Diego Sanchez will be making his return to the Welterweight division on Saturday when he takes on the undefeated John Hathaway. In 2002, Diego Sanchez made his MMA debut for King of the Cage, putting together an impressive 11-0 record and in the process becoming KOTC champion. His UFC debut came when he was chosen as a participant on the first season of the reality show, The Ultimate Fighter. He won a contract with the UFC after winning a fight against Kenny Florian, becoming the middleweight winner for the first season of the show. Shortly after, Sanchez dropped to welterweight, defeating Brian Gassaway, Nick Diaz, John Alessio, Karo Parisyan, and Joe Riggs. Sanchez then fought Joe Riggs on December 13, 2006 at UFC Fight Night 7. Sanchez landed a right hook that knocked Riggs down, followed by a running knee that knocked Riggs out.
Sanchez won at 1:45 of the first round, scoring the first UFC knockout of his career. At UFC 69 Sanchez ended up losing by decision to Josh Koscheck, ending his undefeated run, in a fight that was virtually all stand up. In his next fight he lost a split decision to Jon Fitch at UFC 76 on before rebounding against David Bielkheden at UFC 82 with a submission due to strikes.
Following the win, Sanchez stopped former Marine Luigi Fioravanti via TKO due to strikes at 4:07 of the third round at The Ultimate Fighter 7 Finale. After pulling out of a fight with Thiago Alves due to an injury, Sanchez announced he would be moving to the lightweight division. His next fight was then scheduled at UFC 95 against Joe Stevenson in the lightweight division. Although Stevenson pressed the action throughout the bout, Sanchez landed the better strikes and won by unanimous decision. On June 20, 2009 Sanchez won a split-decision victory against Clay Guida at the finale of The Ultimate Fighter: US vs. UK Finale. Sanchez won Fight of the Night honors, his second such award in a row. At UFC 107 Sanchez fought and lost to BJ Penn for the UFC Lightweight Championship. Early in the first round, Penn landed a right hand that dropped Sanchez, followed by flurry of punches that almost prompted referee Herb Dean to stop the fight. Although Sanchez was able to recover enough to stay in the bout, he was outclassed in the following 3 rounds that saw Penn dominate with superior stand up, whilst all 27 takedown attempts made by Sanchez were negated by Penn's superior defense. Early in the fifth round, Penn landed a head kick that caused a large cut to be opened up on the forehead. Herb Dean called the action to a halt for doctor's advice and the fight ended at 2:37 by TKO, marking the first time Sanchez has been stopped in a fight.
Formerly an open-side flanker for local rugby team Hove RFC, John Hathaway decided to make the transition to mixed martial arts after watching the Ultimate Fighting championship on television. He made his professional MMA debut on the 25th June 2006, defeating his opponent via rear naked choke in the first round. After putting together a very impressive 9-0 win streak Hathaway signed a four fight deal with the UFC and was scheduled to fight undefeated Tom Egan at UFC 93 in his debut for the organization. He made an impressive UFC debut, scoring a dominant TKO win over Egan via elbows. Hathaway then defeated the debuting Rick Story at UFC 99 in Cologne, Germany. Hathaway's next fight was against English striker Paul Taylor at UFC 105, in Manchester, England. Hathaway won a comfortable unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26).
Diego Sanchez will be looking to re-bound from the beat down that he took from BJ Penn in this fight, however his opponent will not be looking to do him any favours, John Hathaway is currently 12-0 in his MMA career and he will know full well that a win over Diego Sanchez will prove to be a massive boost in getting him even higher in the welterweight rankings. Despite looking less than impressive in his last fight Diego is in fact one of the most well rounded fighters in the division with an excellent ground game & solid striking that he has improved with every fight. All of this makes him a difficult fight for most people in the welterweight division & Hathaway will need to be on top of his game to get a win on Saturday night. I can’t see Hathaway getting the better of Diego on the ground in this fight so in order for him to win I think he will need to use his strikes to out-point Diego & try to get a unanimous decision. Diego should look to use his superior grappling to take John to the ground where he will then be able to punish him with his ground & pound or even try for the submission. At the end of the night I think that Diego will take a unanimous decision in this fight due to having the more well-rounded skills.
