Any followers of MMA?

UFC 100 is this Saturday, July 11. It's about as good a total card there's ever been (arguably).

•Heavyweight championship: Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir

Lesnar is a man-mountain. He is Marko. But Mir beat him with a flukey knee bar last time. And Mir has since put down Nogeira, who had never been put down.

Prediction: I'm rooting for Mir, but Lesnar mauls him. Overpowers him, takes him to the ground, works him to the cage, and lays on him.

•Welterweight championship: Georges St. Pierre vs. Thiago Alves

I can't wait for this one. GSP is perhaps the best pound for pound fighter ever, but Alves could punch his lights out.

Prediction: GSP. Gets him on the ground and dominates the ground.

•Middleweights: Henderson vs. Bisping

Can't wait for this one. This is the traditional matchup of coaches from the recent Ultimate Fighter reality show. I like Henderson. I hate the cocky Brit Bisping. I'm picturing Bisping as Robbie so I can enjoy it more.

Prediction: Henderson. He has heavy hands and a hard jaw. Bisping looks good, but Henderson hurts him, grapples well, and grounds and pounds.

On the much lower card, I want to see CB Dollaway win. I like him and think he's an up and comer.

It should be awesome. I am a big fan, we usually plan Poker Night for the big fights, but most of us are away this Sat, so no joy.

Disagree on Mir's win being a fluke (and I think it was an ankle lock). I don't think Lesnar's got the stamina to go all 5 rounds if Mir can avoid those fists.

It was a knee bar. And I was totally cheering -- not trying to devalue the win, but it looked like Lesnar was mauling him.

If you watch carefully, Mir was stalking for submissions the whole time -- the better fighter won that day. But Lesnar was comically stupid in how he opened himself to submissions. Only "flukey" in the sense that the fight won't go that way this time (a submission 1:30 into the first round).

That's the beautiful thing about this fight -- they both have heavy hands. Lesnar is a great wrestler, Mir is great at ju-jitsu. So if Lesnar tries to take the fight to the ground (his strength), he's entering a zone of danger with Mir.

I think Lesnar should stay on his feet and swing punches.

My buddy's throwing his gf a birthday party on Saturday and has ordered this fight. He's so romantic.

And I'll be there.

I'm jealous.

It's kind brutal, money aside. The entire card runs from 10:00 to about 1:00.

I will be happy with any outcome barring poor decisions or ultra short fights.

I think:

Mir beats Lesnar standing. I won't be upset either way as I think Lesnar is a great fighter too. I can't recall the last time I was this excited over a fight. Dana White must be absolutely thrilled with the way this came about.

GSP in an unepectedly even and brutal fight, again though, this won't upset me no matter who wins.

Bisping beats Henderson. The only reason that I am pulling for Bisping is that most of the American fighters on the most recent season came across as complete dicks and actaully had me rooting against my own country, the bastards. Towards the end, Bisping's behavior and the guts shown by Frankie Lester kinda flipped me, but I think Bispings youth will be hard for Hendos age to overcome. However see Randy Couture's most recent run, I like for the older guys to re-assert themselves too. Fuck it, I don't care who wins this either but can't wait to see these guys fight.

The undercard looks awesome too.

I'll be watching it with my brother and a bunch of friends. My predicted winners in bold.

Brock Lesnar Vs. Frank Mir
Georges St-Pierre Vs. Thiago Alves
Dan Henderson Vs. Michael Bisping
Jon Fitch Vs. Paulo Thiago
Yoshihiro Akiyama Vs. Alan Belcher
Mark Coleman Vs. Stephan Bonnar
Mac Danzig Vs. Jim Miller
Jon Jones Vs. Jake O'Brien
Dong Hyun Kim Vs. TJ Grant
CB Dollaway Vs. Tom Lawlor
Matt Grice Vs. Shannon Gugerty

I pick Brock, Georges, Dan, Fitch, Akiyama, Coleman (for the upset), Miller and Dollaway.

Lesner's stamina is fine (see the Heath Herring fight). Mir's stamina was always suspect, even before his accident.

Lesnar once beat the immortal Hulk hogan.

Whupped him

Even "hulking-up" couldn't save the Hulkster.

After hearing and seeing thousands of commercials for this, an odd thought came to my head.
I have no idea who the heavywieght Boxing champ of the world is, and I haven't known for quite some time.

There's three of them-- that's part of the problem.

For those interested in the results:

Well that was pretty damn awesome.

Of the 11 fights, I got 7 of them right which meant my brother got stuck paying for the whole thing and I won a few side bets with my buddies.

Of the 4 I got wrong, two of them, Henderson and Coleman I'm glad I got wrong. I still wish Bisbing would have won because he reminds me so much of Bret Hart circa his HBK feud but Henderson was incredible. Bonnar is supposed to have a job for life but from what I have heard, his fight was so bad that's going to be debatable.

Brock cutting a heel promo straight out of WWE was an amazing end to a brutal beating.

That was indeed awesome.

Brock is good heel. I don't know who I'm wishing for to beat him. Maybe UFC will sign Fedor.

I'm a full on Henderson fan. It seems like he shouldn't be able to get away with that "stalk and bomb" style, but he's so good in the clinch that he's not that vulnerable to take down. And his jaw is so hard he can afford to just tuck his chin and launch the bomb.

Bisping is sort of a chicken hopper. Fights on his feet, but not really lethal as a striker. Jab and move. That habit if circling to his left is fatal.

I just finished listening to the post card press conference. Both Brock and Dana profusely apologized for Brock's post fight promo. I can understand why they would because Bud Light isn't happy and Brock's words were not in keeping with how Dana wants to protray UFC. However I hope it's just damage control and they really aren't ashamed because after a fight like that, I want to see a fighter be over the top like that. Not all of them mind you, but someone like Brock it fits just so well.

The reaction at the fight party I went to was very negative toward Brock. People really seemed to hate him.

I agree that he acted like a bitch after the fight. His heel promo worked-- can't wait to see someone eventually beat him.

Ouch!

Har!!!