My UFC 95 Picks

First off i would like to welcome all of you reading to my blog, "MMA Authority Blog." This is my first blog, and you can expect to see many more whenever something is going down in the world of Mixed Martial Arts. So I'm going to go over my picks for this coming Saturdays UFC 95 card, but first let me talk about a few things going on right now. In the upcoming months, Fedor Emelianenko is set to meet with UFC president Dana White to discuss possible contract negotiations. For if you are not familiar with Fedor, he is considered by many, including myself, to be the number one pound for pound fighter in the world. He has notable wins over Tim Sylvia, Antonio Nogueria, and Gary Goodridge, with his most recent victory coming over former UFC Champion Andrei Arlovski at the Affliction 2 card. If Dana was able to get Fedor to sign with UFC, that would really shake up the Heavyweight division. In other news, former Pride Middleweight Champion Wanderlei Silva is set to take on former UFC Middleweight Champion Rich Franklin on the UFC 99 card. Former Pride stand out Mirko CroCop is also set to make his return to the UFC that night against an unnamed opponet who is expected to be Randy Couture.

Now on to my UFC 95 picks. Im not going to take too much time on the prelims, but I have Paul Kelly (8-1) defeating Troy Mandaloniz (3-1), Per Eklund (15-3) defeating Evan Dunham (7-0), Neil Grove (7-1) defeating Mike Ciesnolevicz (17-3), Junior Dos Santos (7-1) defeating Stefan Struve (20-2), and Terry Etim (11-2) defeating Brian Cobb (15-4).

Now to the main card, the first fight of the night is Josh Koscheck (12-3), former Ultimate Fighter standout, going up against Paul Thiago (7-0). Koscheck is coming into this fight after receiving knockout of the night at the Fight for the Troops card where he knocked out Yoshiyuki Yoshida. For Paul Thiago on the other hand, this will be his UFC debut. I have Koscheck winning due mostly to experience, for Thiago this will be his first time fighting live on television and in front of a huge crowd, and that is something that takes most a little getting used to. The next match up on the card is Demian Maia (10-0) taking on Chael Sonnen (23-9). I believe that Maia is going to take this one fairly easy, in his last fight he looked very impressive winning by rear naked choke in the first round against a very dangerous fighter in Nate Quarry. For Sonnen, this will be his first fight in the UFC since 2006, although he did continue fighting in WEC, where he most recently won by decision against Paul Filiho. Again, I believe Maia takes this one fairly easy. Next up we have an interesting match up where Nate "The Great" Marquardt (30-8) will be taking on Wilson Gouveia (12-5). Marquardt made quick work of rising superstar Martin Kampmann at UFC 88, picking up a TKO in the first two minutes of the first round. Gouveia is also coming off of an impressive win over Jason Macdonald, where Macdonald tapped out to strikes. This will be an interesting match up, but no matter how I look at it I see Marquardt coming out on top. Up next we have Dan "The Outlaw" Hardy (20-6) facing off against Rory Markham (16-4). Hardy barely slid by Akihiro Gono at UFC 89 winning by split decision, while Markham made a name for himself in his UFC debut where he had a memorable head kick knock out of Broodie Farber at UFC: Silva vs Irvin. While Markham looked like the better fighter when you look at both fighters previous match ups, Markham went up against a scrub while Hardy was able to defeat a veteran fighter in Gono. I see Hardy winning this fight. And finally in the main event of the evening, Joe "Daddy" Stevenson (34-9) will be tested against the always dangerous Diego "The Nightmare" Sanchez (21-2), who will be making his debut at 155. Sanchez will be entering this fight coming off of a TKO victory over Luigi Fioravanti at The Ultimate Fighter 7 Finale, who was recently released from the UFC. However Stevenson wasnt as fortunate in his last fight where he had a dissapointing defeat against Kenny Florian, who is going on to fight B.J. Penn for the Lightweight Championship sometime in the upcoming months. I pick Sanchez to win this fight seven times out of ten, however I do expect it to be a very close and exciting fight.

So there is my picks for this Saturdays free night of fights, be sure to check back sometime Monday to see my review and reaction to UFC 95.