Finally, I'm actually have some time to follow up on the quick picks I did for UFC 88. Time is definitely the most needed thing in my world. Anyways, I did pretty good with my picks this time and even the reasoning behind them. Sometimes I do know what I'm talking about.

Rashad Evans KO's Chuck Liddell (picked Liddell)- WOW.  What a nice KO for Rashad. Like I said in my picks for this UFC, the key for Rashad is to be confident in his abilities because he's entered the very top and will have to fight the very star fighters he used to watch on TV. I often compare his fight with Tito Ortiz to the very first Georges St. Pierre vs Matt Hughes fight where St. Pierre was a little more tentative for the sole reason of facing Matt Hughes. Rashad was very tentative against Tito and it almost cost his the fight. Everytime he'd exchange with Ortiz he never leaned in to actually reach for the giant bleached head to knock it out. So confidence was a huge part of Rashad's awesome KO of Chuck. You have to give him and Greg Jackson a lot of credit for being smart and working on his confidence to go with his top notch skills. He was very disciplined with making sure he didn't act on instinct to try to take Liddell down and most importantly not to follow Chuck and play into his strength. Rashad is right up there at light heavy and probably should be either fighting Forrest Griffin for the title or face Wanderlei Silva.

Rich Franklin TKO's Matt Hamill (picked Franklin) - It was a decent fight. The most interesting thing about it was how Rich Franklin would be doing at 205. He did just fine. Definitely a good move for him and he looked to have just as good conditioning, he was nearly fresh in the third! Matt Hamill did pretty good for facing a former champ, but his lack of experience certainly showed and his takedown attempts could have been better. He never really committed. I also found it funny that the UFC called it a "comeback fight of the night". Hamill cut Franklin by an off balance jab and the cut from that wasn't vision threatening. Even with that cut though Franklin was dominating the fight, how is that a comeback? I'm also wondering how far can Matt Hamill go with his disadvantage of not being able to hear his corner? So many top fighters credit their corner men to their success.

Dan Henderson Decisions Rousimar Palhares (picked Henderson) - Henderson did some pretty effective slip'n'slide striking that only he does in the first round and made Palhares look pretty bad. First round pretty much set the tone for the rest of the fight with Henderson being just more active, controlling more and doing more damage. Palhares did have a few takedowns, a decent looking kneebar attempt in the second, but Henderson had an answer for everything. Good win for Henderson to get back on track. May be have him fight Joe Doerkson for a guaranteed exciting fight or have him face Yushin Okami for a complete snoozer and finally retire the unwated Okami from the UFC. Then line him up for another go at Anderson Silva, cause he actually posed some problems for him in their first fight.

Nate "The Great" Marquardt TKO's Martin Kampmann (picked Marquardt) - just like thought and had a sneaking suspicion that the same Nate Marquardt that destroyed Jeremy Horn may show up and he did! He wasted no time and went after the tough Kampmann like he only had a minute and a half to do it. He looked sharp doing it with a variety of strikes and combinations. I guess it helps to have Greg Jackson for a trainer and the new lightheavy bright star Rashad Evans for a training partner. Oh and to have that ugly Keith Jardine around doesn't hurt either. Now that I think of it Marquardt should probably face Dan Henderson for a shot at Anderson Silva. Excellent fight for both.

Dong Hyun Kim decisions Matt Brown (picked Kim) - I loved this fight. Cool of UFC to book Dong Hyun Kim because he is a scrapper and because he bring something different to the table. That was the appeal of early days MMA - fights between different styles. Kim definitely brings an unorthodox MMA style and it was great to see, especially because he made it effective against a tough Matt Brown. Brown actually did sort of start fighting early on but let Kim hang out on his back for most of the first round. It could have gone either way, but I don't see the result being negative for Brown because the fight was very entertaining. Can't wait to see both of them back soon.

Kurt Pellegrino decisions Thiago Tavares (picked Pellegrino) - In my picks for this UFC I said Pellegrino would have weather the ground attack by Tavares first and then take over with improved striking. Turns out I was little too optimistic for Thiago Tavares. I have to say doing a few switch steps does show you did spend some time on footwork, but it seems that's all you did. Kurt Pellegrino came out striking, put Tavares down hard and continued punishing Tavares. Like in most fights, once a dominant pace is set by one fighter the other needs a huge effort to mount comeback. That's why comebacks are so exciting - they just don't happen that often. Pellegrino beating up Tavares while never really being in danger from him was just another example. He knocked him down, mounted him numerous times.  The little time when Tavares had Pellegrino on the the bottom, Pellegrino even managed to submit Tavares with an armbar. That's my opinion on that. Tavares tapped, Pellegrino let go, but because it happened somewhat quick the ref hesitated and Pellegrino just had to keep going. Too bad Tavares didn't have the dignity to stop and admit his defeat, especially because he was badly loosing. Pellegrino finished destroying Thiago Tavares's hype and got a great win. Hope to see him back soon.

