UFC Free Picks

Here are our free picks for tonight’s UFC 118 event…

BJ Penn (-350) vs. Frankie Edgar (+250)

Alec Baldwin famously said “Your excuses are your own!” in “GlenGarry Glen Ross”. BJ Penn had a few of them after his loss to current lightweight champion Frankie Edgar, and leading up to this fight. Maybe Penn was sick, the fight wasn’t judged correctly and Penn just had a bad night. That was then and it doesn’t matter anymore. Judges won’t be needed in this one. Penn by KO. Take Penn -350.

Randy Couture (-600) vs. James Toney (+400)

If James Toney were fighting someone less cerebral than Randy Couture, he might have a better chance. But Couture is smarter than most inside the Octagon and won’t be goaded into a slugfest. Couture will be careful, work his gameplan and eventually submit Toney or pound him out from top position until the ref steps in to save Toney. Take Couture -600.

UFC on Versus 2 is Sunday night, and it offers fans another chance to see the electric Jon “Bones” Jones in the Octagon. Here are our free picks.

Tyson Griffin (14-3) -325 vs. Takanori Gomi (31-6) +250

Gomi was rudely welcomed into the UFC by Kenny Florian, getting beat up and finally choked out in the 3rd round. He’s on a 3-fight losing streak. He was supposed to fight Joe Stevenson but will instead face Tyson Griffin after Stevenson suffered a knee injury in training. The result would be the same for Gomi either way. Griffin should suffocate Gomi and do what he does best — work out a decision victory.
Pick: Griffin -325

Jake Ellenberger (22-5) -175 vs. John Howard (14-4) +145

Here are our UFC 115 free picks.

Chuck Liddell vs. Rich Franklin

Everything about the matchup with Tito was great for Chuck to try and get back to his winning ways. Everything about the matchup with Rich Franklin screams bad news. This is stylistically a nightmare for Chuck. Franklin likes to get in and get out and works with a lot of movement. He’ll also keep Chuck at bay with leg and punishing body kicks. Franklin wears the Iceman down then KOs him in the 3rd. Take Rich Franklin.

Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic vs. Pat Barry

Cro Cop looked very good in his destruction of Anthony Perosh at UFC 110. But Perosh was a last-minute addition and nothing much more than a journeyman fighter. Pat Barry has tremendous power and a huge chin. It might take more than one round, but Barry will knockout Cro Cop and end his UFC career. Take Pat Barry.

That’s not the *official* name of the event, of course, but the important thing is that the UFC is holding Saturday’s UFC 112 event in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.  The picture isn’t the set of the next Star Trek movie, but a huge development called Yas Island which is where the UFC card will be held.  Taking a page out of Las Vegas boxing in the 70′s and 80′s, they’re erecting a temporary arena which will be torn down the day after UFC 112 and used for a Tom Jones concert elsewhere on the island.

On one level, the trip to Abu Dhabi makes sense.  Since the UFC appears determined to never again put on a card that actual MMA fans are excited about seeing, they have to continually look for new markets where their mere presence will be considered an event.  Abu Dhabi has a long relationship with fight sports, primarily due to the Abu Dhabi Combat Championships submission grappling tournaments.  It’ll be a great live gate for the UFC, but that notwithstanding there’s a lot of strangeness about the choice of venue.