As usual, I say these will be super quick fight picks for UFC 92, but then I'll probably end up writing for an hour. Besides the fact that this is a really star studded event, like the old Pride year end event used to be, here are my picks.

Forrest Griffin Vs. Rashad Evans - what a tough pick this is for me, Rashad has been winning steady and last fight was a huge statement, especially for this confidence in his skills. Even though Forrest beat on Rampage a bit in their last fight, Rampage wasn't nearly at his best, but he has that advantage of going through that tough 25 minute championship fight and after being knocked down in the very first. So I like both guys, but I'm leaning towards Rashad and his power. Picking Rashad Evans.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira Vs. Frank Mir - I'm honestly not sure what Mir can do to Nogueira. His striking is still isn't good enough for Noguiera and his latest submissions were against guys that are inexperienced at them. I give Nogueira striking advantage, stamina and submissions for that matter. He'll wear Mir out in the very first round, peper him with all kinds of striking. In the second he'll proceed to doing the same and finish Mir in the third. Picking Nogueira by just being better at everything and experience.

Wanderlei Silva Vs. Quinton Jackson - In both of their previous fights Rampage started off better than Silva and as soon as he got into any type of rhythm or a good position he was interrupted. In the first it was the ref for an odd reason, when Rampage was on top and pretty active and could have very well worn Silva out to finish him later. In the second he did great in the first round and spend good energy to get Silva on the ground and be on top before the bell rung. Silva showed why he was still great after exlusively beating up on 10+ japanese fighters and cought Rampage with some amazing forever-highlight reel shots. Again I really like both guys and both faltered lately. I hope Rampage learned from Silva-vs-Liddell, and Silva vs CroCop for that matter, that straight shots are Silva's cryptonite, Achilles's heel, whatever. Silva hopefully got some more good training in at Randy Couture's. So I want Rampage to win and hope he got whatever messed him up for the Griffin fight taken care of and is in better shape physically and metally.

CB Dollaway Vs. Mike Massenzio - picking CB Dollaway and his peruvian necktie, cause I get a feeling Massenzio is there to make CB look good again and promote him further.

Cheick Kongo Vs. Mostapha Al Turk - picking Kongo because he should be pretty hungry for a win after he basically gave away a fight he was winning a no talent hack Heath Herring.

Yushin Okami Vs. Dean Lister - So...like...wtf is Dean Lister still doing in UFC? Honestly! I know Dana hates Yushin Okami, but it is a damn sport that's already so popular that if there are a few guys that are not exiting but beat other good fighters with skill, IT IS OK. I mean, look at how boring Lyoto Machida can be, but he is damn good and in my opinion has redeemed himself when he gave Tito Ortiz the biggest humiliation of his life. Yep, and that's after Randy spaked Tito in front of millions. Anyways, hope Okami beats up Lister and moves on to the contender list for 185 right after.

Ryo Chonan Vs. Brad Blackburn- picking Ryo Chonan.

Other fights - who cares.

This is going to be a great event with an excellent main event in Rampage vs Forrest and some great undercard fights. Quick picks is all I have time for these days so here they are.

Corey Hill Vs. Justin Buchholz - picking Corey Hill to win by height and ferocity.

Melvin Guillard Vs. Dennis Siver - Guillard is like a mini Randleman in a sense that he has better physical tools than most fighters but lack other important qualities like hard work and mental aspects of the fight game. On talent alone and lots of trashtalk mixed in with some substance abuse in the last year he only managed two very embarassing losses to Stevenson and Clementi. It seems to me he's on his last chance to stay in UFC and this fight with Siver is make it or break it. Siver has good striking credentials and has decent ground game, at least defensively. Siver's loss to Gray Maynard only showed his toughness and ability to stay in the fight when the going gets tough. Picking Siver because he is a serious fighter unlike the underachiving Guilldard.

Jorge Gurgel Vs. Cole Miller - hmm.. I could be entertaining for a little bit, but neither are impressive fighters. Miller should be able to land a tonn on Gurgel's face early on given his reach advantage and hopefully finish it there. There is a chance that Gurgel could smarten up for this fight and try doing the ground game as soon as can, but I think Cole's been training with Marcus Aurelius for this fight at American Top Team and his ground game should be as tight as ever. Picking Cole by Gurgel's inability to do anything serious.

Gabriel Gonzaga Vs. Justin McCully - Gonzaga was on top of the world after KOing Mirco CroCop and should not have had much shame inlosing to Randy Couture. But then fell apart in his cowardly loss to Fabricio Werdum. He definitely took a giant step back as a fighter that night. So hopefully he got some type of help with the mental aspects of the game which nowadays is becoming a necessity for many top fighters, see Chuck Liddell's use of Tony Robinson. Zuffa is throwing Gonzaga a bone here and having him face a scrub really, Tito "The embarrased" Ortiz's training parner Justin McCully. Should be an easy win for Gonzaga by whatever he wants, picking him by a head kick probably.

