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UPDATE: As you may have heard by now, Thiago Alves has been forced out of his fight with Jon Fitch and has been replaced by Ben Saunders. As such, Jake Ellenberger is no longer on the card. Since we don't have time to wait for a betting line for the new fight (if there even will be one), its off the board as far as betting, but it'll still be part of the prediction contest. I'll notify the people who've already emailed me about the change so they'll have time to get their updated picks in.
For the first time in what seems like years, the UFC will actually match the two title fights we put on here at the Torch at UFC 111. Zuffa has Georges St. Pierre-Dan Hardy for the Welterweight title and Shane Carwin-Frank Mir for the Interim Heavyweight title, while we counter with Prediction Champ Fernando Trejo defending his title against Jordan "The King" McLachlan and Betting Champ Jamie "The Boss" Penick taking on Mikey "Effin" Fritz. Notice there's no "Interim" tag on either of our title fights. We bring the real deal every time out.
Aside from the title fights, UFC 111 is shaping up to be quite the card and, with the return of the prelims show on Spike, we're guaranteed to see at least seven of the fights. Its the first official "main course" for the UFC in 2010, and luckily I didn't fill myself up on the appetizers. With that, we delve into the contests.
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.
Georges St. Pierre (-650) vs. Dan Hardy (+450)
Frank Mir (-160) vs. Shane Carwin (+130)
Jon Fitch vs. Ben Saunders
Jim Miller (-500) vs. Mark Bocek (+325)
Nate Diaz (-300) vs. Rory Markham (+240)
Ricardo Almeida (-160) vs. Matt Brown (+130)
Kurt Pellegrino (-250) vs. Fabricio Camoes (+190)
Jared Hamman (-115) vs. Rodney Wallace (-115)
Tomasz Drwal (+185) vs. Rousimar Palhares (-225)
Greg Soto (+190) vs. Matt Riddle (-250)
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 Hardy and he won, you would make back the hundred you bet, plus $450 for a total payout of $550.
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 $650 on GSP and he won, you'd make back the $650, plus a $100 profit, for a total payout of $750.
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. The most you can bet on a single fighter is $500, and bets have to be in multiples of $100.
I'm setting a deadline of 6 p.m. (EST) Saturday to get all of your picks in. The lines are courtesy of Bodog.
Note: In the event that one of the #1 contenders fails to show for their title shot, the champ will defend against the next best performer from the previous contest. You've been warned, so bring your A game everybody!
As always you can submit your picks one of three ways: by emailing me at matt6buckeye@hotmail.com, posting them on the message boards, or by leaving them in the comments section right down there. Good luck!
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Diaz has a granite chin, possesses perhaps the best recovery in the sport, his pace and conditioning are second to none and he sets records with the volume of his punches almost every time he steps into the cage. Nick Diaz is simply designed to fight the way he fights, and not many other fighters are...
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