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Finally, a title fight between a champion and his undisputed #1 contender.
Georges St-Pierre is the consensus #1 welterweight in the world after
regaining his belt from Matt Serra. His opponent, Jon Fitch holds a 17-2
MMA record and an 8-0 UFC record and is deservedly ranked #2.
UFC 87 also features the return of Brock Lesnar against a very experienced
Heath Herring and a #1 contender battle for BJ Penn’s lightweight
title between Kenny Florian and Roger Huerta.
 Georges
St-Pierre (-350) vs. Jon Fitch (+285): I believe
that this is truly St-Pierre’s
biggest test to date. Even more so than GSP vs. Hughes 2. Georges St-Pierre
needs a win here to cement his place in the top pound-for-pound fighters,
but across the Octagon is Jon Fitch who is no easy task.
Fitch began his
career as a light-heavyweight with mixed results. Now fighting at welterweight
he is on a 15 fight win streak and has tied
Royce Gracie’s record of 8 consecutive wins in the UFC that has
stood since 1994.
I see this fight going all 5 rounds. GSP has promised to always bring
his best game to each fight and he will need it. Jon Fitch is not an
easy opponent to finish and will give St-Pierre all he can handle.
I am hoping to see this fight go into the championship rounds as neither
of these fighters have gone that far. In the end I see St-Pierre doing
what he normally does and out wrestle the wrestler on his way to his
first title defense by way of a decision.
Brock Lesnar (-260)
vs. Heath Herring (+210): Lesnar’s
UFC debut was spoiled by Frank Mir in just 1:30, but in that short amount
of time Lesnar
showed a ton of potential. His strength and athleticism at heavyweight
may be
unmatched. Standing in the way of his road to the title and first UFC
win is the very experienced Heath Herring.
Herring has been in the Octagon or the ring with the best in the world.
Fedor? Check. Cro Cop? Check. Noguiera? Check. In his experience, Herring
has faced fighters the size and wrestling caliber of Lesnar before
holding a rear naked choke win over Tom Erikson.
I think that Herring has really been training for this fight. Rumors
say that he is in better shape than he has ever been. He has been training
with Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas and is prepared for Lesnar. I am picking
Herring to give Lesnar his second loss in as many fights in the UFC.
Kenny Florian vs. Roger Huerta: Who is the #1 contender for Penn’s
lightweight title? I think a bigger question is, will they get their
shot since BJ seems to want the welterweight title?
 Kenny Florian has shown some major improvement since his season
on TUF. His standup is crisp since working with Mark DellGrotte and
his ground game is always on.
Roger Huerta has an amazing 20-1 MMA record, but for me there is still
a big question mark next to his name. In his fight with Clay Guida,
Huerta’s wrestling seemed to be very weak. He is good in a scramble,
but is seems very easy to take down.
I see Kenny getting beat on the feet for a couple of minutes before
taking this fight to the ground. Once the fight is there, Roger’s
scrambling is going to hurt him and leave him vulnerable to a submission.
Once
again, I think Kenny Florian will finish his fight.
Manvel Gamburyan vs. Rob Emerson: No disrespect to either fighter, but
to me this fight doesn’t belong on the main card of a PPV. Of
a UFC fight night? Yes.
Manny Gamburyan is looking to get a rematch with Nate Diaz. At the TUF
finale Gamburyan suffered a shoulder injury that ended the fight prematurely.
Since that fight he has been dominating by finishing both of his opponents
in less than 2 minutes each.
Rob Emerson was another TUF 5 cast member. At the TUF 5 finale, both
him and Gray Maynard found themselves knocked out or injured and the
fight was ruled a NC. In his last fight against Keita Nakamura, Emerson
was able to edge out a split decision.
This fight is tailor made for Gamburyan. Emerson is not on the same
level. Gamburyan by submission.
Jason MacDonald vs. Demian Maia: Maia’s BJJ is possibly the best
in the MW division. He has 7 MMA wins with 4 of those coming via submission.
Jason MacDonald is no slouch on the ground though having won 16 fights
by submission and only being submitted twice.
Even with his ground game being what it is, MacDonald will find much
more success keeping the fight standing. Unfortunately, I don’t
think that he will be able to do that. I believe Maia will get the
fight to the ground and finish MacDonald and earn submission of the
night.
The Undercard:
Luke Cummo vs. Tamdan McCrory: Cummo by submission.
Cheick Kongo vs.
Dan Evensen: Kongo by KO
Andre Gusmao vs. Jon Jones: Gusmao by KO
Chris Wilson vs. Steve Bruno: Wilson
by decision
Ben Saunders vs. Ryan Thomas: Thomas by submission
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