Rich Franklin Vs. Yushin Okami
(Rich Franklin defeats Yushin Okami via unanimous decision)
Rich Franklin is in for a fight on June 16th during UFC 72. He is fighting Yushin Okami and Okami is gaining speed in the recognition category. His last opponent Mike Swick credited his great fighting and was quoted as saying, “nobody knows who Okami is, but I know how hard of fighter he is”. After the first round ended Swick sat in his corner and told his guys, “This guy is really strong”. Okami started his UFC career in UFC 62 with a decision over Alan Belcher. Not many casual MMA fans were familiar with this guy and just wrote him off as an under card due to his international start. He keeps coming though; fight after UFC fight and with close fighting dates too. At first glance you might think 21-3, not to bad for MMA. Look at his fight dates, he fights every two months it seems. Not much time to train for an opponent, but does he need to? Doesn’t really seem like it lately. He came in as a replacement for Martin Kampmann with only six weeks to prepare for Franklin. Something tells me he doesn’t take a lot of days off. Okami has already fought Silva the champ of his middle weight class once winning by disqualification in the first round. If Okami beats Rich, a title bout will be right around the corner.
Rich isn’t a roll over fight by any means. If you look at his record he has some big names in the win column. Rich is an ex middle weight champion having beaten Evan Tanner twice, Marvin Eastman (One of the few to defeat Rampage), Ken Shamrock, Nate Quarry, and David Loiseau. It wasn’t until his bout with Anderson Silva that Rich fell prey to those pesky knees. He also contributed it to not training as hard and letting all those success distractions get to him more than they should have. It will be interesting to see if we will get the old Rich Franklin back this fight. I miss that guy and would love to see him back in the UFC. He said he was training for this fight hard and if he does this guy is a TKO machine. Im giving this win to Franklin by TKO in the third round.
Hector Ramirez Vs. Forrest Griffin
(Forrest Griffin defeats Hector Ramirez via unanimous decision)
First off Hector Ramirez might not seem like a threat to Griffin, but he has a similar let’s bang style much like Griffin. Take a look at Hector’s record; he beat Kendall Grove with a powerful KO punch which seems to be one of Hector’s strengths. To bad he has to fight Griffin. Forrest has showed over and over again that he can take a punch until he faced Keith Jardine. I still believe Griffin has a strong chin, but just can’t make a mistake like Jardine did in his fight with Houston Alexander in UFC 70. Jardine complained that he had to fight a UFC newcomer and took the fight lightly.
As long as Griffin brings the fight I think he can get a decision over Hector in the end of the fight. I see this fight having good striking with Forrest’s reach advantage and Hector’s brawling spirit. In the end this will be going to the judges with Griffin getting his hand raised after a three round striking war.
Rory Singer Vs. Jason MacDonald
(Jason MacDonald defeats Rory Singer via technical knockout strikes in round two)
In another fight of the night you have two athletes that can go the distance. I think these two guys could submission themselves into a tired third round. Rory recently did this with Josh Haynes. It ended up being a slow motion third round that went to the judges. With both of these fighters being submission masters I think we might see some slams or possible striking. Sometimes both fighters of the same discipline respect each others talent so much that they almost prefer to fight in another style. With both of these guys only chalking up one TKO per fighter I think it be going to the judges. I give the slight advantage to Jason MacDonald since he has fought more MMA fights, fought tougher opponents and seem to be able to finish faster than Rory. I am going with MacDonald winning in a unanimous decision.
Clay Guida Vs. Tyson Griffin
(Tyson Griffin defeats Clay Guida via split decision) ????
In this fight I believe Clay will overwhelm Tyson with better wrestling and takedowns. Tyson is just coming off a loss from Frank Edgar who also will be showing up soon in UFC 73. Tyson is no slouch, but I think Clay has more experience and will be able to finish quicker with a submission in the second of third round.
