Any early UFC 77 predictions?

[Pool_Shark]

* Champion Anderson Silva vs. Rich Franklin (for middleweight title)

* Tim Sylvia vs. Brandon Vera

* Jason MacDonald vs. Yushin Okami

* Josh Burkman vs. Forrest Petz

* Stephan Bonnar vs. Eric Schafer

* Alan Belcher vs. Kalib Starnes

* Jorge Gurgel vs. Alvin Robinson

So that appears to be the line-up. Making predictions right now is pretty hard in MMA. Interesting fight I think in Okami/MacDonald, it seems kind of like a random match-up to me, Canada vs. Japan. Hopefully Tim Sylvia puts himself to sleep somehow and the match is over quickly and we can get on to Anderson Silva's match which I'll just hope is a good fight. More in depth predictions tomorrow evening probably but feel free to post your own in the mean time. I'm gonna go to bed because just typing this stuff out made me tired. At least I can listen to more Serra/Hughes drama on TUF tomorrow night, god that drama stuff is gold, how do they act like that with such a straight face for the cameras?

[Rob]

Sure, I'll get more in-depth with these when we do the official predictions, but I'll say Anderson Silva KO's Franklin again, Vera KO's (or possibly submits) Sylvia, Okami will likely destroy MacDonald (though I like MacDonald, and he's Canadian, but Okami's damn good), Josh Burkman will probably beat Petz, though I don't care about that fight, and Bonnar, Starnes and Gurgel should pull off wins.

[dbos]

I haven't been following enough to predict anything with any sort of accuracy, but I'm always optimistic about my favorite fighters; MacDonald will submit Okami!

A lot of people think Sylvia is something of a turd sandwich, but I think he'll be fine against Vera. Actually, I think it depends on if Vera decides to and is able to take the fight to the ground. I don't think he'll manage to win striking.

I agree that Silva will probably defeat Franklin.

[Rob]

A lot of people think Sylvia is something of a turd sandwich, but I think he'll be fine against Vera. Actually, I think it depends on if Vera decides to and is able to take the fight to the ground. I don't think he'll manage to win striking.
Vera's striking is waaaaaaaay better than Sylvia's. Vera was trained in kickboxing by Rob Kaman, who is one of the best kickboxers ever. He has a very good left head kick and a very good right front/push kick, both of which he has used extensively in his fights. He knocked out Justin Eilers in his second UFC fight with the left head kick, then a running knee as Eilers fell.

Vera's very good fighting in either southpaw or traditional stances and has solid power in both hands as well, as Frank Mir found out. Of his 8-0 record, six of Vera's wins have either been TKOs or KOs. Sure, Sylvia could land one of his haymakers and get a KO victory, but Vera should, at least in theory, be able to dance circles around Sylvia while kicking and punching him at will. Vera also has very, very good knee strikes from the clinch, as he demonstrated when he knocked out Fabiano Scherner with one.

Vera has the edge in striking and also on the ground, which is why I can't see Sylvia winning by anything other than a random haymaker knockout. Vera was heavily favoured to beat Sylvia for the title when they were supposed to fight at UFC 68 (which eventually went to Randy Couture after Vera's manager screwed him over and Vera couldn't fight in the UFC for nine months while they settled the contract dispute), so Vera's definitely not out of his league.

[Pool_Shark]

Sure, I'll get more in-depth with these when we do the official predictions, but I'll say Anderson Silva KO's Franklin again, Vera KO's (or possibly submits) Sylvia, Okami will likely destroy MacDonald (though I like MacDonald, and he's Canadian, but Okami's damn good), Josh Burkman will probably beat Petz, though I don't care about that fight, and Bonnar, Starnes and Gurgel should pull off wins.


OK, finally got some time off to type this up.

Anderson Silva facing off with Mr.Franklin looks interesting, worth watching I'd bet. My guess is that Anderson Silva fights over the top (not off of the ground) and takes the stoppage due to strikes in the second. His knees and even just his legs are incredible.

Vera is a guy I've actually been watching a lot more of as soon as I heard about this fight. I knew who he was before, but now I've really studied him. Vera is exponentially more versatile than Sylvia and I pick Vera and hopefully by impressive strikes.

I'm also Canadian and at a cross-roads for the Okami/MacDonald fight, I want to show pride in my country and it's fighters, but I have to say Okami due to his experience in the big leagues looking more dominant, Okami's resume is more impressive, therefore I'm giving it up to him simply based on that, and that he has had some great fights and probably has that much more of an edge to him. Okami will probably walk all over MacDonald because I don't think MacDonald is prepared for the war Okami can bring to the table.

The rest of the fights, Burkman, Bonnar, Starnes and Gurgel as well. Good predictions I think . Hopefully this card presents more entertainment than we expect. Really hoping for a good fight from both Vera and Silva.

I should also post my somewhat discontent with the main card fight at UFC 78 - the card features some guys I love watching, and some guys I think will move up more towards title contension. I'm not pleased at all though with Bisping and Evans headlining when we have other fighters that could be fighting besides Evans and Bisping. I also don't like this match-up, not after seeing Hamill destroy Bisping by throwing him around. Evans I think needs to impress me a bit more before I would buy a card because his name was on it. Regardless, I do like some of the fights at UFC 78 and plan on buying it.

[Rob]

http://www.mmarising.com/news/10180703.html

[Rob]

Results:

http://www.mmarising.com/news/10200701.html