Previewing UFC 74: "Respect"

UFC 74 "Respect" is coming to the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada August 25^th 2007. They will be showcasing 8 total fights for the night three of them will be prelim fights and 5 actual Pay Per View fights. The main event for the evening will be Randy "The Natural" Couture vs. Gabriel Gonzaga for the UFC Heavy Weight Title. The Co-Main Event will be George "Rush" St Pierre vs. Josh Koscheck to determine the number one contender for the Welterweight Belt. UFC 74 has the makings to be one of the better UFC events to happen this year; the fight card is very stacked with good matches and great fighters. I myself will be driving up from California to Las Vegas to watch this event live which I'm totally excited to witness my first UFC live event firsthand.

The main event of the evening Randy Couture vs. Gabriel Gonzaga will be a very exciting match for many reasons. Randy Couture came out of retirement at age 44 to compete in the Heavyweight division and for a chance at the belt he once held. He achieved that goal when he beat Tim Sylvia in a 5 round bout where Couture came out on top by a unanimous decision and once again became the HW champion. This match against Gonzaga will be his fist title defense since he has won the belt again. Gonzaga earned this match by defeating Mirko Cro Cop with a vicious leg kick to the head thus becoming the number 1 contender for the HW belt. This bout will be a five round fight instead of the traditional three round fights, because it is for one of UFC Titles. Randy Couture is a ground and pound type fighter while Gonzaga is a heavy striker, so with the two different fighting styles you can expect anything to happen.

In the co-main event you have George St Pierre fighting Josh Koscheck. This match will determine who the number one contender for the Welterweight belt will be. The winner of this match will fight the winner from the upcoming title fight between Matt Hugh's and Matt Serra. Josh Koscheck is coming off a huge win against Diego Sanchez who was undefeated in MMA and George St Pierre is coming off a stunning loss against Matt Serra where he lost his belt and was knocked out in the opening 2 minutes of the first round. Both fighters want to establish themselves as the top guy in the 170 weight class, but first have to prove their selves in this match to move forward. For the loser of this match it will be a step in the wrong direction. Both fighters are heavy strikers who liked to come out throwing kicks and heavy punches. With both fighters using a lot of the same skills expect somebody to get knocked out early on in the match. This will be a very exciting match to pump up everybody watching the event.

The other matches on the evening include: Marcus Aurelio vs. Clay Guida, Frank Mir vs. Antoni Hardonk, Renato "Babalu" Sobral vs. David Heath, Kendall Grove vs. Patrick Cote, Joe Stevenson vs. Kurt Pellegrino and Roger Huerta vs. Alberto Crane

This will be a outstanding event so don't miss this opportunity to watch UFC 74 "Respect" in Las Vegas on August 25, 2007.