UFC 95: Sanchez vs. Stevenson

UFC 95: Feb. 21, 2009
Venue: O2 Arena in London, England

Main Card Bouts

-Diego Sanchez  vs. Joe Stevenson in a lightweight bout
-Josh Koscheck vs. Paulo Thiago
-Nathan Marquardt vs. Wilson Gouveia
-Chael Sonnen vs. Demian Maia
-Dan Hardy vs. Rory Markham

Preliminary Bouts

-Junior dos Santos vs. Stefan Struve
-David Baron vs. Per Eklund
-Justin Buchholz vs. Terry Etim
-Neil Grove vs. Mike Ciesnolevicz
-Paul Kelly vs. Troy Mandaloniz

This card will be featured for free to the public on SpikeTV and will air on what I believe to be a taped delay at around 9 PM Eastern Standard Time. The following are some predictions that I have for the fights featured on the main card:

Diego Sanchez - Diego wins this fight plain as day to me. Given, every fight can go either way with single mistake. However, Diego possesses better overall standup as of late and far superior ground skills than Stevenson. Stevenson has some solid but great boxing and solid ground skills as well. There are levels in jiujitsu and I'm a firm believer that Sanchez is a step above Stevenson. Sanchez reportebly came into this camp around 190 so the weight drop may pose a problem for the relentless style he likes to use. Diego by Submission

Josh Koscheck - "Kos" takes on a UFC newcomer in Brazilian Paulo Thiago. The casual fan won't know of Paulo until weigh-ins and fight night. However, Paulo's record stands at 10-0-0 with 7 via submissions. Koscheck will need to play this fight out much like he did against Yoshida and use his standup to win. Koscheck wins this fight by TKO-Strikes 

Nate Marquardt - Nate Marquardt is the safe bet for this fight. I want to pick Wilson and I actually hope he does win this fight. Marquardt has been settled into some serious training within the past year training along Rashad Evans and GSP. Wilson's cardio has been a issue in past bouts but I believe that he knows with this win he may become the number one contender especially if he wins in spectacular fashion with a trademark knockout. Both fighters have solid standup with edge in power going to Wilson and both also have solid ground games with edge in wrestling going to Marquadt and JiuJitsu going to Wilson. I'll go with Marquardt by decision but don't be suprised for Wilson to suprise and win by Knockout.

Demian Maia - Maia has been red hot and sporting a perfect 9-0-0 record with 7 wins by submission. Sonnen comes into this bout being the former WEC middleweight champion which he brings a 2 fight win streak. Maia poses some serious problems for Team Quest's Sonnen, 5 of Sonnen's losses have come by submissions and Maia has top tier jiujitsu that poses a problem for anyone in the world. Sonnen's strength in this fight will be his wrestling so he should use that to avoid being taking down and being submitted. Maia on the other hand has being working non-stop with Xtreme Couture so his wrestling should he ever improving. As we all know, styles make fights I believe that this fight hits the ground and Sonnen won't be able to keep up with Maia's transitions. Maia wins by submission Round 2

Dan Hardy - Hardy brings a 4-fight win streak into this contest with Markham. Hardy brings in a record of 20-6-0 with 10 via strikes. Markham's losses have been by TKO and I don't expect this fight to play out much differently. Markham is a tough as nails fighter and will look to bring it when he steps into the cage. I'll go with Hardy by TKO