UFC 74

Here are the Results from UFC 74 Respect.

Main Event:

UFC Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture vs. Gabriel Gonzaga

Undercard:

170 lbs.: Georges St. Pierre vs. Josh Koscheck
155 lbs.: Joe Stevenson vs. Kurt Pellegrino
205 lbs.: Renato “Babalu” Sobral vs. David Heath
155 lbs.: Marcus Aurelio vs. Clay Guida
155 lbs.: Roger Huerta vs. Alberto Crane
185 lbs.: Thales Leites vs. Ryan Jensen
185 lbs.: Kendall Grove vs. Patrick Cote
Heavy.: Frank Mir vs. Antoni Hardonk

Full UFC 74 Results warning, spoilers...
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I just looked at some weigh in photos for UFC 74 and I think Gabriel Gonzaga looks a little chunky. Gonzaga has had conditioning problems in the past, but seemed to overcome them in his fight with Mirko Cro Cop (which he looked to be in great shape for).

Randy Couture is a big time cardio freak and Gonzaga should be coming in to this fight ready to go five hard rounds with Randy. I'm sure that seeing Gabriel's belly gave Randy a big confidence boost at the weight ins.

Fight night is tonight...UFC 74!

These are the official UFC weight in results from UFC.com

UFC Heavyweight Championship
Gabriel Gonzaga (252) vs Randy Couture (228.5)

Josh Koscheck (170) vs Georges St-Pierre (170)
Joe Stevenson (155) vs Kurt Pellegrino (155)
Kendall Grove (184) vs Patrick Cote (184.5)
Alberto Crane (155) vs Roger Huerta (155)

David Heath (205) vs Renato ‘Babalu’ Sobral (204)
Frank Mir (255) vs Antoni Hardonk (244)
Thales Leites (186*) vs Ryan Jensen (185)
Marcus Aurelio (155) vs Clay Guida (155)

* It's worth noting that Thales Leites was originally 188, but weighed in at 186 two hours later.

Starting tonight at 10:00pm (ET/PT) Spike TV will be featuring Randy "The Natural" Couture, the current UFC heavyweight champion. This is of course a prelude to this weekends UFC 74 event which features a heavyweight title bout between Randy Couture and Gabriel Gonzaga.

Also on this weekends UFC 74 Fight Card is Josh Koscheck taking on MMA wizard Georges St Pierre.

The schedule tonight on Spike TV

10:00pm UFC Unleashed
11:00pm Countdown to UFC 74 Couture vs Gonzaga
midnight UFC all access : Randy Couture

For those of you who miss it tonight, it looks like Spike TV will be replaying the all access and countdown portions on Saturday starting at 5:30pm ET/PT

UFC 74 starts at 7:00pm PT/10:00pm ET on Saturday August 25th.

UFC 74 is being held on August 25th and features two big matches. Randy Couture vs. Gabriel Gonzaga and
Georges St. Pierre vs. Josh Koscheck. Before I give my UFC 74 Predictions, here is the UFC 74 Fight Card

Main Event:

UFC Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture vs. Gabriel Gonzaga

Undercard:

170 lbs.: Georges St. Pierre vs. Josh Koscheck
155 lbs.: Joe Stevenson vs. Kurt Pellegrino
205 lbs.: Renato “Babalu” Sobral vs. David Heath
155 lbs.: Marcus Aurelio vs. Clay Guida
155 lbs.: Roger Huerta vs. Alberto Crane
185 lbs.: Thales Leites vs. Ryan Jensen
185 lbs.: Kendall Grove vs. Patrick Cote
Heavy.: Frank Mir vs. Antoni Hardonk

I am going to move backward through this fight card, probably because I need more time to consider Gonzaga vs Couture

UFC 74 Predictions

Frank Mir vs. Antoni Hardonk
This appears to be the classic grappler (BJJ specialist) vs striker matchup. 4 years ago I would have given this one to Mir hands down. Nothing has changed. I believe Mir will take this to the ground and finish Hardonk.
Prediction : Frank Mir by submission.