My Prediction: Diego Sanchez via unanimous decision.
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira will look to build on his impressive UFC debut with another win when he takes Jason Brilz in a light heavyweight battle. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira made his MMA debut in 2001 with a TKO victory over Shamoji Fujii. He went 3-0 in his career before suffering his first loss against Vladimir Matyushenko via decision. After this loss Nogueira won his next 8 fights, defeating the likes of Guy Mezger, Kazushi Sakuraba, Alistair Overeem & Dan Henderson. However his impressive winning streak came to end at Pride Critical Countdown 2005 when he lost a unanimous decision to Mauricio Shogun Rua. Nogueira suffered the 3rd loss of his career at Pride 33 when Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou shocked the world by KO’ing Nogueira in just 24 seconds. Since that loss Nogueira put his career back on track with 5 wins in his next 5 fights including a win over Matyushenko, avenging the earlier loss from his record. On August 28, 2009, Dana White had confirmed that Nogueira had signed a contract with the UFC. Nogueira would make his debut at UFC 106 against Luiz Cane and made quick work of the very tough Brazilian, dropping him with a sweeping left hook before finishing him off with punches on the mat at 1:56 of the first round.
Jason Brilz was a three time Academic All American during his amateur wrestling career & compiled a 63–34 career record before eventually making the move to mixed martial arts in March 2000. Brilz was successful in his MMA debut, earning a submission victory in the 3rd round of his fight against Mitch Rosland. Brilz put together a 5-0 winning streak before suffering the 1st loss of his career against Jason Fields via armbar. He bounced back from the defeat by winning 10 of his next 11 fights before signing with the UFC to fight in his native Omaha, Nebraska, at the UFC Fight Night 15. Brilz is currently 3–1 in the UFC with wins over Brad Morris, Tim Boetsch, and Eric Schafer. Brilz's only loss came via controversial decision to Eliot Marhsall at UFC 103.
Brilz deserves a lot of respect for taking this fight with only 2 weeks’ notice as he will be taking on one of the most dangerous fighters in the light heavyweight division in Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. Lil’ Nog is extremely well rounded with some of the best BJJ in the sport today & he also has excellent boxing along with KO power as he showed in his last fight, where he stopped striker Luiz Cane in the 1st round. Brilz is coming into this fight with an impressive 18-2-1 record and he has excellent wrestling which enables him to get most of his opponents on the ground where he is then able to work his game. However this is going to be a very tough fight for him, I don’t think Brilz will want to stand with Nog for too long as the Brazilian will have the superior technical ability & more power when it comes to striking in this match-up. Brilz best chance at winning this fight will be to use his wrestling to take Nogueira down and then look to use his ground & pound while staying wary of the submissions that Nogueira likes to attempt off of his back. Brilz will need to be alert at all times in this fight as Nogueira has an extremely active guard and if he loses concentration Lil’ Nog will not hesitate to lock in the submission. I think Nogueira will be comfortable wherever this fight takes place, however he will probably prefer to keep it standing where he will be able to use his superior striking to try & put Brilz away for the 1st time in his career. I’m expecting Nogueira to make a statement in this fight as he looks to continue in his quest for a shot at the light heavyweight title.
My Prediction: Antonio Rogerio Nogueira via TKO.
Todd Duffee will look to take another step up the heavyweight ladder as he takes on the underrated Mike Russow. Todd Duffee got his start into MMA after enrolling in boxing classes at the age of sixteen. The classes were unprofessional, poorly organized and lacked good training partners. After moving down to Atlanta, Georgia, Duffee was able to take classes at a real boxing gym. After finding out about MMA, he immediately went out and rented old UFC fights. Three days later, Duffee was working hard at a local MMA gym. Duffee won his first three fights against Mike Walbright, Mark Haniger and Josh Bennett. Duffee then agreed to fight UFC and PRIDE FC veteran, Assuerio Silva in the main event of Jungle Fights 11. Duffee dominated the fight and won by knockout in the second round.
