As a long time supporter of pugilist sports, I have waited for approximately 10 years (probably longer) for Mixed martial arts (UFC in particular) to come to Canada's largest city. It took quite a long time, but that time has come, and it is now. Tomorrow, 55,000 fans will partake in UFC 129 at Toronto's Rogers Centre, with hundreds of thousands more expected to attend the fan expo at the adjourning Direct Energy Centre on the CNE grounds. All in all, the whole weekend is expected to raise about $40 million for the city, which is a substantial amount of cash.
Although you don't want to hear what I think about that. I'll spare you more chatter, and just get on with my picks :
Georges St. Pierre vs Jake Shields - The main event features the best welterweight on the planet today, Canadian Georges St. Pierre, take on a man who has been the best welterweight outside of the UFC, with 4 titles in the class to show for it (the 5th is at Middleweight) in "American Jiu-Jitsu" practitioner and Cesar Gracie product Jake Shields. The oddsmakers have this fight at a 4-to-1 clip for the champion, though if you ask everybody including St. Pierre, its a lot closer than people think. St. Pierre is coming off a one handed jab heavy boxing contest against Josh Koscheck last December, while Shields is riding a 15 fight win streak and handed the title shot due to his (controversial) decision victory over Martin Kampmann last October.
Expect this fight to go the distance. Shields' 2 weaknesses are his stand up and punching power, though he might be able to hold positioning and win a round, I just think St. Pierre's strengths (including his wrestling) will be the difference, and he will simply wear out the will of the challenger. In doing so, St. Pierre will make the inevitable jump to the middleweight division.
The Pick : St. Pierre by Decision.
Jose Aldo vs Mark Hominick - The co-feature features the pound for pound king (in my opinion), Jose Aldo take on Canadian (and Ontario resident) Mark Hominick. Aldo had been nursing a back injury since retaining his WEC title against Manvel Gamburyan and subsequent awarding of the newly minted UFC featherweight title, while Hominick has won his last 3 fights in Zuffa owned promotions (4 overall) since losing to Josh Grispi, his latest victory being a one sided dismantling of George Roop at UFN : Fight for the Troops 2 in January.
Hominick's one chance to victory is to circle outside Aldo's power and use his technical boxing. If he can keep Aldo off balance with it, he might be able to win a round or 2, but it might only be a matter of time before the Brazilian's explosiveness and power have Hominick on the ground. From there, Aldo, who is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt, will finish however he pleases.
The Pick : Aldo by Submission.
Lyoto Machida vs Randy Couture - After a 2 fight losing streak at the hands of both Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, The Brazilian of Japanese origin known as "The Dragon" looks to right the ship against the 47 (soon to be 48) year old UFC hall of famer Couture, who is riding a 3 fight win streak into their tilt (of course, it was at the hands of an old man, a gatekeeper and a fish out of water, but a win is a win!). Also, The man known as "The Natural" has re-iterated several times over the course of the week that regardless of the outcome, this fight will be his last (though we've also heard that before!)
Machida needs to definitely be more aggressive than he has in his previous 18 fights. He needs to push the pace early and not be the elusive, countering, "boring" Dragon we're used to seeing out there. Randy's only chance is to try to use his strength and push Machida against the cage, wear him out with shoulder punches and his "dirty" boxing. The only problem is, if Machida does make a mistake and is being too over aggressive, is Randy too old now to pull the trigger? The answer to that is yes. and Machida will be victorious.
The Pick : Machida by decision.
Mark Bocek vs Ben Henderson - Former WEC lightweight champion and excitement immaculate, "Bend it like" Ben Henderson takes on Canadian Mark Bocek. This fight will be furious from the get go, and though Bocek will have Henderson in trouble early and often, Henderson will finish the fight in the 3rd round by a slick submission as only the man known as "Smooth" can.
The Pick : Henderson by submission.
Well, those are my picks. Agree? Disagree? want to get back to me? hit me up. email me at mmarmaggeddon@gmail.com
Until next time, fight fans!
No comments:
Post a Comment