Penick's Take
UFC 160 PREVIEW: Penick's main card breakdown and fight picks for "Velasquez vs. Bigfoot II" event
May 25, 2013 - 3:30:37 PM UFC 160 PREVIEW: Penick's main card breakdown and fight picks for "Velasquez vs. Bigfoot II" event

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Saturday night's UFC 160 event has gotten considerably less steam than some recent pay-per-view events, in part due to the expected mismatch in the night's main event and the fact that the fight was seen just one year ago between Cain Velasquez and Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva. But it's an important card for a number of fighters, with quite a bit on the line. Here's what's coming on Saturday's main card:

Cain Velasquez vs. Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva (UFC Heavyweight Championship)

We've seen this fight play out once, and recently, as they fought this time last year at UFC 146. Velasquez's speed and wrestling quickly brought that fight to the ground, and his power on the ground caused significant damage quickly. The gash Velasquez opened up with the elbows on the ground only quickened the end for Bigfoot, as it impaired his vision and allowed even more damaging blows to land.

Coming into this rematch, it's hard to say that anything significant has changed, and if it has, it's been for the Champion, not the challenger. Velasquez remains faster, and his wrestling is far superior to that of Silva's. Add in the fact that Velasquez isn't going to disrespect Silva's skills the way Alistair Overeem did in February, and there doesn't seem to be a path to victory for Silva here.

Short of Velasquez allowing Silva to connect in the first round, there's no reason to believe we'll see anything different in this rematch. Velasquez has only gotten better, and though no one can take away Bigfoot's big KO wins over Travis Browne and Overeem, he hasn't suddenly developed the tools to stop what happened to him the first time.

PREDICTION: Velasquez via TKO in the second round

Junior dos Santos vs. Mark Hunt (Heavyweight)

Striker vs. striker; power vs. speed. Mark Hunt vs. Junior dos Santos represents an exciting matchup on paper, with Hunt looking for the walk off KO while dos Santos is hell bent on returning to a title fight in the heavyweight division.

Hunt's improbable rise has been something to see, and it's clear he's got the power to hurt any opponent. That said, the difference in speed and stamina is going to be dramatic between the two. Add in the clear technical advantages of dos Santos' striking game, along with his intelligent use of reach and movement, and the edge clearly goes to him.

He also doesn't have to worry about the takedown like he did against Velasquez, and that's one of the reasons he was caught in that fight. He's going to be much quicker to the punch throughout this fight, and I think he'll wear Hunt down late into this one.

PREDICTION: Dos Santos via TKO in the third round

Glover Teixeira vs. James Te Huna (Light Heavyweight)

This is another fight between two striking heavy fighters, with a combined 22 knockout wins between the two of them. But Teixeira's also a threat on the ground, and he's got submission skills along with his strikes to finish things when he has an opponent on the ground.

Coming in, Teixeira's clearly got the most momentum, having won three straight UFC fights, including a win over Quinton "Rampage" Jackson in January. His actual winning streak stretches back 18 fights over the last seven years, and he's just coming in as the more dangerous fighter.

Te Huna's a hard-hitting, really solid light heavyweight fighter, but he's susceptible to being finished on the ground and is facing a better finisher than he's fought yet in the UFC. I think Teixeira scores a knock down early in this one and moves to the submission game to finish it off.

PREDICTION: Teixeira via submission in the first round

Gray Maynard vs. T.J. Grant (Lightweight)

This is a big step up for T.J. Grant, and the story of this fight is whether or not that's something he's ready for. He's looked increasingly better in each fight he's had in the UFC, culminating in a fantastic first round stoppage win over Matt Wiman earlier this year, but he hasn't fought someone with Maynard's combination of striking and wrestling at 155 lbs. yet.

He's fought big, bullying grapplers in the past, and has fallen short thrice in the UFC against fighters of that ilk. However, that was at welterweight, and though Maynard's a big 155 lbs., he's not as big of a fighter as Ricardo Almeida or Dong Hyun Kim.

The other "X" factor in this matchup is the near year-long layoff for Maynard. His last outing was the dull fight with Clay Guida, and he's spent the rest of the last year camp hopping a bit and trying to make some changes in this game.

We've got two talented grapplers who have improved striking games in this fight, and it could be a bit of a grinding, brutal affair. Ultimately, I think it might be just a little bit too much for Grant in the end, and though he'll put up a good fight, i think he'll fall short.

PREDICTION: Maynard via decision

Donald Cerrone vs. K.J. Noons (Lightweight)

Donald Cerrone has lost four times in his MMA career, and after each of the first three, he's rebounded with an excellent performance. Following his loss to Jamie Varner, he scored a first round submission win over James Krause. After his first loss to Ben Henderson, he submitted Ed Ratcliff. After the second loss to Henderson, he had perhaps his most complete three round performance in avenging his loss to Varner.

All of that is to say, Noons may be in trouble here.

Cerrone's fallen short in some of his biggest spots, and in January on Fox he suffered the most humbling of losses when Anthony Pettis destroyed him with body kicks. He's already proven he can rebound in a big way, and this is the type of fight in which he can do just that.

The Noons that defeated Nick Diaz in Elite XC in 2007 is not the same version of K.J. Noons who fought in Strikeforce. He remains a good striker, but overall, he's just not been as complete of a fighter as Cerrone's shown on his best days.

Cerrone could stand and strike with Noons, but his best approach may be getting the fight to the ground on Saturday night, as he'll have an edge there with his submission game. Regardless, I think he's simply the better fighter coming into the event, and he gets back on track to start off the pay-per-view.

PREDICTION: Cerrone via submission in the second round


=====Preliminary Card Quick Picks=====

--Mike Pyle over Rick Story via submission in the second round
--Dennis Bermudez over Max Holloway via decision
--Robert Whittaker over Colton Smith via TKO in the first round
--Khabib Nurmagomedov over Abel Trujillo via submission in the second round
--Stephen Thompson over Nah-Shon Burrell via TKO in the second round
--Brian Bowles over George Roop via TKO in the first round
--Estevan Payan over Jeremy Stephens via decision