Duffee was set to make his UFC debut against Mostapha Al Turk at UFC 99 until the UFC pulled Duffee from the fight for Mirko Filipovic. He was next announced by the UFC to face fellow UFC newcomer Mike Russow however Duffee was then pulled from that match to face Tim Hague. Duffee fought at UFC 102 on the undercard against Hague. During this fight, Duffee gained the new UFC record for fastest KO, knocking out Hague in only seven seconds, after throwing the first punch that knocked him down.
Mike Russow made his professional MMA debut back in 1998 picking up a unanimous decision victory, however despite this success it would be another 8 years before Russow signed up for another fight. Russow put together a 3 fight win streak when he eventually came back to the sport before losing the 1st fight of his career to date against Sergei Kharitonov at Pride 33: Second Coming. Russow came back from this loss to record a 7 fight win streak which earned him a UFC contract, with his debut taking place at UFC 102 against Justin McCully. Russow got a unanimous decision from the judges with scores of 29-28, 30-26, 30-27.
Todd Duffee is coming into this fight with a lot of hype after his 7 second destruction of Tim Hague in his last fight. Now a lot of people including Todd himself have claimed that he is being over-hyped at the moment & Russow is not someone who should be easily over-looked, if Duffee is able to stop Russow impressively in this fight then maybe the hype isn’t so undeserved after all. Russow is a very underrated fighter and is coming into this fight on an 8 fight win streak, his main strength lies with his BJJ, which he has used to stop 8 of his opponents thus far in his career. If Russow is able to get Duffee to the ground then we could very well see one of the biggest upsets of the night. Duffee has big power in his hands & he has stopped all of his opponents in his 6 fight career, so there is no doubt that he will be looking to catch Russow early on in this fight with one of his big shots. With only 1 of his fights going into the 2nd round it’s difficult to judge just how good Duffee’s overall game is, however he is training with a world class camp at Xtreme Couture & training with that caliber of fighters everyday is only going to take his game to another level. I think this isn’t going to be as easy a fight as everyone is making it out to be for Todd & I expect Russow to test Duffee at some point in the fight, however I do think that one of his big shots will eventually land for Duffee & put Russow out.
My Prediction: Todd Duffee via KO.
Michael Bisping & Dan Miller will collide in a fight that is a must win for both men. Michael Bisping made his professional mixed martial arts debut at Pride & Glory 2: Battle of the Ages on April 4, 2004, taking a 0:38 armbar victory over Steve Mathews. Just one month later, Bisping scored his first knockout against John Weir at UK MMA Challenge 7: Rage & Fury. In his third MMA match, Bisping became the Cage Rage light heavyweight champion at Cage Rage 7, defeating Mark Epstein by technical knockout. Bisping went on to defend his championship title in a rematch against Epstein at Cage Rage 9 in a knockout victory that solidified Bisping as one of the top light heavyweight fighters in England.
Bisping improved his professional record to 10-0 before being invited to participate in The Ultimate Fighter. He won a preliminary bout against Kristian Rothaermel by TKO, followed by a semi-final win against Ross Pointon by submission after landing a flying knee and a series of strikes. In the finals, Bisping defeated Josh Haynes by TKO at 4:14 into the second round, making Bisping the second light heavyweight winner of The Ultimate Fighter television series. Bisping continued his undefeated streak after the show winning his next 3 UFC bouts. His next match at UFC 78 was against fellow Ultimate fighter winner Rashad Evans & resulted in his first loss, via split decision.
After his loss to Rashad Evans, Bisping announced his decision to drop down to the middleweight division and on April 19th 2008 at UFC 83 Bisping made his debut as a Middleweight against Charles McCarthy. Bisping won by TKO as McCarthy was unable to continue after the first round due to a forearm injury he sustained after receiving an unanswered series of knees and uppercuts from Bisping. He was then victorious in both of his subsequent Middleweight fights against Jason Day & Chris Leben respectively before suffering a KO loss to Dan Henderson at UFC 100. Bisping faced Spirit MC & Pride veteran Denis Kang on November 14, 2009 at UFC 105. Bisping TKO'd Kang in the 2nd round. Bisping next faced former PRIDE Middleweight Champion Wanderlei Silva at UFC 110. The fight was fairly even with both men landing takedowns and various strikes. However, Wanderlei Silva's ability to flurry in the final seconds of the second and third rounds, two knockdowns and an attempted guillotine choke contributed to his victory by a close unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
Dan 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. Miller’s latest fight took place at UFC 109, where he lost a unanimous decision to BJJ specialist Demian Maia.