Tim Boetsch TKO's Michael Patt (picked Boetsch) - I couldn't quite remember seeing Patt before, but when his awkward self came out I recognized him from Bodog and know "Redneck Judo" was going to get another good showing from Boetsch. "Amature night"-looking fight aside, Boetsch was effective in taking out Patt. Gotta say that "Redneck Judo" is a whole lot more fun when it's effective over a more polished opponent like it was over David Heath, so I hope they match him up against a regular tougher fighter and not another awkward crappy one. Boetsch deserved that.

Jason MacDonald submits Jason Lambert (picked MacDonald) - As I said earlier this trend in fighters to keep dropping weight cause of a few losses is one of the stupidest ones out there, especially dropping down two weight classes. What was Lambert thinking when he took this fight? MacDonald is a huge 185'er, so fighting him is like fighting a 205'er. Like I thought, he had no chance. MacDonald completely overwhelmed him on the ground and submitted him. Lambert should try in WEC for a while and may be come back. MacDonald should probably fight with Kendall Grove.

Ryo Chonan decisions Roan "Jucao" Carneiro (picked Carneiro) - Like many Japanese fighters that come to train with Matt Hume, Ryo Chonan is enjoying the benefits of Hume's training and tuning by being sharper and doing better. It was a complete surprise to me how good Chonan did against Carneiro. It was a close fight with both having good moments. I kind of agree with the judges that Chonan did just a bit more than Carneiro. Good win for Chonan, he should face whoever UFC puts infront of him to prove he'll continue to improve under Hume's tuning. Tough break for Carneiro, second loss in a row. There will lot of pressure for him to win and show the tough Roan Carneiro that gave all kinds of fits to Jon Fitch. Hope he recoveres from this.

Overall, this was a great UFC card with an upset and some nice beatings that turned out about as good as it was on paper.

It's that time again, less than two hours before the event and all I have time for now is just the very quick picks for UFC 88. It's another one of those UFC cards that on paper looks average, even with Chuck Liddell and Dan Henderson on it, but as it often happens can turn out to be quite exciting.

Roan Carneiro Vs. Ryo Chonan - I really hope this one actually makes it on the PPV. Roan Jucao Carneiro was one of the very few fighters that had Jon Fitch in real trouble. Not an easy fit by any standards. Coming off an upset loss to Kevin Burns he should bounce back and beat Chonan by TKO. Ryo Chonan is a Japanese journeyman who's biggest accomplishment was catching the great Anderson Silva by a jumping scissors to a heelhook submission, but hey, at least is a great accomplishment.  Should be a good fight due to Chonan's resiliency.

Jason Lambert Vs. Jason MacDonald - this match up feels like a "retirement from UFC for a while" party for Jason Lambert who has now dropped down to 185. Probably in hopes of better luck. It's an annoying trend nowadays. Lose a few fights and blame it on the fact that other guys are just "too big and strong". Yep, forget the fact that they might have done a few more pushups than you and are just a bit more skilled than you in some areas. Lambert is doing exactly this. He got TKO'd in his losses, not taken down and held down by a bigger stronger fighter. Another loss in the new for him 185 category should teach him a good lesson hopefully. It's about skill stupid! Plus, according to Jason MacDonald pendulum record, he is due for a win. Picking MacDonald by submission quickly.

Tim Boetsch Vs. Michael Patt - Patt has had a few decent wins in Bodog event and is decent on the ground with 12 submissions. Tim Boetsch is the famous for introduction to the world of the very unique style of combat Judo, the brutal "Redneck Judo". He instantly won over a great deal of fans, me including. He was just so much fun to watch and he was kicking ass while at it. Even though Matt Hamill put a damper on his quest for championship, Tim is more focused than ever and I'm sure his "Redneck Judo" is a sharp and unrefined as ever. Picking Boetsch by a vicious throw on a head.

