Wow what a great fight event in Dallas Texas only four hours away from my home town Houston. I should be there, but there other things in life more important right? Hmmm yeah ok whatever. Anyways there will be a couple of big names and alot of other good fighters. Here are a couple predictions on the big name fights:

Jeff Monson 24-6-0 vs. Pedro Rizzo 15-7-0
(Rizzo defeats Monson at 2:40 of Round 3 via TKO)

Monson does not get the credit he deserves. I think the only reason he lost to Tim Sylvia was because of his fighting style and giving little resistance to go to the ground. I think if it was a bar room brawl Monson would have wrecked him. I would also like to see him go against Randy before both of them retire. Jeff was scheduled to fight on August 17th in the Global Fighting Championship with Chris Guillen Global Fighting Championship but it got cancelled due to a lot of the fighters not being cleared. If Jeff fought at GFC and would not have been cleared for this one then Ricco Rodriguez would have been his alternate. Jeff has been on a major winning streak despite the decision loss to Sylvia. Rizzo will be the toughest fighter Monson has had to fight in a while. This one will be a cool one to watch I think. I think this because Monson has one of the toughest chins in MMA and Rizzo has never been submitted. Both of their strengths in finishing fights are their opponents best defensive strength. I would guess that Rizzo will win just on decision by landing a few more punches and getting a take down or two more. Pretty much a repeat of the Sylvia fight less the extra rounds.

Jeremy Horn 79-15-5 vs. Jorge Santiago 13-7-0
(Santiago defeats Horn at 3:02 of Round 1 via Triangle Choke)

Wow, can you guess what the trivial tidbit of this fight will be? Can’t figure it out? It will be Jeremy Horn’s 100th professional fight in MMA. Good for him and I am excited to see him still out there competing. He was submitting people in the old days before they really knew what it was. Jorge is getting better, but I think Horn will be able to shut down any all parts of his game. Jorge has been KO’ed a lot lately and I think Horn will either get him with a flurry TKO or he will flurry him until Jorge gets frustrated and put his body in a bad position for a submission Ala Gumby style.

I just came across this after a friend emailed me the You Tube link. I thought it would be just like the Escrima stick fighting, but it wasn’t. It is basically a hybrid of MMA and Escrima. Leave it to the the good ole USA melting pot to mush something together for a better result. They wear helmets and protective hand gear for the sticks, but when the helmets fall off a ref doesn’t exactly get the fighters corner to put it back on. Sometimes it isn’t even a stick, it might be a garden hose as Marc “Crafty Dog” Denny states in the interview. They keep going until the guy breaks or he sumbits, but until then it isn’t stopped unless time is up.

After watching a few matches of this Iv’e relized it is about as close you will get to non firearm combat. Well and no swords either, but anyways these guys fight with this stick and when people get disarmed or they choose to drop their own stick they transition to MMA. Some of the people use kicks and sweeps while stick fighting. This is different from Escrima since that really only involves stick blows standing up. Watching the brotherhood of these fighters as well reminds me of MMA & BJJ.

Get on the ground floor of this new combat sport, it might be the next best thing?

This event will be at the Cajun Dome in Lafayette, LA on Saturday September 1st. I don’t know where this organization came from, but alot of these fighters fought in Renegades. It might have been called Revolution then it changed to IXFA. It wasn’t easy to find the fight card but here is. Some of these fighters might have been swapped around or changed before this fight, but here is what I think it still is:

Tim Credeur Vs. Brandon McDowell
(Tim wins via Triangle Choke 1:35 of 1st round)

This fight seems to be the main card. Tim has fought on Bodog before Losing by TKO, but other than that he tends to finish fights quick in the first round. His trademark for finishing tends to be an armbar. Brandon is more of a road warrior fighting when and how ever much he can at anytime anywhere. He tends to fight hard, but a little careless getting caught in submissions. He is coming of a loss so he might be fighting a little smarter and try to go the distance or grab an opportunity if one comes up. I think ole Timmy will win this one with a submission maybe in the third.

Micah Lopez Vs. Kirk Gibson
(Micah wins via KO 1:34 in 1st round)

Both of these guys are relatively new in the professional circuit. Micah is coming off a loss to another fighter fighting this night, Matt Warner. Kirk is undefeated with a 2-0 and seems to like the submission game. This one will tough to call, but I am gonna go with the new guy Gibson getting a submission.

