UFC Fight Night 22: Marquardt vs. Palhares

Date: Sep 15, 2010
Location: Austin, Texas
Venue: Frank Erwin Center
Broadcast: Spike TV
Time: 8pm Est.

MAIN CARD

Nate Marquardt vs. Rousimar Palhares
Efrain Escudero vs. Charles Oliveira
Jim Miller vs. Gleison Tibau
Cole Miller vs. Ross Pearson

PRELIMINARY CARD

John Gunderson vs. Yves Edwards
Jared Hamman vs. Kyle Kingsbury
Dave Branch vs. Tomasz Drwal
Rich Attonito vs. Rafael Natal
David Mitchell vs. Anthony Waldburger
Brian Foster vs. Forrest Petz

My picks

Nate Marquardt
Efrain Escudero
Jim Miller
Ross Pearson
John Gunderson
Jared Hamman
Tomaz Drwal
Rich Attonito
David Mitchell
Brian Foster

Preview

Tonight's event will be a big night for the two Main Event participant's. They were set to meet a little over 3 weeks ago at UFC 118 in Boston. An eye injury to fellow Middleweight Alan Belcher took him out of his spot against Demian Maia and the fight was scratched altogether. Giving Marquardt and Palhares more time to tweek their games and decide who is moving up in the ranks and who will fall.

I have Nate winning this bout. His striking is usually on point and he can knock you out if given the proper distance. Palhares is going to try to take this fight to the floor and crank out a submission as fast as possible. For me, if they were to fight ten times. I think Nate wins eight of them. His game is a lot more well rounded and he knows how to take a beating and still pull out a victory. Plus, he needs a better performance coming off the heels of losing to the #1 Middleweight contender Chael Sonnen. That alone should give him enough drive to make this happen in his favor. I predict a TKO victory for Marquardt in Round 3.

Efrain Escudero came in about 4 pounds overweight for his bout agianst Charles Oliveira. I don't know if he tried to cut more after the first try but Escudero will be fined 20 percent of his fight purse for the infraction. He has said that he is going to "demolish" Oliveira and I have no reason to believe he won't do so. Escudero has the wrestling ability to dictate where this fight will be contested. His ground & pound is brutal and he is very well versed in boxing and submission's. He is also a former TUF champion. Oliveira is very fast himself and is also a submission wizard. I just don't see him winning against Efrain tonight. Escudero better fight smart and go hard for some sort of Fight Night bonus to make up for his plenalty.

The next two bout's have possible Fight of the Night contender written all over them. First we have Jim Miller vs. Gleison Tibau. This fight will probably be fought all over the place. Both have solid ground games and can stand up with the best in the UFC at 155 lbs. I am picking Miller because he is very good at getting his opponent to fight his game and taking them out of theirs. The kid can fight! He is also very good at listening to his corner and making sound adjustments when needed. Tibau to his credit is just tough as nails. Half of his fight's have gone to a decision so he can hang around if you let him. He also has 9 submission wins to resume. He has been stopped 3 times so I think Miller wins this one after a hard fought 3 round war.

Rounding out the main card is TUF Champion Ross Pearson versus Cole Miller. Both these guys like to bang and both are well known for always leaving it on the line during their fights so it'll probably end up being a shootout. This fight is going to go to the guy who can finish his opponent first. Pearson's stand up is outstanding and he also has that rare wrestling ability that most English don't have. He is very smart in picking his shots and knows when and not to turn up the volume on his strikes. Miller is mostly a based Jui-Jitsu fighter but is not afraid to get into a fire fight on the feet as well. He has lost twice via KO/TKO and twice by decision. Pearson probably won't tire Miller out so he'll need to knock him out and finish the fight or pick his shots over the course of three rounds. I have Pearson winning via TKO in Round 3.

It should also be mentioned that this event precedes the next season of The Ultimate Fighter: GSP vs. Koscheck. The Ulitmate Fighter, otherwise know as TUF, is a reality based show that puts 16 contestants in a house in Las Vegas and gives them a chance to win a six figure contact in the UFC. This is will be the 12th season of the show on Spike TV.