UFC 96 Picks

Once again I have to apologize for not writing an acutal article, I was sick, there nothing really to write about, and I'm being kind of lazy. So I hope you everyone had fun listening to the two hours of torture that the WEC last week with Jens Pulver's announcing and bad fights. Now you get my UFC picks.

This is another one of those cards where I look at it and think how does the UFC expect anyone to pay 45 bucks for this. If I had to pay 45 bucks for this I probably wouldn't, I only pay 15 because I buy with a couple of friends. If you scroll the page a little bit you can see my UFC 95 picks where I call it a glorified fight night, this is a fight night that happens to have a decent main event and you have to pay $45 for. The UFC needs a way to fix how they do all PPVs if it's not a fight night. They didn't make you pay last month, they shouldn't this month, they shouldn't in June for their crappy Franklin vs. Wanderlei Silva card. I have two proposed options:

• Charge less for the Pay-Per-Views with no title fights or bad title fights (Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leites, uhh) If a Frank Mir-Brock Lesnar, Georges St. Pierre-B.J. Penn PPV is $45 than, than a Quinton Jackson-Keith Jardine PPV should be $25-30, an Anderson Silva-Thales Leites PPV should be $35. They could change the price of a the Pay-Per-View depending on the strength of the card. Don't tell me you wouldn't love that UFC fans
• Option number two, put crappy PPVs on Spike, they do it with crappy PPVs that are in the UK, why can't they do it for a bad a PPV in Columbus or a bad PPV in Vegas, which there actually aren't very many of but there are some that you could put on Spike.

Those are your choices UFC, well and there's staying put and making no money because casual fans won't pay for cards like this one.

Now on to my picks, nothing special on the other undercard so I'm just going to pick them, no breakdowns.

Lightweight bout: Shane Nelson over Aaron Riley via decision

Light Heavyweight Bout: Brandon Vera over Mike Patt via TKO in Round 2

Light Heavyweight Bout: Tim Boetsch over Jason Brtiz via KO in Round 1

Middleweight Bout: Kendall Grove over Jason Day via TKO in Round 3

Welterweight Bout: Ryan Madigan over Tandam McCrory via submission (triangle) in Round 2

On to the main card which should be better than the undercard

Lightweight Bout: Jim Miller (13-1-0) vs. Gray Maynard (7-0-1)

This could be fight of the night, I really like both of these two guys. Gray Maynard is a big lightweight, he's a wrestler, solid boxing likes to use his side and strength to his advantage and has his nickname says "Bully" people. Jim Miller, decent stand-up, great wrestler, good submissions. I'm looking for this to be primarily a stand-up fight because Jim Miller can't take Gray Maynard down, I don't know if Gray Maynard can take Jim Miller down, so it's probably to be a stand-up fight and that would be advantage Gray Maynard. If it would go to the ground Gray Maynard would have the advantage because he would be on top and there's no chance in hell he'd submitted. So I'm really just expecting an all out brawl with Gray Maynard coming out on top.

Gary Maynard will beat Jim Miller via decision

Light Heavyweight Bout: Matt Hamill (7-2-0) vs. Mark Munoz (5-0-0)

This is an interesting fight that is going to make for a very boring fight. Both fighters have great wrestling, which is great and all but it's going to kill this fight because neither of them will be able to take the other one down. Which means this fight is going come down to who has a better clinch game, which I believe who will be Hamill and who has better boxing. Munoz hits harder but Hamill has better technical boxing, I'm think that Hamill will just kind of dodge Munoz's crazy punch and pick him apart with a punch but it won't be pretty, this maybe one of those fights, where I change the channel at about 1 minute left of the 2nd round come back for the decision, then watch the last round on Youtube to come and realize I didn't miss much. But Matt Hamill will take a decision here.

Matt Hamill will beat Mark Munoz via decision

Welterweight Bout: Matt Brown (11-7-0) vs. Pete Sell (8-5-0)

I'm hardly going to get into this fight, I'm just going to complain about why this is on the main card, I know why it is, Brown is a Cincinnati based fighter and an Ohio native. Why the UFC puts fighters hire up on cards than they should because just because they are from where the show is I don't know. There about 300,000 buying this who don't really care if Matt Brown is from Ohio and would much rather see Kendall Grove, who I believe should be on the main card.

Now a quick breakdown, Pete Sell is a BJJ Black Belt, Matt Brown is a kickboxer who overrates his ground game and gets caught in submissions a lot. I'm looking for Pete Sell to take Matt Brown down pound him, then catch him in a submission, it will be a boring fight, which is why it shouldn't be on the main card, I would much rather Kendall Grove vs. Jason Day or Brandon Vera.

Pete Sell will beat Matt Brown via submission (rear naked choke) in Round 2

Heavyweight Bout: Gabriel Gonzaga (10-3-0) vs. Shane Carwin (10-0-0)

This is also going to be a fight of the night contender with the winner climbing really high up the heavyweight title rankings, they could even get a title shot, there is no real top contender after Frank Mir.

Shane Carwin is gigantic he's one of those guys like Brock Lensar who is just a freak of nature and has to cut to get to 265 but actually fights around 280. He wrestled at Arizona State, also hits very hard but giant hands help with that, some guy Youtube who's picks I watched said he wore like 5XL gloves or something like that, he's just a beast.Gabe Gonzaga is a BJJ Black Belt, he submission almost anyone at heavyweight other than Big Nog and Frank Mir, he also great kicks, he's famous for head kick KO of Mikro Cro Cop and he has solid hands. The only thing about Gonzaga is his commitment, he usually loses if he doesn't after the first round expect for like two fights against no names, he has awful cardio and usually gases after a round. I expect Carwin to survive the first round and then just start taking down Gonzaga and hitting him with those canned hams attached to his wrists, fight of a few submissions and eventually get a TKO or he could not finish him on the ground and catch Gabe with his hands down in 3rd when he has absolutely no gas left. But I like the GnP one better

Shane Carwin will beat Gabriel Gonzaga via TKO in Round 2

Main Event, Light Heavyweight Bout: Quinton "Rampage" Jackson (29-7-0) vs. Keith Jardine (14-5-1)

Here's your main event, not a great one I know. But it does have huge title implications. If Rampage wins he gets a title shot, if Jardine wins, Lyoto Machida gets the title shot.

Rampage lately has just been a boxer, which may be fine he hits really hard and is very good at it. He was a wrestler in junior college, he used to use his wrestling a lot in Pride but now he doesn't really, no submission game what so ever. Keith Jardine is known for his incredibly awkward stand up, he loves kicks, which Rampage tends not to check, Forrest Griffin took his title with nothing but kicks. I'm just going to assume Rampage Jackson has a brain and after a round of getting confused he will got back where he got his start, the mat and look for takedowns and slams and he'll use some ground-and-pound to do some damage and kick probably finish the fight, but who knows maybe Rampage will be a dumbass (which isn't unheard-of) and try to stand with him and get desicioned like Chuck Liddell because of that style.

Quinton Jackson will beat Keith Jardine via TKO in Round 3

Ok those are my fight picks here are my post show picks.

Fight of the Night: Gray Maynard vs. Jim Miller

KO of the Night: Tim Boetsch

Submission of the Night: Ryan Madigan

That is all I have once again sorry about my sickness, I'll have an actual article next week but there is no MMA for me to pick so I don't know what I'll do. I don't think there is any MMA until April with that UFC Fight Night leading into the Ultimate Fighter then the WEC card that weekend. But I'll find stuff to write about, peace out enjoy your weekend, I'm head to Iowa City to watch the Iowa-Penn State basketball game, Peace Out