UFC 110 Preview – Cain Velasquez Vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
UFC 110 comes just two weeks after UFC 109, which wasn’t a good show at all. And it’s 5 weeks before their biggest show of the year thus far, UFC 111 with Georges St. Pierre defending his title. But if you look to skip this one, it might not be the best idea.
There’s a very interesting heavyweight fight scheduled as the main event between the legendary Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and the untested, Cain Velasquez. Michael Bisping also faces Wanderlei Silva in his biggest test since getting knocked out by Dan Henderson at UFC 100.
The FGB crew has their thoughts on these two matches.
(We originally were going to preview Mirko Crocop vs. Ben Rothwell as well, but Rothwell pulled out of the fight because of injury.)
Stevie J from Angrymarks.com joined us as well.
Michael Bisping vs. Wanderlei Silva
Duan: Bisping by 2nd round TKO
Alan: Silva by 1st round TKO
Big D: Bisping by 2nd round TKO
Stevie J: Bisping 2nd round TKO
GG: Bisping by 3rd round TKO
Duan says:
This could be the end of the road for Silva. This fight has the potential to make him look very old. Bisping is younger, fresher, and moves better. I see Bisping being more precise with his striking and just taking him apart.
Alan says:
Going with my heart over my head here. They made Wanderlei THE BIGGEST BABYFACE EVER on the Countdown Show and I’ve never liked Bisping much anyway. So I’ll really be pulling for Wand. And he CAN win. Look what Dan did at UFC 100. Silva has that power and then some. He’ll need to get lucky though.
Big D says:
It’s no secret how much of a Silva fan I am thanks to his zen-like streak of near-death massacres in PRIDE. That being said, I’m not a fool and I know he’s over the hill. As much as I would love for Silva to do what Henderson did to Bisping, (and make no mistake, Silva from 2003 could) the younger, faster, and stronger Brit will win.
GG says:
The only thing that worries me about this fight is Bisping getting caught again. I would imagine that they worked his stand-up to death here so that he doesn’t get caught. I think he’s going to be have much better cardio and just out-work Wanderlei. We don’t even know if Wanderlei is ready for 185, since it’s his first fight there too.
Cain Velasquez Vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
Duan: Velasquez by decision
Alan: Nogueira by 3rd round submission
Big D: Nogueira by 2nd round submission
Stevie J: Nogueira by 3rd round submission
GG: Nogueira by 3rd round submission
Duan says:
I think there are lots of deficiencies in Velasquez’s all round game, but I’m just not convinced that Nog is still capable of exploiting them. Even if we disregard the Mir fight, there has still been very clear signs of deterioration. I don’t expect to see a stoppage. Velasquez’s KO percentage flatters him. I don’t believe he’s a great finisher, and Nog always shows incredible tenacity.
Alan says:
This is my most anticipated fight in months. It will be incredible, absolutely incredible. That’s really my only prediction here as I really don’t know which guy will win. Nog will be super active from the botttom and Cain will be super active from the top. I see submission attempts, I see sweeps, I see ground and pound and I see knockdowns. This will have it all. If we get the Big Nog Special of taking a beating and coming back to win late, I wouldn’t be at all surprised.
Big D says:
This fight is the hardest fight to call in a long, long time. I look at Cain Velasquez and I think “potential”. I think “the future”. In 2 years, there’s no question he’d destroy Nog. But can he do it in 2010? He’s definitely younger, faster, and stronger, but Nog has faced that and won (before). Nog has triumphed over guys like Henderson, Bob Sapp, Coleman, and Crocop when nobody thought he had a chance. And you know what, I’m going with the ballsy pick from the heart and go with Nog via 2nd round submission.
Stevie J says:
The winner of this fight may be next in line for a UFC heavyweight title shot, depending on when Lesnar returns, so we may get to see the Lesnar vs. Nog fight we never got to during the mini-tournament. Yes, that’s revealing my prediction – Nog submits Velasquez before the end of the third round. Even though Cain is an up-and-coming heavyweight, Nog has more ways to finish and more experience doing it.
GG says:
I have a feeling that this is one of those times where I completely miss out on a young fighter coming into his own. Everything in my wants to choose Velasquez, but something tells me that Big Nog is going to exploit his lack of experience. I also think this is the fight that someone like Velasquez needs in order to truly become great. It’s been too easy for him thus far.
There you have our picks. We’ll be back with play by play tomorrow night of UFC 110.
And Jardine decisions Bader. 😉
We’ll see. If Jardine wins this fight, he’s screwed up their plans yet again.
Bader’s flying knee was sick. He was on his way to getting decisioned before that, so I give Darth Bader all the props for knowing he had to pull out all the stops and getting it done.
I don’t think so. He would’ve won the third round and won the decision. All the folks I read had Bader winning both rounds. I had them splitting the first two.
I had them splitting the first two as well but I felt that Jardine was on his way to taking the third.
He wasn’t stopping takedowns. All Bader had to do was take him down probably one more time and it was his round.
I thought Jardine was stuffing the takedowns pretty damn well in R2 and would have continued to do so in R3 unless Bader did something special. I don’t know what we’re debating about since we both agree it was a round each and Bader finished spectacularly. I give Darth Bader all the credit in the world.
0-2. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK
At least i knew Bader would win
Alan and Duan went 1-1. The rest of us went 0-2. Damn.