Well, as I said, I’ve been getting in MMA lately, so it’s only fitting that I make a post about UFC 83, which is this Saturday (April 19th). You can see the schedule here: UFC 83 fightcard.

As I’ve said, I’m still new to this, so I haven’t seen many of these fighters more than once. Some I haven’t seen fight at all. And some I’ve only seen on YouTube with relatively little to go on, so I didn’t learn that much about them. Lastly, I’m still not very good at evaluating fighters even when I have seen them fight a lot. Anyway, here goes…

Mac Danzig v Mark Bocek:

I love Mac Danzig here. He’s one of the few guys I’ve seen fight a ton. He was very impressive en route to winning The Ultimate Fighter 6. Not only did he win, he crushed people. Granted he didn’t really fight the best fighters in the house. I would have love to see him face George or Ben (unrated IMO) on TUF6. I think they would have both lost to Mac, but George would have put up a good fight. Tommy was just a wreck waiting to happen. Realistically, he was thisclose to being submitted in even his first fight (I think against Ben?) in which case he would have been out right then and there. Anyway, my point being that while I think Mac is a really strong fighter, he didn’t really face anyone up to his level on TUF. I don’t know how he handles being in a tough fight. I don’t know much about Mark except that he’s supposed to be very good at ju jitsu… but Mac is a smart fighter and I don’t really see him getting submitted by a one-dimensional fighter. I pick Mac to win pretty easily.

Charles McCarthy v Michael Bisping:

These guys are both TUF alums. Unfortunately, I wasn’t watching MMA when those TUFs aired and I haven’t downloaded/bought the DVDs yet. So I didn’t get to see either one on their respective TUFs. However, I have seen a few fight videos from each of them and I think it’s pretty clear that Bisping is the better fighter. Not only that, he’s dropping to a new weight class and he’s used to bigger and stronger fighters. Granted he’s coming off a loss, but it was a decision. From what I’ve seen, this guy likes to end fights and I don’t see anything from McCarthy that will slow down Bisping. I actually kind of think the UFC might be giving Bisping a bit of a gift to get him back on track. It would make sense to give him a relatively easy win in his new weight class to set him up to be one of the guys who gets an eventual shot at Anderson Silva after another fight or two (assuming wins).

Travis Lutter v Rich Franklin:

This is tough. From what I’ve read, Rich Franklin is a monster who got destroyed by Anderson Silva — two times. I saw the Silva fights. I haven’t seen a lot of his other fights, but he has a very impressive record. The guy is, after all, a former belt-holder in the 185lb UFC division. Just because he lost badly to Anderson Silva doesn’t mean he isn’t good enough to beat Travis Lutter. On the other hand, I saw Travis Lutter mount Anderson Silva, which means he could have easily won that fight. Travis Lutter is another TUF winner, but once again, TUF4 was before my “time” in MMA. I need to go back and watch all of the former TUFs. Either way, Travis Lutter had a big chance to take down Anderson Silva and he failed in two respects… a) not making weight and b) not finishing him when he had the mount. I think he’ll take this fight seriously, but Rich Franklin’s record is just too impressive for me to pick against him. I think this is going to be a really good fight but I’m going to go with Rich Franklin.

Matt Serra v Georges St-Pierre:

Man, I hate just going with the favorite because he’s the favorite … I like to have some level of reasoning behind my choice. But GSP just looks like an animal. I know that Serra knocked him out. And not only that, I love watching Matt Serra. He was brilliant on TUF6 in about 20 ways. He seems like a great coach/fighter/guy to be around and I think he has a great attitude. But… GSP is like a freak of nature. Matt Serra is the powerful short guy from Long Island going against a physical and fighting specimen. I have to believe that GSP will win this even though I am really rooting for Serra. I’d love to see him beat GSP again and then take on Matt Hughes — assuming the UFC puts Hughes next in line at 170. Speaking of other fighters at 170, when are we going to get to see Carlos Condit take on some of the 170 lbers in the UFC? He’s been rolling in the WEC, let’s see him face a GSP-type and see how he stacks up.

I don’t know enough about Nate Quarry or Kalib Starnes to say how their fight will turn out.

Anyway, I can’t wait for Saturday.

Related posts:

1. UFC 88 (wheeee)
2. Finally got the last of the UFC 88 pics
3. UFC 88: Initial Trip Report
4. FIGHT! Magazine Party Pictures
5. Wheeeeeeee, back at 2+2!