It certainly features an intriguing main event, as Liddell defends his Light Heavyweight title for the first time against Jeremy Horn.  Obviously Zuffa are desperate for him to avenge his UFC 19 loss and set up a third, and final fight with Couture.  But this could have been so much bigger if they’d signed Horn up a few months back and put him out there a couple of times to get him re-acquainted with the (huge) section of the audience that isn’t really that aware of, or obsessed with Horn the way so many hardcore fans are.  Missed promotional opportunities aside, this is a quality main event and we kick off this preview with a truly epic look at Liddell-Horn II before running down each of the remaining 7 matches.

Line-up:

UFC Light Heavyweight Title Match: Chuck Liddell vs. Jeremy Horn
Randy Couture vs. Mike Van Arsdale
Frank Trigg vs. Georges St-Pierre
Diego Sanchez vs. Brian Gassaway
Travis Lutter vs. Trevor Prangley
Matt Lindland vs. Joe Doerksen
Tim Sylvia vs. Tra Telligman
James Irvin vs. Terry Martin

UFC Light Heavyweight Title Match: Chuck Liddell vs. Jeremy Horn

Only three fighters have beaten Chuck Liddell in his 8 year professional career.  One of them, Randy Couture was paid back in style when Liddell sparked him out to finally win the Light Heavyweight title 4 months ago at UFC 52.  Not long after, Zuffa opened negotiations with one of the others, Quinton Jackson, to challenge the ‘Iceman’.  However, Jackson’s contract with Pride still had a few months left to run.  That left the company with no available big name title challengers.  Vitor Belfort had just lost to Tito Ortiz, Ortiz was asking for a major pay rise and Zuffa clearly want to stretch out the Liddell-Couture trilogy as long as possible.  So, urged on by Liddell and Horn’s manager Monte Cox, they offered the spot to the only remaining name on that very short list.  Quite a turnaround for Horn who was, somewhat insultingly, offered a spot as a contestant for the first series of TUF.  An ‘opportunity’ he turned down.  Quite frankly, Zuffa have never shown any real interest in Horn and his last appearance for UFC was a surprising loss to Elvis Sinosic back in February 2001.  That’s despite Joe Rogan’s personal mission to mention Horn’s name about 12 times per show.  But with the increasing staleness of matchmaking options at 205 pounds and the need for a fight that had some kind of selling point they finally relented and Horn makes his long awaited return to the Octagon in just a few days time.

Horn is one of the most respected fighters in the business.  He’s also the darling of MMA forums where you’ll find no end of people clinging to his bandwagon as if their very lives depended on it.  Certainly, he’s an excellent fighter but there’s a reason it’s taken so long for Zuffa to pick him up.  There’s also a reason why DSE allowed his contract to lapse after just 2 fights in Pride as well.  Simply put, Horn really isn’t a particularly marketable fighter.  A highly skilled professional, a nice guy (the infamous and completely out of character spitting incident with TUF2 contestant Josh Burkman aside) and a hard worker, Horn lacks charisma, the proper ‘look’ and his fighting style can be pretty dull.  Still only 29 (he turns 30 five days after the fight) Horn has been around seemingly forever and has fought all over the USA, including Alaska, as well as in Canada, Holland, England, South Korea and Japan.  Debuting in 1996 as a 20 year-old he’s amassed a verifiable record of 75-13-5 but claims to have fought professionally more than 100 times.  And he’s beaten some impressive names too – Daiju Takase, Akira Shoji, Gilbert Yvel, Vernon White, Forrest Griffin, Dean Lister and David Loiseau to name a few.  And when Horn does lose, its usually to high quality fighters – people like Frank Shamrock, Ricardo Arona, Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera, Kiyoshi Tamura, Randy Couture, Renato ‘Babalu’ Sobral and Anderson Silva.

