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Bisping, the light-heavyweight winner on the
second season of "TUF," is currently 17-1 overall and 7-1 in
the UFC. His lone loss came via close split decision to
Rashad Evans at UFC 78. The loss prompted Bisping to drop to
middleweight, where he's now 3-0 with wins over Charles
McCarthy, Jason Day at UFC 85 and Chris Leben at UFC 89.
This is without question the biggest fight of Bisping’s
career. Not only because it has title shot implications, but
because Henderson is a crafty veteran who has competed
against many of the best in the sport throughout his
prestigious career.
Henderson won the Team U.S. slot by beating Rich Franklin in
January at UFC 93. He was a member of the United States
Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling team in 1992 and 1996 and has
competed all over the world both as an amateur in wrestling
and as a professional in mixed martial arts.
Henderson, will be gunning for his third title shot since
rejoining the UFC in 2007. He was unsuccessful in bids to
take Quinton Jackson's light-heavyweight title in 2007, and
in his very next fight, he failed to take Silva's belt in a
2008 middleweight title shot. Since then, though, he's
defeated Rousimar Palhares (at middleweight) and Franklin
(at light heavyweight) to move to 24-7 (4-2 in the UFC).
UFC 100 fight card wil also feature UFC heavyweight champion
Brock Lesnar vs. interim champ Frank Mir and UFC
welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre (18-2) vs. top
contender Thiago Alves (16-3).
Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir
Brock Lesnar (3-1) toppled former champion Randy Couture
with a second-round technical knockout at UFC 91 last
November to seize the title in only his fourth career bout.
Heavyweights Lesnar and Mir were originally scheduled to
face off at UFC 98 on May 23 in Las Vegas, but Mir withdrew
from the bout to recover from knee surgery.
Mir, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, stopped former Pride
champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira with strikes in the second
round at UFC 92 in December to earn the interim gold. Mir
submitted Lesnar with a kneebar in 90 seconds during their
first encounter at UFC 81 in February 2008.
Georges St-Pierre vs. Thiago Alves
St. Pierre last defended his title in decisive fashion over
UFC lightweight champion B.J. Penn (13-5-1 MMA, 9-4-1 UFC)
in a rematch of their 2006 clash. St. Pierre dominated Penn
for four straight rounds. Penn acknowledged that he had
sustained such abuse that he was more than likely knocked
out on his feet after the second round. His corner threw in
the towel at the end of round four to save the Hawaiian from
further punishment.
Alves is a big, powerful muay thai striker capable of ending
the fight with one punch or perhaps one knee. Karo Parisyan
tried a takedown on Alves that resulted in a lights-out hard
knee to the face. St-Pierre will need to be mindful of the
knees but it shouldn’t be as big of a problem for him since
his takedowns are among the fastest and most explosive in
the UFC.
St-Pierre is the favorite at -300 to +200 and brings one of
the best all-around games into the Octagon that the UFC has
ever seen.
Thiago Alves +200
Georges St. Pierre -300 (Heavy Favorite / Likely Winner)
Brock Lesnar -275 (Heavy Favorite / Likely Winner)
Frank Mir +190
Dan Henderson -300 (Heavy Favorite / Likely Winner)
Michael Bisping +200
Jon Jones -500 (Heavy Favorite / Likely Winner)
Jake O'Brien +300
The most historic event in UFC just got bigger with the
announcement that rap-metal pioneers Limp Bizkit are
bringing their "Unicorns N' Rainbows" tour to Mandalay Bay
Beach on Friday, July 10th to perform in their first North
American concert in eight years as a part of the UFC 100
weekend.
UFC 100 Main Pay-Per-View Bouts:
* Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir (UFC Heavyweight Title)
* Georges St-Pierre vs. Thiago Alves (UFC Welterweight
Title)
* Jon Fitch vs. Paulo Thiago
* Dan Henderson vs. Michael Bisping
* Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Alan Belcher
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