Brandon 'The Truth' Vera
Krzysztof 'The Polish Experiment' SoszynskiIn the first Light Heavyweight bout of the evening Krzysztof Soszynski will be making a big step up in competition as he takes on ‘The Truth’ Brandon Vera. Vera's first professional mixed martial arts bout was on July 6 2002. He won the fight, against Adam Rivera, via TKO in the first round. He fought and won another bout in 2004 before entering a World Extreme Cagefighting heavyweight tournament in 2005, where he won two bouts in one night, including a bout against Mike Whitehead in the finals. Vera then made his UFC debut at Ultimate Fight Night 2 against Fabiano Scherner. Vera won the fight via KO mid-way through the second round. Following the Scherner bout, he faced Justin Eilers at UFC 57, winning early in the first round by knockout. At UFC 60, Vera defeated Assuerio Silva with a guillotine choke. On November 18, he needed just 69 seconds to stop ex-heavyweight champion Frank Mir at UFC 65.
After his demolition of Mir, it was almost a year before Vera stepped into the Octagon again due to some contract issues. His return bout took place at UFC 77 against Tim Sylvia and after going the distance with the former Heavyweight champ, Vera lost for the first time in his career via unanimous decision. After the Sylvia fight Vera suffered his second loss at UFC 85 against Fabricio Werdum by TKO. Following 2 back to back losses Vera decided to drop down to the light heavyweight division & defeated Reese Andy at Ultimate Fight Night 14 via unanimous decision.
At UFC 89 Vera lost to Keith Jardine via a narrow split decision. A more focused Vera appeared on the preliminary card of UFC 96. It was the first time Vera wasn't on the main card since he made his debut in the UFC. He put on an impressive performance against Mike Patt, showing a more aggressive and intense striking approach and stopping Patt via TKO (Leg kicks) in the 2nd round.
Krzysztof Soszynski made his MMA debut in 2003 against Matt Lafromboise, submitting the Canadian in the very 1st round to get his career off to a winning start. He then put together a 5 fight winning streak before suffering his first loss to Chris Tuchscherer via decision. He bounced back by winning his next two fights before embarking on the worst run of his career to date where he lost 4 fights in a row. Despite this bad run Soszynski managed to put together some good results to take his record to 15-8 before being invited to take part on The Ultimate Fighter. On the show he defeated Mike Stewart and Kyle Kingsbury on the way to the semifinals, before losing to Vinicius Magalhaes.
Soszynski made his official UFC debut against former Ultimate Fighter castmate Shane Primm, whom he defeated by kimura at The Ultimate Fighter Finale. His second UFC fight was at UFC 97 where Soszynski won a second consecutive submission of the night by forcing former Marine Brian Stann to tap out to a Kimura. In his most recent fight Soszynski stepped in as a late replacement for Houston Alexander and knocked out Andre Gusmao at 3:17 in the first round of their preliminary fight at UFC 98.
This will be a big test for Soszynski, as it will determine whether he is ready to make the step up and prove that he belong with the elite fighters in his weight division. As evidenced by his 18-8 record, Soszynski tends to put together a decent winning streak, building his momentum, before losing & then he has to start all over again. If he manages to get a win in this fight then that will take his official record in the UFC to 4-0 and he won’t be far away from getting a fight against one of the top contenders. The strongest part of Soszynski game are his submissions and wrestling and this is where I expect him to try to take the fight. Vera has excellent striking and with Soszynski getting KO’d in previous fights he will not want to trade with the Filipino for long. However even if this fight goes to the ground Soszynski is not guaranteed an easy fight as Vera possesses very good submissions aswell, he just prefers to keep most of his fights standing. Even though Soszynski has been on a roll lately, I just think Vera will be too well rounded for him in this fight and will walk away with a KO victory.
My Prediction: Brandon Vera via KO.