Thiago Tavares Vs. Kurt Pellegrino - Tavares burst on the scene with some of the smoothest jiu-jitsu around and the hype around him was quite strong for a while. But you could see chinks in his beautiful jiu-jitsu based game. Tyson Griffin beat him by a close decision, then a judoka Michihiro Omigawa gave him a good run for his money. Many said Tavares had an off night, but truth was that just beautiful jiu-jitsu may simply not be enough. Matt Wiman proved that, he wasn't afraid of it and KO'd Tavares. Kurt Pellegrino can eat a huge kick and still keep coming. His record isn't the most stellar but he's been in some tough fights. I'm picking Pellegrino to get through the ground assault by Tavares and use his improved striking to beat Tavares, just follow Wiman's blueprint.

Dong Hyun Kim Vs. Matt Brown - Matt Brown is certainly tough and can win fights and finish them, but he HAD to get better at starting to fight sooner in his fights. You can not take a bunch of damage and hope it doesn't affect you too much when you're finally ready to fight back. Kim is an unknown, but based on his record it sounds like he will too come out and hurt Matt Brown for a while and may be Matt Brown will fight back or may be he won't. Picking Kim to start out early and not give Brown a chance to be in a condition to fight back effectively.

Martin Kampmann Vs. Nate Marquardt - Martin Kampmann is cool, awesome combo of dutch striking with improving ground game. However I believe in Nate Marquardt. His destruction of Jeremy Horn made me believe a little longer in his dream to eventually get a crack at Anderson Silva again. Marquardt's loss to Thales Leites was due to questionable fouls. Picking Marquardt to finish Kampmann.

Dan Henderson Vs. Rousimar Palhares - Palhares is a little muscle tank with some very slick jiu-jitsu who in his UFC debut not only submitted a very slick himself Ivan Salaverry with an armbar from back mount but also made Joe Rogan cry on the broadcast with that move. I mean honestly, while not a common move in MMA to date, it is a very common and real simple move in grappling. I just wish Joe Rogan was the one commentating Shinya Aoki pulling off gogo plata from the mount to see and hear Rogan's reaction. He would have blown up from all the excitement. Dan Henderson coming off two tough losses to two super tough guys in Andreson Silva and Rampage Jackson. He's really due to bounce back as he usually does and once again make an example of his opponent. Palhares definitely poses danger to Henderson, but Henderson's experience should bring him victory. Picking Henderson

Rich Franklin Vs. Matt Hamill - Is this a 205 fight? I'm guessing 185 is a pointless division for Franklin to be in so for now he's just going to do fights. No real meaning or a goal. And why not? Beating Anderson Silva is out of question for a few years if ever. He should be just as successful at 205 as he was at 185. May be a good move. Hamill isn't exactly an easy fight to try moving up a category. Franklin should have no problem dealing with Hamill's strong wrestling and hard punching. Picking Franklin

Chuck Liddell Vs. Rashad Evans - I don't know why but I'm not excited about this fight at all. Rashad has amazing potential, but he himself is his only hinderance to being great.  He had nothing to be afraid of in his fight with Tito, for 2 rounds he stopped himself from beating Tito up exactly the same way he beat him up in the third. If he didn't get over the fact that he is now part of the more famous fighters and should not be afraid to punch them or take them down, he'll hurt his chances bad against Chuck Liddell. Because unlike Tito, Chuck will actually hurt him. Things are just not looking good for Rashad, he hasn't fought for almost a year, he's tentative with celebrities, his height disadvantage.  Picking Chuck Liddell by TKO by Chuck's own sprawl-and-counter (tm). He was sharp against Wanderlei Silva and looked excited again to be fighting. Just hope that is still there.

While other big media are covering UFC 79 in their special MMA/UFC sections, Yahoo.com are ahead of the pack and directing front page traffic to their own MMA section. They're recognizing the growing popularity of UFC/MMA and that it is big.

Wow, so UFC 79 was one of the better events for UFC in 2007. UFC 79 had lots of great hype, several high profile match ups and the fights that mattered definitely delivered. In my last post I quickly made the picks, let's see how I did.

