0 with a huge win over TUF 8 winner Efrain Escudero, secured via standing rear-naked choke in the third round. Though he had trouble getting Escudero to the mat in the first two frames, Oliveira showed off his tenacity in the victory, as well as some impressively unorthodox striking.

Fight of the Night: Kyle Kingsbury and Jared Hamman, for their fast-paced three-round brawl in the prelims. Despite a third-round rally from Hamman, Kingsbury’s domination and damage in the first two frames secured him 29-28 scores from all three judges.

Some other notes on the fights…

Jared Hamman Wonders, What Do You Do with a $65,000 Check?

Filed under: UFCPeople kept telling him he’d won Fight of the Night, but Jared Hamman didn’t realize they were serious. It was nice to hear, and he appreciated the compliment. He knew his three-round slobberknocker with Rodney Wallace at UFC 111 had be…

Filed under: UFC

People kept telling him he’d won Fight of the Night, but Jared Hamman didn’t realize they were serious. It was nice to hear, and he appreciated the compliment. He knew his three-round slobberknocker with Rodney Wallace at UFC 111 had been an entertaining one, but Fight of the Night? On the same card that featured guys like Georges St. Pierre and Shane Carwin? That didn’t sound right.

“I thought they were telling me like, basically, that was a really good fight,” Hamman (12-2) told MMA Fighting. “I was like, thanks, I appreciate that. They had to be like, ‘No, you really won the Fight of the Night bonus.’ I had to call my manager and ask him if it was true.”

And it was. After a fifteen-minute scrap with Wallace that sometimes resembled a blur of furious arms and legs roving around the Octagon like a contained tornado, Hamman won a unanimous decision victory and, as he would learn later in the night, a $65,000 bonus for Fight of the Night.

UFC Fight Night Marquardt vs Palhares

UFC Fight Night Main card * Middleweight bout: Nate Marquardt vs Rousimar Palhares – Bad matchup for Marquardt if this gets on the ground. With both their skillsets I like Palhares. * Lightweight bout: Efrain Escudero vs Charles Oliveira – Charles Oliveira wins this. * Lightweight bout: Jim Miller vs Gleison Tibau – Interesting fight […]

UFC Fight Night Main card

* Middleweight bout: Nate Marquardt vs Rousimar Palhares – Bad matchup for Marquardt if this gets on the ground. With both their skillsets I like Palhares.

* Lightweight bout: Efrain Escudero vs Charles Oliveira – Charles Oliveira wins this.

* Lightweight bout: Jim Miller vs Gleison Tibau – Interesting fight here. If there is going to be a TKO its coming from Tibau’s hands. Miller could out point Tibau, but Gleison has been doing well is last couple of outings and really concentrating. I like Tibau here he will be bigger and more powerful – slower though.

* Lightweight bout: Ross Pearson vs Cole Miller – I don’t think Miller has an answer to anything that Pearson will be throwing. Pearson has looked great on his feet in his two fights vs Aaron Riley and Denis Siver. These two fighters are known for pushing the pace and steamrolling their opponents. Pearson handled them with relative ease. I think Miller will have trouble the whole fight so the odds of Miller slapping on a triangle or RNC I think are slim. Pearson has showed a laser like focus sticking to a fight plan against both Riley and Siver. I like Pearson to win.

UFC Fight Night Prelims card

* Lightweight bout: Yves Edwards vs John Gunderson – As much as I’m fan of Gunderson. I think Yves has the speed and all the ability to stifle Gunderson. Yves by decision.

* Light Heavyweight bout: Jared Hamman vs Kyle Kingsbury – Kingsbury has been looking better lately, and Hamman has that tough zombie style. I like Hamman because he is unbreakable.

* Middleweight bout: Tomasz Drwal vs Dave Branch – Dave Branch wins this.

* Middleweight bout: Rich Attonito vs Rafael Natal – Pass

* Welterweight bout: Anthony Waldburger vs David Mitchell – Pass

* Welterweight bout: Brian Foster vs Forrest Petz