THE TORCH: THE #1 WORLDWIDE BRAND IN COMBAT ENTERTAINMENT COVERAGE - OVER 250 MILLION VIEWS & LISTENS PER YEAR REREACHING MORE FANS EVERY WEEK THAN ANY OTHER INDEPENDENT SOURCE • VIA THE WEB, MOBILE, PRINT NEWSLETTER, AND ITUNES
Fresh off GrappleFest '10 (i.e. UFC 111), the boys at Zuffa come right back with not one, but two of the best fighters in the world, albeit against grossly over-matched opponents if you trust Las Vegas, at UFC 112 Saturday in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Its the first show in front of the UFC's new minority owners, and despite the showcase-fight nature of the top three on the card, this one seems guaranteed to deliver...as long as the weather cooperates. This being the desert, any number of calamities could occur; rain, excessive heat, sandstorm. All three would be disasters for Zuffa's debut in the Middle East, but hey, the show must go on.
As always, we have our own show going here at the Torch. Prediction Champ Fernando "With a Name this Cool I Don't Need a Nickname" Trejo puts his belt on the line against former longtime titleholder Scott "The Fountain of Youth" Hart. On the betting side, champ Jamie "The Boss" Penick defends against Jordan "The King" McLachlan, who came up short at UFC 111 in his bid for the prediction title, but still bested the betting pool to earn a crack at the other championship. Should be a good night of match-ups here, but what about for the UFC?
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.
Anderson Silva (-875) vs. Demian Maia (+575)
B.J. Penn (-1100) vs. Frankie Edgar (+600)
Matt Hughes (-360) vs. Renzo Gracie (+280)
Terry Etim (-165) vs. Rafael Dos Anjos (+135)
Mark Munoz (-185) vs. Kendall Grove (+155)
Phil Davis (-625) vs. Alexander Gustafsson (+425)
Paul Taylor (-270) vs. John Gunderson (+210)
Nick Osipczak (+125) vs. Rick Story (-155)
DaMarques Johnson (+140) vs. Brad Blackburn (-170)
Matt Veach (-265) vs. Paul Kelly (+205)
Jon Madsen (-250) vs. Mostapha Al-Turk (+190)
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 Gracie and he won, you would make back the hundred you bet, plus $280 for a total payout of $380.
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 $360 on Hughes and he won, you'd make back the $360, plus a $100 profit, for a total payout of $460.
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 10 a.m. (EST) Saturday to get all of your picks in as its a very early start time.
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!
ALERT: Every Tuesday night, listen to the MMATorch Livecast from 9-10:30 p.m. ET or listen now to the most recent shows by clicking here. Listen live this coming Tuesday as Jamie Penick, Rich Hansen, and Matt Pelkey discuss the latest MMA happenings. Online listen at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mmatorch or call into the show at 646-716-8090 to either just listen or participate.
"There's still a large contingent of people, that they just want to see these guys almost die, or the other guy almost die and come back, and sometimes fights are like that. Certainly they are. But sometimes you get technical masterpieces too, and to hate a beautiful, technical fight - you're not really a fight fan...
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...
"There was a lot of poison going on around there and I'm really disappointed because we had a good thing going. It was a good thing and I think people's egos got in the way. Well, not people just Javier, his ego got in the way, and too many cameras in the gym and him trying to build himself up and his brand, his AKA brand...
PART OF THE USA TODAY UFC GROUP