Friday, April 26, 2013

UFC 159: Jones vs. Sonnen - FIGHT PREDICTIONS

Oh yeah, it’s that time again where a UFC title belt is on the line. UFC 159 should prove to have a few exciting bouts between some big names and a possibility of Jon Jones surrendering the belt to Chael Sonnen. 

We will get into that here in a minute, but first let’s take a look into the main card of the night and breakdown the fighters by weight class, bout and you will see my predictions will become factual once again. 

jones vs sonnen

Jim Miller VS Pat Healy - Lightweight         
Starting off the main card is Miller VS Healy, to say the least, this fight should be awesome. Both fighters should stand with each other and bang it out. Healy, who hasn’t lost a single bout since 2010, has pulled out six wins in the last three years, all of which pushed a third round. Miller on the other hand, has lost two of his last five in the last three years. Miller’s most recent win was over Joe Lauzon in UFC 155 where the judges declared Miller the winner by unanimous decision. As mentioned above, these two fighters will probably stand toe to toe and bang it out, should prove to be a good fight.

Prediction: Miller wins in Round 3 by TKO

Phil Davis VS Vinny Magalhaes - Light Heavyweight
I don’t know too much about Vinny Magalhaes other than he is a Brazil native and this is his second fight in the UFC. He debuted back in September of last year and was victorious over Igor Pokrajac by arm-bar. On the other hand, Phil Davis has fought in the UFC eight times, this will be his ninth. We have seen wins from Davis of top condendars such as Alexander Gustasson, Brian Stann and Antonio Nogueira. This should be a good stand up brawl as well but could go to the ground if Magalhaes can get Davis down.

Prediction: Davis wins in Round 2 by TKO

Roy Nelson VS Cheick Kongo - Heavyweight         
Four years ago, you would have never thought you would see Big Country Roy Nelson still alive and making moves in the UFC. Surprisingly not indorsed by KFC, Nelson is returning to the octagon against Cheick Kongo who has a significant reach and height advantage. Although Nelson is on the shorter and fatter side, he can still pack a punch against guys who are taller than him. Lets look back to 2010 when Nelson fought skyscraper Stefan Struve, he jumped right in front of him with some dirty boxing, closed Struve’s range and BAM, knocked Struve out. Coming off of a win in UFC 149 back in July of 2012, Kongo has had time to recover from any damage, illness or injury he may have suffered. If Kongo can keep Roy on the edge of his gloves and not in his personal space, he may just defeat the colonel sanders kid, Big Country Nelson.

Prediction: Roy Nelson wins in Round 2 by KO

Michael Bisping VS Alan Belcher - Middleweight   
Okay, I have never really been a big fan of Bisping, nor do I understand why he is fighting again so soon after his recent loss to Vitor Belfort only three months ago. Alan Belcher on the other hand has a decent record coming into this fight despite his most recent loss over Yushin Okami in UFC 155 in 2012. Belcher has wins over top contenders such as Jason MacDonald, Patrick Cote, Wilson Gouveia and Dennis Kang; I’m going to make this one short and sweet, just like Belcher is going to do tomorrow.

Prediction: Belcher wins in Round 3 by Rear Naked Choke

Jon Jones (Champion) VS Chael Sonnen - Light Heavyweight Championship
Now that the undercard is through, it is time for the main event of the evening. Current reining and defending champion Jon Jones is finally going to step into the ring with top contender Chael Sonnen. If many of you remember, UFC 151 was cancelled because champion Jon Jones turned down the fight with Chael after Dan Henderson suffered a torn medial collateral ligament in his right knee only days before the scheduled title bout. Now that Jones and Sonnen have gone head to head in the TUF series and coaches challenges, we wait no longer and they will be going toe to toe in the octagon tomorrow night.

As we all know, Jones is very explosive. Jones has nasty elbows and a sick reach advantage over most opponents. Jones has defended his light heavyweight title four times now and is looking down at Chael to be number five. However, Sonnen has different plans. Having lost to Anderson Silva twice in his last seven fights, Jones is the next best man to beat. Once Sonnen beats him, he gets the belt too, it’s a WIN WIN for Sonnen, if he wins.

Side note, Angel Hesseltine and I have been watching the Ultimate Fighter series religiously over the last eight weeks and before she saw the first episode, I told her straight up, “after watching these, you are going to love Chael Sonnen.” My prediction came true later that night. Chael is a good guy. He is a good coach and truly cared about his team. I’m not saying that Jones didn’t care but it was blatantly obvious in season 10 with Rampage, he was just going for the W’s. I’m pretty sure he didn’t even show up to one of the TUF fights due to previous engagements – go act in another movie guy..

Now that I am done ranting a bit; to say the least, tomorrow’s fights will be good. I am looking forward to Chael taking the belt.

Prediction: Sonnen in Round 2 by TKO (he is going to catch Jones with some dirty boxing and capitalize with ground n pound)

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