UFC 68 - the uprising

[presto]

havn't looked at the odd's yet - but looks a lame card.

TIM SYLVIA vs randy coture
not a great fan of either of these 2, sylvia is just a dick who won't take off his belt (seiously he wears it everywhere). and coture IMO is overated, i know he is a hall of famer and that - but still overated. he also retired not long ago, and not sure why he is fighting here. he's also past his best and in his early 40's.

as for the fight, sylvia has the height, weight, power, striking, advantages (and by far). and cotures only has his wrestling skills to combat them. though in sylvias last fight against monson (much bigger / stronger than coture) sylvia showed great takedown defence. coture will also risk a lot in attempting to get close to the 6'6" er .

VERDICT - sylvia to win and joe rogan to say 'randy coture is my hero' more than once.

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chris lytle vs MATT HUGHES
hughes is a genetic farm boy freak - and i mean that in a good way, one of the most powerfull P4Pers there is, great wresteling ang GnP. hughes has a fantastic record at the top level, though was pretty much destroyed by GSP last time out - but GSP is a fantasttic fighter. lytle got here of being a TUF (reality show) loser in the final, his record isn't great only 2 wins and 5 losses in his last 7 ufc fights.

VERDICT - hughes by GnP.

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drew McFederies vs MARTIN KAMPMANN

not to fammiliar with drew McFederies, but kampmann has some good KO power which would normally sway me.

VERDICT -if i was forced to chose, kampmann - though i wouldn't touch the betting.

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RICH FRANKLIN vs Jason MacDonald

franklin was top of the middleweights for a long while, but the excelent SILVA beat the crap out of him last time out, will be interesting to see how franklin comes back from that, macdonald is a great prospect - beating ed herman and chris leburn in his previous 2 ufc fights (no easy task eather) but did it in style. normally i would say franklin by KO, but this kid macdonald is one to watch out for IMO.

VERDICT - very tough fight to call, no doupt franklin will be odd's on. and i think he may edge it. but saying that if you could get 2/1+ on macdonald it would be value. franklin KO or macdonald by sub, not sure - if i had a gun to my head would probably pick franklin.

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jason lambert vs BABALU (renato sobral)

babalu is a great BJJ fighter, and very underated - most new MMA fans only probably know him from the 'highlight real' of getting KO'ed by chucks foot. lambert i havn't seen much - apart from hiss loss last time out against the impressive rashad evans.

VERDICT - babalu by armbar.

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rex holman vs MATT HAMILL

not too familiar will holman, but he's getting on a bit @ 37 and has very little experience 5 fights (4-1) in that time. hamill most will know as the deaf kid from TUF3 - he's another 'farm boy freak' with plenty of power in his wrestling, he is a fantastic wrestler, dominating even - though other skills havn't been shown too much. tito has also taken him under his wing - so i expect him to be vastly improved after a good spell up at 'big bear' his punching should also have come on in leaps and bounds.

VERDICT - hamill by GnP

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[yerotsluap]

no standout great match-ups on this card. Agree that Sylvia should be able to beat Couture, Couture really shouldn't be in such a high spot in my opinion he looked done when he went up against chuck at UFC 57. Matt Hughes should destroy lytle he is just an animal in that octagon

[wiseman33]

Great write up on the fights presto but i am gonna go for couture on this one,i think he will get sylvia to the floor and when he does it will be on his territory.just my opinion though.

[yerotsluap]

odds from bet365
4.00 Jason Lambert v Renato Sobral 1.20
6.00 Chris Lytle v Matt Hughes 1.10
3.00 Randy Couture v Tim Sylvia 1.33

odds from betfair
1.14 Franklin v MacDonald 3.00
4.5 Lambert v Sobral 1.12
6.2 Lytle v Hughes 1.15
3.0 McFedries v Kampmann1.28
1.37 Sylvia v Couture 3.20

[presto]

odd's look a bit skinny, though sylvia looks the best bet. will have a propper look tommorow.

[presto]

reminder - starting now bravo (24 hour delay)

[wiseman33]

Couture done the buisness,his head movement was awesome it shows he is still learning at his age i am sure if he had that type of movement against chuck it would of been a different fight the guys an inspiration,also good to see rich franklin get back some confidence i thought it was quite a decent night of mma

[presto]

nice one wiseman,
i watched that fight in total disbeleif , coture was just dominant.

[presto]

ROUND UP

tim sylvia vs RANDY COTURE,
boy was i wrong about this fight, coture (former lhw 205 champ) came in @ a powerfull 222lbs wheras the 6'8" sylvia had to cut to make 265 HW limit.
the fight started 'to everyones disbeleif' with randy, flawing sylvia with a big right hander, coture had tims back for most of the fight but was unable to capitalise.
rounds 2,3,4,5 wera all similar with tim unable to land a punch and randy effective with the overhand right (comparable to chuck) randy also managed to get tim on his back in every round and showed complete dominance to win every round 10-9 winning 50-45 on points, to become the heavyweight champ. to the annoyance of everyone, sylvia commented on a pre-fight injury in the post fight interview - and 'rogan' wonders why nobody likes him.

result - randy 50-45 points win
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chris lytle vs MATT HUGHES
chris lytle stuck in well but hughes power proved the determining factor, with hughes on top most of the fight, no discrace for lytle.

result - hughes 30-27 points win

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RICH FRANKLIN vs Jason MacDonald

a good opening round with franklin on top, it wasn't an all out stand up fight, but franklin did well standing in macdonalds full guard landing big punches, causing damage, at the end of the first round macdonalds corner retired him.

result - franklin win - corner stopage 1st round.

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jason lambert vs BABALU

quite a shock to me this one, lambert looked impressive and babalu didn't seem to have an answer, babalu seemed to go for the risky approach of using the knee in the stand up, which lead to him being vunerable to takedowns - lambert caused damage on the ground in a big first round. the 2nd round the knee was to be the pitfall of babalu, as when going for one lambert landed a KO punch.

result - lambert 2nd round KO.

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other results
kampmann beat drew McFederies
matt hammill beat rex holman