The Ultimate Fighting Championship presents UFC 105: Couture vs. Vera on Saturday from the M.E.N. Arena in Manchester, England. The event will air on tape delay on Spike TV beginning at 8 p.m. and feature five bouts. Here are my picks for the five featured fights:

Light Heavyweight (205 lbs) – Randy Couture (16-10) vs. Brandon Vera (11-3) – This fight features two former heavyweights that have dropped down to light heavyweight after struggling in the larger weight class. Couture is a Hall of Fame fighter that has won multiple titles in both divisions, but has lost his last two matches. The key in this fight will be whether the fight remains standing or if it goes to the ground. Couture has the edge on the ground while Vera has the edge standing. I expect Vera to come out highly motivated and on top of his game, using his speed and extensive strikes to get the best of Couture, who seems to be lacking in the ability to control fights right now. Look for Vera to win a second or third round TKO.

Welterweight (170 lbs) – Mike Swick (14-2) vs. Dan Hardy (22-6) – This match is a No. 1 contenders match, with the winner getting to fight UFC champion Georges St. Pierre in their next match. Both fighters will look to strike as each thinks they have faster and stronger hands than their opponent. The key for this fight will be which fighter has the ability to win the battle on the ground as that is likely where it will end up in the later rounds. I like Swick’s quickness and takedown ability to earn him a decision win over the game Hardy.
Middleweight (185 lbs) – Michael Bisping (18-2) vs. Denis Kang (32-11-1) – Bisping is coming off his first knockout loss at UFC 100 and how he handles that loss will be the key in this fight. Sometimes after losing by knockout, fighters come back tentative and unwilling to mix it up for fear of getting knocked out again. Bisping has to trust his abilities in order to beat Kang, who is an experienced and well-rounded fighter. Bisping was becoming a tentative fighter prior to his KO loss, and I expect him to be the same in this fight, which will allow Kang to control the fight and earn a decision win.

Welterweight – James Wilks (7-2) vs. Matt Brown (12-7) – Wilks is making his UFC debut after winning the Ultimate Fighter Season Nine. His first fight isn’t easy, as he gets the ultra tough Brown, who can take the fight anywhere. Wilks will be looking for a submission while Brown will be looking to strike. The key in this fight is Wilks lack of experience against marquee fighters, which Brown has been able to establish in his last year with the UFC. Brown’s toughness should be able to carry him past Wilks, who will put up a good effort before getting over-powered by Brown in a third round TKO.

Lightweight – Ross Pearson (11-3) vs. Aaron Riley (28-11-1) – Like Wilks, Pearson is making his UFC debut after winning the Ultimate Fighter Season Nine. Pearson also steps into a tough first fight, as he faces Riley, who has 40 professional fights in his career. Like Wilks, Pearson lacks experience against a fighter of Riley’s caliber, while Riley has faced plenty of fighters with equal talent to Pearson. Pearson is a submission specialist, but Riley has the defense to counter Pearson’s strength. Look for Riley to simply out-class Pearson on his way to a decision win.

Photo from fOTOGLIF
]]> http://www.scoresreport.com/2009/11/14/ufc-105-picks-predictions/feed/ 1 http://www.scoresreport.com/2009/11/06/blogging-the-bloggers-sosa-hardy-ohio-state/ http://www.scoresreport.com/2009/11/06/blogging-the-bloggers-sosa-hardy-ohio-state/#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:46:14 +0000 Anthony Stalter http://www.scoresreport.com/?p=28439 - What the hell has happened to Sammy Sosa? This photo terrifies me.

- Pro Football Talk.com is claiming that ESPN.com plagiarized them on the Joey Porter/Tom Brady story. And they say bloggers are the ones stealing stories, geesh.

- Get a sneak peak at what Ohio State’s throwback uniforms will look like this Saturday against Penn State, thanks to SPORTSbyBROOKS.com.

- Here are five MMA Fighters who went out on top, courtesy of CagePotato.com.

- MoonDog Sports says that NFL players need to shut up and play already.

- YARDBARKER hands out their NFL Midseason Awards.

- DEADSPIN has some updates on the Sean Sailsbury lawsuit.

