Well, let’s hope the Ultimate Fighting Championship and FOX learned its collective lesson from the Cain Velasquez-Junior dos Santos debacle. Appears on the surface that they have. Sure, company president Dana White came out against all the naysayers about the one-fight, one-round event, but if he didn’t somewhat agree with what they had to say, he wouldn’t have scheduled three events for this go-around. Or maybe FOX learned its lesson. Who knows? Hopefully, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, will turn out to be the primetime showcase the first one should have been. Here are The Rugged’s predictions.
1. “Suga” Rashad Evans vs. Phil “Mr. Wonderful” Davis
Experience definitely goes to Evans in this contest. His 21-1-1 record is one of the most impressive in mixed martial arts, and the youngster Davis will have to be at his best if he hopes to make a name for himself. We can honestly see this fight going either way. Should Davis’ wrestling prowess outperform Evans’ impressive takedown defense, then we could be looking at the 205-pound weight class’s next big thing. But if Evans takes the fight seriously and shows up at his best, then Davis may have to live to fight another day. Evans has been in the ring with the best and won most of the time. His only blemishes came in 2007 against Tito Ortiz (a draw) and in 2009 against Lyoto Machida (a knockout). Since then, he’s logged three victories against the likes of Thiago Silva, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, and Tito Ortiz. Davis has only fought professionally since 2008, but has managed to defeat Alexander Gustafsson, Brian Stann, and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in that time. Since stepping up the level of competition, submissions and knockouts for Davis have been harder to come by, but he does enough to convince the judges, and in the end, we’re thinking that will be enough.
Prediction: Phil Davis by unanimous decision
2. Chael Sonnen vs. Michael “The Count” Bisping
At some point, you’ve fought enough times against enough big-name fighters that it doesn’t matter whether you have a few more fights than your opponent, you can still lay claim to the experience factor. Such is the case with this fight. Sonnen will make his fortieth appearance inside a cage when he takes on Bisping, but Bisping will make his twenty seventh, so we’re calling this one a wash. Bisping only has one inch on the height advantage. We’re not sure he has much beyond that. Sonnen has proven to be susceptible to submissions in the past, but Bisping hasn’t won by submission since 2005. Bisping is on a four-fight, two-TKO winning streak, so who knows, he may get lucky. Giving this one to Sonnen because we think that in spite of the 11 losses, he’s still got enough of the nasty he showed in his fight with Silva to
Prediction: Chael Sonnen by submission
3. Demian Maia vs. Chris “The All-American” Weidman
Nate Marquardt, of all people, has been the only man on Maia’s resume to knock him out. The Brazilian fighter has even gone the distance with the likes of Anderson Silva. Weidman certainly lacks Maia’s cage experience, and with a 7-0 record filled with mostly nobodies, we don’t envy the task set before him. Weidman can submit and knock a person out in nearly equal measures, but with a resume that consists of Uriah Hall, Ruben Lopez, Mike Stewart, and Tom Lawlor, we’re not sure how well that will translate to the increase in competition. We’ll go ahead and give the kid a shot for this contest, but don’t ask us to bet on it, please.
Prediction: Weidman by submission
Do you agree or disagree with our predictions? Join in on the fun by making your picks and sharing them with us in the comments section.
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