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In Pat Barry vs. Lavar Johnson I imagine we will see the furthering of Barry's evolution as he takes home a submission win in the first or second round. Belcher vs. Palhares I expect to see a similar finish but with Rousimar Palhares taking a submission win late in round three. As for Koscheck and Hendricks - Kos looked subpar against Pierce and Hendricks will have a TKO win early in the fight. The main event is harder to predict, Diaz knows theres a title shot on the line but Miller is a determined and talented fighter. In the end I will take Diaz by Decision.
ALEX WILLIAMS, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR
Jim Miller outpoints Nate Diaz. Johny Hendricks stops or decisions Josh Koscheck. Lavar Johnson stops Pat Barry. And Rousimar Palhares defeats Alan Belcher by... just taking a shot in the dark here... leglock.
FRANK HYDEN, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR
Pat Barry vs. Lavar Johnson - Barry wins by TKO in the second round of an entertaining slugfest
Rousimar Palhares vs. Alan Belcher - Palhares by second round Submission. Palhares has amazing leglocks and I think he catches Belcher in one.
Josh Koscheck vs. Johny Hendricks - Koscheck by TKO in the third round. I'm not fully sold on Hendricks just yet. This should be a good fight, though.
Nate Diaz vs. Jim Miller - Diaz by Decision. I don't think Miller can stop Diaz, and vice versa. I think Diaz will outwork Miller for the decision.
ERIC HOBAUGH, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR
Pat Barry vs. Lavar Johnson showcases two high level strikers in the heavyweight division. Lavar Johnson showed he was for real in his last fight against Joey Beltran. Beltran had previously not been stopped in a fight and Johnson knocked him out with big shots. Berry will need to close the distance and use his leg kicks to slow Johnson's powerful striking arsenal. I am picking Berry in a close decision victory. Any time you have two fighters who have similar strengths, it can become the opposite type of fight. Since their respective styles are as strikers, I think this will be a grappling match Berry will win.
Rousimar Palhares�vs. Alan Belcher is a classic BJJ vs. striker match up. Who in the division wants to fight Palhares? Absolutely no one. He gives 99% of the rest of the division fits on the ground and not many would last long in a ground battle with him. I think Palhares will take down Belcher and win by first round submission.
Josh Koscheck vs. Johny Hendricks is to me the most interesting fight on this card. Hendricks knocked out one of the toughest fighters in the history of the sport when he fought John Fitch at UFC 141 this past December. Koscheck is a handful for any young fighter in the UFC today. I think at this point, Koscheck is just too much too soon for Hendricks. Their wrestling should cancel each other out and this could turn into a striking battle. I think if it does turn into a striking match, Koscheck will eventually catch him. I am picking Koscheck by second or third round KO.
In the Jim Miller vs. Nate Diaz fight, Miller needs to find a way to close the distance and avoid getting caught in a submission if he can use his superior wrestling to take the fight to the ground. Diaz's stand up is much better than Miller's and he can win if he keeps the fight standing. I think Miller's wrestling will be too much for Diaz and he will grind out a boring five round decision victory.
DAN MOORE, MMATORCH UK CONTRIBUTOR
One easy prediction is that Barry vs. Johnson isn't going to last very long. This could go either way as Johnson has supreme punching power, however my money is on Pat Barry to win this in round one by submission, after surviving an early onslaught from LJ who'll look for the quick KO. I'm looking forward to the Palhares vs. Belcher fight and it's an intriguing match up. It will be interesting to see how much Belcher utilizes his kicks in this fight, knowing that one wrong move could end in a submission defeat. This fight will end in either of these two ways. Palhares wins by submission or Belcher wins by decision. Tough call but I'm siding with Palhares to get at least one opportunity to add to his heel hook highlight reel.
Josh Koscheck is a wily older fighter, but Johny Hendricks is on a roll and full of confidence right now. He's also the better wrestler and undoubtably better in the stand up, with more knockout power. Koscheck predominantly struggles against better wrestlers but even still, it's difficult to imagine that he would want to trade blows with Hendricks after seeing his pal Jon Fitch get blitzed by the very same man. Hendricks to win by early TKO.
Finally on to Diaz vs. Miller and I can't wait for this one. I love watching Diaz fight. He's been superb in his last two outings, I never expected him to dominate Donald Cerrone like he did, and he's so confident right now. Miller has a solid stand up game, but he'll be looking to get this fight to the ground sooner rather than later. Ultimately with it being a five round fight I'm siding with Diaz. Both fighters have great cardio but Diaz is immense and if he can dictate a quick pace he'll eventually wear down Miller for a late TKO victory.
It's just a real shame that ESPN UK have decided to air a Major League Soccer match. I'll be watching the card live on my laptop now, rather than on my big TV and it's just not the same. Don't know why but it isn't. ESPN say it's because the UFC scheduled this event too late (How much notice do they need?). To me that's a very poor excuse, and once again they've let down the entire UK MMA community for some pointless game of football that no one cares about.
Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/roundtables/article_13200.shtml
Matt Andersen Alex Andrade Jermaine Andrè Yoji Anjo Ao Hailin
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