UFC 160: Velasquez vs Bigfoot 2

Bigfoot after the beating Cain gave him in the first fight.

UFC 160 features a stacked main card and an intriguing preliminary card.  Much like the UFC on Fox 7 card that is the early favorite for MMA Event of the Year, this event has a lot of stand and bang style fighters.  The heavyweight co-main and main event should be spectacular.  Throw in powerful light heavyweights and very talented lightweights fighting for a title shot and you have an incredible card.

The night begins on Facebook as always:

• Jeremy Stephens has a 3 fight losing streak he is looking to snap against Estevan Payan.  Payan is knocking people out like crazy and is looking to just be the next Strikeforce import to impress in his UFC debut.  As for Stephens, he is on a losing streak that includes losses to top fighters in Cerrone and Pettis.  Yves Edwards followed those losses up by becoming the first man to knock Edwards out.  He is on the downside of his career and I think his stay in the UFC could be coming to an end.  He is trying to drop to featherweight to gain a size advantage in this fight, but Payan is doing the same.  I see Payan rocking, but not finishing Edwards.  After a few rounds of wild exchanges I am taking Payan to win a split decision.
• Following the featherweight bout will be a bantamweight fight between George Roop and Brian Bowles.  Roop bounced back from a 2 fight losing streak in his bantamweight debut against Ruben Duran in his last fight.  Bowles is fighting for the first time since 2011 where he lost a top contender fight to Urijah Faber.  The talented Bowles will probably start slow due to ring rust, but I think he will find his range and squeak out a decision victory.  Bowles also by close decision.
• The last fight on Facebook will be between welterweights Stephen Thompson and Nah-Shon Burrell. Burrell missed weight for the second consecutive fight.  Like his UFC debut, he should disappoint at the weigh ins but impressed come fight time.  Thompson was undefeated until he lost to red hot Matt Brown.  I do not know a whole lot against Thompson, but I think Burrell is a tough customer.  I see Burrell using his power to win a decision.  After this fight Burrell might have to "Rumble" his way up to middleweight.  No finishes predicted by me on Facebook, but stay tuned to the fights later on this card.

On to FX at 8 pm:

• Back to back fights resulted in missed weight.  The guilty party this time is undefeated lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov.  A 19-0 record is spectacular in the fighting business, but only Shamhalaev, Shalorus, Tibau, and most recently Tavares are fighters of note.  Abel Trujillo is another scary lightweight prospect who looked very impressive in his UFC debut.  Although I believe Trujillo is here to stay, I do not see him winning this fight.  He won with devastating knees in his UFC debut, but is in the Octagon with a whole other animal on Saturday.  Despite missing weight and forfeiting 20% of his purse to Trujillo, Nurmagomedov is a man on a mission to be the world champ at 155.  Nurmagomedov has all the skills needed to do so.  I predict an early TKO stoppage in favor of Khabib.
• TUF 16 winner Colton Smith will take on TUF: The Smashes winner Robert Whittaker.  Both of these guys won the reality show welterweight tournaments.  Whittaker is one tough Aussie who should be able to handle the wrestling of Colton Smith.  Smith has very few weapons outside of his wrestling. I see Whittaker catching him and securing a TKO finish.
• As of now, Dennis Bermudez and Matt Grice have a lock on Fight of the Year in my books.  Bermudez will fight for the first time since that unreal split decision victory.  Since losing on the TUF finale, Bermudez has rattled off 3 consecutive wins.  The very talented Max Holloway will be his opponent in Vegas.  Holloway has only lost to top featherweight Dustin Porier and looks to be a promising prospect.  I love this matchup and I think both guys will have bright futures.  That said, Holloway is the more technical striker.  I think Bermudez will try and build off the Grice fight and try to brawl Holloway.  Max should catch him with a good shot and finish him with some ground and pound.  2nd round TKO for Holloway.
• Mike Pyle has come a long way since losing his professional MMA debut to Rampage Jackson.  After dropping down to 170, he has had tremendous success.  The former WEC Welterweight Champion will look to keep his winning ways going with a win over Rick Story.  I like Story and would hate to see him go.  He is the lone blemish on the record of top contender Johny Hendricks.  His talents have not always translated into wins lately however.  That said, I do not really have a great assessment of this matchup but I have a feeling Pyle will be the winner.  I guess Pyle via decision?