Nate 'The Great' Marquardt
Demian MaiaIn a fight that may very well decide the next challenger for Anderson Silva’s middleweight title, unbeaten submission specialist Demian Maia will take on the King of Pancrase Nate Marquardt. Marquardt began his professional mixed martial arts career in 1999, amassing victories in various promotions before entering the Bas Rutten Invitational 4 tournament, which was organized in such a manner that the tournament winner was to be offered a contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. But despite winning the tournament, Marquardt was offered no such contract.
In his first Pancrase fight, Marquardt lost via submission to Genki Sudo. Regardless of this he was invited back to Pancrase for a middleweight elimination tournament, Marquardt defeated Daiju Takase, Kiuma Kunioku, and Shonie Carter to become the first middleweight King of Pancrase. Marquardt defended this title twice before being defeated by Kunioku in December 2001. A final encounter between the two fighters in December 2002 saw Marquardt defeat Kunioku once again to recapture the King of Pancrase championship, which he held for nearly a year. On May 1, 2005, Marquardt defeated Izuru Takeuchi, winning the Pancrase middleweight championship for a seventh time (the only fighter to ever accomplish such a feat). Shortly after Nate signed with the UFC & made his debut against Ivan Salaverry, although he was successful in his debut, defeating Ivan via decision. Nate tested positive for high levels of nandrolone and was subsequently banned for 5 months. Upon his return from suspension Nate put together a 3 fight win streak leading to a shot at the Middleweight title.
At UFC 73 Marquardt fought Anderson Silva for the Middleweight championship. Anderson stopped Nate’s winning streak after TKO’ing him at the end of the 1st round. Nate rebounded from the loss by defeating Jeremy Horn via submission at UFC 81. After the Horn bout Marquardt finally fought Thales Leites at UFC 85–a fight that had been postponed on two separate occasions since 2006. Marquardt controlled Leites for the second and third round of the fight but landed an illegal knee strike to the head of Leites in the second round and an alleged elbow to the back of the head in the third. These illegal strikes proved critical as they cost Nate the judge’s decision. Marquardt was next scheduled to face Martin Kampmann. Nate defeated Kampmann in 82 seconds by throwing a head kick and landing a barrage of strikes to take the win by TKO in the first round. Marquardt then obtained a second straight win to launch himself back into the title picture at UFC 95, when he defeated well-regarded Brazilian fighter Wilson Gouveia with another impressive barrage of strikes to earn a third round TKO.
Demian Maia made his mixed martial arts debut against Lukas Chlewicki at The Cage - Volume 4 in Helsinki, Finland in 2005. In just 4:22, Maia submitted Chlewicki by armbar to win his MMA debut. After nearly a year, he returned to compete at Super Challenge 1, earning three victories in one night to be crowned the 2007 Super Challenge Champion in the under 83kgs division. In 2007, he competed in GFC - Evolution against Ryan Stout. Early in the first round, Stout's shoulder popped out of socket after Maia reversing him into a mount, causing a stoppage due to injury. In August 2007 the UFC announced that they had signed Maia and that he would take on Ryan Jensen at UFC 77: Hostile Territory. Maia won his debut by rear naked choke in the first round and won Submission of the Night honors. Maia would go on to win this award in his next two fights, against Ed Herman & Jason MacDonald, to give him 3 consecutive Submission of the Night awards.
Maia then defeated Nate Quarry at UFC 91: Couture vs Lesnar by rear naked choke in the first round. After the fight, Maia expressed interest in fighting Michael Bisping next. Instead, Maia would take on Chael Sonnen in London, England at UFC 95. During the fight, Maia tossed Sonnen over his head using a lateral drop takedown, taking Sonnen to the ground, where Maia immediately achieved mount. Maia then baited and transitioned to a triangle choke, forcing Sonnen to tap out at 2:37 of the first round.
