{"id":1989,"date":"2008-09-05T18:07:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-05T22:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=1989"},"modified":"2008-09-05T18:07:00","modified_gmt":"2008-09-05T22:07:00","slug":"ufc-88-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=1989","title":{"rendered":"UFC 88 Predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>Let’s take a look at tomorrow night’s UFC 88 Pay-Per-View Card<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n
Nate Marquardt <\/span>vs. Martin Kampmann:<\/span> This should be a good fight. Kampmann <\/span>trains out of Randy Couture’s camp<\/span>, and has a four fight win streak<\/span> running back to 2006<\/span>. Marquardt i<\/span>s a hard case whose only loses in the UFC<\/span> have been to Anderson Silva <\/span>and a split decision lost to Thales Leites <\/span>[who Kampmann<\/span> has beaten]. Kampmann<\/span> may be a slight favorite, but I’m picking Marquardt<\/span> to come out on top after a tough battle.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Rousimar Palhares vs. Dan Henderson: <\/span> Six of Palhares’s wins<\/span> have been first round submissions<\/span> so you know he has mad BJJ skills. Henderson<\/span> is a former two time MMA champion<\/span>. He clearly dominated Anderson Silva <\/span>for the entire first round when they fought, so you know he’s dangerous. Henderson<\/span> has more experience<\/span>, is bigger, hits harder<\/span> and needs the win<\/span> to get back into contention for a title shot. Everything should point to Henderson<\/span> winning. Yet something says that’s not going to happen. I‘ll go for the upset and take Palhares<\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Rich Franklin vs. Matt Hamill: <\/span> Rich Franklin<\/span> has moved up in weight<\/span> after two devastating losses to Anderson Silva<\/span>. He’ll face Matt Hamill<\/span> who has less experience<\/span>, but better wrestling skills<\/span> and freakish strength<\/span>. How that will play out all depends on how well Franklin<\/span> can avoid being taken down. Hamill <\/span>will want to force the fight to the mat and Franklin<\/span> will look to knock out Hamill<\/span> as he shoots for takedowns. I think that experience will prevail and give the nod to Franklin.<\/span><\/span><\/span>
<\/span><\/span>
Rashad Evans vs. Chuck Liddell: <\/span> This should be interesting. Up to this point, <\/span>Rashad Evans<\/span> has been able to rise to every occassion and keep his <\/span>unbeaten streak<\/span> alive. Evans<\/span> is a <\/span>skilled wrestler<\/span> who continues to improve other facets of his <\/span>MMA<\/span> game. <\/span> Liddell <\/span>is the<\/span> Ice Man<\/span>. The <\/span>Knockout King<\/span>. Everyone knows that <\/span>Liddell<\/span> plans to keep the fight a standup slugfest<\/span> — he will want to stalk <\/span>Evans<\/span> and throw bombs until one lands and puts him to sleep. So where does that leave <\/span>Evans<\/span>? He has <\/span>two choices<\/span> and <\/span>neither are that great<\/span>. He can try to <\/span>beat Liddell at his own game<\/span> by slipping punches and landing his own. I don’t see that happening for long. Or he can try to t<\/span>ake Liddell to the mat <\/span>and wear him down with his superior wrestling skills. The only problem is that <\/span>Liddell is famous for avoiding takedowns<\/span>. <\/span>My prediction: Liddell by TKO.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Karo Parisyan <\/span>was scheduled to fight on the card, but had to cancel due to a bad back. Funny that he pulled out on the day before the fight. I like <\/span>Parisyan<\/span> and hope it is nothing more than a bad back, but after listening to this interview<\/span><\/a>, I have to wonder.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let’s take a look at tomorrow night’s UFC 88 Pay-Per-View Card. Nate Marquardt vs. Martin Kampmann: This should be a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1989","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\/1989","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=1989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}