For those of you keeping count this weekend will be free MMA show number 2 of three in less than two weeks. Last Saturday was Strikeforce on CBS, this Saturday is UFC on Spike, and next Wednesday is WEC on Vs. For the paying customer there will be more MMA next Saturday on PPV. So that’s about 4 solid doses of MMA in a month, not to mention Strikeforce Challengers, Sengoku, and any other show I didn’t get a chance to check out.

Needless to say if you’re a new fan this is the perfect time to jump on board, this much free MMA doesn’t come around often.

We’ll start in the lightweight division with,

Ross Pearson vs. Aaron Riley

Lightweight non-title bout
Ross Pearson TKO round 2 or unanimous decision

I’m not going to go into advantages on today’s predictions because I’m covering two TUF winners and I know little to nothing about them based on their competition. Based on what I’ve seen about Ross Pearson I have a feeling he’s going to attempt to push the pace and smother Riley early. I think that Riley’s experience will allow him to weather the storm in the first round. Ross Pearson is not going to let up even for a second and this will eventually lead to a TKO in round two. Even if it does go to decision I don’t see Riley having many advantages over Pearson besides experience.

James Wilks vs. Matt Brown

Welterweight non-title bout
Matt Brown TKO round 1

I think that Wilks just got a very tough opponent in Brown. This is a significant jump in competition in from Demarques Johnson. Matt Brown has been in a sense re-born in MMA as it comes to the UFC. His overall record is a somewhat spotty 10-7 however since being on the ultimate fight he has gone 3-1 in the UFC. All of his victories in the UFC have been finishes including his last two an armbar and a TKO that went much longer than it should have gone against Pete Sell. I think that Matt Brown should be able to effectively control the standup game with Wilks enough to end the fight early. I have not been impressed with any of Wilks’ fights I’ve seen and don’t think he has what it takes to defeat an opponent as tough as Brown.

These next two main card fights are both trap fights. Mike Swick is probably one win away from a title shot. Michael Bisping is one impressive win away from redemption and fighting a top five middleweight. If either of these fighters lose it does less to help their opponents than it does to hurt them.

We’ll start with the original son of England Michael Bisping.

Michael Bisping vs. Denis Kang
Middleweight non-title bout


Bisping by split decision

Michael Bisping has humbled himself greatly since his devastating loss to Dan Henderson. In his interviews post UFC 100 we have always seen him give accolades to Henderson and to not give excuses for his loss. He’s even seen in the Countdown show poking a little fun at himself when he’s watching film on Kang. “Look he’s circling right……(turns to the camera and smiles) what kind of an idiot would do that?” I think that we’re going to get the old Bisping that is little more reckless than the one we’ve seen recently. I’m hoping that we get to see Bisping free his hands a little with the strikes and take the fight to Kang. I think that his apprehension against Henderson is what cost him and I think that if he can turn his movement forward and keep the pressure on Kang he should be able to grind out a decision. On the other hand, Kang is a hard striker and quite capable on the ground. He has the ability to end the fight whether it be in the stand up or in a submission. Kang has a chance to beat Bisping and it’s realistic. If it happens it will be in round one or two. If this fight goes to a third round it will be in Bisping’s favor.

Now this next fight has been lightly touted as the welterweight number one contender fight however I doubt this is truly the case if Dan Hardy wins.

Mike Swick vs. Dan Hardy
Welterweight non title bout

Swick by TKO

Let me first start by saying this fight shouldn’t be happening. If I were Mike Swick I would question making this the top contender fight for me as Josh Koshchek is fighting Anthony Johnson. If the UFC were really forcing the issue they’d make Koshchek fight Swick and Johnson fight Hardy. This way you put two contenders against each other and two up and comers against each other and not American Kickboxing Academy vs. the world. No one would debate that if Johnson and Hardy fought each other that they wouldn’t be ready for a top contender or even a title shot afterward. However if both these guys lose to AKA fighters we’re going to have a top contender issue in the welterweight division. Anyways, I honestly think Swick’s hands are too fast for Hardy to contend with him. After making short work of Ben Saunders which was after making even shorter work of Jonathan Goulet this is kind of a step down in competition for Swick. Not to take anything away from Dan Hardy but his performance against Marcus Davis was not impressive to me. As a matter of fact I didn’t think he won that fight as much as he landed a big knee at the right time. (I don’t want to get into the judging debate in the UFC though we’ll save that for another day) Dan Hardy is going to have to end this fight fairly quickly with a big shot against Swick. Swick will move well as he always does and land shot after shot on Hardy if that doesn’t work he won’t mind taking the fight to the ground and pounding Hardy out. Regardless I don’t see this fight going past round one. If Swick looks past Hardy (who is a very dangerous opponent) then he’s going to sleep in round one.

I’m not going to break the main event down, just going to call the fight straight up.

Randy Couture vs. Brandon Vera
Light Heavyweight non-title bout

Couture TKO or unanimous decision


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