Lane Yarbrough Vs. York Ash (Matt Warner was injured)
(Yarbrough wins over Ash via submission in 1st round)

I wish I could be there to see this one. Matt Warner is a local guy and I had the pleasure of rolling with him. He has a never say die attitude when it comes to submissions so I don’t think Lane will get him in anything he won’t be able to get out of. Lane doesn’t seem to be to good at finishing fights according to his record so I think Matt will probably pull off a Submission or a TKO on this guy maybe second round.

Jesse Vasquez Vs. Jarred Taylor (Dallas Mabry was injured)
(Vasquez wins via TKO in 1:40 of 2nd round)

Jesse is a brawler who likes to bang. Maybe he will change his game a little since he is coming off a loss from a choke, but either way he is good with his hands. Dallas is a newcomer with not much experience in the cage. I am sure with Jesse’s experience and height advantage he will dominate the fight. Probably a TKO in the second with Jesse out on top.

Antonio Flores Vs. Jody Draper
(Flores wins via Unianomous decision)

Flores is not a well known fighter, but Jody Draper is another local guy from my town Cypress, TX! I’ve never met him but he is coming off a loss from another local guy Todd Moore. I think Todd trains at the Houston Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Club. It almost a year and half ago so hopefully he will be able to come with it. I am going with the local guy Jody in the third with a submission.

The Rest of these fighters are not well known and this will probably be their first professional fight.

Paul Ascherl Vs. Kyle Miers - (Miers wins via submission due to strikes 2:04 in the 1st round)
Matt Rangel Vs. James King - (Rangel wins via Arm Bar submission in 3rd round)
Chris Reed Vs. Ricky Arvie - (Arvie wins via TKO in 2nd round)
Joey Gale Vs. Aaron Davis - (Davis wins via unianimous decision)
Brian Lightfoot Vs. Mitch Sawyer - (Sawyer wins via verbal submission due to strikes in 2nd round)
Jesse Seay Vs. Blake McDaniels - (McDaniels wins via KO at 1:19 of 1st round)
Justin Timpa Vs. Brian Brady - (Timpa wins via submission of 1st round)
Anthony Barbier Vs. Ralph Kelly - (Kelly wins via leg kick at 25 seconds into the 1st round)
Brandon Farran Vs. Marcelo Lumakang - (Farran wins via TKO 1:54 in 1st round)

John ‘Juanito’ Ibarra?, who is the guy in the HAT you might be asking.

His face has been popping up alot lately in the MMA world. With fighters making more and more money they are starting to train at better facilities and getting better trainers. I know this guy is not in it for the money as he says, but guys gotta eat right? Anyways, he will be a lot more in the media coming up because he is not only Rampage’s trainer, but he is also his manager. He has been training Rampage for two years now he said and didn’t want to train him until Jackson cleaned up his act. Once Jackson became a born again Christian and started to watch what he said in interviews Ibarra apparently called him to ask him if he would let him train him. He asked Jackson to give him thirty minutes to make his decision. I guess he sold him because Jackson has improved alot since leaving PRIDE. I know he has lost to a few guys over there but he was also doing alot of other things he should not have been doing while he was preparing for a fight. Ibarra also has a no nonsense approach to training and has been quoted from an interview with Fight hype as saying,

“I have an incredible marketing plan for Rampage. We don’t rest. We’ve had 13 days off this whole year. It’s not because he won the belt. When he won the belt, there’s just bigger things now. We’re work dogs. My hours are 20 hours a day, because I manage and train this kid, and 6 days a week, so we’re used to working. The belt is just a metal strap around your waist where the world sees you as the best fighter in the world, but we still have a lot to prove”

Ibarra got his coaching break with Oscar De La hoya, but he says that they aren’t exactly buddies anymore. After that it didn’t get much better, because he started coached another great fighter Vitor Belfort, but again he was treated badly with money issues and such. This guy has coached some of the best MMA fighters and it will be interesting to see how he manages training other guys while at the same time coaching/managing Jackson. Either way it is good to see a good coach bring in some new quality coaching blood to the MMA world. I hope he keeps in good graces with the fighters now and the ones he will train later because he has done a great job and proven himself Rampage. Here is a list of some of the fighters he has trained in the MMA world

Oscar De La Hoya
Vitor Belfort
Marco Ruas
Robert Emerson
Savant Young
Quinton Jackson
Michael Bisping
Cheick Kongo
Josh Barnett

Here is the latest interview with him on Fight Hype
http://www.fighthype.com/pages/content599.html

First of all I can’t believe some of the fights on the card that are no going to be televised. Some of the people fighting in the under card are very good with explosive fighting and entertaining personalities. I hope some of the fights are fast so we can see some of the other fights on the card for August 25th.