Unfortunately for Horn, Chuck Liddell (16-3) is a high quality fighter too and with revenge on his mind, will be making the first defence of a title he was ‘supposed’ to win back in June 2003.  It’s a well-known boxing cliché that it’s harder to defend a title than to win one.  The chase is over, the goal has been achieved and you have to get back into the grind of training just as people are telling you how great you are.  Like most clichés there is some truth to that but it’s hard to imagine Liddell throwing away something he worked so hard for, this quickly.  Debuting in March 1998, the former kickboxer scored a couple of decision ones, including a gruelling 30 minute one over the far more experienced Jose ‘Pele’ Landi-Jons, before meeting Horn at UFC 19.  That was his first loss and he bounced back admirably, reeling off 10 successive wins before being matched up with Randy Couture for the ‘interim’ Light Heavyweight title that was sort-of vacated by Tito Ortiz when he refused to fight his friend.  Citing a pact that Liddell has always denied ever existed, Ortiz’ reluctance may have had more to do with Liddell’s quick annihilation of Kevin Randleman and his brutal KO of Guy Mezger.  Not to mention his dominant decision wins over Murilo Bustamante and Amar Suloev, his win over Vitor Belfort, the rapid KO of Renato ‘Babalu’ Sobral, and the way Liddell performed when they trained together, than solidarity between friends.  Whatever Ortiz’ reasons, Zuffa matched Liddell up with Couture, coming off a pair of losses to Josh Barnett and Ricco Rodriguez, in the hopes of crowning Liddell the new champion.  Couture ruined that though and two months later Liddell was representing the UFC in Pride’s Middleweight Grand Prix tournament.  He KO’d Alistair Overeem after some shaky moments but took a beating from Quinton Jackson two months later.  Since then, Liddell has won 3 in a row, blitzing Ortiz at UFC 47, flattening Vernon White at UFC 49 and finally, at UFC 52 whacking Couture out to win the title.

So how do these two match up?  First of all, any analysis has to start with their first fight.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t really tell us much today, almost 6 and a half years on, as both men are very different fighters.  Liddell had been training in submissions for just a few months, yet still managed to avoid several submission attempts.  His submission defence is much improved these days.  Horn’s striking has improved immeasurably too.  In the late 1990s he was almost purely a grappler who threw the odd punch but now he is willing to stand and trade with more or less anyone.  During their UFC 19 fight Liddell was clearly the better striker and Horn tried repeatedly to put Liddell away with submissions but couldn’t quite get one until the end of regulation time.  Caught with an arm triangle choke but knowing the bell was close, Liddell waited and waited, and when the referee separated them the ‘Iceman’ was fast asleep.  As a demonstration of how effective submissions could be it made a truly memorable ending but the action itself was pretty lacklustre.  Things have changed an awful lot since then.  Now, with some 7 years of BJJ training under John Lewis, Liddell has further improved his submission awareness.  His high school wrestling background and years of MMA training and fighting have given him one of the best takedown defences around.  And that’s before mentioning that amazing ability he has to get up if somebody does somehow take him down in the first place.  Liddell has also improved as a striker.  His technique is still pretty wild but he picks his punches better these days and certainly has plenty of power.  Much is made of the fact Horn has never been knocked out but nobody had ever cleanly KO’d Randy Couture until Liddell did it with a single right hand in April.  Horn has changed considerably too.  With even more experience in grappling, in all-round fighting and most importantly, in striking, he is a very dangerous fighter for anyone in the 185 and 205 pound weight divisions.

