UFC 90 is in the books, so lets grade my predictions and give some thoughts.
Middleweight Championship: Anderson Silva vs. Patrick Cote
I said:
You know, Cote seems like a really cool guy… I don’t really know what else to add.
Prediction: Silva, TKO, Rd. 1
Silva won, but it certainly wasn’t in the fashion I predicted. Grade: C (2.0)
- I’ve heard Silva acted the way he did because he ‘couldn’t find a rhythm,’ but I’m not buying it. To me, it seemed like Anderson was overconfident and too concerned with putting on a show for the crowd. I’m a huge fan, but his antics were crossing the line by the end – offering to help Patrick up from the ground was particularly absurd.
Silva won’t be dancing in his next fight thanks to the backlash coming from Saturday. He took zero damage this weekend, so we shouldn’t have to wait long for his return. Maybe a LHW bout on the stacked UFC 92 card?
- As for Cote, we probably won’t be seeing him for at least a year - that injury was brutal.
He never deserved a title shot in the first place and he didn’t make the most of the opportunity. While Silva was juking, Patrick should have been firing. Instead, he was sitting back and seemed content to simply survive which was an awful decision. Too his credit though, he took that flying knee right on the kisser and didn’t even flinch.
A rematch won’t be happening anytime soon, if at all. Cote has a ton of rehab in his future and it’s hard to predict where Silva will be in a year considering his ventures at LHW and retirement talk swirling.
Josh Koscheck vs. Thiago Alves
I said:
This one is all about Kos’ takedowns. If he can get Alves down, he will win. If he can’t, he will lose. Pretty simple – and I’m banking on Josh being able to get this to the ground.
Prediction: Koscheck, Decision
I was nowhere close, except for predicting that Kos would lose if he couldn’t take Alves down. Grade: D (1.0)
- This was a great performance for Thiago as he was hitting Josh with everything and hurting him often. Alves stuffed the takedown with regularity which was probably helped by the fact that he looked freaking monstrous. I have no clue how this guy makes 170.
He has now beat Karo, Hughes and Koscheck in his last three fights – time for his title shot. If GSP beats B.J (which he will), a fight with Alves would be a great chance to see Georges take on a top-notch striker. And if the Hawaiian butterball somehow wins the gold in February, a Penn/Alves showdown would also be excellent.
- Props to Koscheck giving a huge effort in this fight on short notice. He may have lost, but hopefully Josh shed his ‘boring fighter’ stigma once and for all. He never stopped coming at Thiago and even landed some nice combos of his own. Kos also showed he is one tough customer by refusing to be finished even when he was getting pummeled on a few occasions.
His original plan was to fight here and then honor his obligation to take on Yoshida in December, but that probably won’t happen seeing as how Josh’s legs are going to be 15 different shades of black and blue for the next two weeks. When he does return though, I would love to see a showdown with Karo.
Gray Maynard vs. Rich Clementi
I said:
I’ve heard this pun roughly 10 billion times at this point, so one more won’t hurt: look for Maynard to “bully” Rich around and get the win.
Prediction: Maynard, Decision
I hit the nail on the head with this one, but it wasn’t like I was going out on a limb. Grade: B (3.0)
- Gray Maynard continues to win, but is now being called a boring fighter. I expected it in this fight though, as it was going to be hard for him to do much damage to a veteran like Clementi who has some slick BJJ.
Gray has all the tools, but is still young in the sport. He is going to keep improving and hopefully these decision wins will start turning into finishes soon.
How about Maynard vs. Pellegrino?
- While I’m on this fight I need to mention how I wanted to go through my TV and strangle this ref. Telling fighters to work when A) they have been on the ground for 5 seconds or b) they already ARE working is atrocious. Here is hoping they start educating these guys better,
Fabricio Werdum vs. Junior Dos Santos
I said:
I know nothing about Dos Santos and I have no reason to believe Werdum will lose… BUT, for some reason I smell a Jardine/Alexander in this fight.
Don’t ask me why.
Prediction: Dos Santos, KO, Rd. 2
It wasn’t like I was using any logic other than a gut feeling and the Jardine/Alexander precedence, but I’m still giving myself the full monty here. Grade: A (4.0)
- In a division being built around grapplers, Dos Santos could be a hot commodity. We didn’t get to see that much of him Saturday, but he clearly has solid stand-up and knockout power. If his sprawl is decent he could be a rising young gun at heavyweight. We’ll have to wait and see.
- So much for a title shot for Werdum. He really screwed himself by losing here. He wasn’t that marketable to begin with and he now has a 2-2 UFC record. I look for his next fight to be against Heath Herring on a prelim or maybe a Fight Night main card.
Tyson Griffin vs. Sean Sherk
I said:
People have said it has the potential to be boring, but I think it is going to surprise everyone.
Sherk still has some gas in the tank and will be able to both out-box and out-wrestle Tyson. I also think Sean is going to – gasp – finish the fight.
Prediction: Sherk, TKO, Rd. 3
The bout was Fight of the Night and Sherk won so I get points for those, but I lose some for being dumb enough to think Sherk could actually finish a fight. Grade: B+ (3.3)
- I was happy for ‘The Muscle Shark’ here because he got to display his underrated stand-up in this Rock ‘em, Sock em Robots type contest. Afterwards, Sean said that he wants the winner of Florian/Stevenson, but that won’t happen if Kenny wins because the UFC would be risking a big money Penn/Florian showdown. If Joe wins though, I can see a Sherk/Stevenson bout with the winner getting another title shot by virtue of there being no other clear-cut contenders.
—————————————————————————————————– Overall Prediction Grade: C+ (2.66) – bad calls on the two main events keep me just shy of B-.
We had two excellent fights, a sweet knockout, one snoozer and a head-scratching main event – in the end, I would give the UFC’s first Chicago effort a slight thumbs up.
- Ken
http://www.IntelligentlyDefending.com