Maia has been on an unstoppable run of late and many people expected him to challenge Anderson Silva before it was announced that the champion would move up to face Forrest Griffin. Instead Maia will have to prove himself once again when he takes on Nate Marquardt. This should be an interesting fight as Marquardt is very well rounded and one of the biggest Middleweights in the UFC, so it may prove to be difficult for Maia to get Nate on to the ground which is where he will want the fight to go. Demian has been working on his stand-up extensively, as it has been seen as a weakness in his overall game, however I’m not sure if he’ll be able to stand up to Nate’s power if he decides to trade strikes. Maia will need to find a way to close the distance early in this fight and from there he can attempt to figure out a way to get the fight to the ground. If Maia does get the fight to the ground then it’s difficult to bet against him getting the submission, even though Nate is also excellent at submissions, Maia is just on another level. If Nate is to win this fight then he will need to use his strength to stuff Maia’s takedowns & force the Brazilian to stand with him, if he does this then I think there’s a chance we could see Maia’s unbeaten record come to a stop. This is one of those fights that really could go either way and I’m having a tough time picking a winner in this fight but I think Marquardt may just be the guy to end Maia’s unbeaten run.
My Prediction: Nate Marquardt via decision.
Chris 'The Crippler' Leben
Jake RosholtIn his first bout back from suspension Chris Leben will take on top middleweight prospect Jake Rosholt. Rosholt began training for MMA at Xtreme Couture and made his debut in July 2007 against Dusty Miller, picking up a submission victory to begin his MMA career. Rosholt put together a 4-0 unbeaten record before making his World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) debut at WEC 36, facing Nissen Osterneck. Rosholt had difficulty defending against Osterneck's stand-up, but was able to secure a number of takedowns and dominate on the ground before winning by technical knockout.
After the WEC dissolved their middleweight division, Rosholt signed with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He was originally scheduled to face Alessio Sakara at UFC Fight Night: Lauzon vs. Stephens, but Sakara withdrew due to injury and was replaced by International Fight League champion Dan Miller who quickly disposed of Rosholt in the first round via guillotine choke giving Rosholt the first loss of his career.
Chris Leben made his debut in MMA back in 2002 at FCFF: Rumble at the Roseland 4, defeating Justin Terherst via submission in the first round. He then went 9-0 as a pro before suffering his first loss to Joe Doerksen via unanimous decision. Leben came back from this loss to win his next fight before taking part in the first season of The Ultimate Fighter. During the show Leben fought Josh Koscheck and ended up losing the two-round fight by unanimous decision due to Koscheck's ability to score points by controlling Leben on the ground.
Later in the show, teammate Nate Quarry was eliminated from the competition due to an ankle injury and was told he could choose a previously eliminated fighter to replace him. He chose Leben, who was later defeated by Kenny Florian due to doctor stoppage in the first semi-final match after Florian opened up a cut above Leben’s eye with an elbow strike. Leben’s losses on the show don’t appear on his professional record, as those fights were officially classified by Nevada as exhibition bouts. After the show Leben had one more chance to prove himself, which he duly took as he defeated Jason Thacker via TKO at the Ultimate Fighter Finale. After this win Leben embarked on a 4 fight win streak which was abruptly ended by Anderson Silva at Ultimate Fight Night 5 when the Brazilian KO’d Leben in the first round. Leben won his next fight before losing 2 back to back fights against Kalib Starnes & Jason MacDonald. With his UFC career lying in the balance Leben took on Terry Martin at Ultimate Fight Night 11 and ended up KO’ing Martin in the 3rd round. Leben then went on to defeat Alessio Sakara at UFC 82 before losing his most recent fight to Michael Bisping at UFC 89. After the fight with Bisping, Leben tested positive for Stanozolol and was suspended for nine months and fined a third of his fight purse.