Since both men have competed in well over 100 MMA fights between them, it’s unsurprising they have a few common opponents.  Both hold a 1998 decision win over Noe Hernandez and both have fought Couture, Vernon White and ‘Babalu’.  Both lost to Couture, Horn dropping a very clear unanimous decision in RINGS back in 2000 and Liddell being TKO’d by ‘the Natural’ at UFC 43.  Horn had his moments with Couture but was exhausted by the end and was being biffed with some hefty shots fairly late in the fight.  However, Liddell did destroy Couture in a rematch.  Liddell’s UFC 49 match with White compares favourably with Horn’s encounter with the Lion’s Den veteran some 15 months beforehand at KOTC 23.  Liddell battered White, hurting him numerous times before finally scoring a devastating KO late in the first round.  Horn didn’t look particularly good standing up with White but still won a unanimous decision.  Finally, and perhaps most interestingly, Liddell blasted ‘Babalu’ out with a single foot to the face in just 2:55 at UFC 40.  And that was the first, and only time anyone had KO’d Sobral as well.  Kevin Randleman, Fedor Emelianenko and Dan Henderson had all beaten him by decision but no-one had ever KO’d the Brazilian.  As for Horn, he met ‘Babalu’ almost a year later in the finals of the IFC Global Domination tournament.  By the time they fought, ‘Babalu’ was exhausted after going the distance with Trevor Prangley and choking out Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua midway through the third round.  His right eye was also swelling badly.  Horn had spent much less time fighting (beating Mikhail Avetisyan fairly easily and having a tough time before KO’ing Forrest Griffin) than ‘Babalu’ and had some clear chances to finish off the shattered, injured Brazilian.  However, he let them slip away and Sobral took the match and the tournament by decision.

Horn has been training for this fight in Utah, away from the main Miletich camp in Iowa and, for perhaps the first time ever, in a training camp set up entirely for him rather than as so often happened before, him helping train other fighters and fitting in his own preparation around that.  This is his big chance to prove Zuffa wrong – for him to beat Liddell, take the title and force the company to accept he can be marketed on the strength of his talent and ability alone.  It would also be a vindication of his career path – fighting wherever and whenever he can, amassing wins and experience and making it to the top on his own terms.  I just don’t see that happening.  Much is made of his experience but looking at his record, Horn’s wins, at least those in the last couple of years, have predominantly been against mediocre fighters.  Beating the likes of Aitor Canup, William Hill, Kyle Seals, Cameron Brown and Ron Fields is hardly preparation for a fight with Liddell.  Aside from wins over Chael Sonnen, Kazuki Okubo (where he showed off some impressive boxing) and Loiseau, Horn has done little of note recently.  In June 2004 he lost a very clear decision to Anderson Silva in Seoul, South Korea.  Admittedly he was hampered by a groin injury but the way Silva was able to land punches almost at will, through Horn’s sloppy guard and evade his slow counterpunches does not bode well for Horn here.  Silva and Liddell are very different strikers but if Liddell can land anything like as often as Silva did then Horn could be on the way to his first ever knockout loss.

Horn’s only genuine chance is on the ground.  And nobody has put Liddell on his back since Couture did it over 2 years ago.  Even Couture had serious trouble keeping him there.  The first fight with Horn was the only submission loss of the ‘Iceman’s career too and nobody has come particularly close to repeating the trick since.  Horn is an excellent technician but Liddell has a good enough defence to fend off his submission attempts.  Liddell has tremendous power, especially in his right hand and his only two losses in the past 6 years came when he was injured (a torn quadriceps in the Jackson fight) and/or hadn’t trained properly (a knee injury and an assumption he’d walk through Couture).  Not that injury is an excuse for losing those fights.  He lost them because Couture and Jackson were whacking him in the face repeatedly but the circumstances do give a better overall picture of what was going on at the time.  A healthy Liddell motivated by the need for revenge, desire to keep his title and stay on top of the tree as the best 205 pound division, in the US at least, is a formidable thing.  A few other factors could sway the fight in his direction too.  First of all, by the time they get in there, Liddell will be around 220 pounds.  That should give him a significant size advantage over a man who normally cuts to 185, a weight Liddell would struggle to make even if he chopped off a leg.  As much as people talk about Horn’s finishing skills, he’s generally a slow, methodical worker who couldn’t put away James Zikic, Vernon White, Homer Moore, Challid Arab and Gilbert Yvel (in a fight where most of the action took place on the mat).  They’re all good fighters but if he expects to tap out Liddell he should have been able to do it to some of those names.  Also, Liddell has underrated stamina.  He certainly gassed out in the first Couture fight and was looking ragged against Overeem but contrary to popular myth, it’s not a given that any Liddell fight lasting more than 7 or 8 minutes will see him gulping down air.  Liddell is more than capable of pacing himself and Horn is likely to want to take the fight into the later stages hoping the champion will tire.  It may not be the explosive fight people are expecting but I think Liddell is going to take this, by a clear decision, over the full five rounds.  If Horn can’t take Liddell down and keep him there, this could end up looking somewhat like the Evan Tanner – Rich Franklin fight at times.  Horn can certainly absorb punishment and I think that quality will see him through to the bitter end of what could at times be a pretty one sided fight.