Georges St. Pierre vs Matt Hughes - St. Pierre by Armbar (MMA Ninja UFC 79 picks: 1-0) I picked St. Pierre to win, because he was already in shape, was actually hoping for a match and him getting refocused on training and having fun doing it. I thought he would decisively beat Hughes, however, I did not expect him to completely steam roll through Hughes like he did tonight. It was amazing to watch! Even when Hughes had two chances for takedowns, St. Pierre still got out and to add insult to the injury threw Hughes with a high amplitude throw before finishing with an armbar from a kimura attempt. If Matt Serra was afraid to fight with Matt Hughes, he must be absolutely terrified of having to face him now. Matt Serra should retire and let St. Pierre fight Jon Fitch (the only serious contender at this point at 170)

Chuck Liddell vs Wanderlei Silva - Liddell By Decision (MMA Ninja UFC 79 picks: 1-1) I like both Liddell and Silva, but for this fight I liked Silva better. I really thought Silva did good by keeping his cool and inched forward or let Liddell come to him. It quickly became apparent how much longer Liddell's arms were, he had a clear advantage. Silva would have landed many more punches than he did, IF  he could actually reach with them. He had his moments too when he knocked chuck down with a punch, but didn't follow up. He could have gotten on top and take round 2. Chuck was landing lots of straight punches and was generally on for this fight. Is he next in line for Rampage vs Griffin winner?

Eddie Sanchez vs Palelei - Sanchez by TKO (MMA Ninja UFC 79 picks: 1-2) Having never seen Palelei I picked him solely base on his size and the fact that he looked to be in better shape than Sanchez. He also had 10 inch reach which he did zero with. Sanchez beat him up good though, landed some sweet uppercuts to bring down the bit outta shape loof.

Lyoto Machida vs Thierry Sokoudjou - Machida by arm-triangle choke  (MMA Ninja UFC 79 picks: 1-3) Sokoudjou's people must have listened to the people from all the mma forums and bloggers who encouraged Keith Jardine to come out to the "techno viking" music for his next fight. Well, Sokoudjou came out as a Predator because of this picture. How smart was that? Too bad he fought Machida who threw Sokoudjou off, like every one else he fights, and picked him apart till he knocked him down and choked him with arm-triangle choke.  Unfortunately for Machida with Chuck winning, his chances of a title shot are very distant now, probably at least a year. Should he fight Jardine?

Rich Clementi vs Melvin Guillard - Clementi by rear naked choke (MMA Ninja UFC 79 picks: 2-3) Gotta say that these two guys really created some great tension right before the fight. Clementi got through a few dangerous moments of Guillard's striking and over matched Guillard on the ground to sink in body triangle and rear naked choke for submission. He took the fight more personal than any other and really showcased his persona by telling Guillard to "get the hell outta" UFC. He just guaranteed himself several more fights just for mocking Guillard after beating him.

Manvel Gamburyan vs Nate Mohr - Gamburyan by ankle lock (MMA Ninja UFC 79 picks: 3-3) I was pretty much what I thought it was going to be like. Gamburyan took Mohr down, did a bit of ground and pound, then finished with a straight ankle lock. Though I think it was from Mohr hurting his own knee by trying to push his upper body on top while his leg was stuck with Gamburyan. Either way I doubt it would affect the outcome.

James Irvin vs Luis Artur Cane - Irvin by DQ Not going to count this fight as a wrong pick yet. Picked Cane and Irvin getting kneed in the head to win....I'll have to watch the fight first.

Dean Lister vs Jordan Radev - Lister by decision (MMA Ninja UFC 79 picks: 4-3) Will have to see the fight to comment, but I suspected Lister would take it.

Roan Carneiro vs Tony DeSouza - Carneiro by TKO (MMA Ninja UFC 79 picks: 4-4) Wrong pick.

Mark Bocek vs Doug Evans Bocek by Decision (MMA Ninja UFC 79 picks: 4-5) Another wrong guess.

So I didn't have the best night as a far as picking the fights for UFC 79. I picked only 4 outcomes right out of 9 fights. One excuse I'm going to put forth is that I haven't seen some of the fighters before. I'll comment on the undercard fights after I'll watch them.

UFC 79 was a great event to finish up the year. Few things to take away from the event:

• 155 division is one of the most exciting divisions and it stacked with exciting fighters. Clementi is a great part of the mix
• Lyoto Machida is definitely close to title shot picture with shutting down the hyped up Sokoudjou. Chuck and his age will get any chance at the title first though.
• Chuck Liddell was getting the better of Wanderlei Silva. Both are still top fighters. The fans won tonight as the fight lived up to it's hype.
• Yet another pair of former Pride fighters', Wanderlei and Sokoudjou, first fights in UFC were losses. It's a definite trend now. Hope they both rebound.
• St. Pierre is an amazing fighter with not too many fighters left to challenge him. Matt Serra's fight will be a waste of time for him, should fight Jon Fitch.
• Matt Hughes should definitely stick around for a few more fights. He should still fight Matt Serra to settle the score. Then he concentrate on writing more of his books.