Here’s a weekly rundown of MMA content from Ben Goldstein of CagePotato.com:

- Lyoto Machida retained his light-heavyweight title in a very controversial decision over Mauricio Rua at UFC 104. Luckily, there will be an immediate rematch between the two Brazilian standouts.

- DREAM’s first “White Cage” event featured another lopsided win for Alistair Overeem, another head kick knockout by Marius Zaromskis, and another back-from-the-dead victory for Kazushi Sakuraba.

- A month-long flu has forced Brock Lesnar to pull out of his title defense against Shane Carwin at UFC 106. Coincidentally, Carwin himself had been battling swine flu, but that wasn’t going to make him puss out of the fight.

- Rashad Evans became the first coach in Ultimate Fighter history to win seven fights in the round-of-16, as the imbalanced Matt “Meathead” Mitrione scored an upset over well-traveled veteran Scott Junk on Wednesday’s episode of TUF 10. Rampage responded by savagely assaulting a door.

- We took a look at some of the nastiest leg-kicks in MMA history.

- Fedor Emelianenko looked disturbingly passionate in the first leaked image from EA’s new MMA video game, and mighty dapper in his Glorious Sweater of Absolute Victory.

- Sexy UFC ring girl Natasha Wicks (aka “the blonde one”) modeled some Halloween costumes for all her drooling fans. Speaking of which, if you happen to be going out as an MMA fighter this Halloween, e-mail a picture of yourself to feedback@cagepotato.com by tomorrow night, and you can win a $100 gift card from MMA Warehouse.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to pay per-view today with UFC 104: Machida vs. Shogun, which features five fights on the main card. Here is a breakdown of each fight and who I expect to win.

Light Heavyweight Championship – Lyoto Machida (15-0) vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (18-3): Machida has quickly emerged as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world due to his style of fighting. Machida has brought a true karate style to the octagon and made it look like a dominant way of fighting. His last two fights have been impressive victories over Thiago Silva and Rashad Evans to win the UFC title. Machida likes to counter-strike, which works well in this fight as Rua likes to push the pace and be the aggressive fighter. Rua has gotten better with each fight inside the cage, but today’s fight doesn’t bode well for him. Machida has quicker strikes and should be able to pick Rua apart to score a TKO victory in the third round over a gassed Rua.

Heavyweight Bout – Cain Velasquez (6-0) vs. Ben Rothwell (30-6) – The co-headliner features two heavyweight contenders. Velasquez is being groomed to be a threat to Brock Lesnar’s heavyweight title. The Mexican born fighter has used his wrestling background to dominate his opponents and use ground-and-pound striking to quickly end fights. His last fight, a decision win over Cheick Kongo, Velasquez was able to get Kongo to the ground and dictate the pacing of the fight. Velasquez was hit with some big punches in the fight and was tested for the first time, but passed the test. Rothwell was a former IFL heavyweight champion and has faced some tough opponents, but doesn’t have a real marquee win in his lengthy career. Rothwell can win with a big punch, but Velasquez is likely to get this fight to the ground, where he will control Rothwell and earn a decision or TKO victory.

Lightweight Bout – Joe Stevenson (35-10) vs. Spencer Fisher (24-4) – Joe Stevenson is somewhat a gate-keeper in the division, as he has beat some of the best in the division, but not been able to beat the elite fighters to make himself a champion. Fisher is a step below, where he has beaten lower-tier fighters, but never been able to break into main event or even co-headline status. In today’s fight, I expect Stevenson to out-class Fisher as Stevenson is working with Greg Jackson now to evolve his style, while Fisher has always been more-or-less the same fighter. Stevenson will score the takedowns and work his way to a decision win over Fisher.

