UFC 111 Mar 27th

I’m very excited about UFC 111 this Sat night. The main event features George St. Pierre vs Dan Hardy. I can’t wait for this fight. When I first heard about the match up I thought to myself, oh Hardy is gonna get owned (and that certainly could be the case, given that NO ONE has been able to stop GSP from taking them down, and Hardy’s main chance to pull off an upset would be to stay on his feet and knock GSP out). But after watching all the hype shows the past couple of weeks (which of course build it up as either one could win) I’ve bought in to Hardy’s chances a bit, and I hope he pulls it off. Now, logically, I know there’s a very slim chance to this happening. GSP is incredible and brings amazing people into his camp to always help him get to an even higher level (people like Nate Marquart, Kenny Florian, and Patrick Cote, etc). His strength and conditioning seems better than ever before, and he has stated that he’s never been more prepared for a fight. Hardy, in most people’s eyes is a stand up brawler, but he’s much more rounded than most give him credit for. He’s been training with Matt Serra for this fight and he’s incredibly strong for a 170 pounder (he’ll need it). So, major odds are that GSP will defend his title and keep the roll going, but hey, this is MMA, so never say never.

The co-headliner fight is Frank Mir vs Shane Carwin. I expect dynamite for this fight. Frank Mir is a very skilled heavyweight who is more focused than ever. His mission is to beat Carwin and then seek his revenge on Brock Lesnar. He’s incorporated a new, hard core strength and conditioning program and seems to be in fantastic shape. I have mixed emotions about Mir (I admire his skill but don’t care for his attitude). Carwin is one of my new heroes (along with Jon Bones Jones) in the MMA world. He’s a big wrestler with serious knock out power. I hated that his fight with Lesnar had to be cancelled due to Brock’s illness and I am so ready for him to destroy Lesnar this year. I’m picking Carwin for this one. BTW, the heavyweight division used to be the worst division in the UFC (in fact it was pretty lame), but currently it’s very exciting with several great fighters (Carwin, Mir, Dos Santos, Velasquez, and Lesnar). Expect some great heavyweight fights coming up.

No other predictions but looking forward to the rest of the fights as well. Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves should be a great one. Here’s the official card:
Main Card
• Welterweight Championship bout: Georges St. Pierre (c) vs. Dan Hardy
• Interim Heavyweight Championship bout: Frank Mir vs. Shane Carwin
• Welterweight bout: Ben Saunders vs. Jake Ellenberger
• Welterweight bout: Jon Fitch vs. Thiago Alves
• Lightweight bout: Jim Miller vs. Mark Bocek
Spike TV Card
• Welterweight bout: Nate Diaz vs. Rory Markham
• Welterweight bout: Ricardo Almeida vs. Matt Brown
Preliminary Card
• Lightweight bout: Kurt Pellegrino vs. Fabricio Camoes
• Light Heavyweight bout: Rodney Wallace vs. Jared Hamman
• Middleweight bout: Rousimar Palhares vs. Tomasz Drwal
• Welterweight bout: Matthew Riddle vs. Greg Soto

UFC Live Mar 21 on Versus

UFC Live tomorrow night will be the first live UFC event on Versus and features Brandon Vera V Jon Jones for the headline. I’m going with Jones in this fight. I am extremely impressed with Jones and believe he will win this fight as well as continue to climb the UFC latter and quite possibly be light heavyweight champ someday in the not to distant future. He has mad skills, agility, and speed, as well as recently joined up with Greg Jackson’s camp for higher level instruction, training, and game plan preparation.

Another great match up is Gabriel Gonzaga V Junior Dos Santos. Both are hard hitting, powerful heavyweights who both have great ground skills as well. I’m predicting Dos Santos on this one. He is on a major roll right now and has been steam rolling through his opponents. He’s training with the Nogueira brothers and is headed for the top tier of heavy weights.

Looking forward to this event but even more to the next one, UFC 111 (more on that later).
Cheers

PFS training in Atlanta

Last weekend I went with a group of guys (6 guys from my regular martial arts group) to Atlanta to do an intensive instructor’s training in Progressive Fighting System (PFS). It was a fun weekend as far as the interaction with the guys and it was great to be able to devote so much time to training (a rare opportunity with life and family responsibilities). But the instruction we received was not as great as we had hoped for. Those of us that attended had backgrounds in martial arts ranging from one year to 20 years. We had seen the material we’d be covering via video and practiced it a moderate amount prior to attending. I don’t want to sound like a martial arts snob, but it was clear that we knew the information as well as the “instructor” and were all better at actually doing the material/techniques. At first I was a bit mad because I felt we should have received more for our money (and let me state right here that we are all laid back and not over critical about instructors. We are all very open and excited about learning and growing in the arts), but then I started thinking hey, this actually says something about where we are as a group. For a group that’s not really involved in competition to speak of, it’s a good way to get a sense of where we’re at; it can serve as a sort of gauge of sorts. Anyway, maybe it’s just my way of trying to find meaning (and feel like it wasn’t a waste of money) in the training, who knows. But it works for me……

Thanks Greg, Jeff, Kevin, Norm, and Stacy,
you guys are awesome!