Doug Evans vs. Mark Bocek  - Evans should take it. Bocek is a bit too one dimensional.

Roan Carneiro vs. Tony DeSouza - I hope DeSouza's training with BJ Penn will pay off, I'm picking him.

Dean Lister vs. Jordan Radev - picking Lister here, I think he'll outmatch Radev once it goes to the ground.

Manny Gamburyan vs. Nate Mohr - Manvel Gamburyan should overwhelm Mohr for the win.

James Irvin vs. Luiz Cane - I hope sends Irvin to the minor minor leagues for good. Picking Cane to win


Rich Clementi vs. Melvin Guillard - picking Clementi's experience here.

Lyoto Machida vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou - it'd be great if Machida won, but I think Sokoudjou will just out wild him.

Eddie Sanchez  vs. Soa Palelei - Palelei

Wanderlei Silva vs. Chuck Liddell - Silva will beat Liddell. His own training camp, nice time off since his losses and couture's gameplan.

Matt Hughes vs. Georges St. Pierre - St. Pierre cause he wants it more.

 

So I just got a chance to catch SpikeTV's "Countdown to UFC 79 Nemesis". It was mostly a good show except for the narrator, but as most UFC's tv shows it'll get better I'm sure.  I think they really got some good footage, quotes and to a trained eye, like myself, lots of insight with some hints as to what may actually happen during UFC 79 this Saturday night on December 29th.

Georges St. Pierre had the best quote of the whole show: "I'm gonna hit him as hard as I can ON his head" - I love it! I really hope he does, even though I also like Matt Hughes most of the time, just not when it comes to St. Pierre.

When asked about the lovely incident immediately following St. Pierre's TKO loss to Matt Serra (who is a prick btw, but more on that later) when Matt Hughes together with Sean Sherk were laughing and hugging each other in cause they were both apparently very happy see Geoges lose in the biggest upset in MMA of 2007, St. Pierre seemed a bit ticked off but said "he laughed...what are you going to do...now I'm gonna hit him as hard as I can ON his head". St. Pierre is such a respectful guy that he's just going to do his talking and laughing in the octagon.

St.Pierre's loss to Matt Serra was good for him in retrospect, he himself expressed how much it grounded him, made him re-focus on his training. He seemed to be really enjoying himself getting better at each of separate MMA disciplines, Muya Thai, Wrestling, Boxing and Brazilian JiuJitsu and combining them for a complete package. This approach has worked for him in the past.

By the way, did I mention, how smart he was to anticipate the boolsheet (wallid's famous words) of Matt Serra dropping out the fight with Hughes and being in shape and getting another crack at cementing his top contender status and beating MMA legend, again? Well, it was very smart of him to anticipate the fight falling through and being right there to jump on it. There are also numerous reports of St. Pierre looking veerry sharp in final days of training.

Matt Hughes...for the record, I really like the guy, he is what some may say a "straight-shooter" (at fightlinker.com for example). He was great on the last season of Ultimate Fighter TV show opposing the short "kofee and kake" prick Matt Serra and now came across some wonderful excerpts telling it like it is to Tim "The Lame-iac" Sylvia from his new book Made in America: The Most Dominant Champion in UFC History.

Back to the UFC 79 Nemesis Coundown. So it looked like he didn't have a good gym to train in or lots of good sparring partners, well except for current EliteXC middle weight champion, man no words, Robbie Lawler. Hughes's thinking when taking this fight was that St. Pierre didn't have too much time to train and would be unprepared, but as everybody in MMA knows now that wasn't true at all and Georges St. Pierre was very much prepared when he took the fight.

I gotta point out Joe Rogan's thinking that if Hughes has a desire to not to just avenge his loss to St.Pierre BUT re-establish himself again as the most dominant welterweight champion, we could, potentially see Hughes become that dominant champion again. Thing is, Hughes has been saying this whole past year that he's almost done with MMA as a fighter and generally portraying himself as not too motivated.

So I think Georges St. Pierre vs Matt Hughes will be an exciting and possibly lengthy fight with St. Pierre fighting smart and beating Hughes again.