With both fighters coming into this bout off of losses, a win for either fighter will be a huge boost. Jake Rosholt was considered a top prospect in the middleweight division, however after his recent loss to Dan Miller a lot of questions have been raised and Rosholt will need to answer them by defeating Leben on Saturday. Rosholt’s main strength is his outstanding wrestling and he must use this if he is to stand any chance of getting a victory in this fight. With Leben’s power Jake will not want to stand around for long, so expect him to shoot for the takedown as soon as possible and from there he can work his ground and pound and try to control Leben. With this being Leben’s first fight back after a 9 month suspension he will need to fight off any ring rust as well his opponent. Leben’s strategy will be the same as it is in every fight he takes part in; he will look to trade with Jake and try to land one of his heavy strikes. Chris is more than willing to take a few punches in order to land one of his own big strikes so I don’t expect him to fear Rosholt’s strikes. As long as Chris can keep this fight from going to the ground then I can’t see any other result than a Leben KO.
My Prediction: Chris Leben via KO.
Keith 'The Dean of Mean' Jardine
Thiago SilvaIn the second light heavyweight bout of the night Keith Jardine & Thiago Silva will be looking to get back to winning ways when they face off against each other. Keith Jardine made his professional mixed martial arts debut in August 2001, defeating Amir Rahnavardi by armbar submission. He would win five out of his next six bouts, suffering one knockout loss to Travis Wiuff. Jardine was 8-1-1 in his MMA career before appearing on The Ultimate Fighter 2, he was one of the favorites to proceed to the finals on the show, but was not selected to fight until the semi-finals, where he was defeated by eventual winner and current light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans. Despite losing on the show, Jardine was given another chance by the UFC defeating Kerry Schall by TKO due to leg kicks at The Ultimate Fighter 2 Finale.
After dropping down a weight class to the light heavyweight division Jardine then went 3-2 in his next five fights before getting an opportunity to fight Chuck Liddell at UFC 76. In biggest fight of his career to date Keith defeated ‘The Iceman’ by split decision and was in line to challenge for the UFC light heavyweight championship. However, in his subsequent fight against ‘The Axe Murderer’ Wanderlei Silva at UFC 84, Jardine got knocked out just 36 seconds into the first round after getting caught in an early exchange of punches. Jardine went on to face Brandon Vera at UFC 89, and ended up winning a split decision after a tough fight. With the victory, Jardine earned a shot at Quinton Jackson at UFC 96. Although the fight was considered an elimination bout for title contention, Jardine and former light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans are close friends and training partners, and both have stated that they will not fight each other. In a very close fight, Jardine lost a unanimous decision. Two of the three judges scoring the fight later stated that Jardine would have won if he had not been knocked down in the final seconds of the third round.
Thiago Silva made his professional MMA debut in September 2005 against Rubens Macula, earning a TKO victory in the second round. For his next 9 bouts Thiago fought almost solely in his native country of Brazil. During this run, Thiago attained a perfect 9–0 record, winning 7 of these bouts by KO or TKO. Shortly after his 9th win Thiago was signed by the UFC and made his UFC debut against James Irvin at UFC 71. During the first round, Irvin injured his knee and was unable to continue the fight. Thiago was awarded the win by TKO. Thiago's next fight was against Tomasz Drwal at UFC 75. Thiago won the fight by TKO due to strikes in the second round.
Following his first two wins, Thiago made his televised debut as part of the main card of UFC 78 against Houston Alexander. During the bout, Silva quickly exposed Alexander's ground game, which had been untested in Alexander's first two knockout victories. After reversing position and securing the mount, Silva rained down punches until his opponent was knocked out in the opening round. Thiago was next slated to face fellow countryman Antonio Mendes. After being surprised by a head kick moments into the bout, Silva was able to take down his opponent and secure mount position. From the dominant position, Silva pounded away with punches and elbows until Mendes tapped out in the opening round.
Originally scheduled to face future light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida at UFC 89, Thiago was forced to withdraw from the fight due to an injured back suffered while training. The fight was later rescheduled and took place at UFC 94. Thiago ended up suffering his first career defeat, getting KO’d at the end of the opening round.
