UFC 93 has a special presentation of the co-main event with the resurrection of Mark Coleman from the social security division. This fight is obviously trying to tap into the nostalgic old timer, such as myself, by bringing Mark Coleman into fight the mix against Shogun Rua who seemed to be the best Light Heavyweight in the world back in 2006.

These two fighters have met once before and the bout was prematurely stopped due to an awkward fall resulting into a dislocated elbow for Rua. A brawl broke out after the fight with an emotional Coleman refusing to disengage creating a scuffle between the Hammer House and Chute Box Academy. Truth be told, more action took place after the bout than during the event. With Coleman posturing around the ring throwing the referee around and threatening a much smaller Ninja Rua, Wanderlei Silva hops in the ring looking to appease his steroid rage. Next Phil Baroni throws his hat into the mix reducing any chance of peaceful arbitration and ultimately leaving 50,000 bewildered Japanese MMA fans waiting for Vince McMahon to hop in at any time to announce the WWE Battle Royal. Needless to say, the UFC is cashing in on this debacle and hoping to reintroduce Shogun Rua to the world after his loss to Forrest Griffin by sacrificing one its own Hall of Famers in Mark Coleman.

Mark Coleman is the first true Freestyle wrestler to capture two tournament UFC belts and the first UFC Heavyweight title. However shortly after he was quickly shown the door after three straight losses. His one dimensional approach has stifled his progress and although he came back in 2000 to win the Pride 2000 Grand Prix, it was shortly lived as he suffered an easy submission to Nogueira in 2001. Unfortunately his learning curve was still a few steps behind the industry and he has found himself on the receiving end of an ugly sprawl-n-brawl lesson from Mirko Cro-Cop and then a terrible seal-clubbing from Fedor Emelianenko in 2006.

Shogun Rua on the other hand is only 27 years old and has wins against Alister Overeem (twice), Kevin Randleman, Ricardo Arona, Nogueira’s little brother, and Quinton Rampage Jackson. He was the 2005 Pride Light Heavyweight Tournament winner and seemed to be skyrocketing over the moon until he tapped out to Forrest Griffin in 2007. With a sound elbow, time to recover and get healthy, he should have a huge advantage over the Hammer House founder.

This bout is comparing leather helmets to hard helmets with face masks. I will be cheering for Mark, but with a cringe on my face and one eye shut. This fight is not making it out of the first round and Rua will win by submission.

This weekend in Dublin, Ireland, UFC 93 will be kicking off with a great Main Event of two huge names in MMA… Rich “Ace” Franklin and Dan “Hendo” Henderson. The winner of this fight should catapult himself right into the middle of the Light Heavyweight title picture to challenge the current champ, Rashad Evans. Clearly understand this…it’s extremely easy to sit on my couch eating pizza and slamming beer to be critical of fighters when the heaviest workload I’ll be doing is racing to the bathroom between fights. Although, after 16 years of watching MMA evolve into the most complete and exciting combat sport on the face of the planet, I feel that it’s my duty to throw a few opinions out there to create some discussion on how these fights will go. With that being said, let’s get into it…

Rich Franklin (24-3) vs. Dan Henderson (23-7)
This fight will be very exciting with a lot of punches being thrown both standing and on the ground. These athletes are at a very high level with their strength and conditioning and both know how to win.

Franklin has only three loses in his career and two are from Anderson Silva (pound-for-pound the best) and one coming from Lyoto Machida (undefeated). That’s one hell of a resume, but outside of those two fighters, he’s beaten a truck load of “B” fighters and has never taken out an A-lister. He has good hands, solid muy thai, high pressure ground-n-pound, and decent wrestling. He is a good representative of the modern fighter demonstrating a high level of intelligence, solid game planning, and the ability to adapt within the octagon when adjustments are needed. This makes him the complete package.

Henderson on the other hand is a throw back to the Gladiators. He is truly a bad-ass and the alpha male. With a long history of training with Randy Couture and Matt Lindland, a resume of wins over many of the industry’s best light heavy and middleweight fighters, and a little asterisk by his name that says Olympian, there are very few names in the history of this sport that can provide a more decorated and celebrated career than Hendo.

