Tonight, the UFC kicks off its third event on the Fox network with UFC On Fox 3: Diaz vs. Miller. It promises to be a strong event and a worthy successor to the first two events on the network, if the main card is anything to go by. The main card is kept to four fights to keep the run-time down, with a preliminary card on Fuel TV and Facebook.
In the main event, Nate Diaz will square off against Jim Miller, who is one fight removed from a number one contender's match for the lightweight championship. Diaz, a Stockton, CA native, is looking to continue his career resurgence at lightweight for the second time. His last outing was an intensely impressive victory over perennial lightweight contender Donald Cerrone.
Below, we're going to take a look at the fights and I'll give my own predictions for the night's main card.
This fight will be opening up the night's main card and it's pretty obvious why: Dana White and Joe Silva think that this fight will end very quickly and very violently. Johnson hits like a tank. No, more than that, he hits like a giant robot with super tanks for arms that shoot out normal-sized tanks. That being said, Barry is the more polished striker and if he gains some fight IQ, he should be able to out-strike Johnson and earn a knockout. There's a good chance this one is three rounds of bad cardio, though. Beware. Barry by TKO, Round Two
Rousimar Palhares vs. Alan Belcher
If there was a UFC title belt for "lowest fight IQ", this fight would be for said belt. Palhares isn't good at anything but grabbing onto a limb and ripping it right off. Unfortunately for Belcher, he's so ridiculously good at doing that. So very ridiculously good at it. Belcher is a great striker and doesn't have very many weaknesses technically, but he is on the sluggish side. He's still probably the smart bet as the more polished MMA fighter, but I think Palhares goes home with another limb to add to his collection. Palhares by submission, Round Two
Josh Koscheck vs. Johny Hendricks
Hendricks suffered a setback when he was controlled by Rick Story for three rounds, but he rebounded from that nicely by knocking out the No. 2 welterweight in the world, Jon Fitch, in only a few seconds. Hendricks is an excellent wrestler (Story wasn't able to get him down, just control him against the fence) and a very, very strong puncher. He's also very technical, and able to score the knockout from multiple angles and distances. Koscheck, on the other hand, has the tendency to engage in sloppy striking battles in which he throws an overhand right and nothing else. He really doesn't throw anything else. This is a changing of the guard and Hendricks makes another statement with an early KO. Hendricks by KO, Round One
This is a tough fight to call, because Miller is so good at everything he does, but has lost in the past to guys who can out-hustle him. Is Diaz that guy? Probably not. Diaz doesn't out-hustle anybody, he just beats them. You have to have a great gameplan out out-hustle Miller, and the Diaz brothers aren't known to be strong tacticians. That being said, you can't ignore Diaz's fight against Cerrone. It was absolute domination and the opposite of what most experts expected. That being said, Miller is just too good at too many things, and it's hard to see anything other than Diaz being controlled by the bigger and better man. Miller by decision