{"id":1933,"date":"2008-08-08T17:22:00","date_gmt":"2008-08-08T21:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=1933"},"modified":"2008-08-08T17:22:00","modified_gmt":"2008-08-08T21:22:00","slug":"ufc-87-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=1933","title":{"rendered":"UFC 87 Predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>I’m really looking forward to tomorrow night’s UFC 87<\/span> card. There are several evenly matched fights that I am really excited about. It’ll be interesting and hopefully exciting to see how they go. <\/span><\/p>\n

Jason “The Athlete” Macdonald<\/span> (20-9-0) vs. Demian Maia<\/span> (7-0-0). MacDonald<\/span> has the experience, but Maia<\/span> is undefeated. MacDonald<\/span> is bigger and a better striker, but Maia’s jiu-jitsu<\/span> is supposed to be top notch. Seems more folks are leaning towards MacDonald<\/span> to stop Maia’s win streak<\/span>. Since I hate to see win streaks end, and I have a soft spot for the underdog, I’m leaning towards Maia<\/span>.
+++++
Kenny Florian<\/span> (9-3) vs Roger Huerta<\/span> (22-1). This could not only be the fight of the night<\/span>; it could be the fight of the year<\/span>! The crazy thing is, that there are just as many folks saying that Florian<\/span> is over-rated<\/span> as there are saying the same about Huerta<\/span>. There’s an even bigger group saying that both are two of the best fighters<\/span> entering the cage on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The one real intangiable for me is the press that Huerta<\/span> has been getting leading up to the fight. He was pretty upset [and made it known] with the way a promo was cut making it appear that he said that fighting Florian<\/span> would be a cakewalk. Huerta<\/span> was also quoted as saying he didn’t care if he was fighting in the UFC<\/span> or another organization. You can imagine Dana White’s reaction<\/span>. I’m still leaning towards Huerta<\/span>; I just hope he stops giving interviews between now and the fight!
+++++
Brock Lesnar<\/span> (1-1) vs Heath “The Texas Crazy Horse” Herring<\/span> (29-13-1). This could prove to be very interesting. I wasn’t a Herring fan<\/span> until recently. He did impress me with his win over Cheick Congo<\/span> and he seems to be taking his career more seriously. The first few times I saw Herring<\/span> fight, he appeared to be a big guy with some skills, but more interested in his nickname, wild hair style and trademark duster jacket than being a well-rounded fighter.<\/p>\n

Lesnar<\/span> is a beast. He went in against former heavy-weight champ Frank Mir <\/span>in just his second MMA<\/span> fight and floored him with a jab! It was Lesnar’s<\/span> lack of experience that cost him the fight. He nearly had Mir<\/span> out with a punishing ground-and-pound seconds after the fight started.<\/p>\n

So the question is, has Lesnar<\/span> gained enough experience to stay out of trouble if the fight goes to the ground? And it will go to the ground. Lesnar’s takedowns<\/span> are brutal. Herring’s<\/span> only hope is that he can survive the initial barrage that will come and then look to submit Lesnar<\/span> from the bottom. If by some chance, Herring<\/span> can take it late into the round [or fight], then he may be able to try and test Lesnar’s chin<\/span>. That’s a lot of “if’s.”<\/p>\n

I see Lesnar<\/span> winning by TKO<\/span> or KO<\/span>. And should Herring<\/span> find a way to win, my cowboy hat goes off to him!
+++++<\/p>\n

George St. Pierre<\/span> (16-2) vs Jon Fitch<\/span> (21-2-1). Fitcch<\/span> is without a doubt the #2 <\/span>welterweight in the UFC<\/span> (maybe the world). The thing of it is, he’s fighting the number one guy. GSP<\/span> is in a league of his own right now. Of course the same thing was said when GSP<\/span> stepped in against 8-1 underdog, Matt Serra<\/span>. We all remember how THAT turned out. This should be a very entertaining fight with GSP<\/span> once again showing why he’s the champ.<\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m really looking forward to tomorrow night’s UFC 87 card. There are several evenly matched fights that I am really<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mma"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1933\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}