UFC Fight Night 28: Teixeira vs Bader

Glover Teixeira and his hero Mike Tyson.

For the 3rd time in 8 days, the UFC is putting on a show.  Although not the deepest card, UFC Fight Night 28 has a trio of main event level fights.  Rather than bore you with a typical array of picks, I am going to go into depth on the three big bouts.

Joe Benavidez vs DJ was a battle for the first ever flyweight champion in the UFC.  DJ won that fight and has since defended his belt against both John Dodson and John Moraga.  Demetrious Johnson is one heck of a champ at 125.  However, Joe Benavidez still wants a piece.  He has looked incredible by winning a decision over Ian McCall and a body knockout of Darren Uyenoyama.  His opponent in Brazil is a hometown favorite, Jussier Formiga.  He lost a top contender bout to John Dodson but bounced back with a great win over Chris Cariaso.  Formiga with a win over Benavidez would rocket to the top of the division.  However, I believe Joe Benavidez will win impressively yet again and get that rematch with DJ.  Joe Benavidez with another TKO, in the 3rd round.

The co-main event features a hugely important middleweight bout between Yushin Okami and Jacare Souza.  Okami has been on a roll with wins over Belcher and Lombard.  His wrestling is smothering and he is a tough man to dictate the pace against.  He is just a suffocating wrestler that is powerful enough to control the fight.  Jacare Souza is one of the best submission artists in the game and has an ever improving striking game.  He was 7-1 in Strikeforce and 1-0 in the UFC with a very controversial loss to Luke Rockhold.  I rarely side against Yushin Okami, but Jacare is another level of fighter.  I do not know if Okami will be submitted, but I think he is dominated in the striking game as well as beaten in the grappling game.  Souza via decision on his way to his signature gator crawl.

Glover Teixeira is getting a lot of hype for someone who is only 4-0 in the UFC.  He has looked dominant in each of those 4 fights though including a win over former champ Rampage Jackson.  He is in line to take on the winner of Jones vs Gustafsson with an impressive win over Ryan Bader.  Ryan Bader is a guy that takes a lot of heat because he was submitted by Tito Ortiz.  If you look at his record, his only UFC losses are to current champ Jon Jones, and former champions Tito Ortiz and Lyoto Machida.  He has a win over former champion Rampage Jackson as well as a very impressive win over tough competitor Vladimir Matyushenko.  I think he has a good chance to win this fight. He is very under rated and I think it is ridiculous how big of a favorite Glover is.  That said, Glover Teixeira will most likely win.  I like Glover to win a decision, but not be overly impressive.  Glover is good, but is he that killer finisher we want him to be?  We will see on Wednesday night!  Glover Teixeira via 5 round decision win.