Now, Wanderlei Silva...his english improved quite a bit! So now we can actually understand his interviews. There are also lots of other good news for him from the show:

• his head does not look swollen any more and looks almost normal (no more juice?). He also generally looked leaner so his cardio has got to be great
• for the first time in his career he has a whole camp of trainers and sparring partners JUST FOR HIM. So all the personal attention he is getting will be great for him all around.
• the fact that Wanderlei trains at Xtreme Couture gym and I'm sure will have Randy Couture's support as far as strategy and game plan
• I doubt the fight will go to the ground at all, but Silva's Brazian JiuJitsu coach is Andre Galvao. Awesome! This guy is a Ninja! Marcello Garcia type.

The bad news? Well he was knocked out twice in his last two fights, but I don't think it'll be a factor. Silva had a nice long break since then.

Chuck Liddell... good ol Chuck and Hackleman are singing the same ol tune of "Ima gonna knock him out". Chuck said he doesn't get bored with training but he does. His late night outings right before fight nights and same old routine isn't going to do him any good.  Granted Hackleman does put together good game plans, but he also puts together bad ones and can't control Chuck very well if a first round of the fight isn't going well. We saw this with first Quinton Rampage fight in Pride, his first fight with Randy Couture and lately against Keith Jardine. So Hackleman saying that he didn't really see anything in Wanderlei Silva's game they could capitalize on, they're back to same old stuff and Chuck will be bored through training.

I think Wanderlei Silva has everything going for him to beat Chuck Liddell and put himself in the mix for the UFC's light heavyweight title.

More on the rest of the card of UFC 79 in the next post or two.

Oh, yeah, don't forget to check out Matt Hughes's new book Made in America: The Most Dominant Champion in UFC History. Should be a blast!

In a recent interview by Gerbasi at UFC.com, Rampage, who fought both Wanderlei Silva and Chuck Liddell twice each, couldn't pick a winner of the bout scheduled for UFC 79.

When asked  a "A beats B, B beats C=A beats C" type question, does Rampage beating Liddell both times and losing to Silva twice mean that Silva will beat Liddell, Rampage had this to say:

“That’s not the way it goes, I guarantee you that if I would have fought Silva both times in the UFC, I would have won.”

Because of the Octagon as opposed to the PRIDE ring?

“Not the cage, the referees,” he said. “I guarantee I would have beaten him.”

Interesting that Rampage said that, I don't think I heard him say that before.  I agree with him on this, but only in regards to his first fight with Silva at Pride Grand Prix 2003 Finals. (one of the best MMA events by they way) Rampage just beat Liddell in a pretty gruelling semi-finals fight and started off pretty good with Silva taking him down early. But just was he was starting to do some ground and pound from the top the referee stood them up! It was a very quick stand up, especially in such an important fight, but I guess PrideFC favored Wanderlei at the time. I think the stand up threw Rampage off and led to Silva, who was fresher after his fight with Yoshida, to eventually repeatedly kneeing Rampage till the referees stopped the fight.

In the second Rampage vs Silva fight, Rampage was ahead and had Silva reeling at the end of round 1, but there Silva was saved by the bell. The referees had nothing to do with, what seemed like, Rampage feeling tired/discouraged in round 2. In the end Silva nicely side stepping Rampage's lunging straight right and catching him with a moster right hook on the nose that basically ended the fight.

So who does Rampage pick? “I don’t gamble", he said. Again, it's interesting that he didn't pick anybody and especially Silva. (disclaimer: I'm a bit Rampage fan)

I'm leaning toward Silva taking this one if he doesn't follow Chuck or....*gasp* takes Liddell down! Silva is very well rounded. He showed a consistently good ground game from the bottom (vs Fujita, Mark Hunt, even second Sakuraba fight), decent takedowns, sprawling and of course his wild striking. He's comfortable everywhere the fight goes, unlike Liddell who looked uncomfortable during completely stand up in his last loss to Jardine.

If you read the interview, what did you think?

Cool video of Wanderlei Silva sparring Shawn Tompkins, via Randy Couture's Xtreme Couture MMA Gym blog, getting ready for UFC 79 to face Chuck Liddell. It was just light sparring. Looked like Shawn Tompkins tried to emulate Chuck Liddell's looping left hook during the video. Hopefully Silva will watch for that and of course the straight right that Chuck throws while backing up.  Silva ran into a few good straight rights in his last fight with Mirko CroCop. I'm rooting for Silva and hope that he takes notes from Rampage Jackson and Keith Jardine and lets Chuck come to him and press forward. Liddell doesn't do too well going forward, at least in his last few UFC fights.