Tag: Renzo Gracie

UFC 123 is on PPV Saturday Nov 20th at The Palace of Auburn Hills in the Detroit.

Two former lightweight champions in Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida will face Quinton “Rampage” Jackson will fight in the main event.

Strength for Machida

Speed, angles, kicks, jiu-jitsu

Strengths for Rampage

Wrestling, clinch work, power, American boxing

Rampage has demonstrated in his fights that go the distance to have a small gas tank. Machida, however, has as well. So both of their long distance cardio is breakeven, but in the short term, Machida is much more active than Rampage. The difference in the shorter term is Rampage is probably the stronger fighter in the early rounds. Rampage has had trouble against people who are good at leg kicks and Machida is one of the best.

I like watching Machida fight due to his technique. Some find it boring, but he is excellent in not wasting energy. Rampage is not as skilled in this area. One item that I heard Quinton bring up in an interview is important though. Machida has never been KO’d before the Shogun fight. That changes a fighter and Rampage pretty much all he does his KO opponents. Going to be interesting how this one plays out.

I lean towards Machida due to his greater skillset and footwork. Should be a great fight.

Bodog has the odds Machida at -280 and Rampage at +220

Other fights on the Main Card

* Welterweight bout: Matt Hughes vs B.J. Penn

Hughes has been on a tear lately winning against 3 jiu-jitsu blackbelt legends of MMA; Matt Serra, Renzo Gracie, & Ricardo Almeida. The bottom line is Hughes knows what he is doing against blackbelts and Joe Rogan has mentioned on several occasions that he thinks Hughes is a blackbelt without the official title/belt.

All three of those guys, however, are not half the striker that BJ Penn is, Hughes opponent Saturday night. BJ and Matt have each won 1 fight a piece against each other. Imo in both fights, BJ came in less shape than the way he has been fighting at the lower weight class where he held the belt. Hughes is a slight underdog here at +145 and Penn a slight favorite at -175. Penn’s cardio cost him the fight against Hughes in the second meeting. I like Penn to win to this fight as his long distance cardio has improved dramatically since going 5 rounds in his last two fights against Frank Edgar.

* Middleweight bout: Gerald Harris vs Maiquel Falcão
Harris is favored. Always enjoy watching Harris fight.

* Light Heavyweight bout: Phil Davis vs Tim Boetsch
Odds are really skewed heavily to Phil Davis. I think Davis will win, but an avoid with these odds.

* Lightweight bout: George Sotiropoulos vs Joe Lauzon
Both guys are so evenly matched here. Sotiropoulos probably impressing me more on an overall basis. I’d go with Sotiropoulos here at -260.

Spike TV card

* Welterweight bout: Matt Brown vs Brian Foster
Foster is the slight favorite in this match. I like that play.

* Middleweight bout: Aaron Simpson vs Mark Muñoz
Two great wrestlers, tougher standup guy is Simpson, though Munoz is no slouch.

Prelims

* Welterweight bout: Karo Parisyan vs Dennis Hallman
My prediction: Karo wins in his COMEBACK!

* Lightweight bout: Edson Barboza vs Mike Lullo

* Lightweight bout: Paul Kelly vs T.J. O’Brien

* Lightweight bout: Tyson Griffin vs Nik Lentz
This could be fight of the night as Lentz is no pushover and has a good standup and ground arsenal. I lean towards Lentz due to this being such an even match, with the odds skewed -210 towards Griffin.