Both of these fighters will have something to prove in this fight with Jardine coming off of a loss to Rampage & Silva coming off of a loss to Lyoto Machida. Neither fighter looked at their best in their previous fights, with Jardine getting dropped a couple of times before losing a decsion & Silva getting KO’d in the first round. Now this could have two outcomes on how this fight will play out, it could either cause them to become more cautious of getting KO’d or it could make them come out swinging, looking for an impressive way to stop the fight. I personally hope we see the latter as it should make for an extremely exciting fight. Both Jardine and Silva possess KO power in their hands and they do tend to keep their fights standing, with Thiago only really going for takedowns when he gets hurt, so I’m expecting most of this fight to take place on the feet. It’s difficult to say who has the advantage in the striking, but I’d give a slight power advantage to Silva however I think Jardine’s unorthodox striking has the potential to cause damage. Keith likes to throw his punches from all sorts of weird angles and it makes blocking very difficult for his opponents as they struggle to time his strikes & gauge the distance. One thing that could decide the outcome of this fight besides the striking is the fact that Keith Jardine is currently training with one of the best trainers in MMA today, Greg Jackson, who is notorious for putting together solid game plans for his fighters. Keeping this in mind and with the experience that Jardine has, I think Silva will be in for a tough night.
My Prediction: Keith Jardine via decision.
Randy 'The Natural' Couture
Antonio Rodrigo 'Minotauro' NogueiraIn the main event of the evening we will see two heavyweight legends clash for the first time as UFC legend Randy Couture takes on Pride legend Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria. In 1999, at age 23, Nogueira made his mixed martial arts debut against David Dodd in World Extreme Fighting 6, submitting Dodd via crucifix in the first round. After defeating Nate Schroeder via armbar in WEF 7, he fought in Japan for the Rings promotion's King of Kings 1999 forty eight man tournament held over 3 events where he won three fights before losing by decision to Dan Henderson in the tournament semi-finals. In between the two Rings events in which he competed he defeated Jeremy Horn by decision at WEF 8. Nogueira then entered the King of Kings 2000 forty man tournament held over three events, winning all of his five matches to become the tournament champion.
In 2001 Nogueira signed with Pride and won his first 3 fights capturing the Heavyweight title in the process. Nogueira went on to win his subsequent 5 fights to take his record with the organization to 8-0 including wins over Bob Sapp, Semmy Schilt, Enson Inoue, Mark Coleman & Dan Henderson. Now regarded as the best heavyweight in MMA, with a record of 19-1-1 after avenging his only loss, Nogueira took on Fedor Emelianenko at Pride 25 where his remarkable winning streak came to an end, losing a judges' decision after Emelianenko dominated the fight with his characteristic ground-and-pound through the guard. Nogueira rebounded from the loss by winning his next 5 fights to set-up a re-match with Fedor at Final Conflict 2004. The fight was markedly different from their first, with Nogueira able to avoid the damage he suffered from ground-and-pound in their first meeting, but was stopped when Emelianenko suffered a cut after an accidental head butt and could not continue, resulting in a no contest. Another rematch was required to determine the tournament champion, and was scheduled for Pride Shockwave 2004 on 31 December 2004. Despite Nogueira's improved gameplan and striking technique, he suffered another unanimous decision loss to Emelianenko.
After his second loss to Fedor, Nogueira won his following 4 fights before dropping a split decision to Josh Barnett at Pride Final conflict Absolute. Despite losing to Barnett it wouldn’t take long for Nogueira to get his shot at revenge as he fought Josh again just 3 months later, this time winning a unanimous decision. Shortly after this Nogueira signed with the UFC and made a successful debut at UFC 73, defeating Heath Herring via unanimous decision. At UFC 81 Nogueira defeated Tim Sylvia in the third round with a guillotine choke to become the interim heavyweight champion. In his most recent fight Nogueira fought Frank Mir met at UFC 92 for the interim UFC heavyweight title. Mir won in the second round via TKO due to strikes, showing much improved striking by knocking Nogueira down twice in the first round, Herb Dean stopped the match at 1:54 of the second round. The loss marked the first time Nogueira had been stopped in his career.