Ultimately, the fight will be won upon who can apply and execute their game plan better than their opponent. I see the fight being a technical bout initially with Franklin possibly out scoring Henderson in the first round with more disciplined hands, but Henderson will turn this bout into a dog fight and end up bull dogging Franklin in the later rounds. His dirty boxing will slow Franklin’s pace and movement down allowing Henderson to score takedowns and applying his heavy ground-n-pound attack. Eventually, Franklin will succumb to the overwhelming pressure and will fatigue because he has never seen the strength or animosity of a wrestler of this magnitude. My prediction is Henderson by TKO in the third.

-MMA Punch Fight Analyst Jon Terrazas

This Saturday night will be CBS’ third free showing of Elite XC. This organization is $55 million in the red after only two years of existence leaving the UFC to eventually wait the opposing organization to finally implode. Dana White will patiently await Elite XC’s down fall and scoop up the cream of the crop, ultimately absorbing them into this sport’s future mega-empire. Nonetheless, we get to see a free night of fights, so here we go…

Fight #1 - Ninja Rua vs. Benji Radach
Ninja Rua is coming off of a brutal KO of Robbie Lawler and is trying to move back into a title shot against the former IFL star Benji Radach. In this situation, Radach will dominate with the “Brawl and Sprawl” technique that has become so popular with wrestlers that have developed good hands. Rua has improved his stand up, but it clearly is not his main offensive weapon. His main goal is to take the fight to ground and apply his Jiu-Jitsu. Radach will grind out a win by keeping the fight on their feet and out scoring Rua. Radach by decision.

Fight #2 - Jake Shields vs. Paul Daley
Shields has been on a tear as of late and in my opinion is one of the top 5 welterweights in the world. Daley is out gunned on his feet and on the ground. Shields will take the fight to the ground and will quickly mount and submit the out classed Daley. Shields in the 1st by submission.

Fight #3 - Gina Carano vs. Kobald-Gavin
This will be a fun fight. Carano is obviously the attraction here, but Kobald is 16-2 with a laundry list of submission and KOs. Kobald will test Carano on the ground and will test her Xtreme Couture influence. Carano is a tough, explosive, and gritty fighter that will eventually weather the ground attack of Kobald and will overwhelm Kobald in the later rounds. Carano by TKO late in the 2nd.

Fight #4 - Andre Arlovski vs. Roy Nelson
Andre Arlovski is used to seeing much more athletic heavyweights in the UFC and although Nelson is a tough and durable fighter, Arlovski’s hands and feet are too fast and too quick for Nelson to close the space. This will leave Nelson exposed to Arlovski’s standup game and this one won’t make it out of the 1st round. Arlovski by TKO late in the 1st.

Fight #5 - Ken Shamrock vs. Kimbo Slice
This is a fight that I wish wouldn’t happen. As a nostalgic MMA fan , I have great memories of our sport’s pioneers and want to see them as trail blazers of a growing super-sport. I hate the fact that Elite XC is using Shamrock’s star power to boost ratings of their free-falling company and at the same time using him as a sacrificial lamb to Kimbo Slice in order to boost his KO record. This fight has the possibility of not only knocking out the MMA legend, but has a good risk of hurting Shamrock in a devastating fashion. If Ken can close the space quickly and take the fight to the ground, then he greatly increases his chances to close the fight with a submission. He needs to end this fight FAST! Don’t dick around with any “ground-n-pound” or feeling him out on their feet, because Kimbo hits far too hard to leave at risk. I see Shamrock tying up with Slice and being unsuccessful in his takedown attempts leaving him with no alternative to stay in the pocket attempting to trade punches. This will result in a very ugly KO leaving images of Ken battered and beaten. This scenario will parallel the Ali vs Holmes fight, leaving the MMA community asking why Shamrock hasn’t moved on with his professional career. We as fans and as critics only wish that he would branch out into other faucets of the MMA business instead of becoming the Roberto Duran of MMA. My money is on Kimbo, but I’ll be cheering for Shamrock and will happily eat crow if Shamrock pulls the upset off and I hope he does it with a beautiful leg lock (via heel hook, ankle lock, knee bar, etc.).