Lightweight Bout – Gleison Tibau (29-6) vs. Josh Neer (25-8-1) – These two lightweights are examples of guys that are tough and quality fighters, but will likely never contend for the title or make a serious run at it. Tibau is a strong fighter with great jiu jitsu skills but doesn’t have the striking. Neer is a very tough fighter that has skills in every area, but can’t avoid takedowns and doesn’t have the striking skills to compete with the top fighters in this division. In this fight, Tibau will have the size and speed to score takedowns and will not be submitted by Neer, in my opinion. Look for Tibau to get a decision win.
Welterweight Bout – Anthony Johnson (7-2) vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida (11-3) – Anthony Johnson is a physical specimen that has all of the athletic skills to be a great fighter, but he is still maturing and evolving his ground game. Yoshida is a well-rounded fighter, but like many others, isn’t at the elite level. A win for Johnson would be the biggest of his career to this point, while Yoshida is looking to get back in the contender mix after getting knocked out cold last December by Josh Koscheck. Yoshida can win this fight if he gets Johnson on his back, but that seems to be the only way he can win. Johnson seems to have the better package and I would expect to see him land a big punch that leads to a TKO finish in the second round.

Here’s a weekly rundown of MMA content from Ben Goldstein of CagePotato.com:

- Hulking heavyweight Alistair Overeem destroyed a completely outmatched opponent last weekend and plans on destroying an equally outmatched opponent this weekend.

- The two most emotionally-abused castmembers on “The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights” faced off Wednesday night, and coach Rashad Evans kept his historic winning streak alive.

- We demonstrated the difference between a ridiculously unnecessary sucker punch and a completely understandable one.

- The upstart Bellator MMA league is returning next April — with a massive television deal.

- We took a look at five MMA fights that happened too early.

- The UFC booked high-profile rematches between Nate Diaz and Gray Maynard, and Jon Fitch vs. Thiago Alves.

- We’re sad to report that UFC light-heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida drinks his own pee. Nevertheless, he’ll be kicking Mauricio “Shogun” Rua’s ass tonight at UFC 104 in Los Angeles. Check out our analysis of the card here, and swing by CagePotato.com at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT for our thrilling liveblog of the pay-per-view broadcast.

- Benson Henderson edged out Donald Cerrone in an epic five-rounder at WEC 43, while Mackens Semerzier came out of nowhere to score the upset of the year over Wagnney Fabiano.

- Chuck Liddell’s storybook run on “Dancing With the Stars” came to an abrupt end when his country-fried two-step failed to win over the judges.

- Half-crazy UFC vet Wes Sims was quickly choked to sleep by Justin Wren on Wednesday’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter, extending Team Rashad’s undefeated reign of destruction.

- “The Simpsons” devoted an entire episode to MMA, in which Marge went from killjoy protester to ass-kicking cage-fighter.

- Brock Lesnar was as big and scary as a baby as he is now, and Nick Diaz had lost all ability to give a fuck by age six.

- We met Mika Nagano, one of Japan’s sexiest MMA fighters.

- After contract negotiations with the UFC fell apart, veteran fighter Dan Henderson is jumping ship to Strikeforce.

- Leaner and meaner, Ben Rothwell laid out his plan to beat Cain Velasquez at UFC 104 next Saturday.

- If Tito Ortiz is your favorite fighter, you are either Jenna Jameson, Donald Trump, or Tito Ortiz. No exceptions.

Here’s a weekly rundown of MMA content from Ben Goldstein of CagePotato.com:

- Gina Carano appeared semi-nude (and fully hot) on the cover of ESPN: The Magazine’s “Body Issue.”

- Shinya Aoki won his best-of-three series against Joachim Hansen, Bibiano Fernandes kicked two separate asses, and the little Hulks beat the big Hulks at the DREAM.11 show in Yokohama on Tuesday. You can watch all the fight videos here and here.

- On Wednesday’s episode of “The Ultimate Fighter,” Team Rashad went up 4-0 thanks to Brendan Schaub’s grappling and Quinton Jackson’s awful coaching. If Rashad plays his cards right, he could be the first TUF coach to sweep the round-of-16.

- “TUF 8″ head-case Junie Browning was arrested for assaulting three nurses after a pill-related misunderstanding at a Las Vegas hospital.

- Mark Coleman blew out his knee and dropped out of his UFC 106 fight against Tito Ortiz. Ortiz called him a sissy. Coleman’s manager called Ortiz’s girlfriend a whore. Ortiz will now be facing Forrest Griffin in a rematch.

- UFC legend Chuck Liddell won another split-decision on “Dancing With the Stars.”

- We took a look at 10 of the wildest MMA fighter entrances of all time, and 10 career-ruining, soul-destroying fights.