It’s kind of nice to see a MMA professional actually commit to picking a winner as opposed to just saying, “if it goes to the ground, it benefits fighter A.  If they stay on their feet, then fighter B has a better chance.”  If you are professional in the sport, just call a winner and stand by it.  That’s what Stephen “The Fight Professor” Quadros has done.  For those MMA fans not familiar with Quadros, he’s been in the biz a long long time as a analyst and color commentator for organizations such as Pride, K1, ShoXC, and Cage Rage.  He carries a decent amount of respect in the community. 

He talked with Budo Videos and did some straight talking regarding the UFC Championship fight between Quinton Jackson and Dan Henderson.  Some of his more interesting thoughts include,

“Frankly I’m a little curious as to why they rushed into setting up this particular match (Henderson/Jackson) so quickly. Both were stars in the organization formerly know as Pride, but relatively obscure here in the states (Quinton has since gained some degree of exposure when he destroyed the UFC®’s poster boy Chuck Liddell). One would think that they had so many options to help build the organizational “rivalry” (sigh) up, or at least the champion versus champion angle by possibly making Dan and Quinton coaches on The Ultimate Fighter “reality” TV show, or at minimum have them both fight separate matches on at least one card together and THEN, after they introduced Henderson to those who only know the post-TUF era of the sport, put them in the Octagon® against each other.”

and

“As charismatic as Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is, it baffles me as to why he has not been marketed more aggressively by the UFC®. His reactive yet charming personality is tailor made for television and talk show hosts would surely find loads of ways to have fun with him as guest. But instead he’s been shipped to England and taken off pay-per-view (this UFC® will be aired free on Spike TV in the states).”

His thoughts on the Championship fight… (more…)

With UFC 75 just around the corner, we decided to see how the fans were voting on UFC.com.  Dan Henderson and Quinton Jackson are neck-and-neck with the fans split downt the middle 50/50. Here is how the rest of the card is looking, from percieved biggest blow-out to closest fight:

87% Mirko Cro Cop
13% Cheick Kongo

87% Thaigao Silva
13% Tomasz Drwal

86% Marcus Davis
14% Paul Taylor

75% Houston Alexander
35% Alessio Sakara

73% Michael Bisping
27% Matt Hamill

53% Anthony Torres
47% Jess Liaudin

51% Gleison Tibau
49% Terry Etim

51% Naoyuki Kotani
49% Dennis Silber

50% Dan Henderson
50% Quinton Jackson

Tonight Dallas will hold its largest MMA event to date, Art of War 3 and will feature 10 fights which include a few UFC veterens.  The main event will see two former UFC heavyweight figthers, Jeff “The Snowman” Monson, who earlier this year challenged Tim Sylvia for the UFC title, and Pedro “The Rock” Rizzo who is a former UFC champion from back in the early days. Other UFC vets include Jeremy Horn and Ron Waterman.

Main Card Line-Up for Art of War 3:

• Jeff Monson (USA) vs. Pedro Rizzo (Brazil)
• Jeremy Horn (USA) vs. Jorge Santiago (Brazil)
• Ron Waterman (USA) vs. Mario Rinaldi (Brazil)
• Hector Munoz (USA) vs. Cristiano Marcello (Brazil)

Not that interested in this smaller MMA event?  Maybe some fight predictions from a cute girl might help you get a bit more excited.

We usually write-up our own picks but this time we are going to “outsource” our UFC preview.   We too a look around and found that Jeff Hamlin over at MMA Maddness has put together a pretty good analysis. It’s informative, not too long winded, and he’s a credible source. His picks include Gonzaga, GSP, Huerta, Stevenson, Grove, Leites, Heath, Mir, and Guida.

You’ll have to visit MMAMadness.com to find out how each of his picks will win and get an fight analysis of each UFC 74 match-up.  Click Here.

Tonight from the Joint in Las Vegas, the WEC will put on a 9 fight mixed martial arts event with the Light Heavyweight Title on the line. The World Extreme Cagefighting organization was purchased by the UFC the in January of this year and will use as a kind of “farm league” for fighters not quite UFC material…yet.
The WEC Light Heavyweight Title Fight is worth looking at because the winner will likely make a move to the UFC. James Irving, who will be fighting on the UFC 70 card, was a previous WEC champion before moving up the the UFC. A little deeper look at Doug Marshall and Justin McElfresh along with my fight prediction:

Doug Marshall is a brawler who turned pro as a heavyweight before dropping down to light heavyweight. He has heavy hands and of his seven fights, only one of them has gone past the 1st round. This could be a factor if they fight goes into the third round as Marshall’s cardio is a bit suspect. He has fought against UFC veteran James Irving and Pride and UFC veteran Lodune Sincade, losing to Irving and beating Sicade. In his fight with Irving, Marshall showed that he has one hell of a chin. Irving landed a ton of punches and knees to the head which Marshall was able to absorb. Below is a video clip of that fight.

I took a look back at some of the mixed martial arts fight predictions I have made over the year and I must say I really should have been in Vegas throwing down some big cash. I think my predictions track record speaks for itself.