UFC85: Bedlam Fight Card

UFC 85: Bedlam is upon us! I was ready to have a boring no MMA weekend. Maybe catch up on some old war movies or dust off a PS2 game. No such luck. Robo-Matt Hughes commands me to blog away about the next big UFC event. The "fur"ners get another crack at this. The event is being hosted Saturday, June 7th in London. So, we'll be seeing it at a weird hour 10pm EST / 7pm PST. The fight card is almost as creepy as Robo Matt. What are we getting for our PPV pleasure?

MATT HUGHES VS. THIAGO ALVES Matt got handled pretty soundly by GSP the last time he was out there in the Octagon. He is looking to redeem himself and squash any talk of retirement. He says he's still got some fight left in him. I hope he at least has enough to fight Matt Serra! We've been waiting for this fight since TUF6. Thiago has been mouthing off like a crazed lunatic about how he is going to beat the daylights out of Hughes. I know it's par for the course with MMA to trash talk but this may be going a bit overboard. I predict a Hughes comeback win. I don't think this fight will go the distance at all.

MICHAEL BISPING VS. JASON DAY Jason Day took this fight on short notice as Bisping was supposed to face Chris Leben. Leben turned out to be a piece of junk. He had to spend some time in jail for parole violations. So, England's Bisping takes on a hungry Canadian in Jason. Even though I'd take Bisping against Leben, Day comes in with an impressive 10 win streak. It looks like Day will not make Bisping's day on Saturday.

FABRICIO WERDUM VS. BRANDON VERA Fabricio has a recent win in UFC80. He is a tough opponent and will be quite the handful for Brandon Vera. With one more win, Werdum will force the UFC to look at him for an eventual title fight. Vera is in his way. He has some pretty solid jiujitsu skill himself and will look to cement his own title shot in this one. Even though Fabricio has more experience, I'm going to have to side with my fellow San Diegan, Vera. KO in the 2nd. Go PADs!

THALES LEITES VS NATHAN MARQUARDT This is a match between two pretty solid fighters. They both are on unbeaten streaks, but Marquardt has the pedigree. Thales has some serious ground game skill while Nathan is the standup guy. I have a soft spot for the standup game so Nathan FTW as they say on the Interwebs!

MARCUS DAVIS VS MIKE SWICK Marcus the "Irish Hand Grenade" Davis is looking at a pretty short fight. Probably less than a round the way Swick works. Basically, Swick is QUICK! They are both standup specialists but I'd have to give the fight to Davis since he's actually a converted boxer. This may turn out to be the fight of the night the way these guys bang.

So that's it. Get your shrimp on the barbie. Fill up on bangers and mash. Slurp down a few pints and get some MMA "fightage" on. Saturday should prove pretty interesing even without ChuckLiddell fighting. If you believe *that*, I've got a fag(