Come on. You knew they were going to bring Junie back. LIVE MATCHES * Efrain Escudero vs. Phillipe Nover (TUF lightweight finals) * Ryan Bader vs. Vinicius Magalhaes (TUF light heavyweights finals) * Wilson Gouveia vs. Jason MacDonald * Kevin Burns vs. Anthony Johnson * Junie Browning vs. Dave Kaplan TAPED MATCHES * Shane Primm vs. Krzysztof Soszynski * Jules Bruchez VS. Eliot Marshall * Kyle Kingsbury vs. Tom Lawlor * Shane Nelson vs. George Roop * John Polakowski vs. Rolando Delgado -- Burns/Johnson is a rematch from 7/19, where Burns inadvertently poked Johnson in the eye, which ref Steve Mazzagatti missed. Johnson went down in serious pain and Burns should have been disqualified. But was instead ruled a TKO win for Burns, which everyone correctly stated was wrong. So, Johnson gets another shot at Burns. -- I'll pick Vinny and Phillipe to win their fights. -- I'll also pick Junie to do something stupid.
Browning vs. Kaplan should get a rise. Remember Junie talked a lot of crap. Kaplan supposedly has never been KO in a fight. I don't see much coming from Junie honestly, but I would like to see him get his butt kicked
Two very good finals. All four guys have a chance to have a good career. It will be interesting to see how Nover does against a tough competitor like Efrain. Nover seems very legit. Probably the hardest hitter in the house and he just got his black belt in BJJ by the way. Should also be interesting to see if Vinny can bring the fight to the ground against Bader. He should be able to submit Bader if the fight hits the ground, but Vinny also has poor takedowns and Bader will obviously be so hard to get down to the mat. I still think Vinny must be the favorite though.
Yeah, that should be an interesting fight as well. It is hard to know much about Kaplan as he had the worst gameplan against Nover and got destroyed. But Nover has looked a class above everyone else as well. Remember Junie has been training with Team Couture though. If he has got his head together a bit he should be a slight favorite imo.
I'm actually kinda excited about this card. I'm a Gouveia fan and Burns-Johnson should be good as well. I will go with Nover and Magalhaes to win the contracts.
Question for those chosing Vinny. Do you think he can take down Bader? If so, how? I am just curious what you think. I'd rate Vinny as the favorite in this fight but at the same time he obviously does need to get the fight to the ground and will have a hard time to do so against Bader who has a much better take down defense than Krysztof. Bader doesn't have the best stand-up but it is better than Vinny's and I think it will be easier for Bader to prepare for this fight by improving his stand up than for Vinny to improve his takedowns against such a strong wrestler like Bader. Thoughts?
I think Vinny will fight much like he did in the semis - meaning, if Bader so much as lays a finger on him, he'll pull guard immediately and work from there.
Yeah, I'd agree. Pulling guard is the only way I see Vinny taking Bader down. I think this fight will be very tactical and Bader can win a decision if he is smart. But I also think he wants to make an impression after his yawner against Elliot and getting a bit careless with his striking, which could open him up for takedowns.
So, thoughts? Vinny went down without putting up a fight. Hopefully now that he has faced someone with a legit takedown defense people will realize he is a limited fighter. I'd still like to see him with a few more fights to see if the Bader match was a bit of a fluke. He is still young and has loads of potential if he shows he can take a punch and can improve his takedowns. Big props to Efrain. I did not think he would win. I still think Nover has a very bright future. Nover, Bader, and Efrain are all going to have strong careers in the UFC imo. And Junie looked very sharp. His time with Couture's camp has without a doubt improved him. He looked like a completely different fighter. I would like to see him face Nover. That would definitely be an entertaining fight.
I wouldn't say that he went down w/out putting a fight. He straight got ktfo. Those were some serious blows. I don't think anyone saw that coming.