Contributors/Columnists
SHAWN ENNIS
JASON BENT
MATT PELKEY
ALEX WILLIAMS
JED GOODMAN
FRANK HYDEN
JASON BENT
JOHN TAYLOR
MAYNARD SWEENEY
MARC PATCHING
MIKE JARSULIC
BRUCE MITCHELL APPLY TO JOIN OUR TEAM
Well its the Saturday before a UFC pay-per-view, so you know what that means? Its time to get the Torch Prediction and Betting Contests going! While UFC 88 won't provide us with any title fights, never fear, the Torch is giving you two for free! Once again we crowned two new champions at UFC 87. Will our new champions be the first to successfully defend their titles? Well I don't know. I can't see the future. That's why we play the games people. I'd have a lot more confidence in our current champs if they weren't going up against two of our top all-time competitors.
New Prediction champ Gavin "Seriously, this guy is from Australia (its a nickname the champ himself asked for, so who am I to argue?)" Byrne will put his belt on the line against long time veteran Micky "Savant" Wan. Not much more can be said about Wan. I don't think the guy has ever had worse than a 6-3 contest. I'm really not sure why he's not a millionaire in Vegas by now. Needless to say, Byrne will have his work cut out for him.
On the Betting side, Jerry "MD (or "The Prodigal Son" if you prefer)" Cattelane has returned to claim what he believes is rightfully his; one of the Torch Contest titles. He'll take on #1 contender and recently defeated Prediction Champ Rich Boles. I haven't come up with a good nickname for Boles yet, but if he's able to pull off the half grand slam, I'd better get one ready.
On a personal note, UFC 88 is coming to us live from my hometown of Atlanta, GA. I won't be able to attend as I'm brutally poor, but nevertheless, I'm determined to bring my A game and be the first person to be the #1 contender for both belts simultaneously. Champs be warned, I'm comin' for ya. But enough about the Torch's match-ups, lets see what our friends at the UFC have in store for us this Saturday.
PREDICTION CONTEST:
I'm pretty sure everyone knows how this works by now, but just in case...Basically you pick the winners of each fight, including method (e.g. KO, submission, decision) and round. The winner is the one who picks the most fights correctly. Ties will be broken by who had the most number of rounds and methods correctly predicted. In case anyone is wondering, only rounds and methods in fights where you predicted the correct winner count. So here's the line-up. Good luck to all!
Jason Lambert (+115) vs. Jason MacDonald (-125)
Mike Patt (+580) vs. Tim Boetsch (-620)
Roan Carneiro (-110) vs. Ryo Chonan (-120)
Kurt Pellegrino (-130) vs. Thiago Tavares (EVEN)
Dong Hyun Kim (-180) vs. Matt Brown (+170)
Karo Parisyan (-240) vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida (+190)
Dan Henderson (-240) vs. Rousimar Palhares (+180)
Nate Marquardt (-125) vs. Martin Kampmann (-105)
Rich Franklin (-270) vs. Matt Hamill (+210)
Chuck Liddell (-260) vs. Rashad Evans (+200)
BETTING CONTEST:
As you can see, there's a number attached to each fighter. That number represents how much money you can make off each fighter. The way it works is, if a fighter has a positive number he's an underdog. The positive number means if you were to bet $100 dollars on him, you would make the amount of the positive number. For example, if you were to bet $100 on Rashad and he won, you would make back the hundred you bet, plus $200, for a total payout of $300.
If the fighter has a negative number, that number represents how much you would have to bet to make $100 on the fighter. For example, if you bet $260 on Chuck Liddell and he won, you'd make back the $260, plus a $100 profit, for a total payout of $360.
Each contestant has $1000 in theoretical money. You can bet it on as many fighters as you'd like, but you have to bet on at least three. And we're going back to the old rules. The most you can bet on a single fighter is $500, and bets have to be in multiples of $100.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I had to use MMAPlayground's odds for a few of the fights because I couldn't find them anywhere else. Hopefully that explains the ridiculous odds on the Patt-Boetsch fight.
Well there you have it folks. You can either post your picks on the message boards, or email them to me at matt6buckeye@hotmail.com if you don't want anyone to know your picks. I'll be back either tomorrow or Friday (possibly with my thoughts from the weigh-ins?) with a full preview of the show, including my predictions and bets. Once again, good luck to everyone, for let's have some fun around here for goodness sake!