Randy Couture Vs. Gabriel Gonzaga
(Randy Couture def. Gabriel Gonzaga via TKO (strikes) in Round 3)

RESULTS: Randy dominated Gonzago start to finish with his patented drain them against the cage technique. Gonzaga at one point asked Herb Dean to stop the match because he couldn’t see with the blood in his eyes. Herb was like, “I cant stop the fight”. He was bloody because on one of the takedowns Randy’s head popped him in the nose and as Randy said, ” I heard a crunch”. It looks like Randy’s new strength coach might get a pat on the back when Randy gets back into the gym because he exhibited alot of overpowering strength over Gonzaga. This was a perfect example of someone breaking the other persons will to get the TKO.

Who knows on this one. Some of the match ups this day are so good it is hard to tell. Both of these guys are great on the ground and standing up. Gonzaga showed a big improvement standing up against Cro-cop. We didn’t get to see a lot of Gonzaga’s clinch skills in the Cro-cop fight so it will be hard to tell if Randy will be able to use this to his advantage. The one thing that will be a big factor in this fight will be the five rounds at five minutes a piece. Randy is a veteran to these, but Gonzaga hasn’t even had one fight go this long in his MMA career. I think Gonzaga will come out fast and try to finish the fight while Randy will have a “drain em” strategy and end up getting a TKO on him in the later rounds. I am going with experience over youth on this one.

Roger Huerta Vs. Alberto Crane
(Roger Huerta def. Alberto Crane via TKO (strikes) in Round 3)

RESULTS: I really thought Crane would pull this off with a surprise submission. He got Huerta in a lot of bad spots, but forgot that he was wearing punching gloves instead of a GI. Huerta also became the first UFC fighter to use the big screen to punch his opponent. He was looking up at the big screen while Crane had his back and Huerta would strike with his elbows on whichever side Cranes head was on. I have a new respect for Huerta’s ground game and think he should be the next in line for the title shot. If Sherk gets his belt taken I hear BJ Penn and Joe Stevensen will fight for it. The winner of that should fight Huerta.

Huerta is at it again with another no name MMA fighter with an undefeated record. I am sure he won’t take his opponent lightly like he did with his last fight. Huerta came out on his last fight during the first round and was dominated by Doug Evans. It doesn’t sound like Crane’s striking is in the top ten, but his jiu jitsu is stellar. He has been there and done that in the grappling world and his MMA record says he might have a knack for this as well. Huerta seems to have a few holes in his clinching, but he reminds me of a MMA transmission. Every time he needs to do something in another direction BOOM there he goes with lots of energy. I am gonna go out on a limb and say this will be the upset of the night. I am going with Crane getting a submission in the second round.

Josh Koscheck Vs. Georges St-Pierre
(Georges St. Pierre def. Josh Koscheck via Unanimous Decision after 3 Rounds)

RESULTS: Whoaaa, Pierre dominated Koscheck. Pierre took Koshcheck down at will. Koscheck had nothing to threaten Pierre with at all. I though Koscheck had more power than that. Maybe he should go back to weight lifting a bit instead of relying only on training as he says. I am glad to see Pierre back to himself. I knew he was the great fighter that he displayed Saturday night. Side note: Sanchez was watching the fight like a hawk.

I just love the welterweight class. With as many fighters the welterweight class has you think they would have had at least two fights on this card. Anyways the only one they have makes up for it. These two fighters are gonna go go go I think. This will be a really good three round war. Both of these guys fight on another level and three rounds just isn’t enough for them to burn up the energy they bring in to the ring. I think this will be a fast paced fight. Pierre will be a little cautious at first since he is coming off a devastating loss, but Kos won’t let it go slow for two long. I am really interested in seeing how Kos will do against a fighter like Pierre. I don’t think he has ever faced a guy quite like Pierre’s style. Koscheck will probably as always be more dominant on the ground, but hopefully Pierre will keep distance and sprawl on him and keep the fight up and fast. I think if Kos can overwhelm Pierre he could pull off something, but in the back of my mind I keep thinking Pierre is coming into this thing with nothing to lose. Fighting a guy with nothing to lose is purty dangerous. I will have to go with Pierre out performing Josh in the stand up with a barrage of leg kicks and punches and wearing him down to get a win decision in the end.

Kurt Pellegrino Vs. Joe Stevenson
(Joe Stevenson def. Kurt Pellegrino via Unanimous Decision)

RESULTS: I really though Joe would catch Kurt in something. It was weird it was like Joe had a game plan and he was only gonna stick to it. Kurt was clearly tired by the middle of the second round, but Joe just didn’t seem to want to finish it when he could have.

