Matt 'The Terror' Serra
Frank 'Twinkle Toes' TriggIn the first fight on the main card Frank Trigg will look to avenge his disappointing loss in his UFC return against Josh Koscheck by trying to take out former Welterweight champion Matt Serra. Frank Trigg made his professional MMA debut in 1997 against Ali Elias, earning a KO victory in the 1st round. Trigg went on a 7-0 win streak before suffering the first loss of his career to Hayato Sakurai via TKO. Trigg joined the World Fighting Alliance from 2001-2002, where he held the WFA welterweight title. Trigg was undefeated in WFA.
After several successful years with the WFA, in 2003, Trigg joined the UFC. Trigg earned an immediate title shot against champion Matt Hughes at UFC 45. After a tactical grappling match-up early on, Trigg fell victim to a rear naked choke in the first round. Trigg rebounded quickly, defeating Dennis Hallman and Renato Verissimo in UFC 48 and 50 to earn another shot at Hughes' Welterweight Championship. In their second fight at UFC 52, Hughes submitted Trigg by rear naked choke for the second time in a row in what is considered one of the great comebacks in UFC history. Trigg returned at UFC 54 to take on future welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre where he once again lost by a rear naked choke in the opening round. This loss would be Trigg's final appearance in the UFC until he recently signed a contract to fight Koscheck.
Trigg participated in Rumble on the Rock's 2006 welterweight tournament, winning his first round fight against Ronald Jhun. He was upset in the second round by Carlos Condit. After this tournament Trigg won the Icon Sport Middleweight title, TKO’ing Jason "Mayhem" Miller. His next fight was at Pride 33, against Middleweight Grand Prix champion Kazuo Misaki. Trigg out wrestled Misaki and maintained control on the ground, winning by a 30-27 unanimous decision. A month later, Trigg unsuccessfully defended his Icon Sport middleweight title against Robbie Lawler, losing in the fourth round via KO. Since the loss to Lawler, Trigg put together a 4 fight win streak to earn himself another shot in the UFC. In his return Trigg fought against Ultimate Fighter veteran Josh Koscheck at UFC 103. Koscheck defeated Trigg via first round TKO.
Matt Serra debuted back in 1999 submitting Graham Lewis in the first round. He fought sparingly over the next 3 years putting together a 3-0 record before getting his UFC debut against Shonie Carter at UFC 31. Shonie’s unorthodox style gave Serra problems throughout the fight and when Shonie threw a spinning backfist in the 3rd round he KO’d ‘The Terra’ for the first time in his career. Serra came back from the loss to record 2 victories in his next 2 fights before taking on ‘The Prodigy’ BJ Penn at UFC 39, Serra took Penn to the judges’ scorecards but lost via unanimous decision. His next opportunity to fight in the octagon came at UFC 41 against Din Thomas, once again Matt went the full 3 rounds with his opponent but lost by split decision.
After suffering back-to-back losses for the first time in his career, Serra would take almost a year before stepping back into the cage. After this short break, Serra came back to win his next 2 fights before losing the 4th fight of his career against Karo Parisyan. It was after this fight that Serra was invited to become a participant in The Ultimate Fighter 4: The Comeback. During the competition, Serra defeated Pete Spratt and avenged his KO loss to Shonie Carter to reach the finals. At the season finale Serra defeated Chris Lytle by majority decision to become the Ultimate Fighter 4 Welterweight Tournament Champion. His win earned him a guaranteed title shot against Georges St. Pierre for the UFC Welterweight Championship which took place at UFC 69. Serra entered the fight as a massive underdog and shocked the world when he KO’d the champion just over 3 minutes into the first round. In his first title defence Serra was scheduled to face Matt Hughes but was forced to withdraw from the fight with a herniated disc in his lower back. When Serra had fully recovered he was signed to fight GSP in a re-match at UFC 83, this time GSP dominated the action as he picked Serra apart & took him down at will before ending the fight in the second round via TKO. After the 2nd fight against GSP, Serra suffered a unanimous decision loss to Matt Hughes at UFC 98. Serra hurt Hughes early on in the fight with an inadvertent head-butt. However Hughes recovered and went on to win the fight via unanimous decision.
