UFC 75 - champion vs champion

[presto]

MAIN CARD

PRIDE champion Dan Henderson vs. UFC champion Quinton Jackson (for both light heavyweight belts)
Marcus Davis vs. Paul Taylor (swing bout)
Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic vs. Cheick Kongo
Michael Bisping vs. Matt Hamill
Houston Alexander vs. Alessio Sakara

UNDERCARD

Terry Etim vs. Gleison Tibau
Jess Liaudin vs. Anthony Torres
Tomasz Drwal vs. Thiago Silva
Dennis Siver vs. Naoyuki Kotani

[presto]

The UFC hits London's millenium dome (o2 arena) on saturday with what looks to be a cracking card. Though i should mention, a very tricky card to call.


MAIN CARD

Dan Henderson (22-5-0) (+120)  vs. Quinton Jackson (27-6-0) (-135)[/u]
Pride champ Henderson takes on UFC champ Jackson, the winner to be crowned the unified LHW champ of the world. Both fighters are on top of there game right now, with 'rampage' KOing chuck for the UFC belt, and Henderson taking out Wanderlei Silva over in Pride.
Rampage is the bigger and stronger man in the fight (henderson is the 183lbs current pride champ) and i also give rampage the standup edge. Henderson on the other hand has a wrestling background which could stifle the standup of rampage, Henderson also has a great chin having never been KOed and his only loss by stoppage was being submitted by Nogueira. This fight has the possibility of going the full 5 rounds, if it does then conditioning could play a part, i reckon Henderson will be fully prepared for this and may have the conditioning advantage, Rampage has been training at altitude up in 'big bear' so i wouldn't have thaught it will be that big an issue.
As for the fight i feel that it will be very close, rampage i beleive has the better chance of getting a stoppage, though Henderson could use his wrestling to take the verdict on points.
As i beleive its pretty much a 50/50 fight i will take Henderson at odd's against as the value bet, though i won't be staking much.

VERDICT - Henderson

Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic (22-5-2) (-360) vs. Cheick Kongo (20-3-1) (+340)
Two heavy hitters in this stand up battle. Cro-Cop will be out to prove a point after getting KTFO against Gonzaga, Kongo will also be looking to prove a point to the rest of the HW division in by far his toughest fight yet.
There will certainly be questions asked of Cro-Cop after his last fight, but is Kongo the one to ask them? Sure Kongo has a 'punchers chance' against Cro-Cop, but in this stand up fight Cro-Cop holds the advantage with his devistating KO power, Kongo dosn't really have much other than his stand up either, so i have to favour Cro-Cop in this fight even with the short odd's.

VERDICT - Cro-Cop

Michael Bisping (-200) (14-0-0) vs. Matt Hamill (5-0-0) (+210)
The TUF 3 final that never was 'according to many', the impressive TUF 3 winner Bisping takes on former 'team mate' and bitter rival Matt Hamill, the 2 didn't really get along in the TUF3 house with Bisping feeling Hamill got preferential treatment in training, Bisping also bust Hamills arm when he refused to tap during sparring.
The home crowd will erupt when home favourite Bisping enters the cage, in what will be a total clash of styles. Hamill is a world class wrestler who is very strong and has improved striking, compared to the well rounded Bisping who's strengths lie in his standup.
As a Bisping fan - this isn't a fight i am looking forward too, as being a wrestler Hamill could easily take Bisping to the ground and use a 'lay 'n' prey' tactics to grind out a points victory, or even land a heavy punch on the often over confident Bisping. Having said that Bisping is by far the more well rounded and has the better standup, if Bisping is to take this fight then he will have to keep on his feet, Hamill dosn't like being hit (OK - nobody likes being hit), if Bisping can make contact with Hamill, this could seriously wilt his confidence - especially if Bisping can catch Hamill going for a takedown.
I feel that Bisping has the most ways of finishing this fight and indeed the worthy favourite but he could have serious problems with Hamills wrestling which worries me when calling this fight, so making a choice is a tough call. If you want to go with the value pick then Hamill is the bet, but i still fancy Bisping to get the job done. I won't be betting on this fight.

VERDICT - Bisping

Houston Alexander (7-1-0) (-165) vs. Alessio Sakara (15-5-1) (+150)
A good looking standup fight here, Houston making an impressive UFC debut KOing Keith Jardine in shor time. Sakara is also primaraly a standup fighter though has a pretty good ground game and ji-jitsu. One thing that struck me about this fight was the odd's, i actually have Sakara as a slight favourite here so when i saw the odd's was a little supprised (sakara traded around 3/1 on betfair - though this could be a self trade). I still confess i havn't seen too much of Houston Alexander, but i certainly am not going to jump on his bandwagon after just one fight, and with the tasty odd's on Sakara he has to be my pick for this one.

