A near-scuffle between Nate Diaz and Renato Laranja.

I’m thinking Gray Maynard will win this and be the new UFC lightweight champ.

UFC 125 looks like it should be a great show with some good fights. My picks are:
Gray Maynard over Frankie Edgar
Chris Leben over Brian Stann
Brandon Vera over Thiago Silva
Nate Diaz over Dong Hyun Kim
Takanori Gomi over Clay Guida
Marcus Davis over Jeremy Stephens
Josh Grispi over Dustin Poirier
Phil Baroni over Brad Tavares
Mike Brown over Diego Nunes
Jacob Volkmann over Antonio McKee

Wow… I guess Frank Mir was so focused on Brock Lesnar that he forgot about fighting Shane Carwin? I couldn’t believe Mir was standing there looking like he wanted to slug it out with Carwin, who continues his streak of ending fights in the 1st round. He has never had a fight go longer than 1 round, and all end by KO.

The main event of the night, was totally dominated by Georges St. Pierre. Many people are saying it was a boring fight, but whatever, it was dominated from start to finish by GSP and his unstoppable takedowns. GSP apologized aferward to his fans for not finishing Dan Hardy off.

Same thing with Jon Fitch… decision, as usual. Three rounds of dominating Ben Saunders for a unanimous decision.

Other fight results were:
Matt Riddle won by DQ after winning the first two rounds,when in the 3rd round his opponent, Greg Soto kicked him with an illegal upkick while Riddle was down. The doctor stopped the fight because it appeared Riddle was not going to recover.

Jared Hamann defeated Rodney Wallace via decision

Rousimar Palhares defeated Tomasz Drwal via nasty heel hook after Drwal slipped while throwing a kick and landed on his back. Palhares immediately locked on a heel hook and didn’t let go, even when Drwal tapped, even when the ref tried to stop it, Palhares kept torquing the  heel hook. Ouch. Palhares apologized afterward.

Ricardo Almeida defeated Matt Brown in Round 2 via triangle submission.

Nate Diaz looked very impressive, beating up the bigger opponent Rory Markham and scoring a TKO stoppage in round 1.

Jim Miller defeated Mark Bocek by decision

Kurt Pellegrino defeated Fabricio Camoes by rear naked choke in Round 2.

I’m thinking this is going to be a good show!

Ricardo Almeida over Matt Brown by submission
Nate Diaz over Rory Markham by sub
Jim Miller over Mark Bocek
Ben Saunders over Jon Fitch
Kurt Pellegrino over Fabricio Camoes
Frank Mir over Shane Carwin
Georges St. Pierre over Dan Hardy

I like Shane Carwin, I hope he does well…but I ultimately hope for a 3rd match between Mir/Lesnar… although Carwin/Lesnar is very interesting also!

Overall, a great show. Chris Lytle is a bad man. He’s never been knocked out in 49 fights, but came damn close to being KTFO in round 1 after an uppercut from Kevin Burns made his legs like jello for a second, but was relieved when the bell sounded to end the round. Lytle looked around to gather his senses for a couple of seconds, went to his corner and came back out in the 2nd round ready for more war. Dude was slinging haymakers from both sides, landing gnarly body shots with his right. Both dudes continued to slug it out, with Lytle being the aggressor for the rest of the fight, constantly moving forward and cutting Kevin Burns open for a bloody mess.

Clay Guida seriously needs to cut his hair, as much as it is awesome. I know it gives him character and makes him look like a Geico Caveman, but still, it has to mess up his peripheral vision. I would even say there is a chance he could’ve seen that kick coming at his head in round 1 that knocked him on his ass, but maybe not. Anyway, great fight, and Diego is gonna be a top contender for a long time.

Congratulations to the Ultimate Fighter season 9 lightweight and welterweight winners, Ross Pearson and James Wilks, both from Team UK on the show. Pearson won a decision against his teammate Andre Winner, and James Wilks looked very impressive in his 1st round submission victory against Team USA favorite DeMarques Johnson.

Frank Lester fought on the undercard, and I had $10 on him to win. He got submitted by Nick Osipczak, and they didn’t show it on air.

Now I’m looking forward to TUF Season 10 with Kimbo. And who the hell is the 7′ footer in the commercials standing behind Rampage and Rashad?

Tonights UFC is dedicated to Helio Gracie. Respect.

Clay Guida vs. Nate Diaz – I hope this is an awesome fight. I’m not picking a winner, I like both dudes. How can anyone not love Clay Guida? Rogan is talking about Nick Diaz vs. Robbie Lawler and talks about how much Lawler has improved since that fight, so obviously we will see Robbie Lawler back in the UFC soon. Back to this fight, I give round one to Clay Guida for a good takedown, good GNP, and even a full-nelson into side mount to land elbows! Round two coming up…and it was another good round, won by Guida, in my opinion, just for controlling most of it, although Diaz had some good judo throws in the round. Round 3 was good, with Diaz getting the best of the striking early on, but then Guida again took controll and maintained it through the end of the round. Looks like it will be Guida winning a decision…and indeed it is, Clay Giuda wins a split decision.

Dong Hyun Kim vs. Karo Parisyan, bro. - Both dudes are notable judo guys, so this might be interesting…but it wasn’t. Another split decision, Karo Parisyan is the winner. I thought Dong won the first round, but rounds two and three were tough to score.

