On Saturday morning, I gave my predictions for the UFC On Fox 3 preliminary card - and I've decided I'll take a look over them and see how I did. I'll go over each fight and talk a little bit about the prelims, which were action-packed, if a little sloppy. Buy sloppy is just fine, providing that it's still exciting and people actually get hit.
Bad sloppy is Leonard Garcia, who may or may not actually have ever hit somebody in his time with Zuffa. At any rate, it was a solid watch of a main card, so let's go ahead and see how I did. Which is to say, let's see how poorly I did.
Karlos Vemola vs. Mike Massenzio
All of the experts at Bloody Elbow picked Massenzio to work Vemola pretty handily, but I had Vemola winning on crazy gorilla strength or something along those lines. At any rate, it was actually a very competitive first round. It was a pretty tight first, and Vemola entered the second looking pretty gassed, which was a bad sign. But Vemola powered Massenzio down and started delivering heavy strikes to start the second. Massenzio covered up, and Vemola secured a submission victory. I picked a knockout in the first round, instead we got a submission just over a minute into the first. Either way, it was due to gorilla strength, so I'll take a win here.
I had Delorme being one-dimensional and losing the fight to an aggressive Denis, which wasn't too far off, except he won, but that's just a technicality. Denis was forcing Delorme to panic early, but eventually, it was Delorme who landed a punch that forced Denis back. He then tripped him, pounced on him, and sunk in the rear naked choke for the round one submission. I had Denis by TKO in round two, so this is a loss for me.
Pablo Garza vs. Dennis Bermudez
Garza started off this fight exactly like he should have - out-landing Bermudez as the more polished fighter overall. But along the way something happened and Bermudez got hulk strength and started tossing Garza around like a sack of potatoes. I had a Garza submission in round three and it was a clear-cut decision win for Bermudez. I was on the right track, but it's another loss for me.
Danny Castillo vs. John Cholish
This fight exactly how it was supposed to. I said that Castillo would win a decision, and he did - though it was somewhat controversial. I said they're similar fighters, and that was illustrated well in how close it was. Had Castillo by decision and that's what happened. A rare win for me.
Louis Gaudinot vs. John Lineker
Alright so I called this one way wrong. It turns out Gaudinot could take all the punches Lineker threw at him. Still, if Lineker was just a bit more calm, he was on his way to an easy 30-27. As it happens, he made some dumb mistakes and Gaudinot secured a guillotine that nobody was escaping from. I lose again.
John Hathaway vs. Pascal Krauss
I had Hathaway winning by being better than Krauss straight-up, even if he's never going to live up to his short-lived hype. I was right. Pretty clear-cut decision. Hathaway almost finished the fight multiple times and, though it would have screwed up my prediction, I wish he would have. Would have been fun. I win on this one, though.
John Dodson vs. Tim Elliott
I called this one right, too - though I had Dodson scoring a TKO late in the fight. In all honesty, Dodson disappointed me - I had him pegged to do much better than he did. I'm not sure why he struggled so much with Elliott, who arguably took the third round with a slowing Dodson. I had this mostly right, wither way.
Anthony Ferguson vs. Michael Johnson
Hey look at that, a recent TUF alum actually progressed and developed into a decent fighter, it seems. Unfortunately, he did so against a more recent TUF alum, so there's that. I had Ferguson making Johnson look really bad, with the caveat that Johnson has always had to strike with defensive wrestling in mind. The first time he fights a strike, he embarrasses him. Could be good things in his future if he hits the right matchups. I was wrong here.