Craig Zablo

Last night Georges St. Pierre closed Josh Koscheck’s eye and the year with a win at UFC 124.  Let’s take a look at the earlier fight results and then come back to the main event:

• Joe Stevenson vs. Mac Danzig:
  Prediction: Joe “Daddy” Stevenson by decision.
  Result: Danzig caught Stevenson with a counter left hook knocking him cold and scoring a 1st round KO making me 0-1 for the night.

• Sean McCorkle vs. Stefan Struve
  Prediction: I’ll go out on a limb with the upset… McCorkle wins by KO.
  Result: The limb snapped after McCorkle, who had been dominating the fight with a giant slam, a kimura armbar and dominating top control got swept and hammered by Struve until the ref stopped it at 3:55 of the first round.  0-2 for the night.

• GSP vs Josh Koscheck.
  Prediction: GSP via stoppage.
  Result: GSP dominated every round with a brutal standup and won 50-45 on all three cards bringing me to a sad 1-2 for the night.

Final Thoughts…

• Joe Stevenson may have fought his last UFC fight due to his KO loss.  I hope that’s not the case.
• Stefan Struve showed heart and patience to earn his win.  My hats off to him.
• GSP has cleaned out his division.  He says if he decides to go up in weight to fight Anderson Silva he will do it the right way.  He’ll gain muscle mass and will stay in that division.  THAT is a fight I’d love to see.
• For the first [and last time] Dana White allowed the fans to vote for Fight of the Night ($100,000) bonuses.  Fans voted GSP vs Koscheck the Fight of the Night but reporters and Dan White felt that the bonus should have gone to Sean Pierson vs Matt Riddle.  White said he will “take care of them.”  Fans also voted bonuses to Mac Danzig for his KO of the Night of Joe Stevenson.  Jim Miller earned Submission of the Night for his kneebar on Mark Bocek.

UFC 124 is tonight.  Although the main event between Josh Koscheck and Georges St. Pierre is highly anticipated, the undercard doesn’t really grab me.  Still there are a few fights that have interested me [and hopefully you] enough that I’ll share my predictions:

• Joe Stevenson vs. Mac Danzig: It’s possible that the loser will also lose his contract with the UFC.  THAT should provide motivation for a good fight between two form Ultimate Fighter champions.
  Prediction: Joe “Daddy” Stevenson by decision.
• Sean McCorkle vs. Stefan Struve: McCorkle is 6’7 and Strive is 6’11” so if a knockout occurs, it will take a bit longer for the loser to hit the mat.  Other than that, there’s not much that interests me about this one.
  Prediction: I’ll go out on a limb with the upset… McCorkle wins by KO.
  
• GSP vs Josh Koscheck.  Although Kos is undefeated since GSP beat him 3 years ago and by all accounts is a better fighter; GSP hasn’t lost since he was upset [which he avenged] by Matt Serra… and he’s even better now.  There’s little chance that this fight will live up to the hype.
  Prediction: GSP via stoppage.

As always I’ll post results tomorrow.

Last night SPIKE TV aired UFC’s The Ultimate Fighter season finale.  Let’s check out my predictions and the results:

Kendall Grove vs. Demian Maia.
Prediction: Maia via decision.
Result: Maia won via unanimous decision.

Jonathan Brookins vs. Michael Johnson for the title of The Season’s Ultimate Fighter.
Prediction: Bookins via submission stoppage.
Result: Bookins won via unanimous decision.

Stephan Bonnar vs. Igor Pokrajac
Prediction: Bonnar via decision.
Result: Bonnar won vian unanimous decision.

Although there were only 3 fights I predicted, I went 3 and 0.  It’s not often I get 100% of the fights right… guess I should have bet a buck or two.  ; )

Tonight at 9pm EST, SPIKE TV will air free UFC fights.  There are three that interest me and here are my predictions:

Kendall Grove vs. Demian Maia.
Prediction: Maia via decision.

Jonathan Brookins vs. Michael Johnson for the title of The Season’s Ultimate Fighter.
Prediction: Bookins via submission stoppage.

Stephan Bonnar vs. Igor Pokrajac
Prediction: Bonnar via decision.

I’ll post the results tomorrow.