Are we the only ones who are sick
of this guy?
If you are like us then you can’t wait until Saturday night when Chuck Liddell takes on Quinton Jackson for the world light heavyweight championship belt. So, in preparation for the big fight, we are going to be conducting a bout by bout rundown of the card for UFC 71: Liddell vs. Jackson.
Kalib Starnes vs. Chris Leben
In the battle of the reality TV stars, former participants in The Ultimate Fighter, Kalib Starnes (9-2-1) and Chris Leben (16-3-0) will hook it up to see which loser can beat the other loser. Both of these guys annoyed the hell out of us during their tapings of the show but we have to admit that Leben’s red hair and crybaby attitude had us a little more riled up. As in we were wanting to hop in the octagon with the guy. Still, he’s a tough kid who can throw a hell of a punch and he’s had nearly five full months to recover mentally from a pair of beatings that he received in ’06 that included a 49 second KO from the current milddleweight champ Anderson Silva.
Starnes is a well rounded fighter who can box, wrestle and go jiu-jitsu on your ass. He might be able to stand up with Leben for a while but he’ll have a much better chance of trying to get past “The Crippler’s” sprawl and taking the fight to the mat.
Prediction: Starnes wins by submission
Houston Alexander vs. Keith Jardine
We gotta admit that we know basically nothing about Houston Alexander other than he appears to be a brawler who goes 6’0″ tall and is 35 years old with a record of 6-1. But we do know about his opponent, and he has been on an absolute tear in the UFC of late. Keith “The Dean of Mean” Jardine has a 12-3-1 record in the world of MMA and has gone an impressive 4-1 in his UFC bouts. His most recent fight was against the UFC’s favorite up-n-comer Forrest Griffin who he TKO’d in the first round of UFC 66. Jardine can brawl with the best of `em but, in addition, he has some excellent kickboxing skills to go along with it. Throw in the fact that he’s accustomed to being in the UFC spotlight while it will be his opponent’s first time in the big league and it all adds up to a decided Jardine advantage.
Prediction: Jardine wins by decision
Links:
[UFC.com]: UFC 71: Liddell vs. Jackson