UFC 87 Predictions

Here is the UFC 87 Fight Card - August 9, 2008
Main card

• Jon Fitch vs. Georges St. Pierre (Welterweight Title)
  
• Kenny Florian vs. Roger Huerta
  
• Brock Lesnar vs. Heath Herring
  
• Manny Gamburyan vs. Rob Emerson
  
• Jason MacDonald vs. Demian Maia
  

Preliminary card

• Cheick Kongo vs. Dan Evensen
  
• Chris Wilson vs. Steve Bruno
  
• Ben Saunders vs. Jared Rollins
  
• Luke Cummo vs. Tamdan McCrory
  
• Andre Gusmao vs. Razak Al-Hussan
  

Fitch vs GSP
I'd like to throw out a few comments and predictions as well, starting off with the main event title bout between Jon Fitch and Georges St Pierre. Let's face it, Jon Fitch is a beast. With wins over Diego Sanchez and Thiago Alves he has proven that he deserves this title shot. In fact, over his last eight fights Fitch is 8-0 while GSP is 7-1. Most people will tell you that "MMA Math" is extremely inaccurate, but I do consider level of competition and dominantness (is that a word?) of wins to be important.

In my opinion Fitch has faced two top 10 welterweights (named above) and defeated one by2nd round TKO due to strikes and one by split decision. St Pierre has faced 5 top 10 guys and has one loss vs one close victory and the rest were decisive victories. Edge in competition faced and dominance goes to GSP.

Styles make fights and unfortunately for Fitch GSP has seen the wrestler brawler style a lot. Face it, Matt Hughes and Josh Koscheck are probably better wrestlers than Fitch (Kos for sure). Also, Serra and Penn have the edge in Jui Jitsu. The one thing that GSP hasn't faced is a truly accomplished striker (although I would say that Penn is pretty damn good in that area).

Look for a feeling out process followed by a resounding thud as Fitch's back his the canvas, GSP will then spend the rest of the first round making Fitch squirm. Round 2 will start and Fitch will have his opportunity to stun GSP on his feet, but will again find himself on his back, this time stopped by GSP

Prediction : GSP by 2nd round ref stoppage

Florian vs Huerta
I think the first two fights on this card are spectacular. I can't wait to see Huerta and Florian lock up. Kenny has a way of solving opponents and making them look bad. Huerta has that never say die attitue and his well roundedness (is that a word?) has kept him in many fights until he finds a way to win. Fight of the night candidate for sure, but I have to pick one and I've like Kenny Florian's work lately.

Prediction : Kenny Florian

Brock Lesnar vs. Heath Herring
Brock Lesnar showed us two things in his loss to Frank Mir. First is that he is for real and he is a beast. Second is that he needs some work on his BJJ defense. Heath Herring will give Lesnar a war, Herring is tough to submit (although I doubt that Brock will take that route). Herring is tough and I expect him to win this via submission.

Prediction: Heath Herring

UFC 87 is August 9th and UFC 87 results will be available here on this site.