UFC 117: Silva vs. Sonnen takes place Saturday night from the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California and this card is stacked from top-to-bottom. The headliner is a contest for the UFC Middleweight Championship between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen. Here are my picks for this event.

UFC Middleweight Championship Bout – Anderson Silva (26-4) vs. Chael Sonnen (26-10-1): Sonnen gets the award for most smack talk prior to a fight, but he better make sure he backs it up, or else he is going to look like a complete jackass. Sonnen does have a good style to combat Silva, as he is an aggressive wrestler that knows he needs to get the fight to the ground. At the same time, Sonnen has struggled in defending submissions in the past, losing to lesser opponents like Demian Maia and Jeremy Horn via submission. Silva may get taken to the ground a few times in this fight, but his accurate strikes and jiu-jitsu ability on the ground tell me that sooner or later, he will end this fight. I like Silva to win by submission in the second round.

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UFC 112 left a memorable mark in the history of the organization for a number of reasons.

First, it was the first UFC held in the Middle East.

Second, it saw one of the biggest upsets in the history of the UFC from a betting stand point.

Third, you saw one man display dominance over another in a fighting sense by literally not fighting.

Many fans and even UFC President Dana White are upset with middleweight champion Anderson Silva for his display against Demian Maia. For those who didn’t see the fight, Silva was so far superior to his opponent that he spent most of the fight taunting him and swearing at him in Portuguese. Silva displayed in the first round that he could simply do whatever he wanted, landing every strike he threw at him while taking no damage. So he then chose to start dancing, standing still with his hands at his arms, and challenging his opponent to hit him in the face rather than overwhelm him and finish the fight. The fight, which lasted 25 minutes when it really had no business going more than 25 seconds, angered the fans to no end and forced White to storm off and not even watch the final round.

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The UFC hosts UFC 112: Invincible this Saturday at 1PM ET from Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. as the promotion makes a trip to the Middle East for an outdoor event. Here is a look at the card, which features two title fights, and my picks for the main card bouts.

UFC Middleweight Championship: Anderson Silva (25-4) vs. Demian Maia (12-1)
Silva is arguably the best fighter in the world in any weight class and Maia might be the best submission fighter in the UFC today. This style matchup has led to some boring fights for Silva in the past as the grapplers have avoided striking with him at all costs, but something tells me Maia knows he will have to mix it up. Should Maia get the fight to the ground, he can win, but likely Silva is going to knock him out first. Look for the champ to retain with a either a first round TKO or a boring five round decision.

UFC Lightweight Championship: B.J. Penn (15-5-1) vs. Frankie Edgar (11-1)
I truly feel that Edgar has the right fighting style to beat Penn, he simply lack the physical size needed to execute his plan. Edgar has the quickness to hang with Penn and the wrestling ability needed to win, but his size is not big enough to get Penn to the ground. Edgar will have to push a tremendous pace in order to really get Penn to slow down enough to be effective with his wrestling, and even if he can, we don’t know what kind of conditioning he has or what kind of damage he will have to take. Edgar is a tough guy that will give Penn some problems, but ultimately Penn will get the win by choke in round three.

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