PREDICTION: Liddell by decision.  Something like 49-45 (or 4 rounds to 1)

Randy Couture vs. Mike Van Arsdale

Just four months after losing his Light Heavyweight belt to Chuck Liddell in quick and brutal fashion, Couture (13-7) returns to face an unusual opponent in the form of Mike Van Arsdale (8-1).  Unusual for two reasons, firstly its not often Couture fights someone around his own age these dayts and its certainly not an everyday occurrence for him to fight anyone with anything even vaguely comparable to his wrestling skills.  At 40 years old, Van Arsdale clocks up a combined 82 years with the UFC legend.  But don’t expect a slow paced fight.  This will be a brutally hard struggle between two incredible athletes whose conditioning puts some fighters half their age to shame.  An NCAA, US Junior and World Junior champion in freestyle wrestling, Van Arsdale is easily the best wrestler Couture has faced since his UFC 28 win over Kevin Randleman almost five years ago.  Van Arsdale has competed infrequently in MMA since his debut (a one night tournament win in Brazil) back in 1998.  His only loss came in brutal fashion at the hands of Wanderlei Silva in August of that year.  Since then he’s fought just 4 times, battering RINGS veteran Chris Haseman in 2002 before scoring a couple of wins over inexperienced opponents and at UFC 52, beating John Marsh by decision.  That win, a hard fought battle against a tough and larger opponent, earned Van Arsdale another UFC booking and a huge, nothing-to-lose opportunity.  If he can beat Couture then he instantly leaps into the 205 pound title picture.  If he loses then he simply lost to one of the greatest fighters in MMA history.

Couture, a four time national champion, a 3 time All-American and a Pan-American champion in Greco Roman wrestling and genuine MMA legend, needs this win.  Firstly, a loss here would almost certainly cost him a rubber match with Liddell.  It would also make people truly question for the first time in over two years whether time is really catching up with the ageless warrior.  Van Arsdale is no pushover but Couture is heavily favoured to win this fight.  And with good reason.  When Van Arsdale came out of semi-retirement to beat Haseman and the likes of Mario Lopez and Emmanuel Newton, Couture was fighting Josh Barnett and Ricco Rodriguez, and beating Liddell, Tito Ortiz and Vitor Belfort.  He’s highly experienced, always well-prepared and his mixture of ‘dirty boxing’ and Greco Roman clinchwork and takedowns has proven one of the most effective styles in the business.  Look even further back in his career and he’s defeated Pedro Rizzo (twice), Randleman, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Jeremy Horn and Maurice Smith.  And Couture is a much more complete fighter, competing in the ‘right’ weightclass these days.  This one could get very interesting very quickly.  Couture has better stand-up skills and their wrestling styles are very different.  As both are so technically sound it could be a matter of who can outmuscles and physically impose their will on their opponent.  I’m backing Couture to do just that.

PREDICTION: Couture by decision (30-27)

Frank Trigg vs. Georges St. Pierre

With Matt Hughes the unquestioned UFC top dog at 170 pounds, this fight could determine who is best placed to succeed him if he makes his much-rumoured move up to middleweight.  Both men have lost to Hughes in recent months, ‘Rush’ for the vacant belt at UFC 50 and ‘Twinkle Toes’ in a stunning fight at UFC 52.  However, both men are two of the very best at their weight and this has the potential to be one of the best UFC fights of the year.  Both gave Hughes some serious trouble in their recent matches with the Miletich Fighting Systems superstar but both ended up losing by submission.  At UFC 50 St. Pierre’s ever-improving proficiency and confidence in his stand-up skills (who else has tried spinning back kicks on Iowa’s takedown machine?) caused some real problems until Hughes caught him with a beautiful armbar late in the first round.  At UFC 52, Trigg, aided by a knee to the groin, came agonisingly close to TKO’ing Hughes and there’s certainly validity to his claim that if their positions had been reversed the fight would have been stopped.  Hughes survived though and came back with one of the most amazing slams of his career before scoring his second rear naked choke victory over Trigg in less than 18 months.  Since meeting Hughes, St. Pierre has picked up a pair of impressive wins, a dominant showing in a submission win against Dave Strasser and a decision win over the ‘eccentric’ Jason Miller at UFC 52.  For Trigg though, this is his first fight since his mini-epic with Hughes 4 months ago.

