UFC 134 – Picks and Predictions
UFC 134 kicks off on Saturday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil featuring middleweight championship headliner bout between current champion Anderson Silva and Yushin Okami, a co-main event rematch featuring former light heavyweight champions Forrest Griffin and Mauricio Rua battling to stay relevant in their division, in addition to a heavyweight fight between Brendan Schaub and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in which some feel should be a heavyweight title eliminator.
UFC 133 was nothing spectacular at 4-3 (when compared to 5-1 at UFC 132), although still above 500. I’m shooting this time for a perfect parlay. UFC Quick picks are provided at the bottom of this page. Here we go.
ANDERSON SILVA VS. YUSHIN OKAMI
This is a rematch from 2006, though that fight didn’t give us much to go by. The fight came to a halt midway through the first round due to an illegal up-kick leading to an Okami win by way of disqualification.
That aside, I learned a long time ago that your chances of success are far greater when siding with a streak rather than against one. Even though my instincts usually have me supporting the underdog, Silva’s accomplishments and win streak will not allow me to bet against him.
Silva has won fourteen straight, and a record thirteen of them for the UFC; eight were defending his title. Silva is a rare phenom with too many tricks in his bag. Silva can dominate this fight standing, on the ground, or in the air if he chose to do so.
Middleweight Championship Bout: Anderson Silva def. Yushin Okami by UD.
MAURICIO RUA VS. FORREST GRIFFIN
Odds setters have made Forrest Griffin a huge underdog in this fight at over a 2 to 1 return on your money. It is unclear whether this is their true indication of who they think will win this fight, a play on the public’s opinion, or simply a result of Griffin’s track record since 2008. At any rate, I’d rather look to the last time these two met inside the cage bringing us back to September of 2007 at UFC 76.
In their battle at UFC 76, Griffin was able to avoid take-downs and stand pretty easily when Rua took the fight to the mat, earn some take-downs of his own and got the better of the stand-up when trading on their feet. The fight ultimately came to a close nearing the end of regulation when Griffin wrapped up Rua in a rear-naked choke bringing about the tap.
Though Forrest has had a couple of rough years in the sport, I’m a huge proponent of match-ups; although flukes do happen (and are usually obvious when they do), Griffin’s advantage over Rua was evident.
Light Heavyweight Bout: Forrest Griffin def. Mauricio Rua by UD.
BRENDAN SCHAUB VS. ANTONIO RODRIGO NOGUEIRA
This one seems easy to me if no other reason than the old-fashioned eye test. Schaub is at the top of his game and athletic ability quickly climbing the heavyweight latter. Nogueira on the other hand is aging, slowing down and finding difficulty recently with young strikers.
Brendan Schaub is a KO/TKO technician; he’s won seven of eight by KO/TKO, six of them in the first minute and a half of the fight. He’s big, quick and conditioned.
Negueira has only fought three times within the last three years with his last fight taking place a year and a half ago. Two of the three fights were losses both by KO/TKO.
Nogueira will get picked apart as he has no answer for Schaub.
Heavyweight Bout: Brendan Schaub def. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira by TKO.
ENTIRE MAIN EVENT PREDICTIONS:
Middleweight Championship: Anderson Silva def. Yushin Okami by UD.
Light Heavyweight bout: Forrest Griffin def. Mauricio Rua by UD.
Heavyweight bout: Brendan Schaub vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira by TKO.
Lightweight bout: Edson Barboza def. Ross Pearson UD.
Light Heavyweight bout: Stanislav Nedkov def. Luiz Cane by TKO.
PRELIMINARY CARD PREDICTIONS:
Lightweight bout: Thiago Tavares def. Spencer Fisher by UD.
Middleweight bout: Rousimar Palhares def. Dan Miller by Submission.
Welterweight bout: Paulo Thiago def. David Mitchell by UD.
Bantamweight bout: Raphael Assuncao vs. Johnny Eduardo
Welterweight bout: Erick Silva vs. Luis Ramos
Featherweight bout: Yuri Alcantara vs. Felipe Arantes
Bantamweight bout: Yves Jabouin vs. Ian Loveland
Check back for weigh-ins, live results and play-by-play and additional UFC 134 coverage coming soon.