Randy Couture began his MMA career in May 1997, defeating Tony Halme via submission at UFC 13. After winning his first 3 fights, Couture had a chance to fight Maurice Smith for the UFC Heavyweight title and won via majority decision. His reign as champion didn’t last long as he went on to lose his next 2 fights back to back. After getting back to winning ways Couture won his 2nd UFC Heavyweight title after stopping Kevin Randleman via TKO at UFC 28. He went on to successfully defend his title twice after beating Pedro Rizzo in straight back-to-back victories. Shortly after the Rizzo fights Couture lost to both Josh Barnett & Ricco Rodriguez and decided to move down a weight class to fight at 205 lbs in the UFC's light heavyweight division. In his light heavyweight debut, Couture took on long-time number one contender Chuck Liddell for the interim light heavyweight championship. Couture won by TKO in the third round, and became the only UFC competitor to win championship titles in two weight classes.
His next match was billed as a "Champion vs. Champion" fight in order to settle who was the rightful, undisputed champion of the division. Couture faced the five-time defending champion Tito Ortiz for the undisputed light heavyweight title. Couture won a unanimous decision and became the undisputed UFC light heavyweight champion at age 40. On April 16, 2005, Couture lost his title and suffered the first knockout loss of his career in a rematch with Chuck Liddell. Couture came back in August with a win over Mike Van Arsdale to re-establish himself as a top contender. He faced Liddell again for the third and final time in a championship match at UFC 57. He did not succeed, falling victim to a second round knockout. Immediately after the match, he announced his retirement from the sport.
Couture ended his retirement at UFC 68 when he took on Tim Sylvia for the UFC Heavyweight title, he ended up shocking the world again by defeating the 6’8 Sylvia by unanimous decision. Couture defended his title against Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 74, defeating the Brazilian via TKO stoppage in the 2nd round. After defending his title Couture was involved with a contract dispute with the UFC resulting in him not fighting at all in 2008. Finally the two sides came to an agreement & on September 2, 2008 the UFC announced a 3 fight deal with the now 45 year old Randy Couture to return to active competition for the UFC. His first fight back was at UFC 91 where he lost his UFC Heavyweight Championship to Brock Lesnar. It was at first a closely contested match, however, later in the fight Lesnar knocked Couture down and finished him with hammer fists for a TKO victory at 3:07 of the second round.
There have been a lot of rumors surrounding Nogueira’s camp for this fight with his team-mates claiming that he’s in the best shape he’s been in for 5 years & other reports from so-called insiders claiming that he is being knocked out in sparring. I hope this isn’t true as Nogueira will need to be at 100% if is to stand a chance at beating Couture. The big concern regarding Nogueira is whether his last performance was mainly down to him being hospital before the fight or whether it was a combination of that along with his age catching up to him. Even though he will be the younger man in this fight by quite a distance Minotauro has been involved in a lot of wars, where he has taken a beating but managed to come back and submit his opponents. Have all these battles finally caught up to the Brazilian? Couture on the other hand seems to go from strength to strength even though he is well into his 40’s, in his most recent fight, he was taking the fight to Lesnar before getting caught by a shot to the temple which dropped him. Nogueira’s biggest strength and best chance of winning this fight is his submissions, his guard is one of the most dangerous in a MMA and even though Couture has excellent submission defence. I still think that Nogueira could catch him if he stays there too long. Besides his submissions Nogueira also has good boxing skills, which he may need to utilize in the early parts of this fight. If he can keep Randy at a distance & use his reach then he may win enough rounds to edge the fight. Couture always comes into his fights with excellent game plans & Saturday should be no different, if I had to guess I’d say that Couture will look to clinch with Nogueira and use his excellent wrestling to control the former champion while also utilizing his dirty boxing. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see Couture go for a takedown just to score some points, however I don’t think he’ll let the fight stay on the ground too long unless he gets into an advantageous position. This is another tough fight to call as both of these guys are legends who helped build the sport, however at this point in their careers I think that Randy will be too much for Nogueira and will stop the Brazilian inside 3 rounds.
Prediction: Randy Couture via TKO.