VERDICK - Sakara

Marcus Davis (17-4-0) (-180) vs. Paul Taylor (8-1-1) (+160)
The TUF2 and ever improving Davis takes on Taylor who had a good victory against an undefeated fighter the last time the UFC was on British soil at UFC 70, I feel that Davis should take this one.

VERDICT - Davis

[presto]

UNDERCARD

Terry Etim (10-0-0) vs. Gleison Tibau (26-3-0)
VERDICT - tibau

Jess Liaudin (11-8-0) vs. Anthony Torres (5-1-0)
VERDICT - Liaudin

Tomasz Drwal (14-1-0) vs. Thiago Silva (10-0-0)
VERDICT - Silva

Dennis Siver (10-4-0) vs. Naoyuki Kotani (17-6-5)
VERDICT - Kotani

[presto]

remember to shop around for the best odd's.
http://bigfootybets.com/bookmakers.html

[presto]

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson defeats Dan Henderson via unanimous decision

Michael Bisping defeats Matt Hamill via split-decision

Cheick Kongo defeats Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic via unanimous decision

Marcus Davis defeats Paul Taylor via submission (armbar) in round one

Houston Alexander defeats Alessio Sakara via technical knockout (strikes) in round one

Gleison Tibau defeats Terry Etim via unanimous decision

Thiago Silva defeats Tomasz Drwal via technical knockout (strikes) in round two

Dennis Siver defeats Naoyuki Kotani via knockout in round two

Jess Liaudin defeats Anthony Torres via technical knockout (strikes) in round one

[presto]

Dan Henderson vs.  Quinton Jackson 
Marcus Davis vs. Paul Taylor 
Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic vs. Cheick Kongo
Michael Bisping vs. Matt Hamill
Houston Alexander vs. Alessio Sakara

Terry Etim vs. Gleison Tibau
Jess Liaudin vs. Anthony Torres
Tomasz Drwal vs. Thiago Silva
Dennis Siver vs. Naoyuki Kotani

W5-L4

[presto]

I found this interesting from Jeff Mullen one of the judges in the bisping vs hamill fight.
Origionally i was shocked that Bisping got the decision, and i am a bisping fan, but after reading the comment's i think i will have another look at the fight.

.........................
Jeff Mullen explains his scoring of Hammil v Bisping

"Hello to everyone on the Underground. I have been reading the underground for years. I used to post quite a bit. Then I decided it would be better for me to stay out of all the arguments. I want to thank all of you guys for being so nice to me through the years. I have seen almost no negative posts about me here until now. I first started judging the UFC in 1996. I have been judging UFC almost twice as long as any other active judge. I am a former kick boxer and have been training grappling for 13 years. I am not here to argue with any of you or tell you that your opinion is wrong. I am only going to tell you why I judged the fight the way I did. Watch the fight again and turn off the sound. Commentary can color what you see. No doubt Hamill dominated the 1st. He hurt Bisping with a right hand right off the bat and again near the end of the round. He out scored Bisping and busted him up. It was a very impressive round for Hamill but still a 10-9 round. Not dominant enough for a 10-8. Watch the beginning of the second round closely. When Hamill throws the jab, Bisping slips the punch and hits him with his own counter jab. It is hard to see on camera because Hamill's back is to the camera. His back was also to Goldie who was talking like the beginning of this round was like a continuation of the 1st. If you look you will see that Hamill is facing me giving me a clear view of what is landing. Bisping was landing the jab again and again and not getting hit. Hamill got 2 takedowns in rounds 2 and 3 but did very little with them. Bisping is using an active guard trying to turn for armbars and sweeps, Hamill is doing very little on top. Bisping is keeping him from scoring or improving his position. In the 3rd round Bisping actually lands more punchesd from the bottom than Hamill does from the top. In both the 2nd and 3rd rounds Bisping does more scoring. Striking. Under pride style scoring Hamill would have won. He did more damage, but it was all in the 1st round. By 10 point must system Bisping won the fight 2 rounds to 1 . 29-28 Bisping. Sometime the angle you see the fight effects your decision. That is why they put the judges on 3 different sides. BY THE WAY MARIO YAMASAKI THOUGHT BISPING WON ROUNDS 2 AND 3 ALSO. MARIO WAS THE REF AND HAD A BETTER VIEW THAN ANY OF US. I have never taken a payoff as some of you have suggested and never will. You may not agree with my decision but please don't question my honesty."