Tyson Griffin Vs. Marcus Aurelio - Clay Guida vs Marcus Aurelio should have been a barn burner too, but Marcus supposedly got the "UFC debut jitters" and Clay shaked his long hair enough for a split decision. I believe in Tyson Griffin to not be too scared of Aurelio and really push the action. But I think Aurelio got past the jitters and being more comfortable being in UFC should be able to at least decision Griffin, if not submit him. Picking Aurelio

Josh Koscheck Vs. Chris Lytle - this one is a tough one for me to pick because Lytle has fought some tough competition and even responded to recent critisims of being to timid with being more agressive. Koscheck will be definitely stronger of the two and I hope he'll not be smart and stand with Lytle. Picking Lytle by TKO of some type

Joe Stevenson Vs. Gleison Tibau - Stevenson will most likely come back strong from his bloody affair with BJ Penn and show off his great ground game coupled with constantly pushing the action. Picking Stevenson by decision

Patrick Cote Vs. Ricardo Almeida - I really like Cote and glad he has a 3 fight winning streak with some cool knockouts in his last two fights, but he has very little chance against Almeida. Many years ago, Renzo Gracie's top dog Almeida had a rough run in UFC, then he went to beat up a bunch of tough guys in the longest running Japanese promotion, Pancrase, including Nathan Marquardt and then decided to take an unexpected break to concentrate on the art of jiu-jitsu and teaching. Well, not that UFC is out in the open and is very popular I guess he got another itch to fight and make some serious money this time. His comeback fight in UFC was quick and impressive. Picking Almeida to make a statement and get a title shot at Anderson Silva, though I don't he's ready for that one just yet.

Quinton Jackson Vs. Forrest Griffin - I have lots of emotions about this one. I've been following Rampage since his days in KOTC and Pride, UFC should man up and release Rampage's greatest Prefight Interviews DVD cause there is some funny stuff there. He did pretty good for himself since his entrance to UFC and if Chuck's KO could be argued as a fluke, he did beat Dan Henderson handily. Forrest beat Mauricio Shogun in his last fight which was awesome. I think everyone was rooting for him and he pulled it off smashingly. That night he certainly could hold his own and push for a decisive win. So Forest beat Shogun, Shogun beat Rampage, so....blah blah blah. In reality Rampage wasn't well when he fought Shogun, Shogun wasn't well when he fought Forrest. Rampage has loads more experience of facing top notch competition than Forrest and it will show tonight. I have a feeling this will be some what similar to Wanderlei Silva showing everyone Keith Jardine isn't quite there yet and Rampage will do the same with Forrest. Picking Rampage

Now go order it ......it starts in 30 mins!

So apparently Dana White is so sick p**sies sneaking covertly on the show that couldn't take it any longer and for this block buster season of The Ultimate Fighter show featuring the first Ultimate Fighter winner, top light-heavyweight contender and a big fan favorite Forrest Griffin versus the current UFC light-heavyweight champion and Pride FC veteran Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Dana decided to turn the show "upside down"..well...at least for the opening of it.

He must have though to himself real hard - "hmmm.....no matter how hard the coaches make the contestants work out in the opening show, some how the "p**sies" still make it through....I got it!.... it's cause may be possibly "pu**sies" can be good at working out and be all into fitness and stuff but can't really fight!....so now I'll make them fight for the opening show! Ha, let them try sneaking in now!"

I have to say that it was definitely the most effective show opening for the series since ever. What a better introduction to the aspiring ultimate fighters than having them fight right off the bat and show everyone what they have as far as fighting skills versus fitness. The fans in turn got to watch a bunch of exciting fights with most of the fighters really putting it on the line to stay on the show. If the series will continue it's run, this should definitely the way to start the next runs.

Anyways, I'm sure you've seen the show yourself by now, so a few quick notes:

• I don't know why but the 5 minute rounds seemed like forever, even in exciting fights. May be cause of the atmosphere of a small warehouse and just a few people cheering. 
• Amir Sadollah won tough fight and is the fighter to watch in my opinion
• I didn't think the producers did a good job with the play by play that Forrest and Rampage were doing, they should have had the Picture-in-Picture of the both at all times and even Dana too and turned up the volume a bit.
• Dana should have changed the rules a bit and kicked both those guys that had the most boring fight of the night off the show and kept the guy that cut 17 pounds that gassed against Cale, he was good and exciting and would have been a contender I think, with some stamina of course.
• Poor Dave Roberts! The guy somehow got to debut in MMA at UFC 20 against some pure BJJ'er at 19! Those were the dark ages of UFC for many, at least me and a few other people. Dammit, I watched that show in an empty hockey rink's coach's room by myself on DirectTV....I can't believe I did that just to watch a crappy UFC card.
• Dana is such as sellout, he was willing to scare "the bejesus!" out of both Rampage and Forrest by making them watch the new horror flick "The Ruins"....just for a damn commercial!

Great show but I'm looking forward to more of Rampage entertaining for the rest of the episodes. I want to see more stuff like below!

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.