UFC 146: Early Predictions for the UFC's 1st Ever All-Heavyweight Fight Card

UFC 146 comes to you live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday, May 26, 2011, and features the very first all-heavyweight card in UFC history.

Headlining the event is the first title defense of 14-1 Brazilian heavyweight phenom, newly-crowned UFC heavyweight champion and the consensus No. 1 heavyweight in all of MMA, Junior "Cigano" Dos Santos.

Dos Santos took the belt in just 69 seconds over former champion Cain Velasquez at UFC on Fox 1 and will look to make a successful first defense against consensus No. 1 challenger and former Strikeforce champion, K-1 heavyweight champion and PRIDE FC star "The Demolition Man" Alistair Overeem, who made more that a lasting mark by defeating and retiring former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar.

In the co-headliner of the action-packed and athletically-stacked Memorial Day Weekend event, the now 9-1 Velasquez looks for either his rematch with Dos Santos or his dream fight with Overeem, but before either can happen, the 29-year-old Velasquez faces a tough title eliminator opposite a former UFC heavyweight champion and arguably one of the heavyweight division's best BJJ practitioners in Frank Mir.

Rounding out the card, Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva makes his UFC debut against "Big Country" Roy Nelson, while Mark Hunt looks up in a tilt against Stefan Struve and Shane Del Rosario defends his 11-0 record against Gabriel "Napao" Gonzaga.

Now the million-dollar question is, "Who will prevail on Memorial Day weekend?"

Mark Hunt Knocks Stefan Struve out Midway Through Round 1

If Stefan Struve has a problem (besides not finding guys who he can look up to in the staredowns) it's fighters who can unload one hell of a right hand, and unfortunately for Struve, Mark Hunt is one of those guys.

Let's be honest: nobody had TKO'ed Cheick Kongo since 2004, and only a few people were giving Hunt that chance to beat Kongo.

Remember what happened next?

The same thing could happen to Struve, who has shown his toughness in the past, especially in fights with Christian Morecraft and Dave Herman, but also has been knocked out by the likes of Junior Dos Santos, Roy Nelson and Travis Browne.

Struve isn't Kongo, nor is he Ben Rothwell or Chris Tuchscherer, but against a concentrated knockout machine like Hunt, not being any of Hunt's past challenges does not mean that Struve cannot at least be hurt by an unquestionable dark horse in the heavyweight division.

Shane Del Rosario TKOs Gabriel Gonzaga Before the End of Three Rounds

Shane Del Rosario never got to fight Daniel Cormier after beating Lavar Johnson in 2011 due to a car accident that left him unable to train for much of the year, so against Gabriel Gonzaga, Del Rosario has a lot of questions to answer.

However, what he brings to the table is what has traditionally given Gonzaga trouble, which is a hard-hitting offense that rattles Gonzaga enough to drop him and eventually put him away.

Del Rosario may not have fought since last February, and he's getting a Gonzaga who just came off of a win over Ednaldo Oliveira, but if training has not been a problem for the undefeated prospect, expect him to bring it right to Gonzaga from the start, eventually finishing either on the feet or through an opening Gonzaga exposes while trying to defend himself on the ground.

As for the round?

It doesn't matter because Gonzaga's not going to see the judges.

The Winner of Roy Nelson vs. Antonio Silva Loses the Fight

Bear in mind two things:

1. Antonio Silva got rocked, dropped and finished in his last fight, which was against Daniel Cormier.

2. Roy Nelson has been hurt by fighters from current champ Junior Dos Santos to Frank Mir to Fabricio Werdum, and while he's been hurt, he's never been finished inside the Octagon.

Now, bearing those two things in mind, we must also remember that in 38 professional fights, Fedor Emelianenko's fight with Silva was the first and only real time in which any man can recall Fedor ever taking a horrendous amount of damage cleanly.

Roy Nelson can take punishment and he can dish it out as well, which means Silva is in for one rough night, but Silva will give Nelson all he can handle and more before giving Silva all he can handle and more.

The man who can take the most punishment while getting dropped the least amount of times will be the man who wins this bout, regardless of how much of a "smart game plan" his opponent may show.

Expect this one to hit the judges, and call it cynicism or call it a bad call, but the man who does win this one is not the man you will be calling the true winner of this heavyweight bout.

Frank Mir Will Put Cain Velasquez Through Hell, but Cain Will Return to Form

On the heels of his first pro loss, which some may attribute to being out of action for a little over a year, Cain Velasquez wants to halt the momentum of a recent hot streak for Frank Mir, who has erased the sting of a UFC 111 loss to Shane Crawin with consecutive wins over Mirko Cro Cop, Roy Nelson and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

Mir might be the more experienced and the more diverse striker, and he has pulled off upsets in devastating fashion when title shots have been on the line, but the pain of a first career loss is not going to be enough to keep Velasquez from a potential rematch with Junior Dos Santos or Alistair Overeem.

Velasquez will learn from the mistakes he made in the Dos Santos fight, and rise to the occasion against a game Mir, who will hurt Cain as badly as he can for a good portion of the fight, but when all is said and done, Velasquez will return to form and punch his ticket to a rematch with Dos Santos.

A rematch with Dos Santos?

Wait, then that means...

Junior Dos Santos Retains His Title in What Will Be the Fight of the Year

The most vaporizing Muay Thai game in MMA challenges the best boxing in the UFC heavyweight division, and the winner will be the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion as well as the best heavyweight in MMA, and on a night in which the UFC heavyweights take center stage from the first main card bout until this title fight, the event could see the Fight of The Year.

Both Overeem and Dos Santos are known predominantly for their abilities on their feet, but underrated factors in this equation are Overeem's submission grappling and Dos Santos' wrestling game.

Mind you, Dos Santos is ten times better in the boxing than he is as a wrestler, and Overeem can defend takedowns for days while using his Muay Thai to stop the forward movement of any fighter he faces, so this one can be expected to stay standing and reach the championship rounds.

The back and forth action provided from both fighters could cause fans to witness every aspect of the sport—both physical and mental—and at the end of the day, the predicted winner chalks up to nothing but bias.

Having said that, I know where I stand, and I don't normally stand firmly against Alistair Overeem, but when I do, I go with Junior Dos Santos, whose boxing will somehow inflict just a little bit more damage than Overeem will with his Muay Thai and walk out with a closely contested, yet nonetheless unanimous, decision victory in a bout that will make us all demand five more rounds of action, regardless of whether the belt is on the line or not.

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