UFC 96 Preview

This Saturday, March 7th, UFC will be proud to present UFC 96 from Columbus, Ohio. The main event of the evening pits former Light Heavyweight Champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson against "The Dean of Mean" Keith Jardine. But before I get around to that, as always with preview blogs, I'll go around whats happening in the UFC. With a surprise turn of events, it is now being said that there is a small possibility that Fedor will come to the UFC for UFC 100 to fight Randy Couture, but that is not as likely as Couture taking on Antonio Nogueria at UFC 101. The biggest MMA news this week though would defiantly have to be the UFC signing middleweight Yoshihiro Akiyama. While most American fans arent familiar with Akiyama, he is an overseas sensation. He sings, dances, is a male model, but for the most part is regarded to as the man who could dethrone Anderson Silva, and now that he is in the UFC we will hopefully be able to soon find out.

In other news, here is how the upcoming months are looking main event wise. At UFC 97, Anderson Silva will be defending his Middleweight Championship against Thales Leites, in my opinion Thales does not yet deserve a title shot, but then again the UFC is running out of people to throw Silvas way. Also that night, Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell returns to action after being brutally knocked out by "Sugar" Rashad Evans to take on Mauricio "Shogun" Rua. Shogun's cardio looked absolutely terrible at UFC 93 against Mark Coleman, but he has been training with Wanderlei Silva's cardio coach, and i think he will be more then ready to take on The Iceman. UFC 98 is shaping up to be a really good card, with the Main Event being Brock Lesnar vs Frank Mir 2 and Matt Hughes vs Matt Serra. Like i said in my UFC 95 preview, UFC 99 will feature Wanderlei Silva vs Rich Franklin, and then at UFC 100 the only match-up we know of right now is Welterweight Champion George "Rush" St. Pierre defending his title against the always dangerous Thiago Alves.

And now onto my UFC 96 predictions, like always ill just do quick picks for the prelims. I have Shane Nelson (12-3) over Aaron Riley (27-10), Brandon Vera (9-3) defeating Micheal Patt (15-3), Jason Brilz (16-1) over Tim Boestsch (8-2), Kendall Grove (11-5) over Jason Day (17-6), and lastly Tamdan McCrory (11-2) defeating Ryan Madigan (5-0).

Now onto the main card, the first fight of the evening has Gray "The Bully" Maynard (7-0) taking on Jim Miller (13-1) I see this fight going Maynard's way throughout the whole fight, he has such good control over his opponents to where he can keep their back to the mat the whole fight, and thats how i see him beating Miller, winning by decision via lay n' pray. Next up is a light heavyweight bout where Matt "The Hammer" Hamill (7-2) going up against Mark "The Philippine Wrecking Machine" Munoz (5-0). If you look at the betting lines, Munoz is listed as a huge underdog, but in my opinion Munoz will dominate this fight. Munoz is an excellent striker, winning his last two fights in WEC by knockout, while the only two times Hamill has went against strikers he has lost. Hamills only hope in this fight would be to out wrestle Munoz, but i don't see that happening because Munoz is also a very good wrestler, and because of that i see this fight staying on the feet. Next on the card is a very interesting match up to me, Pete "Drago" Sell (8-5) against Matt Brown (11-7). Many will remember Brown from The Ulimate Fighter: Team Jackson vs Team Griffin, while Sell is not as familiar to the casual fan. Matt Brown is an excellent striker, while Sell has a pretty decent ground game, but i see this match up being more of a kick boxing match, with it going to decision after a very bloody fight, and Brown winning the decision. Now to the co main event, which has top ten ranked heavyweight Gabriel "Napao" Gonzaga (10-3) taking on the quickly rising, undefeated, Shane Carwin (10-0). This is a hard match up to call, just because of the lack of talent Carwin has faced, but that being said he hasn't had a fight go past the first round and makes quick work of all of his opponents. But i still think Gonzaga will just be too much for him, i see Napao winning by TKO. And now onto the main event, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson (29-7) versus Keith "The Dean of Mean" Jardine (14-5). A lot of people are saying the UFC is feeding Jardine to Rampage to get Jackson a title shot for UFC 100, but i tend to disagree. Quinton's most recent loss came to Forrest, who won a controversial decision over Rampage by controlling the fight with kicks. But when Jardine fought Griffin, he beat Griffin in the same way that Griffin beat Jackson, with kicks. To me, that shows that Jardine has stronger kicks then Griffin, and with Rampage having trouble checking Forrest kicks, Jardine could very easily win this bout by decision. But with that being said, I still have Jackson picked to win by Knock Out.

Well that wraps up my picks for UFC 96, I am traveling to Columbus for the event, so next Monday when my recap goes up I am sure I will have a few stories for you guys. Thanks for your support, and feel free to comment.