No so much, at least if you look at their picks for the last four UFC’s.

There’s not much in the way of big MMA news today, so I thought I’d go a bit random.

For those not familar with the MMA Girls (Joanne and Lauren), they are two hardcore (and attractive) mixed martial arts fans who became popular on the Internet by starting a MySpace page for fans a year ago. On their page, they featured videos of the two of them teaching different grappling techniques.  Needless to say, two cute blondes rolling around in each other’s guard got a lot of attention (you can check out one of these videos here). Soon the video clips went viral and were all over YouTube.

The next step for the MMA Girls was to get into the prediction business. Them seemed to do a pretty good job in the video techniques department I thought I’d research a little bit of their prediction skills. As lovely as these ladies are, it turns out their prediciction capabilities aren’t going to make them rich in Vegas.

Over the last 4 UFC’s, the blondes have amassed a record of 7 wins with 11 losses (the Elvis Sinosic of predicitions). The girls went 0-5 at UFC 76 by picking Thiago, Diego, Kazahiro, Shogun, and Liddell to win. However I will give them some credit as Liddell and Shogun were huge upsets.

They slightly redeemed themselves by going 2-2 at UFC 77 correctly picking Silva and Bonnar but incorrectly picking going with Vera and Kalib. Records for UFC 75 (2-2) and UFC 74 (3-2).

Who knows, maybe if I went back further and looked at their last 10 UFC predictions they would have a winning record. This post is nothing against the girls, I dig them. I “investigated” at their prediction history purely out of curiousity and slight boredom. 

You can check out their website here.

Randy has become a natural at picking winners (ie, Gonzaga over Cro Cop) and has shared with the Fight Network his pedictions for UFC 76.  His thoughts on the main event,

“Somebody’s going down in this one, more than likely Jardine. I think the knockout will come in the first or second, depends on Chuck. If he’s a little tentative at first it may take him a little longer. Jardine’s gonna wade in. That’s what he does.  Liddell to win.”

Other winners include Forrest Griffen, Jon Fitch, Lyoto Machida, and Tyson Griffin. Check out the Fight Network article to see Couture’s brief commentary on those fights.

It’s no surprise that former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell is an odds on heavy favorite over tomorrow’s challenger Keith Jardine, but 91% is a bit high.  Could Liddell really beat Jardine 9 out of 10 times?  Jardine is no push over but it appears that his loss to Houston Alexander really tarnished his reputation.  Here are the results of the current UFC 76 fight poll as determined on UFC.com.

Chuck Liddell  91%
Keith Jardine 9%

Matt Winman  82%
Michihiro Omigawa  12%

Jerem Stephens  78%
Diego Saraiva  12%

Christian Wellishch  75%
Scott Junk  25%

Lyoto Machida  70%
Kazuhiro Nakamura  30%

Rich Clementi 65%
Anthony Johnson  35%

Mauricio Rua  63%
Forrest Griffin 37%

Thiago Tavares  60%
Tyson Griffin  40%

Diego Sanchez  56%
Jon Fitch  44%

Source: UFC.com

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.