With all the trash talking leading upto this fight we should be guaranteed to see some fireworks. Both guys are also coming into the fight off of losses so there’s a lot at stake for the winner. Trigg didn’t make the best impression on his return to the octagon and he will want to put that right against Serra. Trigg’s strategy in this fight should be to use his reach advantage to try & out-point Serra; he won’t want to get involved in a brawl as Serra only needs to land one punch to end the fight early. For Trigg to win the fight he will need to circle away from Serra’s power & if possible trap him against the cage where he can then work from the clinch. Even though Trigg is the better wrestler in this fight I doubt that he will take Serra to the ground due to how dangerous Serra’s guard can be, Matt possesses world class BJJ and is more than comfortable ending fights from his back. Serra should be comfortable wherever this fight takes place, he will be more than happy to go to the ground & if Trigg keeps it standing then look for Matt to try to get on the inside as he tries to land one of those huge shots. At the end of the night I think Matt has more ways of winning this fight than Trigg so I’m gonna go with ‘the Terror’ in this one.
My Prediction: Matt Serra via KO.
Demian Maia
Dan MillerDemian Maia returns to the UFC after suffering his first KO loss of his career to take on Dan Miller. Miller began his MMA career in November 2005 against Tenyeh Dixon winning via triangle choke in the first round at Reality Fighting 10. He went 2-0 before suffering the first loss of his career, a split decision to Mike Massenzio. Dan rebounded from this loss by winning his next 6 fights which earned him a UFC contract in 2008. Miller fought Rob Kimmons in his UFC debut and submitted the Xtreme Couture fighter in the first round, after that victory he went on to win his next 2 UFC fights to take his record to 11-1-1 overall. In his next fight Dan was scheduled to fight again at UFC 98 against Yushin Okami, but Okami sustained an injury and was replaced by Chael Sonnen. He lost via unanimous decision as Sonnen took him down at will and ground and pounded for three rounds en route to a victory.
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's next opponent was Nate Marquardt at UFC 102: Couture vs. Nogueira on 29th of August. Maia was knocked out 21 seconds into the fight, resulting in his first career loss.
This will be Maia’s first time back in the octagon after suffering the first loss of his career last time out against Nate Marquardt. It’ll be interesting to see how much this KO has affected Maia’s fighting style, his stand-up was never his strongest attribute & after getting KO’d he may be even more hesitant to trade strikes in this fight. On the other hand maybe Maia has been using the time since his last fight to improve his stand-up, we’ll have to wait & see what happens on Saturday. Regardless Maia will need to go back to his strengths in this fight if he wants to get back to winning ways, he’s one of the best BJJ practitioners in the sport and if the fight goes to the ground then it’ll only be a matter of time before Maia is able to lock in the submission. Dan Miller’s main strength is his wrestling & he will need to use this in reverse against Maia to stop the fight from going to the ground. Miller’s best chance at winning against Maia will be to keep Demian standing, where he can then look to expose the Brazilian’s striking. This fight will all depend on whether Demian gets Miller down, if he does then I think we’ll see another submission victory for Maia.
My Prediction: Demian Maia via submission.
Mike 'Quick' Swick
Paulo ThiagoMike Swick will be looking to rebound from his loss to Dan Hardy & also avenge his team-mates loss on Saturday when he steps into the cage with Paulo Thiago. Mike Swick made his MMA debut in November 1998 earning a submission victory over Victor Bell in the 1st round, he went on to amass a 5-1 record before becoming a contestant on the first season of The Ultimate Fighter. He was eliminated from the competition after a semi-final loss to Stephan Bonnar. At The Ultimate Fighter finale, Swick defeated Alex Schoenauer by knockout 20 seconds into the first round, earning the nickname "Quick" from UFC announcer Mike Goldberg. Since then he has lived up to his nickname by defeating Gideon Ray via KO in just 22 seconds, Steve Vigneault via submission at 2:09 of the 1st round and Joe Riggs via submission at 2:19 in the 1st. Swick's first UFC defeat came at UFC 69, losing by unanimous decision to Yushin Okami. He had Okami rattled in the second round, but ultimately succumbed to Okami's superior wrestling and physical presence, as he was took down comfortably and suffered an onslaught of ground and pound for the majority of the fight. After the loss to Okami, Swick went 4-0 with wins over Marcus Davis, Josh Burkman, Jonathan Goulet & Ben Saunders.