St. Pierre is one of the sport’s brightest and most exciting young stars and he faces a huge challenge here.  Trigg has some excellent wrestling skills, is a heavy puncher and a damn good all-round fighter.  He’s also a tremendous interview with a brilliant ‘bad guy’ persona that makes fans either love or hate him.  It’s hard to be apathetic about Trigg and unlike some fighters who play up their image, he can really deliver at fight time.  Aside from his two losses to Hughes, and he had moments of superiority in both of them, Trigg has looked excellent in his UFC tenure.  At UFC 48 he gave old foe Dennis Hallman a good beating and followed that up with a similar pounding of Renato ‘Charuto’ Verissimo at UFC 50.  He also handed out beatings to BJJ master Jean Jacques Machado and the highly respected Fabiano Iha a few years back.  And in his only other loss, Trigg looked to be on the way to a win over shooto legend Hayato Sakurai before being abruptly and emphatically stopped with a series of knees to the face in a great fight.  Trigg rebounded strongly from his last loss to Hughes and if he does so again here, the Quebecker could be in real trouble.

‘Rush’ is just one of those fighters its almost impossible not to cheer for.  Always exciting, highly skilled and always improving, his matches are always one of the best parts of a UFC show.  His Zuffa debut, a sometimes sloppy but always thrilling war with Karo Parisyan, saw him take a decision win and he followed that up with a ruthless destruction of big punching New Yorker Jay Hieron at UFC 48.  His fight with Hughes was a fascinating clash of styles and a classic battle between youth and experience and his decision win over Jason Miller got UFC 52 off to a cracking start as well.  Still only 24 years old, St. Pierre has years to mature and improve and should be a truly incredible fighter one day.  Whether he has quite enough to beat Trigg in a few days time is open to question in what should be the hardest fought, most difficult to predict, fight of the night.  Personally speaking, I’d love to see him do it (you may have guessed I’m a bit of a fan) but have some reservations about Trigg’s ability to wrestle, control and subdue him.  St. Pierre looked great in doing that to the slippery Jason Miller but Trigg is a very different fighter.  Brutally strong and compact, he’s almost the perfect MMA wrestler and St. Pierre is going to need every bit of his striking and BJJ skills to keep ‘Twinkle Toes’ from mauling him right out of the contest.  Perhaps.  And perhaps it’s time to put a little faith in everyone’s favourite French-Canadian.  Therefore, I’m going for St. Pierre to take this one, and do it in stunning fashion.  Imagine how cool it would be for him to crumple Trigg up with one of those back kicks before pounding away until the referee intervenes?  If we’re lucky we’ll even get to see one of those clumsy backflip/breakdancing celebration combos.

PREDICTION: St. Pierre by TKO late in the first round.

Diego Sanchez vs. Brian Gassaway

TUF Middleweight winner ‘The Nightmare’ makes his much anticipated UFC pay-per-view debut against the experienced Brian Gassaway (19-12-2).  Sanchez, whose official record stands at 12-0, also picked up 3 ‘unoffical’ wins during the reality show.  He absolutely wasted Alex Karalexis and Josh Rafferty, finishing both with a rear naked choke, and earned a tough decision win over Josh Koscheck.  In the finale he hammered Kenny Florian to earn a nice, fat UFC contract and the arrogant submission stylist from Alburquque, New Mexico will be expecting to do the same to Gassaway.  Former King of the Cage Welterweight champion Sanchez has beaten some good fighters, and of those 12 ‘official’ victims, 7 tapped out to submission holds.  Finishing off a talented but under appreciated veteran like John Cronk with a Kimura is a pretty good result, as are Sanchez’ pounding of Ray Elbe (KOTC 35) and decision win over Jorge Santiago (KOTC 36).

