UFC 97 Picks

Anderson Silva-KO-2
Chuck Liddell-KO-3
Cheick Kongo-KO-2
Luiz Cane-KO-1
Krzysztof Soszynski-Sub-3
Jason MacDonald-Sub-3
Denis Kang-Dec-3
David Loiseau-Dec-3
Ryo Chonan-Dec-3
Mark Bocek-Dec-3
Sam Stout-Dec-3
Vinny Magalhaes-Sub-2

Here are my picks for tomorrows card which should be really exciting. Cane/Cantwell and Soszynski/Stann (alliteration much?) have the chance to be absolute slug fests. Cane is powerful and aggressive and should be able to handle Cantwell fairly easily. Soszynski has a great advantage on the ground and can have a submission at any point. The question is will he test things out on the feet first and for how long? After some stand up I believe he'll take it to the ground and secure a submission.

There are several very close matchups this card with Herman/Loiseau, Stout/Wiman and MacDonald/Quarry. All three of these will be very close and can go either way. I think the clearer of the three is Macdonald vs Quarry. Macdonald has fought much better competition although losing to higher level fighters while Quarry, aside from losses to Maia and Franklin, has beaten mid level fighters. Looking at their shared opponents in Maia and Franklin, MacDonald fared much better than Quarry, showing great ground skills and defense against Maia, and while getting dominated by a strong fighter in Franklin, showed he could close the distance. I think that is the most telling fight as Quarry is not as strong as Franklin and will not be able to consistently stop MacDonalds takedown attempts. As Quarry was submitted much quicker by Maia than MacDonald, look for a late sub by the Canadian.

...one more note, if you think Kang is being fed an easy comeback opponent in the little known "Professor X" think again. An upset here in a KO by Xavier would not surprise me at all.