In his latest fight Swick replaced an injured Kim Dong-hyun and fought Dan Hardy at UFC 105. The winner was to get the next shot at Georges St-Pierre's welterweight championship. In an interview prior to UFC 105, Swick revealed he was pleased to have dropped back to Welterweight but admitted he couldn't focus on Georges St-Pierre until after UFC 105. Swick was rocked by a straight right hand from Hardy early in the first round and appeared to be uncomfortable competing toe-to-toe with Hardy. He was then rocked again by Hardy in the 2nd and 3rd rounds and went on to lose the fight by unanimous decision.
Paulo Thiago made his professional debut at Storm Samurai 8 in 2005. He fought Ricardo Petrucio and won the fight via submission in round three. His next three fights came on the same night almost a year after his debut. Paulo competed in the Grand Prix Planaltina, winning all three of his fights and became the tournament winner. Paulo finished all three of the fights by submission. After two more victories, Paulo was signed by Jungle Fights MMA. Paulo won four fights for the promotion before being signed by the Ultimate Fighting Championships.
Paulo never signed a contract before his debut against Josh Koscheck, as he was only able acquire a tryout. He ended up shocking the world, scoring an upset victory over the top contender at UFC 95 in what was eventually contested as a controversial stoppage with Koscheck regaining consciousness having hit the ground knocked out, by which time the referee had already called a stop to the contest though. Thiago won the fight by a TKO, with a flush right uppercut and a left hook. At the post-fight conference, Dana White confirmed that Thiago had won knockout of the night honors.
Thiago had his second fight in the UFC, fighting against welterweight contender and Koscheck teammate Jon Fitch. The fight took place at UFC 100. This was Thiago's first fight in the United States and he lost via unanimous decision. He then defeated UFC newcomer Jacob Volkmann at UFC 106. The fight originally was set to be on the undercard but after a fight was cancelled at last minute, Paulo's fight was bumped up to main card.
Mike Swick will need to win this fight impressively if he wants to get back to title contention. He was so close to a shot at the champion with a 4 fight win streak before he got stopped by Dan Hardy in his last fight. Swick’s AKA team-mate Jon Fitch is the only man to have beaten Paulo Thiago in his career thus far & he will no doubt be giving advice to Swick on any weaknesses he picked up on. Thiago will be looking to cause another major upset in this fight just as he did in his debut against Koscheck &with the power he has in his strikes if he is able to land cleanly then he has an excellent chance at doing this. However I think Swick is a more technical striker than Koscheck & he shouldn’t fall into the same traps as Kos did against Thiago. With the hand speed that Swick possesses I think he will have the edge when it comes to striking in this fight. Thiago would be better off trying to close the distance & if possible take the fight to the ground where he can then work his submission game or ground & pound. This is easier said than done however as Swick has good takedown defence & with his crisper punches I have a feeling we’ll be seeing Mike with his hand raised at the end of the night.
My Prediction: Mike Swick via decision.
Nate 'The Great' Marquardt
Chael SonnenNate Marqaurdt will be looking to send a message to Anderson Silva in this fight & stopping Chael Sonnen will definitely make the champ sit up & take notice. Chael Sonnen made his MMA debut in March 2002 against Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller winning via decision after two five minute rounds at HFP 1: Rumble On The Reservation. Thus far Chael has compiled an overall record of 23-9-1, which includes a unanimous decision over the previously undefeated WEC Middleweight champion Paulo Filho at WEC 36. Prior to the fight, Paulo Filho did not make weight (weighing in almost seven pounds over 185 weight limit) thus taking away the chance for Sonnen to capture Filho’s WEC Middleweight title.
