We’re only days removed from a quality free card that we were able to enjoy courtesy of SpikeTV in North America, we’re only three days out from yet another card, UFC 90.
UFC 90 is headed by the widely regarded number one pound for pound fighter in the world, Anderson Silva. He’ll take on Canadian Patrick Cote in the main event.
This card has seen it’s fair share of changes in the weeks leading up to the event with injuries forcing out main card fighters Goran Reljic and Diego Sanchez.
Taking the place of Diego will be another top ten Welterweight in Josh Koscheck with the hard hitting Drew McFederies stepping in for Reljic.
With that said, my predictions and analysis for each of the televised fights (and some of the undercard):
Thales Leites vs Drew McFedries
Thales is an accomplished Brazillian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt. He holds a record of 4 - 1 in the UFC with two of his victories coming via stoppage (submission). Thales has always looked good to me, his lone loss in the UFC is to Kickboxer Martin Kampmann via decision.
Thales is riding a 4 fight win streak. However, one thing to note is that although he earned the victory over Nate Marquardt via Split Decision, the fight was definitely dominated by Marquardt. Marquardt was penalized twice during the match and lost two points for illegal blows.
Thales did get hit with a vicious illegal knee and chose to continue fighting but for the most part he was just hanging on after that point. I wouldn’t put too much stock in his “victory” over Marquardt. However, it does say a lot about his resilliency to stay in that fight until the end with the punishment that he received from Marquardt who is arguably one of the best Middleweights in the world.
Drew McFedries is a very hard hitting striker out of the Miletich Camp. McFedries is 3 - 3 in the UFC with losses coming to Patrick Cote, Martin Kampmann and most recently to Mike Massenzio via Kimura.
Drew is primarily a striker, he’s got a lot of power and has three victories via KO/TKO stoppage.
Thales showed he had a good chin in his fights with Marquardt and Kampmann. The possibility of a knockout for McFedries is always there but I think Thales will get the victory via submission. His ground game will be much better than McFedries.
Thales Leites via submission.
Sean Sherk Vs. Tyson Griffin
This should be one of the best fights on the card. Both of these guys are known for setting a very fast pace. These guys have a very similar skill set. They both have a background in wrestling, both guys have boxing skills and respectable stand up. Neither of them posses one punch knockout power or a dangerous submission game.
This fight is destined to go the distance, however, I wouldn’t expect a boring fight, it’ll probably be the exact opposite and may be the fight of the night.
Sean Sherk is the former Light Heavyweight Champion. He’s 32 - 3 in his Mixed Martial Arts career. His only losses have come to current Light Heavyweight Champion, BJ Penn, current Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre and former Welterweight Champion, Matt Hughes. He’s lost to only the very best fighters he’s faced.
He’s also got victories over some of the top Lightweights in the game today including, Kenny Florian, Hermes Franca and Nick Diaz.
Sherk always impresses me with his ground control, he seems to pass the guard of most guys with ease. The best evidence of this was his fight against BJJ Black Belt, Hermes Franca. Sherk managed to take Franca down at will, once he was down he transitioned from full guard into side control whenever he pleased. He did much the same in the fight against Florian. While he may not have stopped either fight, he dominated both.
Tyson Griffin is riding a 4 fight win streak, he holds a 5 - 1 record in the UFC with his only defeat coming to fellow top Lightweight prospect, Frankie Edgar.
Tyson always seems to be going at full speed. I’ve yet to see him be dominated in a fight, he’s always in the fight until the end, usually dominating it and controlling it.
Tyson has never really showed the ability to KO or TKO guys in the UFC but he does have a nice clean stand up game. Tyson, like Sherk, has always shown to have excellent control on the ground. Tyson also seems to have a very good ability to come out on top of scrambles. He usually ends up in the dominant position.
The only thing I am sure of is that the fight will almost definitely go the full three rounds.
I think Tyson will be the one looking to keep the fight standing while Sherk will be looking for the takedowns. I don’t think Tyson will be able to avoid Sherk taking him down and once down I think Sherk will be able to control him on the ground as he probably has a strength advantage over Tyson.
This should be a real test for Tyson Griffin but I think in the end, Sherk will prove too much for him. Sherk just seems like a stronger more experienced version of Tyson to me.
My prediction is Sean Sherk via decision.
You can see the rest of my predictions by checking out the full article, here:
UFC 90 Previews, Predictions and Analysis.Let me know what you think!
I'm curious what people think of Werdum/Dos Santos mostly because I'm not very familiar with Dos Santos.
UFC 90 Preview, Predictions and Analysis
Linear Mode