MMA Punch contributor Jon Terrazas

What are your thoughts?

I’ve been having difficulty getting into this year’s Olympic Boxing events. I have officially been jaded by mixed martial arts no doubt. So my question today is, would MMA make for a legitimate replacement to Boxing in the Olympic? The pro is that as oldie Goldie from the UFC will tell you 100 times a PPV, MMA is the fastest growing sport in the world. The con is that it may not yet be ready for the world’s stage. Let’s admit, mixed martial arts doesn’t have the traditional roots as other Olympic contact sports such as Judo, Karate, or Boxing.

The second question. If MMA was an Olympic sport this time around in China, how would the USA stack up?

Please add a comment and share your thoughts fellow MMA fans!

UFC.com posted an article today previewing UFC 85. Writer Wayne McCullough gives you a down and dirty preview of what looks like on paper to be one of the weaker MMA cards this year.

Matt Hughes vs Thiago Alves

It’s good to see that Matt Hughes is still fighting, especially heading a card in the UK, because after his loss to Georges St-Pierre I thought that might have been the end of his career. He’s already proved he is the best welterweight of all time. Although he is 10 years older than Alves I think he still has what it takes to compete at the world level.

Alves is unbeaten in his last five fights, the last four by KO. In my opinion, Hughes needs to take the fight to the ground and use his physical strength and wrestling. I think he’s a lot stronger than Alves on the ground so that’s where he needs to be to try for submissions. Alves is better at striking than Hughes, especially when he’s standing. So he’ll want to keep the fight on his feet and counter Hughes’ shots.

Michael Bisping vs Jason Day
I like the way Bisping fights. I’ve been following his career for a while and he’s improving with each fight. His last fight in Montreal was impressive and now that he’s dropped down to middleweight he could be one of the top guys in the division.

Day, a tough guy who also fought in Montreal in his UFC debut, is a striker who loves to use his elbows. I think Bisping is a better all around fighter and favour him to win this fight.

Marcus Davis vs Mike Swick
Davis is almost a local in Britain since he’s fought on several cards in the UK and the fans love him. He’s got a good boxing background and being a southpaw he carries a good right hand, which he has proved in previous fights.

Swick, like his nickname suggests, is “quick” in the Octagon, having scored a couple of fast KO’s. I watched him a few days ago on “Ultimate Knockouts 4” knocking out an opponent in less than 30 seconds.

I think Davis has learned the ground game well and has become a complete fighter and this will be a test for him to see if he can move forward.

Nate Marquardt vs Thales Leites
Marquardt looked good in his last fight with a submission win over Jeremy Horn in February of this year.

He’s a big strong man who has worked hard to improve since his loss to Anderson Silva for the middleweight belt in July 2007. He’s now looking to get back into title contention. Marquardt has better stand up skills than Leites so he should keep this fight on his feet since his opponent is a submission expert – with his last two fights being submission wins.

If Marquardt can avoid the submission attempts he should win this fight.

Fabricio Werdum vs Brandon Vera
Werdum impressively knocked out Gabriel Gonzaga in January 2008. He loves the ground game and that’s the place he likes to be.

Vera is coming off his first loss in the UFC to Tim Sylvia so he’s going to want to get back in the mix. He’s probably better on his feet so that’s where he needs to fight from. Although if Werdum wants to take it to the ground I’m sure Vera will be up for that because he has good grappling skills too.

This is a good match up where the fight could go either way and the winner could move on for a shot at the heavyweight belt.

Along with beautiful UFC ring card girl Arianny Celeste, UFC fighter Stephan Bonnar, and X-Games’ BMX champion T.J. Lavin sit down together and provide their fight predictions for UFC 79 “Nemesis.” They don’t cover the entire fight card, but they do make their predictions on the three big matches of the night: Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva, Matt Hughes vs. Georges St. Pierre, and Lyoto Machida vs. Rameau Sokoudjou. Props to www.rawvegas.tv for providing yet another quality video clip. Also, is it just me or did Arianny get a boob job?