Gassaway, a veteran of Superbrawl, Pancrase and Shooto, will be a decent test for Sanchez though.  In his long career, Gassaway has beaten Miletich wrestler and half of MMA’s scariest pair of twins Mark Hughes in April 1999, Joe Slick (just 3 days later) and John Renken and Travis Fulton on the same night in July ’99.  More recently he’s drawn with Gideon Ray, scored wins over Trevor Garrett and barking mad Welshman Paul Jenkins and dropped decisions to Tetsuji Kato and Nick Thompson.  However, age and injuries accumulated over a decade of training and fighting won’t help Gassaway against the younger, fresher Sanchez.  Gassaway has also shown a weakness against skilled submission artists in the past, tapping out to Osami Shibuya, Vernon White, Ikuhisa Minowa and Yuki Kondo.  In that sense Gassaway is a perfect opponent for Sanchez here.  Credible enough to satisfy hardcore and longtime fans but not posing enough of a real threat to derail the Sanchez bandwagon as Zuffa try and create a real drawing card for the Hispanic audience.  Look for Sanchez, whose stand-up is still something of a weakness but has excellent mat skills to compensate, pull off an impressive submission win.

PREDICTION: Sanchez by submission late in the first round.

Travis Lutter vs. Trevor Prangley

With yet another injury forcing David Terrell to pull out of a UFC return, Travis Lutter (6-2) steps in with around 3 weeks notice to take on Trevor Prangley (10-2).  Lutter is certainly a worthy substitute but whether he can pull this off is open to question.  Like Terrell, Lutter is highly accomplished in BJJ and has good hands, so Prangley is still facing a similar fighter while Lutter has had less than a month to prepare and cut weight.  Both men are coming off impressive wins, Lutter effortlessly tapping out Englishman Matt Ewin at Cage Rage 12 in July and Prangley scoring a well-deserved decision win over talented Team Quest bible-basher Matt Horwich in March.  Lutter, a gifted and methodical BJJ stylist with heavy hands is a product of Guy Mezger’s Lion’s Den Dallas but runs his own school these days while still sparring and training with his former teammates.  This will be Lutter’s third UFC fight, following a win over Marvin Eastman and a loss to Matt Lindland, both of which were dull fights with surprising endings.  At UFC 50, Lutter drilled Eastman with an overhand right that sparked the kickboxer clean out after one of the dullest first rounds in recent memory, and at UFC 52, he managed to take Lindland down early but eventually tapped to a guillotine choke.  Aside from that, Lutter’s only other loss was to Jorge Rivera, back in 2002.  In that fight he chose to stand and trade with Rivera, a more gifted striker, and was actually doing well until tiring and being TKO’d.

South African wrestler Prangley (interview) tapped out Curtis Stout with a neck crank back at UFC 48 but blew his chance at a fight at UFC 50 after suffering a shock defeat to Ricco Hatting in Cape Town in February.  Prangley’s only other loss was to the formidable Renato ‘Babalu’ Sobral in 2003, and after the Hatting fiasco will surely have learned never to underestimate an opponent again.  Prangley holds good wins over quality fighters like Chael Sonnen and Andrei Semenov.  Currently training at the American Kickboxing Academy, he's also sharpening up his striking these days and although known mainly for his wrestling has some good submission skills.  However, Prangley would be reckless, if not foolish, to try trading submissions with Lutter.  Instead he needs to take him down early and often, maintain control and punish Lutter with punches and elbows.  Lutter has gassed out before (against Rivera and Lindland, though he was ill prior to the Lindland match) and with such little training time that is a danger here.  This is a very hard fight to predict, but I think Prangley’s better preparation (both in duration and quality, thanks to the level of support on offer at AKA) will be the key difference.  Look for Lutter to cause Prangley some real problems early before eventually being TKO’d on the ground late in the fight.

PREDICTION: Prangley by TKO early in the third round.