Kendall Grove vs. Patrick Cote
Cote lookeds strong in his last outing (in the TKO organization), but Grove is coming off a big win of his own. I'll take Grove based on his all around game and recent performances. He's just more consistent.
Prediction : Kendall Grove

Thales Leites vs. Ryan Jensen
Some people have expressed concern over me giving predictions without justifying them. This is one of those cases. I think Thales Leites will win this fight. No justification...take it for what it's worth.
Prediction : Thales Leites

Roger Huerta vs. Alberto Crane
Huerta is too strong, too good.
Prediction : Roger Huerta

Marcus Aurelio vs. Clay Guida
Aurelio is a master of submissions, but Guida has proven that he can handle himself on the ground. I'm going to take Clay Guida in this fight. It could be fight of the night.
Prediction : Clay Guida

Renato “Babalu” Sobral vs. David Heath
Babalu has suffered some setbacks recently, but I still believe he is one of the top 10-15 205 pounders in the world. He has his chance here to prove it, or move on.
Prediction : Renato “Babalu” Sobral

Joe Stevenson vs. Kurt Pellegrino
I think there are only two fighters at 155 who can beat Joe Stevenson when he's on his game. BJ Penn and Sean Sherk. This is unfortunate news for Kurt Pellegrino.
Prediction : Joe Stevenson

Georges St. Pierre vs. Josh Koscheck
Josh Koscheck has the best takedowns of any welterweight (Matt Hughes included). He is also probably the best wrestler at 170. Kos also has shown that his standup fighting is much better than it was 2 years ago. With all that said, Georges St Pierre is the best welterweight in the world (sorry to the two Matt's, it's just my opinion). Kos won't be able to stand with Georges, taking him down is extrememly difficult and if he does he might get subbed. Looking for a TKO or guillotine finish here.
Prediction : Georges St Pierre

Randy Couture vs. Gabriel Gonzaga
Youth vs experience, strength vs strategy, look at this fight any way you want; this is a tough fight to pick. On one hand, Gonzaga appears to be the future of heavyweight MMA, but I've declared that based mostly on one victory. A victory against one of the best strikers in MMA, but not against one of the most rounded fighters we've seen (Mirko Cro Cop).

To recap that fight, Gonzaga caught one of Mirko's leg kicks early, took him down and beat on him for about 3 1/2 minutes. The ref stood the fight up and Gonzaga shocked the world by KO'ing Mirko with a high kick to the head. Now, Randy isn't going to throw a leg kick at Mirko's mid section and won't be taken down so easily...as for that high kick, it's one of those things, could have happened to anybody, but it's a high risk move against a fighter like Randy Couture who'll put you on your back and make you pay for it.

As for Randy Couture, he's 44 years old, too small to be a heavyweight...but Never Ever count Randy Couture out. He's great at applying strategy. He's one of the best wrestlers in MMA and at 44 years old he's still learning. If there is a way for a 44 year old guy who walks around at 220 pounds to defeat Gabriel Gonzaga, Randy will find it.

I picked Tim Sylvia to defeat Randy Couture, big mistake on my part. Gabriel Gonzaga is closer in style to Ricco Rodriguez than Tim Sylvia though and Randy had big trouble with Ricco. Still, I have to go with the sentimental favourite, but I woudn't put any money on this fight

Prediction : Randy Couture

That's it for my UFC 74 Predictions. Don't forget to come back for UFC 74 Results

If you're like me you've been feeling the lack of UFC action lately. Dana and the boys have taken a long break between the July 7th show and the next big event on August 25th, but in the span of 1 month we're going to have 4 shows and the start of the ultimate fighter season 6.

First off, we have a WEC event this weekend (Sunday night). I think it's being shown on the Versus network. Not sure if it will be available by Pay Per View or not.

August 25th is UFC 74 "Respect" featuring a bout for the heavyweight title between Randy Couture and Gabriel Gonzoga. Also on that card is Josh Koscheck vs Georges St Pierre.

September 8th from London is the UFC 75 "Champion vs Champion" card where Pride 205 lb champ Dan Henderson will take on the new UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson.

September 19th is a UFC Fight Night card featuring Spencer Fisher vs Din Thomas an Mike Swick vs Jonathon Goulet. Also an interesting bout between Chris Leben and Terry Martin (fully expecting a KO in that one, just not sure who will be KO'd).

September 19th will also be the season premiere of Ultimate Fighter season 6. This season will feature coaches Matt Serra and Matt Hughes...and a bunch of welterweight fighters.

And finally on September 22nd will be UFC 76 "Knockout" featuring Chuck Liddell vs Keith Jardine and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua taking on Forrest Griffin.

So, relax and enjoy the next 3 weeks...after that it's all UFC all the time!

Don't forget about the WEC card on Sunday. The feature bout is between Joe Doerksen and Paulo Filho and should be interesting.

UFC 74, being held in Las Vegas on August 25th now has it's fight card complete. The addition of Travis Lutter vs Ryan Jensen completes an already stellar fight card.

Lutter won the Ultimate Fighter "the comeback" TV series in the 185 lb middleweight division. Unfortunately he was unable to make weight for a title bout with Anderson Silva. The fight still happened with a less than prime Lutter getting tapped in the second round.

I'm sure Lutter won't make the same mistake again and Ryan Jensen will feel all the pain that Lutter has felt over the last 6 months over his failed attempt at a title shot.