Both guys are coming into this fight off of losses so they should both be extremely motivated to get back on the winning road with this fight. Miller had a disappointing performance in his last fight as he got out-struck by Demian Maia on his way to losing a unanimous decision. If he decides to stand & trade with Bisping as he did in the Maia fight then I don’t think the night will go well for him. Bisping is a much better striker than Maia & has more power in his strikes so unless Miller has significantly improved his punches then I think it would be in his best interests to avoid the stand-up game. Miller will need to go back to basics and use his wrestling to get the fight to the ground where he should then be able to hold the dominant position & work his ground & pound. Bisping has said in the build-up to this fight that he is looking for a clean KO, so i’m expecting him to come out swinging from the first bell. He definitely has the superior striking in this fight so as long as he is able to prevent any takedowns from Miller then I think he stands an excellent chance of ending the fight with his much desired KO.
My Prediction: Michael Bisping via KO.
In the main event of the evening Quinton Jackson & Rashad Evans will finally get to throw down after months of trash talking. Quinton Jackson made his professional MMA debut in November 1999 winning a decision against Mike Pyle. Rampage then went 10-1 before getting his debut with leading Japanese MMA promotion PRIDE FC. Rampage was matched against Japanese superstar Kazushi Sakuraba in his first fight, who at that time was Pride's most popular Japanese fighter. Jackson lost due to a rear naked choke in the first round, but despite losing his performance caught the imaginations of Pride's fans and he was brought back for Pride 17.
Rampage then went 7-1 in his next 8 fights before entering the Pride Middleweight Grand Prix, in the opening round Jackson won a split decision over tough Brazilian fighter Murilo Bustamante. Three months later, Jackson defeated UFC fighter Chuck ‘The Iceman’ Liddell in the tournament's semi-finals at Pride Final Conflict 2003 by corner stoppage, setting up a fight with the Pride Middleweight champion, Wanderlei Silva, in the tournament finals that night. In a fight that went on to become many fan’s fight of the year Jackson was stopped with a series of knees to the head 6:28 into the first round.
Rampage bounced back by winning his next two fights in Pride setting up a much anticipated re-match with the champion, Silva, at Pride 28: High Octane. Jackson started the fight impressively, knocking Silva down in the opening round and getting a takedown later on in the round which led to a series of knees and elbows. Jackson took Silva down again in the second round, but Wanderlei managed to escape to his feet and connected with some vicious knees to KO Jackson for only the second time in his career. After his two losses to Wanderlei, Jackson went 4-1 in his next few fights before signing with the UFC in 2007. His first fight was a re-match against the first guy to ever defeat him in MMA, Marvin Eastman, and Rampage avenged this loss with a KO in the second round. He then went on to fight Light Heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell for the second time at UFC 71, ending the champion’s 7 fight win streak by knocking him out cold for the first time in his career. Rampage then defended his title successfully against Dan Henderson, earning a unanimous decision after a 5 round battle at UFC 75. At this time Rampage seemed to be unstoppable and entered his second title defence against Forrest Griffin as the overwhelming favourite. Rampage started the fight strongly, hurting Griffin with his punches every time he landed, but after failing to check Griffin’s kicks, the damage began to add up and Rampage was visibly limping later in the fight which allowed Griffin to push the pace and even take the champion down. When the five rounds were up Griffin was awarded a unanimous decision with the scores 46-48, 46-48 and 46-49 handing Rampage his first loss in the UFC. Rampage got back on track in his next fight after he finally got his revenge on the only man who had stopped him twice in his career, Wanderlei Silva. Their third fight took place at UFC 92 and this time it was Rampage who knocked Silva out connecting with a vicious left hook in the first round. Jackson's next fight was against Keith Jardine at UFC 96 on March 7, 2009. Jackson then won the fight by unanimous decision with many believing that his knockdown of Jardine in the final seconds of the third round swayed the outcome of the fight.