Matt Lindland vs. Joe Doerksen

Team Quest standout and Olympic silver medallist Lindland (14-3) seems perpetually on the verge of a UFC Middleweight title shot, and the prospect is once again being dangled in front of him if he beats Doerksen here.  But this fight has another storyline too.  Canadian submission artist Doerksen (31-6) has fought 3 Team Quest fighters in the last 15 months, and beaten them all.  First, Doerksen scored a decision win over Chris Leben in May 2004 in a real war.  Doerksen was by far the better fighter on the ground in that one and was surprisingly competitive on his feet with the hard-hitting, iron-chinned Leben.  Both men hurt each other with punches late in the fight but Doerksen finished strongly to seal a well-earned decision win.  Then, in October 2004, Doerksen beat Ed Herman with a  triangle choke at Sportfight 7, a show co-promoted by Lindland.  And just last month Doerksen beat Art Santore by decision after thoroughly dominating the entire fight but not quite being able to put Santore away.  Doerksen has plenty more good wins behind him too – over Patrick Cote at UFC 52, as well as beating Brendan Sequin, Denis Kang, John Alessio, Lee Murray and John Renken.  A professional since 1999, Doerksen’s losses have tended to come against high quality opposition, including David Loiseau and Matt Hughes.  And aside from his UFC 49 battering at the hands of Joe Riggs, Doerksen is unbeaten early 2002, winning 14 of his last 15 fights.  Like Travis Lutter though, the 27-year old Doerksen is here as a late replacement, called in after the motormouthed Riggs pulled out, and that could cause him problems with Lindland who is, in any case one of the best fighters Doerksen has ever faced.

‘The Law’ has bounced back well from the stunning 24-second KO loss that cost him a middleweight title shot and had so many people jumping prematurely all over David Terrell’s bandwagon.  Now, 364 days later, with 3 straight wins (over Mark Weir, Landon Showalter and Travis Lutter) under his belt, Doerksen is all that stands in his way.  For Doerksen, his fourth and easily biggest Team Quest scalp would be a huge career boost.  Lindland should be able to beat him though.  His wrestling is far superior to Doerksen’s and he uses his Greco-Roman base better than anyone in the business.  Lindland is also a master at using the cage to his advantage and when (not if, but when) he takes Doerksen down he’ll be looking to hand out as much punishment as possible, as quickly as possible.  Above all else, Lindland is a very intelligent fighter and surely knows how slippery and submission-crazed Doerksen is on the mat.  Lindland hasn’t tapped since he did it twice in one fight against Murilo Bustamante back in May 2002 and if Leben and Santore managed to avoid the submissions, then Lindland should be able to.  There’s a good chance this fight will look much like the Prangley-Lutter one, and have a similar outcome.  However things may be a little different if these two spend much time trading punches.  Lindland, improved though his striking is, remains weakest in that area and Doerksen is much-underrated on his feet.  He’s technically sound and has a good chin and if Lindland opts to stand and trade then Doerksen may pull off a major upset.  I wouldn’t bet any money on that happening but Doerksen is certainly dangerous.  Still, the likeliest outcome is a Lindland win in this one.

PREDICTION: Lindland by decision.

Tim Sylvia vs. Tra Telligman

Oh, the joys of announcing a line-up well in advance of the event.  As with the two previous fights Zuffa were sent scrambling for a replacement when one of the participants (Asseurio Silva) pulled out.  Surprisingly, they offered the job to Lion’s Den veteran Tra Telligman who turned down a fight with Tito Ortiz at UFC 50 after Guy Mezger’s health problems forced him to withdraw.  Telligman (7-4-1) turned 40 this year and has fought just twice in the last 5 years.  In fact ‘Trauma’ has competed a mere 5 times in the last 8 years.  He’s fought a couple of wars with Pedro Rizzo (losing both) and decisioned Igor Vovchanchyn back in 2001 but aside from that, Telligman’s main claim to fame is the childhood accident that left him with just one pectoral muscle and the fact he’s been a Lion’s Den fighter since sometime around 1868.  With the late notice, his age, a size differential of some 6 inches and 30 pounds and so much accumulated ring rust, Telligman may need a minor miracle in this one.  However, some sportsbooks have this as a surprisingly close fight, which either means they’re giving Telligman a puncher’s chance (and he can certainly bang) or that Sylvia’s stock has plummeted recently.