A lot of people started to take note of Sonnen after his victory over Filho and he was given the chance to show that this win was no fluke when he made his UFC debut against Demian Maia at UFC 95. Sonnen went into the fight looking to break the Brazilian’s undefeated record, but managed to last just 2 minutes 37 seconds before getting caught in a triangle and forced to tap out. In his next bout Chael Sonnen beat Dan Miller at UFC 98 on May 23 in a unanimous decision. Sonnen came in as a late replacement for Yushin Okami when Okami sustained a torn ligament while training. Sonnen took the fight on 22 days notice, and lost 36 pounds to compete. In his latest fight Chael beat world-ranked opponent Yushin Okami at UFC 104 by unanimous decision.
Nate 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. Marquardt's next fight was against the then undefeated submission specialist Demian Maia at UFC 102 which he won via KO 21 seconds into the first round, landing a counter straight right as Maia threw a high kick. Maia fell face down, unable to protect himself. Nate rushed in to follow up with a right hook, but stopped himself once he saw that Maia was visibly hurt.
Nate will be heading into this fight knowing that a win will likely result in a shot at the middleweight championship, so he will be extremely motivated to take Sonnen out. Chael has been very impressive in his last couple of fights after losing his UFC debut; he has excellent wrestling & will probably look to use it early in this fight to get Marquardt to the ground. Nate is a very powerful striker a he showed in his last fight & I doubt that Chael will want to stand and trade for long, if he sees a chance to take Nate down then I fully expect him to take advantage of it. If he is able to keep Nate down and work his top position then he may be able to take a decision victory. However, Nate improves every time we see him in the octagon and I expect he will be coming into this fight better than ever, with his confidence at an all time high after his latest fight I expect him to come out firing strikes from the start. Nate should have an advantage in the striking in this fight & he should look to use his excellent takedown defence to force Chael to trade with him, if he is able to land cleanly then I’m not sure if Sonnen will be able to handle Nate’s power. At the end of the night I think we’ll see Nate continue his march towards the title.
My Prediction: Nate Marquardt via TKO.
Randy 'The Natural' Couture
Mark 'The Hammer' ColemanIn the main event of the evening two legends of the sport will collide as Mark Coleman takes on Randy Couture in the light heavyweight division. After highly decorated amateur career Mark Coleman made the transition to the then-new sport of mixed martial arts, winning his first two tournaments in dominating fashion, including a win over UFC 8 champion Don Frye at UFC 10 in 1996, and becoming the first UFC Heavyweight Champion after submitting UFC Superfight Champion Dan Severn via submission lock with a neck crank at UFC 12. Coleman made his first UFC Heavyweight Championship title defense at UFC 14, facing kickboxer Maurice Smith. In what turned out to be a long battle, Coleman lost a decision after 21:00 (regulation plus two overtimes). This was considered to be one of the largest upsets in UFC history at that time, largely because of the way Coleman had dominated his opponents in his previous fights. Coleman returned at UFC 17 & fought a relatively unknown (at that time) last minute replacement fighter, the up and coming Pete Williams. In what turned out to be another long and strenuous battle, Coleman appeared to be completely exhausted after 10 minutes. Coleman was fatigued to the point of resting his hands on his knees during the fight. Williams took advantage of Coleman's fatigue and landed a heavy kick to the face, knocking 'The Hammer' out for the first time in his career.
