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I missed out on the Roundtables that ran the last two days, so here is a quick blog with my thoughts on tonight's top two fights...
First let's look at the Wanderlei Silva vs. Michael Bisping fight. For Silva, this is a similar bout to his last fight versus Rich Franklin. He is facing a guy who has knockout power, but for the most part likes to outpoint his opponent by displaying superior footwork and technical striking.
Wanderlei is going to look to get inside Bisping and try to hit him with that right hand as much as possible, pretty much an identical approach that Dan Henderson took in his fight against Bisping. So given those facts, I think both fighters, having faced similar threats recently, will be well-prepared for this bout and will make it a great fight.
But I will look at the intangibles to determine my winner. Let us consider all the angles that are going on in this fight. First for Wanderlei, he needs to get back on the winning track. He is 1-3 in the UFC, losing his last outing to Rich Franklin. He is definitely going to be under some major pressure to win this bout and, to top it off, he is dropping down to 185 for the first time in his career.
Bisping, on the other, hand suffered a brutal knockout loss to Dan Henderson at UFC 100, but was able to rebound beautifully against Dennis Kang back at UFC 105. This is his sixth bout at 185 and he will no doubt be feeling the more relaxed fighter come fight time. Therefore, I think Bisping wins a close decision victory over Silva and moves one step closer to getting a shot at the belt.
The Nogueira vs. Velasquez fight could potentially be the Fight of the Year in my mind. You have a great wrestler and a great grappler going toe-to-toe. There are so many questions going into this fight. Does Nogueira have the power to hurt Cain? If Cain takes Minotauro down, can he control him and pass his legendary guard? Will Nogueira look to take down Velasquez? Could all these factors create a stalemate and cause a stand up war between grapplers?
I have zero answers for these questions. All I can say is I cannot wait for this fight and I think I have to give the edge to Nogueira because of his experience in MMA on the big stage and his fight team. I predict Nogueira wins via majority decision and he gets another crack at the heavyweight belt.
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Robert Teal is an MMATorch Specialist who writes the "Whatever Happened To..." article on a regular basis in "The Specialists" (Opinion) section.
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