Other fights worth noting on the UFC 74 fight card are:

Randy Couture vs Gabriel Gonzaga for the heavyweight title
Josh Koscheck vs Georges St Pierre to see who gets a title shot at welterweight

and of course the return of Frank Mir to the octagon.

Renalto Babalu Sobral will be facing David Heath at UFC 74 which will be held in Las Vegas on August 25th, 2007. Babalu has suffered back to back losses against Chuck Liddell and Jason Lambert. Prior to his fight with Liddell (his second), Renalto had put together an impressive 10 fight win streak including a victory over Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, a fighter considered by many to be the worlds best at 205 lbs.

David Heath is a 6-1 fighter who hold a win over Sean Salmon and a loss to Ryoto Machida. The loss to Machida was by 3 round decision. He has three TKO's on his resume and 3 submission victories.

Clearly Renalto Sobral has the experience advantage over Heath, the only question is if Babalu still has the confidence he displayed prior to his two most recent TKO losses.

It also looks like Roger Huerta will be on the UFC 74 card facing UFC newbie Alberto Crane. Huerta has been impressive in his last two UFC outings including a 3 round beating of a very tough Leonard Garcia and a TKO victory over Douglas Evans, but not before Evans tested Huerta early.

Crane has an unblemished 8-0 record, but none of his fights were in the UFC. There isn't any real world class talent in his history, but fighters who've never learned to lose are always dangerous.

Frank Mir will take on Antoni Hardonk at UFC 74 on August 25 in Las Vegas. Mir has not had a match since his TKO loss to Brandon Vera last year. Mir's most notable wins came in quick submissions over former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia (Mir broke Sylvia's arm in that match) and a quick submission victory over and over the hill Tank Abbott. Still, Mir was considered one of the UFC's most talented fighters prior to his motorcycle accident which left his future as a fighter in question.

I for one hope that Frank returns to form and takes a run at the heavyweight title. A match between a prime Frank Mir and Antonio Nogueira would be a submission fighters clinic.

As for Hardonk, he's from Holland and that can only mean one thing. Great stand-up. Holland is a kickboxing hotbed with a number of high profile names coming from there...think Ernesto Hoost for one. Remy Bonjasky is another. Many fighters who aren't actually from Holland/Netherlands still train there (Heath Herring trained out of Holland for a while).

Still, Hardonk hasn't faced the toughest of competition in the MMA world if Mir can take him down I expect an early submission.

Here is the official UFC 74 fight card. Expect this card to be updated as more fights are officially announced.

• Randy Couture vs Gabriel Gonzaga
  
• Josh Koscheck vs Georges St Pierre
  
• Kurt Pellegrino vs Joe Stevenson
  
• Patrick Cote vs Kendall Grove
  

Randy Couture vs Gabriel Gonzaga is for the heavyweight title. Couture won the belt by defeating Tim Sylvia in a 5 round decision, while Gabriel Gonzaga KO'd Mirko Cro Cop near the end of the first round of their bout.

Josh Koshcheck vs Georges St Pierre is a title eliminator, in other words the guy who wins this fight will fight the eventual winner of Matt Serra and Matt Hughes. Serra is the current welterweight champion, he won the belt with a first round TKO victory of Georges St Pierre. St Pierre was heavily favoured in that match.

If Joe "Big Daddy" Stevenson wins his bout with Kurt Pellegrino you can expect some title shot talk afterwards, but he'll have to wait until BJ Penn vs Sean Sherk is over with...this assuming that BJ Penn wants a shot at the lightweight title.

Kendall Grove is slowly working his way up to contender status, a victory over Patrick Cote would move him another peg up the ladder, especially considering that Cote holds a victory over Jason MacDonald.

Canadian BTT fighter Patrick "The preditor" Cote has been added to the UFC 74 card (scheduled for August 25th) and it looks like he's fighting Ultimate Fighter champion Kendall Grove.

Patrick has had his ups and downs in the UFC, but nobody can say that he's been fed easy fights either. Patrick is the current TKO 185 champion. He won the belt with a decisive TKO performance against Jason Day at the TKO event in Montreal June 1st. Before that he had a careful decision win over Scott Smith.

Cote has faced other UFC notables such as Tito Ortiz, Jason MacDonald and Travis Lutter, suffering losses to both Ortiz and Lutter, but defeating MacDonald by submission.

While the UFC is welcoming back Cote, Kendall Grove is not exactly a gimme type fight.

Kendall Grove has had nothing but success since his stint on the Ultimate Fighter 3 TV series. He defeated Ed Herman in the finale in a spectacular effort by both fighters. Since then he's beaten Chris Price and a very tough Alan Belcher.

I'm going to have to think about this one for a while before giving a prediction.