On to the Pay-Per View portion of the card.  Boy is UFC 160 a treat!

• Lightweight strikers KJ Noons and Donald Cerrone will put on fireworks to kick off this card.  Kicking off Noons is what Cerrone will likely try to do.  Noons is a tough customer though.  Despite his lackluster record, he has some serious talent.  I would not be surprised to see either of these guys knocked out but I always have to side with my boy, Cowboy (except against Pettis...shhhhh!).  I am predicting a head kick knockout from Donald in the third round.
•  Gray Maynard and TJ Grant will follow this up with a lightweight title eliminator.  Maynard's only blemishes in his professional career were in the title fights with Frankie Edgar (1 tie, 1 loss).  Despite the blemishes, he proved in those fights he is championship caliber material.  He was just a dominant wrestler who now has great striking.  Grant is a great striker also, demonstrating that to his best abilities in a win over Matt Wiman in Chicago.  Grant is a big underdog, but do not sleep on him.  Since dropping from welterweight, he is 4-0.  I really like both of these guys and this fight could go either way.  If Gray is smart, he will take this fight to the ground with that Michigan State wrestling.  He does have tremendous confidence in his hands, due to his incredible power.  I believe Grant is the better striker and arrogance could cost Maynard if he does not take Grant's striking seriously.  I predict a smart game plan from Maynard.  Wrestling wins it, Gray gets a title shot and Henderson.  Maynard via decision.
• This PPV is just better and better with each fight.  James Te-Huna and Glover Teixeira go at it next.  Teixeira also impressed with a win over Rampage on that Chicago card.  He is getting another slugger to go at it with Saturday night.  The New Zealander, Te-Huna is 4-0 since being submitted by Gustafsson.  I really like James, and hope he is a serious contender in the future.  I LOVE Glover, and want to see him squaring off with the champion sometime soon.  Teixeira is one of those genuinely nice guys that are so rare in professional sports.  Despite this, he is a killer in the cage.  After a couple wild exchanges, Glover will wise up and take the fight to the ground.  I do not think he will sink in a submission there, but do enough to come up with a decision win.  Teixeira via decision.
• After all these wild fights the Fight of the Night honors have to be locked up right?  Wrong.  Former champion Junior dos Santos will take on Mark Hunt in a fight that could produce the next top contender.  JDS recently lost the belt to Cain Velasquez at UFC 155.  Hunt rides the UFC heavyweight division's longest winning streak after his jaw breaker KO of Stefan Struve in Japan.  For the longest time I have gone back and forth with this fight.  Hunt is a killer and should not be looked over.  His chin is incredible and so is his striking.  JDS is an elite striker as well.  I am sticking with what I said back before he lost the title.  I said JDS and Cain might only be able to beat each other, because nobody else in the division can touch them.  I still believe this despite Overeem, Bigfoot, Hunt, Cormier, Nelson, and Browne moving on up in the division.  Junior is a world class talent and I think he jabs Hunt's face into oblivion like he did to Shane Carwin.  JDS via decision.
• I guess with my assessment of JDS and Hunt you know where I stand on Cain Velasquez vs Bigfoot Silva.  I am a Bigfoot fan for all of the same reasons I like Glover.  He is a genuine good dude that is a killer when the cage doors close.  He pulled off a huge upset of Fedor.  He pulled off a huge upset of Overeem.  He pulled off crazy victories in the past.  However, he is not Junior dos Santos.  Therefore, he will not beat Cain.  Velasquez has beat him once.  Cormier, his training partner and friend also beat Bigfoot.  Both of those fights were not even competitive.  This fight should see Bigfoot fare much better, but not good enough.  It will take longer than 1 kick, 5 seconds in for Cain to put Bigfoot on his back, but he will put Silva on his back.  Velasquez will finally defend the title of "Baddest Man on the Planet" on Saturday night.  Velasquez via 3rd round TKO.

Bonus predictions:

FOTN: JDS/Hunt

SOTN: no submissions?

KOOTN: Donald Cerrone

Picks entering UFC 160: 69/118 (58.5%)