Interactive Tournament: Middleweight Quarterfinals

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the final Interactive Tournament: Middleweights Hopefully, this tournament will help to clear things up in the middleweight division and the great thing is, you guys get to clear it up. I think we have four great fights for the quarterfinals, hope you'll all enjoy it.

First up, let's take a look at the results of last week's tournament. It was a welterweight finale between Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves and here are the votes:

Jon Fitch came close, but lost to Alves by a 8-6 vote.

Now that Thiago Alves has been named the winner of the Welterweight Interactive Tournament, we can move on to the middleweights.

Quarterfinals Fight One: Yoshihiro Akiyama vs Dan Henderson

Yoshihiro Akiyama was signed to a UFC contract in February. Some fans may not know him, but Akiyama is a great judo fighter that holds a Mixed Martial Arts record of 12 wins with only one loss. Ten of his 15 fights have ended in the very first round by either KO or submission.

Still, his opponent is Dan Henderson, former PRIDE middleweight and light heavyweight champion. Henderson is a great wrestler that also has good boxing skills. He has defeated the best fighters in the world and still goes strong at 38-years-old.

The stand-up game is probably an advantage for "Hendo" but Akiyama has good submissions if the fight goes to the ground. The interesting part, would be to see Akiyama's judo against Dan Henderson's wrestling skills.

Who wins this one?

Quarterfinals Fight Two: Yushin Okami vs Michael Bisping

This fight would be interesting because of the fact that Bisping is an aggressive fighter and Okami is good at pulling his opponents into his own gameplan. Okami is a relaxed fighter who always seems to control the pace of the fight and eventually win. He has victories against the best middleweights the UFC has to offer and is one of the men fighting to get a title shot.

Bisping is a great kickboxer that only has one loss in the UFC. He's an aggressive fighter who could possibly push the pace against Okami and fight at his own pace. Okami has had problems in the past with guys that are always on him.

Unfortunately for Michael, Okami has good striking and dictated where the fights took place in his past fights against almost all his opponents. To accompany that, Okami has some of the best ground and pound skills in the UFC.

Who gets closer to a title shot?

Quarterfinals Fight Three: Demian Maia vs Thales Leites

Demian Maia is known for his awesome BJJ skills. He has won all of his UFC fights by submission and is know as the best fighter in the world who can adapt BJJ to the game of MMA. The interesting part here is, Maia has submitted good fighters who were primarily strikers.

Thales Leites has a great ground game too, he's one of the most talented submission fighters in the division, plus, he has good boxing skills. In his fights against Nate Marquardt and Martin Kampmann, he was able to knock both men down with a single punch. Leites has been working on his striking alot and is getting much better, better then Maia.

On the feet, Leites has the advantage, but like I said, if the fight goes to the ground, Maia has never fought a fighter as skilled on the ground as Thales. Thales could possibly avoid Maia's submissions to get back up to the feet or maybe even submit Maia. One thing is for sure, that doesn't change the fact that Demain Maia is a king as far a ground fighting goes.

Which fighter gets his way?

Quarterfinals Fight Four: Patrick Cote vs Nate Marquardt

When I first thought about this fight, I said to myself, "Marquardt is going to win for sure" but I was wrong. I think Patrick Cote poses some very big threats for Nate Marquardt.

Nate is good everywhere, kickboxing, wrestling, BJJ, Marquardt has all those elements and uses the all in a fight. He's a big fighter for 185 and he's also very explosive. It's safe to say that Marquardt is one of the top contenders at 185.

But I look at it this way, Cote has proved that he belongs with the big boys. He's the only fighter to see the third round with Anderson Silva, Marquardt didn't even see the second. Cote has great boxing skills and probably has the biggest KO power in the division. There is no doubt in my mind that Patrick Cote can KO Nate Marquardt...no doubt.

Being a great boxer with great KO power, Cote's weakness was his ground game. On the ground, he looked like a fish out of water. The thing is, after the loss to Travis Lutter at The Ultimate Fighter Four finale, Cote promised never to get dominated on the ground like that again...and he didn't. 

He fought Ricardo Almeida at UFC 86, a BJJ black belt that is much better then Nate Marquardt on the ground (Almeida actually holds a first round submission victory over Nate Marquardt). Cote was able to avoid the submissions the whole fight to win a decision. Cote has the skills not to get submitted by Marquardt and has the skills to KTFO Marquardt too.

The unpredictable part is that Marquardt is very explosive. 

Who gets the advantage?

So, hope you guys can clear up the middleweight division with your votes. The quarterfinals look great and it should continue on like this.