{"id":3802,"date":"2009-11-21T09:54:26","date_gmt":"2009-11-21T13:54:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=3802"},"modified":"2009-11-21T09:56:20","modified_gmt":"2009-11-21T13:56:20","slug":"ufc-106-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=3802","title":{"rendered":"UFC 106 Picks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/stallonezone.com\/zone\/2009\/z112109ufc106.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"475\" height=\"296\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Tonight&#8217;s <strong>UFC 106<\/strong> card is quickly approaching.  Let&#8217;s take a look at the fights and my picks:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Kendall &#8220;da Spider&#8221; Grove <\/strong>[12-6] vs<strong> Jake Rosholt<\/strong> [6-1].\u00a0 Usually if one guy has a nickname and the other doesn&#8217;t, you should go with the guy with the nick.\u00a0 However&#8230;<strong> Rosholt <\/strong>has the <strong>better record<\/strong>, is a <strong>world class wrestler <\/strong>and in his fight submitted <strong>Chris Leben<\/strong>.\u00a0 <strong>My pick &#8211; Rosholt.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Ben Saunders<\/strong> [7-1-2] vs <strong>Marcus &#8220;The Irish Hand Grenade&#8221; Davis<\/strong> [21-6].\u00a0 <strong>Saunders<\/strong> is primarily known as a<strong> kickboxer<\/strong> and <strong>Davis <\/strong>a <strong>boxer<\/strong> (although half of his wins are by submission).\u00a0 This should be a competitive fight.\u00a0 <strong>My pick &#8211; Davis <\/strong>(well, he does have the nickname).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Amir Sadollah <\/strong>[2-1] vs <strong>Phill &#8220;The New York Bad Ass&#8221; Baroni <\/strong>[13-11].\u00a0 <strong>Sadollah<\/strong> won <strong>season 7<\/strong> of <strong>The Ultimate Fighter<\/strong> and is a quite, modest guy with a personality that&#8217;s hard not to like.\u00a0 <strong>Baroni <\/strong>on the other hand, is just the opposite.\u00a0 <strong>Baroni <\/strong>hasn&#8217;t won a fight over an opponent with a winning record in <strong>3 years<\/strong> and many say he is just being brought back to the <strong>UFC<\/strong> to give <strong>Sadollah<\/strong> a win over a &#8220;name&#8221;.\u00a0 Okay, <strong>my pick &#8211; Sadollah<\/strong> [despite the fact that he doesn&#8217;t have a nickname].<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Antonio Rogerio &#8220;Minotaro&#8221; Nogueira<\/strong> [17-3] vs <strong>Luis &#8220;Bana&#8221; Cane <\/strong>[11-1-1].\u00a0 This should be a tough fight.\u00a0 <strong>Nogueira<\/strong> will be the fan favorite and perhaps the fight favorite going in.\u00a0 He&#8217;s also a skilled <strong>Muay Thai<\/strong> and <strong>BJJ <\/strong>fighter.\u00a0<strong> Cane <\/strong>is a tough kid who likes to bang.\u00a0 If<strong> Cane <\/strong>can keep out of trouble if it goes to the ground, or better yet, keep the fight standing, he&#8217;ll have a good chance.\u00a0<strong> My pick &#8211; Cane in an upset.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Paulo Thiago<\/strong> [11-1] vs <strong>Jacob &#8220;Christmas&#8221; Volkmann <\/strong>[9-0].\u00a0 <strong>Thiago <\/strong>is a<strong> black belt in BJJ<\/strong>, while<strong> Volkmann<\/strong> is a<strong> world class wrestler.<\/strong> This should be a great contest.\u00a0 <strong>My pick &#8211; Volkmann in an upset win<\/strong> [and, yes, <strong>Volkmann <\/strong>does have the nickname]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Josh &#8220;Kos&#8221; Koscheck<\/strong> [15-4] vs <strong>Anthony &#8220;Rumble&#8221; Johnson<\/strong> [8-2].\u00a0 This has the potential to be the <strong>fight of the night<\/strong>.\u00a0 It&#8217;s also a tough one to pick.\u00a0 [Yeah, both have nicknames.]\u00a0 <strong>Koscheck<\/strong> and <strong>Johnson<\/strong> both have strong backgrounds in <strong>wrestling<\/strong>, but I&#8217;d give the edge to <strong>Koscheck<\/strong>.\u00a0 Both <strong>like to bang<\/strong>, and here the edge goes to <strong>Johnson<\/strong>.\u00a0 If <strong>Koscheck<\/strong> can take <strong>Johnson <\/strong>down, he could have a good chance for a victory.<strong> Two things<\/strong> could prevent that: <strong>1] Johnson&#8217;s<\/strong> got the <strong>height and reach advantage<\/strong> and knows how to avoid takedowns and <strong>2] Koscheck<\/strong> sometimes seems to <strong>forgot<\/strong> that <strong>his strength is wrestling<\/strong> and instead goes for the knockout.\u00a0 I look for this to be a great fight.\u00a0 <strong>My pick &#8211; Koscheck<\/strong> [despite the fact that his nickname seems like an after thought.]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Tito<\/strong> &#8220;The Hunington Beach Bad Boy&#8221; <strong>Ortiz<\/strong> [16-6-1] vs <strong>Forrest Griffin<\/strong> [16-6].\u00a0 This should also prove to be an interesting fight.\u00a0 Two of the biggest <strong>fan favorite fighters<\/strong> [try saying that 3 times fast] squaring off in a <strong>rematch<\/strong> [the first ended in a controversial split decision win for <strong>Ortiz<\/strong>].\u00a0 <strong>Oritz<\/strong> is primarily known as a <strong>wrestler <\/strong>who takes down his opponents and then works them over with brutal elbows.\u00a0<strong> Griffin<\/strong> projects the image of an <strong>unskilled brawler<\/strong>, but in reality is a <strong>skilled striker <\/strong>who holds a <strong>brown belt in BJJ<\/strong>.\u00a0 I don&#8217;t think that<strong> Otiz <\/strong>will be able to finish <strong>Griffin<\/strong> early, although he may be able to take him down in the first round.\u00a0 After the first, takedowns will be much more difficult and <strong>Griffin&#8217;s superior striking <\/strong>will come into play.\u00a0 <strong>My pick &#8211; [despite no nickname] Griffin. <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tonight&#8217;s UFC 106 card is quickly approaching. Let&#8217;s take a look at the fights and my picks: Kendall &#8220;da Spider&#8221;<\/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-3802","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\/3802","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=3802"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3806,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3802\/revisions\/3806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}