Jon Jones vs. Stephan Bonnar – WAR BONNAR! imo…but damn, Jon Jones is legit. He kicked that ass throughout round one. However, Bonnar started a comeback in round 2, and I give round 3 to Bonnar. Still, for his performance in the first round, Jon Jones gets a unanimous decision victory.

Lyoto Machida vs. Thiago Silva – Both guys are undefeated…but not after tonight…unless there is some weird draw, which I guess is possible with Machida? However, I am pumped for this fight. Machida is such ninja. WOW, ninja he is! Machida just threw Silva down on the mat and followed up with a punch to the chin on the ground, to KTFO of Thiago Silva at the very last second of round one. Lyoto Machida wins by KTFO.

BJ Penn vs. Georges St. Pierre – Well, basically BJ Penn got his ass kicked for 4 entire rounds, and his corner stopped the fight between the 4th and 5th rounds. I was under the impression they were going to fight to the death, but I guess not. GEORGES ST. PIERRE wins by ass kicking after 4 rounds.

Ummm….did I just hear Joe Rogan mention Fedor Emelianenko on a UFC broadcast?

Dan Miragliotta still sucks, and he looks fatter.

Houston Alexander tried some illegal-looking knees but was ultimately unsuccessful. He’s 37 years old and seems to run out of gas really quick, and obviously is helpless on the ground. Will he be back in the UFC? Props to Eric Schafer for dedicating his win to Evan Tanner. Props to Eric Schafer for taking those illegal knees to the face while he was down.

The UFC is definitely in partnership with or has purchased StrikeForce. With Dana White’s recent comments about StrikeForce having a good business model, and Cung Le in the audience at a UFC event recently, along with Joe Rogan mentioning Strikeforce tonight during the Clay Guida/Mac Danzig fight, the evidence is too strong.

Joe Rogan appears to be working on his Evan Tanner tribute beard. Props to him.

Clay Guida is a badass.

Josh Neer’s board shorts were cool. They were black with a chain link fence design that blended perfectly with the cage, creating a near optical illusion.

Nick Diaz got his name mentioned a few times by Goldberg and Rogan, further evidence of a UFC/Strikeforce partnership… or Nick will be back in the UFC soon.

The UFC will be in Omaha Nebraska on September 17th, for the 15th “Ultimate Fight Night” event that will be broadcast LIVE on SpikeTV.

Nate Diaz vs. Josh Neer
Clay Guida vs. Mac Danzig
Houston Alexander vs. Eric Schafer
Ed Herman vs. Alan Belcher
Joe Lauzon vs. Kyle Bradley

..more fights may be added later.

UFC Fight Night, which I had to record and watch after the event aired.

Houston Alexander was victim of a quick knockout at the hands of James Irvin. In the post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, Houston says he was conscious the whole time, and said he gets hit harder by his children. Poor Houston Alexander, he needs to stick to teaching kids about “Hip-Hop culture” and trying to convince people it’s a “charitable” deed.

Nate Diaz kept his composure even as he was getting drilled upside his orbital bone by Kurt Pellegrino, and managed to survive round one. In round two, he scored a triangle choke and forced Pellegrino to tap. Joe Rogan was exactly right when he said it was the “most entertaining” triangle of the year (or something like that). Diaz gave a double-bird and flexed while Pellegrino was tapping.

I figured Matt Hamill vs. Tim Boetsch would be a messy fight, knowing Hamill likes the ground-n-pound and is very good at it. They both ended up getting their faces thrashed a bit. Matt Hamill’s bottom lip is sliced into two pieces. Hamill won the fight by TKO after pressing Boetsch against the cage and hammering his head around, finally holding his neck down and punching his face. I’m just wondering how the general public will react to Joe Rogan using the term “Rape choke.”

Karo Parisyan complained about an early stoppage, he was more vocal about it that Houston Alexander was, but in Karo’s defense, I couldn’t actually tell if he was knocked out or not, whereas there is no doubt Houston Alexander was unconscious and not defending himself for a couple of seconds, even though he says otherwise.

Tommy Speer is indeed a robot. The dude has a hard noggin on him, but I guess even robots can be destroyed after being hammered repeatedly. Anthony Johnson just owned him with kicks and punches. Tommy Speer stayed standing for like 20 or 30 seconds, taking more punishment and trying to fight back, but the striked had him moving slower and slower. Anthony Johnson finally nailed him and left him asleep leaning against the cage.

Kinda surprised to hear Joe Rogan mention Shinya Aoki and JZ Cavalcante during the Frankie Edgar/Gray Maynard fight.

Kenny Florian vs. Joe Lauzon was a great fight. For the most part, Florian dominated. The fight ended with Florian having mount, and pounding away on Lauzon. Joe Lauzon did a good job defending his face, but was unable to escape.

 Junior Assuncao (5-2, 1-1 UFC). The fight will most likely take place on the UFC Ultimate Fight Night 11 event on Sept. 19. at The Palms Las Vegas. This will be Nate Diaz’ first fight since winning the lightweight contract on The Ultimate Fighter television show. The event will be aired live on Spike TV and is expected to be the promotional lead-in for the new season of The Ultimate Fighter. The upcoming sixth season of the reality show will feature current UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra and former champion Matt Hughes as the coaches. All competitors will be welterweights.