MMA/Boxing

Jones Jr/Fight Night/UFC 81 picks

So Roy Jones, Jr is back. Or, so he says. Jones, 39, defeated Felix Trinidad on Jan. 20 at MSG by unanimous decision.  Jones landed effective shots at times and displayed some nifty defense against Trinidad’s crosses and hooks, although, I must say, I thought Tito landed effective body shots throughout the fight.  I give credit to Jones for determination at this point in his career to g out on top. He came into the fight in great shape and showed his usual great hand speed, but I wasn’t as impressed with his performance as the HBO PPV announcers (or other boxing writers, for that matter.) Jones wants the winner of the Joe Calzaghe/Bernard Hopkins light-heavyweight title fight in April. I don’t think Jones would give either fighter much of a fight, especially Calzaghe. (With Hopkins, you never know, since Bernard is well past 40.)  Honestly, it would be a shame if Jones were given the first shot at the The Ring magazine light-heavyweight belt. There are better, younger fights in that division who should get their opportunity before Jones. Before Trinidad, Jones hadn’t beaten any noteworthy fighters since 2003. And, even this victory came against a guy who hadn’t fought well over 2 years and who was naturally much smaller than Jones.

In UFC news: 

UFC’s Fight Night on Jan. 23 featured several good young fighters. Kurt Pellegrino TKO over Alberto Crane was impressive. Nate Diaz continued to show his outstanding submission skills with a triangle choke win over Alvin Robinson.  Patrick Cote’s 1^st round TKO of Drew McFedries was the performance of the night for me. You have to be happy for a guy like Cote who lost to tough fighters in the UFC to guys like Tito Ortiz, Travis Lutter, Chris Leben, and Joe Doerksen earlier in his UFC career. Cote stuck it out and has won 4 UFC fights in a row, upsetting Kendall Grove last year before stopping the hard-hitting McFedries. The main even saw Mike Swick, making in welterweight debut, taking a majority decision over Josh Burkman. This wasn’t horrible contest, but I was expecting them to trade much more than they did. Neither man was that impressive or as exciting as they ususally are.

What is sure to be exciting, however, is UFC 81 which takes place this Saturday.  Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira battles Tim Sylvia for the interim heavyweight championship (and probably the real heavyweight championship as current champ Randy Couture in wrapped up in a lawsuit with Zuffa and shows no signs of coming back to fight in the UFC). My head tells me Noguiera, who is a former Pride heavyweight champion and truly one of sports' all time greats. However, I think all the battle he's fought over the years may be catching up with him. For Sylvia, he seems to rise to the occation in the underdog role. Many experts said he wouldn't beat Brandon Vera last October (but he did), virtually no one thought he'd beat Andrei Arlovski in their second and third fights (he won both), and many didn't feel that he would beat Jeff Monson in their 2006 fight if the contest went to the groud (a good portion of the fight, in fact, was on the ground, with Sylvia look as good as he ever has on the mat).  As tempting as it is to take Nogs, I'm going with the upset.  

Just as interesting in former WWE champion Brock Lesnar’s UFC debut against former UFC heavyweight titleholder Frank Mir. Lesnar, a former NCAA wrestling champion at Minnesota, has only fought 1 MMA fight, so he’s taking a big step up in competition in Mir. Mir isn’t the Mir of 5 years ago due to a motorcycle accident, and for that reason, I’m going with Brock. Something tells me the UFC wouldn’t have made the match if they didn’t think Lesnar was ready for that level of competition. I think Brock will go for a big take down and quickly catch Mir with some brutal ground and pound for the win. If Mir can hold off Brock's early aggresssion, he can win with all his experience. But, again, something tells me Brock will win.

UFC 81 Picks (Main Card)

Tim Sylvia over Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

Brock Lesnar over Frank Mir

Nathan Marquardt over Jeremy Horn

Adam Belcher over Ricardo Almeida  

Email me your picks at nobradovich@enterto.com.  

NOTES:

Last Saturday, 2004 Super-Heavyweight Olympic Gold Medalist Alexander Povetkin outworked previously unbeaten Eddie Chambers, scoring an unanimous decision last in Germany. Poventkin is now ranked the #1 contender by the IBF. Wladimir Klitschko holds that promotions’ heavyweight crown, so if Klitschko beats WBO champ Sultan Ibragimov, he will face the 15-0 Povetkin. Povetkin looked good, but nothing he did told me he was ready to challenge Klitschko.

Next week, we’ll cover UFC 81 and touch on all the big boxing fights that have been signed over the past two weeks.