This will be a great ground fight between two great BJJ guys. I am sure the crowd will probably boo a little bit not fully comprehending the fighting style. Kurt has been around and won some good fights, but let’s face it Joe “Daddy” Stevenson is one bad mamma jamma. I think Kurt will last a little while with a few stall stay alive tactics, but Joe will burn through them and get a submission in maybe the second or third round.

Patrick Cote Vs. Kendall Grove
(Patrick Cote def. Kendall Grove via TKO (strikes) at 4:45 of Round 1)

RESULTS: This one played out pretty much like I thought it would. Cote has some heavy hands and all he had to land one. Grove probally needed a loss to get him to come up with new training stuff. He is still young and is on his way up. Cote got saved by this one because he was one his way out if he didnt win this one.

Grove is on a roll these days training harder and trying to stay away from the temptations in life. He is winning some good fights as of late. Cote has been too so both of these guys are cruising though some good wins on the big UFC stage so they seem to be in the same fight mentally. Physically Cote has been banging with some good stand up while staying balanced with some submissions. Kendall is a wiry tall dude with a similar arsenal. Kendall is still learning a lot of new stuff which can be dangerous because you don’t know what to expect sometimes. Some fighters can study a veteran and know what to expect, but who knows what new moves Kendall will have up his sleeve this night. I think Cote might have a chance getting a TKO on Kendall, but Kendall is coming with something new every fight. Unless Cote gases out I think he will push the pace and TKO Kendall in the third.

Ryan Jensen Vs. Thales Leites
(Thales Leites def. Ryan Jensen via Submission (armbar) at 3:47 of Round 1)

RESULTS: This was pretty cool for a BJJ match. Leites will go for the first submission he can get. He threatened Jensen with a Kimura, but when Jensen did a forward flip to get out of it he landed square in an arm bar.

Leites still has a lot to learn, but I think he is slowly working his way up the ladder. Jensen is also a submission master so I am sure this will be a boring fight to the fans and just be a chess match the whole three rounds. Probably be a decision going to Leites as the winner.

Renato Sobral Vs. David Heath
(Renato “Babalu” Sobral def. David Heath via Submission (anaconda choke) at 3:30 of Round 2)

(For all you PPV that were wondering where all that blood came from on the canvas, click HERE for this fight)

RESULTS: Babalu dominated the whole fight pretty much and elbowed Heath into a bloody pulp. Then when he let Heath up he sunk in a choke, but when Steve (REF) told him to let go after Heath tapped Babalu keep it on until Heath went to sleep. “I just thought that I needed to teach him respect after he showed me so much disrespect, I think that you can be fearless and tough and still maintain sportsmanship. He needed to be taught a lesson.” The athlectic commssion is considering holding his win amount (Half) for the fight. I think they should regulate it how they deem necessary that is why they are in charge of it. Alot of people are giving Sobral flack for this, but I think Heath should have relized who he was talking to during the weigh ins when he started acting like a smart ass. I guess Sobral did not stray to far from UFC 74 theme respect because he imposed it on Heath and hopefully he will get it from at lest one guy. Side Note: Was it just me or did Sobral seem really lean? Maybe a new Middleweight?

Maybe this one should be called Mr. Bubble Gum Versus David the “Dan Henderson look alike” Heath. All kidding aside I am really happy to see Sobral fight again. He is one of those guys that walks into the ring and makes you feel bad for the other guy just because of the look on Sobral’s face. He looks like he just killed your dog and he is coming for you next. Sobral has fought the baddest guys in the MMA world. Even though Sobral is coming off a loss I don’t give Heath really a chance on this one. This fight should not be an under card fight. Maybe they are doing this because they expect it to be a thirty second block for later. I am going with Sobral winning in a horrific fashion over whats his name.

Frank Mir Vs. Antoni Hardonk
(Frank Mir def. Antoni Hardonk via Submission (armbar) at 1:17 of Round 1)

RESULTS: Still haven’t found the tape on this, but I was sure Frankie would tag him quick. Frank was funny in his post fight interview. He sounded more like an announcer commenting on someone elses fight.

Yet another fight that deserves to be a main card. I know Mir has been out of the win column and people doubt he will ever get back to his winning ways, but he is looking good these days. He looks to be in good shape and I think he will probably blow this guy out with the technical grappling he does. Hardonk will use some of his strength early on to stay out of trouble, but in the end Mir will land one of his, “What the hell was that” submission moves and leave the crowd in awe. He is back; I really think so this time. I am going with Mir winning via Submission in the second or third.

