In conclusion I feel this will be a fairly solid card with just a little fluff (Rua/Otsuka, Nakamura/Caras Jr. and Kharitonov/Silva mean absolutely nothing) but even those may turn out better than they look on paper. The groundwork will be laid for the upcoming Heavyweight Grand Prix on this card. That is reason enough to celebrate. If the heavyweight tournament is anything like the middleweight version, we may have some of the best fights in the history of the sport ahead of us this year. And with rumored names like Emelianenko, Nogueira, Yoshida, Kondo, Coleman, Sakuraba, Silva and Sylvia participating in the other bracket, every show leading up to it should rock. Enjoy the fights!
To recap, my picks are:
- Rua over Otsuka by TKO/referee stoppage in the 1st Rd
- Nakamura over Caras Jr. by submission in the 1st Rd
- Kharitonov over Silva by TKO in the 1st Rd
- Vovchanchyn over Bobish by KO in the 1st Rd
- Kerr over Yamamoto by TKO in the 2nd Rd
- Herring over McGee by TKO/referee stoppage in the 1st Rd
- Waterman over Filipovic by submission in the 1st Rd