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
With UFC 115: Liddell vs. Franklin right around the corner (do weeks have corners?) its time once again to put finger to keyboard and make some picks. We have a deep, but top-light (this would be the opposite of top-heavy, no?) card to look forward to, highlighted by a former champion vs. former champion battle between Rich Franklin and Chuck Liddell to see who gets to start their "run" to one last title shot.
At UFC 114, we crowned new champions here at the Torch. Just to recap, I, your humble host, reclaimed my Prediction title for the fourth time, unseating champion Kubi by the smallest of margins. Kubi, stretched too thin from defending two titles at once, also dropped the Betting Title, this time to Shaun Godric Louis.
I'll be taking on the Torch's own Rich "Blowtorch" Hansen, while Mr. Louis will look to defend his title for the first time against Dom762. Good luck to everyone, even those of you underlings just trying to earn your title shot. Let's take a look at the lineup:
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.
Chuck Liddell (+125) vs. Rich Franklin (-150)
Mirko Filipovic (+140) vs. Pat Barry (-165)
Paulo Thiago (-215) vs. Martin Kampmann (+170)
Ben Rothwell (-150) vs. Gilbert Yvel (+120)
Carlos Condit (+120) vs. Rory MacDonald (-150)
Mac Danzig (-135) vs. Matt Wiman (+105)
Tyson Griffin (-260) vs. Evan Dunham (+200)
David Loiseau (+155) vs. Mario Miranda (-195)
James Wilks (-355) vs. Peter Sobotta (+275)
Claude Patrick (-325) vs. Ricardo Funch (+250)
Mike Pyle (+105) vs. Jesse Lennnox (-135)
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 Kampmann and he won, you would make back the hundred you bet, plus $170 for a total payout of $270.
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 $215 on Thiago and he won, you'd make back the $215, plus a $100 profit, for a total payout of $315.
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 betting lines are courtesy of bloodyelbow.com.
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