Clay Guida Vs. Marcus Aurelio
(Clay Guida def. Marcus Aurelio via Split Decision)

RESULTS: Didn’t get to see this one either. Another undercard fight that should have been on the main card. Maybe the UFC is getting so many good fighters? Lets hope that is the case.

Guida is coming off a controversial loss to Tyson Griffin. A lot of people thought he should have won it. I think this will be a great fight between a never say die Guida and a Pride Veteran Aurelio. Both of these guys can go the distance in a hard and fast fashion. I want to say that we will see another PRIDE fighter will come in and whoop on the UFC guy, but I think it is Guida’s time. He really wants this win and the growing fan base thinks he deserves it. I am going with Guida escaping a couple of submission attempts by Aurelio, but in the end winning the decision on takedowns and points.

These are the current odds for the fights (The minus number means the favored to win guy)

Randy Couture +105 vs. Gabriel Gonzaga -135
Georges St. Pierre -220 vs. Josh Koscheck +180
Kendall Grove -260 vs. Patrick Cote +200
Renato Sobral -210 vs. David Heath +170
Clay Guida -130 vs. Marcus Aurelio EVEN
Frank Mir -170 vs. Antoni Hardonk +140
Thales Leites -270 vs. Ryan Jensen +210
Joe Stevenson -295 vs. Kurt Pellegrino +235
Roger Huerta -450 vs. Alberto Crane +300

Carlos Condit Vs. Brock Larson
(Condit wins by Arm-Bar at 2:21 in 1st Round)

This fight is going to be impossible to predict. This is a good headliner because it will be back and forth with the winner? Probably a split decision, maybe Larson.

Paulo Filho Vs. Joe Doerksen
(Filho wins by TKO at 4:07 in the 1st Round)

Everybody is talking about Paulo and how he is the guy to watch in the middleweight class in the WEC. This fight will be for the middle weight title so that will be cool to watch. Paulo is from Brazil with a perfect undefeated record. So he will be fighting for a belt and to keep his record clean. Joe has an impressive record as well with his losses going only to some big dog names. I am pretty sure these guys will trade a few and neutralize each other on the ground. Probably a decision going to either guy, if I had to pick it would be Doerksen.

Stephen Ledbetter Vs. Jeff Curran
(Curran win by Decision)

This one will be fun to watch, a newbie vs a road warrior. Jeff will probably put on a clinic with this guy ending in the first round if he chooses to do so.

Sherron Leggett Vs. Jamie Varner
(Varner wins by TKO at 4:08 in the 1st Round)

Varner can hang with just about anybody. He stood almost three rounds with Franca only to slip into an armbar. Leggett is gonna have to land some bombs much like he has in the past to knock this guy down because Varner has a great chin. Varner is well rounded with an arsenal of multiple submission so I am thinking Leggett will get tired and make a mistake and land in a submission of Varner’s. Varner get submission in the second.

Fernando Gonzalez Vs. Hiromitsu Miura
(Miura wins by Submission at 3:35 in the 2nd round by strikes)

Not really familiar with either of these guys. Fernando appears to be the better of the two. Miura has fought with Miller once in the WEC not putting up much of a fight so I would have to go with Fernando getting a quick TKO or submission.

Justin Robbins Vs. Antonio Banuelos
(Banuelos Wins by Unanimous Decision at 5:00 in the 3rd round)

Anonio - o - o - o as the Tapout guys would say on the show. Antonio was recently shown on the show Tapout where he trained at the PIT with Chuck Liddell and lived with him as well. He appeared to be a good fighter and as Chuck said, “just got caught”. I think he has a good chance against Robbins. Maybe a submission in the third.

Logan Clark Vs. Eric Schambari
(Eric Schambari Wins by Unanimous Decision at 5:00 in the 3rd round)

This will be a good light heavyweight fight between two new up and comers. Both of these guys are undefeated, but I think Clark will come away with the win since he is the better striker.

Blas Avena Vs. Tiki Ghosn
(Avena wins by Rear Naked Choke Submssion at 1:01 in the 1st Round)

Tiki fights with alot of intensity and that will make for a good fight between him and Avena. Tiki really needs this win to get him the the next round in his career or to have another round in his career I should say. I think Tiki will probably get a TKO.

Steve Cantwell Vs. Justin McElfresh
(Steve Cantwell Wins by Technical Knock Out at 0:47 in the 1st round)

This is another hard one to predict so lemme guess. Steve takes Justin down and Justin gets a triangle choke. MMmm? Sound good?