Rashad Evans made his MMA debut in April 2004 securing an anaconda choke on Dennis Reed in the first round to successfully begin his career. He then went on to win his following 4 fights before getting a chance to compete on The Ultimate Fighter 2 as a heavyweight. He was considered the underdog in each of his fights, but made it to the finals by defeating Tom Murphy, Mike Whitehead, and Keith Jardine. In the final Evans defeated Brad Imes by split decision to win a three-year, six-figure contract with the UFC. After the show Evans joined Greg Jackson's Submission Fighting camp and continues to fight out of that camp today.
After his success on the show Evans dropped down to the light-heavyweight division and took on Sam Hoger at Ultimate Fight Night 4 defeating Hoger via split decision. Evans continued his winning streak improving his record to 10-0 before getting the biggest fight of his career to date against former light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz. The fight ended in a draw as all three judges scored the bout 28-28. Ortiz had won two out of three rounds on all scorecards, but was deducted a point for holding the cage to defend against a takedown by Evans. After the Ortiz fight, Evans took on Michael Bisping in another close fight and ended up giving the Englishman his first ever loss at UFC 78.
Evans’ next fight took place almost a year later against Chuck Liddell, with a shot at the Light Heavyweight title at stake this would be Rashad’s biggest challenge thus far in his career. After a fairly even first round in which Evans stood & traded with ‘The Iceman’ he flashed a jab and then landed an overhand right just as Liddell was throwing an uppercut half way through the second round. The punch caught Liddell flush on the chin and KO’d him instantly. This impressive victory put Rashad in line to fight the champion, Forrest Griffin at UFC 92. Forrest controlled most of the beginning stages of the fight, however in the 3rd round; Evans caught a low kick and countered with a straight right hand that dropped Griffin. Rashad then followed Griffin to the ground finished the fight with his ground and pound to become the new UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. Evans lost his first defense of the UFC Light-Heavyweight title via knockout to undefeated Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida. Rashad experienced a flurry of accurate punches by Machida, which resulted in his legs giving-way and him losing consciousness. Evans would go on to defeat Thiago Silva in his next fight by unanimous decision. Deviating from his usual standing and striking, Evans displayed his grappling skills with numerous takedowns that frustrated Silva throughout the match, but Evans failed to damage Silva substantially while on the ground. In the third round, after severely mocking his opponent's fighting style with various taunts, Silva connected with a right hook to Evans' jaw, rocking him, but was unable to finish the fight.
This fight has been building up for a long time & has more bad blood than any MMA fight that I can remember. It’s been over a year since Rampage has stepped into the octagon; however as seen on the UFC Primetime show, he has been training like a man possessed and should be in the best shape of his career. Rashad has also been training vigorously for this fight so we should see both men at the top of their games when they finally clash. This will be an interesting fight, especially seeing as both men have a real hatred towards one another, will this cause them to throw their game plans out of the window when the cage door closes? Or will they manage to maintain their cool & follow the instructions of their corner men? Both fighters are strong wrestlers who have developed very good striking over the years, Rashad has a more elusive striking style however he is prone to dropping his hands & show-boating, whereas Rampage tends to look to counter his opponents while keeping a tight defence. I think Rashad will hold the speed advantage with his strikes and I expect him to move in & out of range while looking to land quick combinations. Rampage on the other hand will hold the power advantage with his strikes so look for him to wait for the right moment to counter Rashad with one of his big shots & test Rashad’s chin. I don’t think we’ll see much of the ground game in this fight unless someone gets rocked & goes the takedown, with both guys claiming to want to knock the other out we should see most of the fight on the feet. This is a tough fight to call & either guy could walk away with the W, it will be interesting to see just how much the ring rust will affect Rampage as this seems to have been a big problem for some fighters recently. If Rashad is smart & sticks to his game plan then he should be able to out-strike Rampage in this fight, however the fact that he got KO’d cleanly against Machida & rocked in his fight against Thiago Silva has me questioning whether he will be able to stand up to Rampage’s power. I’ve got a feeling Rampage is going to connect at some point in the fight & when he does it’ll just be a matter of time before he finishes the job.
My Prediction: Rampage via TKO.
