I am really excited for the main event of this UFC. UFC went with the one big main event carrying the rest of so-so fights. Many fighters are coming off losses but because it's the first Canadien UFC card their local appeal will certainly help the event. I'm surprised they didn't get Patrick Cote fighting on this card though.  Check out Fightlinker.com for local Montreal coverage

Matt Serra Vs. Georges St-Pierre - I'm betting the lightning will not strike twice for Matt Serra and his 15 min are over. I'd like to say that St. Pierre's performance against Hughes should be a good indication of what kind of mental and physical state he is in, but I won't because he beat Hughes convincingly right before the first Serra fight too. So I'm just going to say St. Pierre will murder Serra because he's just a better fighter and will not let this one get away. Georges St. Pierre by TKO (Canada 1 - USA 0)

Travis Lutter Vs. Rich Franklin  - Eh, both fighters are coming off a loss to Anderson Silva. Lutter lost over a year ago and hasn't been active. Franklin lost to Silva twice and last one was about six months ago. UFC's 185 division, except for the undisputed champion, is very weak right now and this match up shows it. It really has no meaning, Franklin isn't going to move up in the ranks by beating Lutter and if Lutter does win he won't jump that high either, especially considering this record and lack of dedication. Back to the fight though, given how close Yushin Okami came to submitting the former champion, Lutter definitely has a good chance with his submissions if he can pull off a take down, but I doubt it because his striking is very weak. So I think Franklin will be able to keep this standing, working his striking from angles. I'm thinking this will end up like his fight against Evan Tanner, where Tanner came out beaten to a pulp. Picking Rich Franklin

Mark Bocek Vs. Mac Danzig - This fight is on the card because Bocek is Canadien and to make Mac Danzig look really good, not that he needs it really. I really think it's mismatch where Danzig will beat Bocek standing and if it does go to the ground Danzig will beat on Bocek even more. Picking Mac Danzig (Canada 1 - USA 1)

Nate Quarry Vs. Kalib Starnes - Another Canadien with a loss coming in, Kalib Starnes, is getting a tough match up in robotic Nate Quarry. This should be a good brawl and based on both of the fighters last fights Quarry should pull through this one on toughness and chin alone. Picking Nate Quarry (Canada 1 - USA 2)

Charles McCarthy Vs. Michael Bisping - May be UFC thought, "well since we only have one really big matchup, how about we put in a few mismatches bound to produce some spectacular beatings". This is the second one of the night, Bisping is given Charles McCarthy go beat on. It may go to the ground early, that's where McCarthy would like to take it, but in the end will turn out to be like McCarthy vs. David Loiseau with Bisping taking over with striking to finish the fight. Picking Bisping

Joe Doerksen Vs. Jason MacDonald - Both Canadien. Say what you will about Doerkon's losing record, the guy comes to fight and puts on exciting fighting to watch. So him being in the fight alone should make it at least fun to watch.  Doerkson has some good ground skills and even some cool takedowns and throw to go with that, but I think MacDonalds strength and size will make a difference big enough to ward off anything Doerkson throws at him and pull off a submission or a TKO of his own. Picking MacDonald. Since at least one Canadien will win this fight, I'm throwing it in the Canada vs USA mix to help Canadiens out (Canada 2 - USA 2)

Jason Day Vs. Alan Belcher - Haven't seen anything on Day, so I'm going with Belcher and his exciting stand up to win.

Ed Herman Vs. Demian Maia - Herman is slick on the ground and has some power in his striking (ex knocking out Doerkson in his last fight), however Maia's ground fighting credentials are phenomenal exept not really tested in MMA all that well. I'd like to think Herman could keep it standing for a while, but his stamina isn't that great so I'm picking Maia by submission

Rich Clementi Vs. Sam Stout - Clementi made out good in publicity/popularity with his handing of Melvin Guillard and backing up his side of the trash talking. I see this fight against Stout going exactly the same way. Clementi will stand for a little till he had enough and proved himself he can stand with good strikers, then he'll easily take Stout down and submit him. Picking Clementi by submission (Canada 2 - USA 3)

Brad Morris Vs. Cain Velasquez - Haven't seen either guys, but will go with Velasquez taking Morris down and beating on him there. I don't think Morris, being an aussie, has ever faced wrestling of Velasquez's level. P

Kuniyoshi Hironaka Vs. Jonathan Goulet - Goulet is a local Canadien favorite but a journeyman at best. Hironaka's record isn't stellar either but he's faced tougher competition and even took Jon Fitch to a decision. Picking Hironaka capitalizing on Goulet's mistake. If Goulet wins I'll add him to the Canada vs USA mix. I'm really pulling for them.

The goal now is to actually follow up on my UFC 83 picks and write up some thoughts of the fights. Wish me luck!

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.

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!