After his shocking loss to Pete Williams, Coleman went to train with former UFC champion Ken Shamrock and his Lion's Den training camp for his upcoming bout with feared Brazilian striker Pedro Rizzo at UFC 18. The fight with Rizzo was part of the "Road to the Heavyweight Title", which was a four man tournament between Coleman, Rizzo, Bas Rutten and Tsuyoshi Kosaka that would crown the next UFC Heavyweight Champion. After 15:00 the fight went to the judges, and they gave a split decision win to Rizzo. From 1999 through 2006, The Hammer continued his career with PRIDE. He won the PRIDE 2000 Open Weight Grand Prix tournament defeating Masaaki Satake, Akira Shoji, Kazuyuki Fujita, and Igor Vovchanchyn. After a quick TKO victory over Allan Goes at PRIDE 13, Coleman faced possibly his toughest challenge ever in Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at PRIDE 16. "Minotauro" was able to catch the Hammer in a triangle/armbar at 6:10 of the first round, breaking Coleman's six fight winning streak. Coleman would take nearly two years off following the fight with Nogueira before returning at PRIDE 26 to face Don Frye in a rematch of their meeting at UFC 10; this proved to be a much tougher battle. Coming back from a career threatening neck injury, Coleman ultimately won a unanimous decision victory after 20 minutes.
Between training fighters and spending time with his family, the Hammer was now fighting roughly once a year. He returned to competition to take place in the PRIDE 2004 Heavyweight Grand Prix, as the returning Grand Prix champion in the Open Weight Division. His first round match was against PRIDE heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko. In what turned out to be a short bout, Coleman was submitted by armbar at 2:11 of the first round, eliminating him from the tournament. Coleman returned to the Pride ring in February 2005, this time facing Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović at PRIDE 29: Fists of Fire. Suffering the second knockout of his career, the Hammer fell to strikes by "Cro Cop" in the first round. In November 2005, Mark Coleman appeared in Bushido Europe-Rotterdam Rumble, Europe's first Bushido event, and choked out Milco Voorn at 0:56 of the first round. The Hammer returned to action at PRIDE 31 with a victory over Chute Boxe team member Mauricio "Shogun" Rua after the fight was stopped when Shogun suffered a dislocated elbow during a Coleman takedown. On October 21 2006, Mark Coleman again faced PRIDE heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko at PRIDE's first American show, PRIDE 32: The Real Deal, and lost via submission (armbar) at 1:17 of round two. After his 2nd loss to Fedor Coleman returned to the UFC to take on Shogun Rua in a re-match, in a fight where both men were exhausted Shogun had enough left in the 3rd round to stop Coleman via TKO. In his most recent fight Coleman took on Stephan Bonnar at UFC 100 & earned a unanimous decision victory.
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. Couture returned to take on Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 102, in a fight that lived up to the hype Couture showed his heart as he fought Nogueira until the very end of the 3rd round before losing a decision. After the loss to Nogueira, Couture dropped back down to the light heavyweight division to take on Brandon Vera at UFC 105, in what was a very closely contested fight, the judges felt Couture did enough to take a unanimous decision victory.
12 years after they were originally scheduled to face off at UFC 17 Mark Coleman & Randy Couture will finally meet in the Octagon. Couture has made no secret of the fact that he is looking for another shot at the light heavyweight title and if he wins this fight then that will put him on a 2 fight win streak & he will surely be close to challenging the champion. Coleman is also looking to have one last big run and he will be extremely motivated for this fight to show everyone that he still has what it takes to compete at this level. Both of these fighters wrestling backgrounds are well documented so I expect to see a lot of clinching & takedown attempts in this fight as each man looks to impose his will on the other. Randy will be looking to use his wrestling to get Coleman up against the cage where he can then use his weight to wear down ‘The Hammer’ and he will also be able to use his dirty boxing to open Coleman up for a potential takedown. Mark on the other hand will be looking to get Randy to the ground rather than clinching, his biggest strength is his ground & pound, so if he can get Couture down then he will have an excellent chance at pulling off the upset. One thing that could affect the outcome of this fight is conditioning, Couture always shows up in excellent shape & is normally just as strong in the last round of a fight as in the first, whereas Coleman has shown a weakness in this area in past fights. If Coleman gasses in the later rounds, you can be sure that Randy will be there to capitalize on it. Another area that Couture may possess an advantage is in the stand-up, he’s improved his striking considerably over the past few years and he may look to use his stand-up early on to throw Coleman off his game. At the end of the night I think we’ll see Couture walk away with a unanimous decision victory as he takes one step closer to another shot at the title.
My Prediction: Randy Couture via decision.