Former UFC Heavyweight Champion Sylvia (17-2) has had a rough year or so.  He lost his title to Frank Mir at UFC 48 after recklessly taking the fight to the mat, the one place where Mir held all the advantages, and had his arm snapped for his trouble.  Just six months later he was back, bashing up comedy nemesis Wes Sims in Hawaii.  But in his next outing, against Andrei Arlovski at UFC 51, Sylvia displayed poor defence, a questionable chin and little clue on the ground as the Belarussian monster tore him to pieces in just 47 seconds.  A win over the ridiculously overmatched Mike Block in May might have lifted Sylvia’s confidence a little but the Mir and Arlovski fights have left plenty of people wondering whether Sylvia was simply overrated all along.  His UFC 39 win over ‘Cabbage’ Correira certainly looks less impressive in light of the multi-tattooeed Hawaiian’s most recent results.  Sylvia looked great in his destructions of Ricco Rodriguez (UFC 41) and Gan McGee (UFC 44), but unkind observers might point out that Rodriguez clearly didn’t bother training for the fight and McGee, aside from his size really didn’t deserve a title shot anyway.  Also, Sylvia’s pre-UFC record is littered with fairly mediocre names.  In fact, his best wins were over Ben Rothwell and current sparring partner and TUF2 contestant Mike Whitehead.  But as I say, that would be a pretty unkind reading of Sylvia’s career.  He’s a very dangerous fighter, huge, powerful, an accurate and hard puncher who uses his physical advantages well.  If he can protect his chin (Telligman has some very good striking skills) and sticks to a decent gameplan then the gigantic Miletich fighter should be able to pound out a win with his fists in what could be a truly furious fight.

PREDICTION: Sylvia by KO midway through the first round.

James Irvin vs. Terry Martin

James ‘Sandman’ Irvin drops a weightclass and tries to erase memories of his complete destruction at the hands of Mike Kyle at UFC 51 as he meets unbeaten newcomer Terry Martin.  Irvin (8-1) looked hopeless against Kyle back in January on his way to his first ever loss in what had to be one of the worst UFC debuts in a long time.  Three months later though, Irvin KO’d capable WEC regular Doug Marshall and has also put in some training time with Randy Couture so we’ll hopefully see a better, more focused Irvin actually display some of the talent that got him a spot with Zuffa in the first place.  A heavy handed, willing brawler with good wrestling skills, Irvin has scored KO’s or TKO’s in 7 of his 8 victories and he badly needs an impressive showing here.

Like Irvin, Terry Martin (10-0) makes his UFC debut with an unblemished record.  Also like Irvin, his resume is padded out a little with rematches against some unfamiliar names.  However, he does own victories over two ‘name’ fighters in Chael Sonnen and Homer Moore, both of whom tend to lose against really good fighters but are a decent test for any young fighter.  Like Irvin, Martin tends to finish off his opponents.  In fact, his only decision win was in his debut, and he’s since won 5 by KO/TKO and 4 by submission.  Martin may be the more well rounded fighter (some nice slams and good wrestling skills) but Irvin’s recent training, size advantage and the simple fact he’s been in the UFC before, should see him through a tough fight.

PREDICTION: Irvin by TKO late in the second round.

Predictions Recap:

Chuck Liddell DEC5 Jeremy Horn
Randy Couture DEC3 Mike Van Arsdale
Georges St. Pierre TKO1 Frank Trigg
Diego Sanchez SUB1 Brian Gassaway
Trevor Prangley TKO3 Travis Lutter
Matt Lindland DEC3 Joe Doerksen
Tim Sylvia KO1 Tra Telligman
James Irvin TKO2 Terry Martin

August 20th 2005
MGM Grand, Las Vegas, Nevada

For those interested, there will be a live play by play of this event here.