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B/R MMA Staff Predictions for UFC 156 Preliminary Card

On Saturday night, the UFC returns to Las Vegas for a supercard headlined by Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar battling over the UFC featherweight championship. Also fighting that night are former world champions Rashad Evans and Alistair Overeem, as we…

On Saturday night, the UFC returns to Las Vegas for a supercard headlined by Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar battling over the UFC featherweight championship.

Also fighting that night are former world champions Rashad Evans and Alistair Overeem, as well as notables like Lil Nog, Jon Fitch, Demian Maia and Joseph Benavidez.

However, the night kicks off with a preliminary card full of outstanding fights, including a lightweight war between three-time Fight of the Night winner Evan Dunham and wrestling machine Gleison Tibau that promises to thrill.

For every event, B/R MMA offers our predictions on every fight that goes down before the main card kicks off. Staff writers Scott Harris, Riley Kontek, James MacDonald, Dwight Wakabayashi and myself, Andrew Saunders, offer our picks on the upcoming preliminary bouts at UFC 156.

Feel free to give us your predictions in the comments below.

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3 Reasons to Root for Jose Aldo at UFC 156

When you talk about dominant champions in the sport, you think of Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre and then Jose Aldo. The featherweight champion won the title from Mike Brown in 2009 when the WEC was still around. The WEC merged with t…

Aldo has made six defenses of the title, having defeated the likes of Urijah Faber, Kenny Florian and Chad Mendes. On Saturday night, Aldo gets his toughest test to date when he faces off with former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar in the main event of UFC 156.

A lot of fans still don’t know a lot about the champion from Brazil. Let’s take a look and see why you should be rooting for Jose Aldo on Saturday night.

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4 Reasons to Root for Demian Maia at UFC 156

UFC 156, which is now only days away, will feature a main-card showdown between welterweight contenders Jon Fitch and Demian Maia.Both fighters are attempting to work their way back to a title shot, though this time in a different division for Maia. A …

UFC 156, which is now only days away, will feature a main-card showdown between welterweight contenders Jon Fitch and Demian Maia.

Both fighters are attempting to work their way back to a title shot, though this time in a different division for Maia. A win this Saturday night will go a long way toward furthering the ambitions of each, which makes the matchup one of the event’s most intriguing.

In a change of pace, rather than predict the winner, I’m going to tell you why you should be supporting Maia. Of course, Fitch will have his supporters, as will Maia. However, if you’re feeling indifferent or you’re on the fence, keep the following four points in mind leading up to fight night.

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UFC 156: Jon Fitch vs. Demian Maia Head-to-Toe Breakdown

Jon Fitch 2.0 is on a mission, and that mission is to return to welterweight title contention after going without a win for more than two years.The American Kickboxing Academy product got himself back on track by defeating rising prospect Erick Silva a…

Jon Fitch 2.0 is on a mission, and that mission is to return to welterweight title contention after going without a win for more than two years.

The American Kickboxing Academy product got himself back on track by defeating rising prospect Erick Silva at UFC 153, but a win over former middleweight title challenger Demian Maia on Saturday would give him an even bigger boost toward the top of the 170-pound division.

Maia recently moved from middleweight to welterweight after hitting a rough patch of his own. The change appears to have reignited the Brazilian’s career, as he won his first two 170-pound fights against Dong Hyun Kim and Rick Story.

A win over Fitch would mean Maia has officially arrived as a significant threat to elite welterweights.

With this important 170-pound contest being only days away, let’s take at where each fighter holds their most significant advantages.

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UFC 156: 9 Things to Watch for at Aldo vs. Edgar

I don’t know how we got here, but we’re just two days away from UFC 156 and the pay-per-view main card is intact.No injuries. No drug test failures. Nothing. We’re two days away from a card that, barring some kind of crazy thing happening (knock on woo…

I don’t know how we got here, but we’re just two days away from UFC 156 and the pay-per-view main card is intact.

No injuries. No drug test failures. Nothing. We’re two days away from a card that, barring some kind of crazy thing happening (knock on wood), is going to go off the way the good Lord and Joe Silva intended.

That’s saying something. After the year we had in 2012, any fight card happening as planned is a miracle. Not only that, but this is one hell of a fight card.

I spoke yesterday with Joseph Benavidez—who faces Ian McCall in the opening pay-per-view bout—and cornerman T.J. Dillashaw, and both of them are incredibly excited about the fight card. And that’s coming from a guy who is fighting on the event.

In one of the coming slides, I’ll tell you which fight Benavidez and Dillashaw are most excited about, but I’ll also give you nine other reasons that you should watch UFC 156. Because, let’s face it: You should. Without a doubt.

Let’s get started.

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UFC 156: Keys to Victory for Frankie Edgar

Frankie Edgar is trying to do something that only two men have ever done. He’s trying to capture a UFC championship in two separate divisions.In order for Edgar to become history’s third wheel, he’ll have to dethrone one of the best fighters in t…

Frankie Edgar is trying to do something that only two men have ever done. He’s trying to capture a UFC championship in two separate divisions.

In order for Edgar to become history’s third wheel, he’ll have to dethrone one of the best fighters in the world: Jose Aldo.

Aldo has been on the steady rise in the sport’s pound-for-pound discussion and has feasted upon every UFC featherweight contender that the promotion has thrown his way.

However, he has never faced a more complete fighter than Edgar, especially one who has beaten some of the best lightweights over the past five years.

For Edgar to experience success in his divisional debut, he’ll have to perform to perfection.

Here’s how he can pull it off.

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