
Sure, this weekend may be MMA-palooza in and around the Las Vegas area in anticipation for
UFC 100, but after
a new ring girl is chosen and
Chuck Liddell and
Mask are inducted in the the Hall of Fame, it will finally be time to push all of the pomp and circumstance aside for some good old fashioned butt whoopin'.
Providing the aforementioned pummeling are some of mixed martial arts' biggest names:
George St. Pierre,
Frank Mir,
Dan Henderson, and, of course,
Brock Lesnar. (He's the guy who
told us he "likes to punish people.") Who will come out victorious is anyone's guess, but we've recruited a couple of people who know a little bit about MMA:
Punkass and
Skyskrape of the
TapouT crew. We spoke to them earlier this week about their new training center that opened up in Las Vegas, but they also took some time out to tell us who they're putting their T-shirt money on:
MARK COLEMAN VS. STEPHAN BONNARPunkass: I have to take
Bonnar. The American Psycho, man! [Laughs] Yeah, we’ll go with the young guy. But, I love
Coleman, I like to see him fight, it’s awesome that he’s in there fighting and that he’s such a great conditioned athlete. He’s in there fighting with these young guys, but he’s tough. This is a guy who is out there and loves to compete, and it’s hard to beat that competitiveness out of somebody.
MICHAEL BISPING VS. DAN HENDERSONPunkass: The thing about
Dan Henderson, he was an Olympic alternate, and he’s fought like 852 fights in his career. You can’t ever, ever count him out.
Bisping, he’s a bit underrated, up and coming, tough—you know those British dudes are hard-headed, so they’re hard to knock out. But, you definitely can’t count Henderson out because he’s a stud? Bisping’s had about 15 fights or something and
Henderson’s only had about 24, and
Henderson’s definitely fought the more experienced guys. He’s fight the wars and I think he’s proven. I have to go with him because of experience.
Skyskrape: I’m gonna let
Punkass go with
Henderson, and I’m going to take the easy way out and say: “I don’t know.” [Laughs]
JON FITCH VERSIS PAULO THIAGOPunkass: Oh, yeah.
Fitch, bro, come on now—if
Georges St. Pierre can put a beating on
Fitch like he did and not be able to finish, I don’t think anybody can.
Thiago is tough and he’s undefeated, but
Fitch has won me money before, so I’m going to take him. He used to be the captain of the
Purdue wrestling team, so you’re not going to out-wrestle him, and you’re not going to out-box him because he’s pretty up there with the best in terms of him standup.
WELTERWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH — GEORGES ST. PIERRE VERSUS THIAGO ALVESPunkass: We’re going with the upset:
Thiago Alves.
GSP is training at
Greg Jackson’s camp and
Thiago’s over at
American Top Team; those are two of the top five camps in the United States. Any way it goes, you’ve got a war on your hands, man. It’s going to be my favorite fight of the night.
Skyskrape: I’m thinking T
hiago Alves by—
Punkass: Knockout.
Skyskrape: I’m going with decision. I think
Thiago has some heavy hands, and
St. Pierre he got knocked out by
Matt Serra, man. [Laughs] That’s…not a good thing. That’s not to say that St. Pierre hasn’t proven himself—the guy fought some monster matches. He’s been beaten up by
Matt Hughes and then submitted by him early in his career. The guy is vulnerable. So, I would say Thiago—he’s a pitbull.
HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH — BROCK LESNAR VERSUS FRANK MIRPunkass: The freight train! The freight train! I’m just going with
Lesnar, because if you look at the first fight, he was killing
Mir and just got caught with a submission. I think with Lesnar’s experience now, he’s not going to be as submittable.
Mir looked really good in his last fight, but I just say off of what I’ve seen of
Lesnar lately I’m goning to have to go with
Brock. He’s such an athlete, and being as big as he is, to be able to run through people like he’s doing, man…
Skyskrape: I’m gonna… [Frustrated yell] If
Mir can stop his takedown, I think
Mir can either knock him out or maybe submit him, if he gets taken down. I don’t know, in the first fight,
Mir was taking some punishment and pulled out that leg lock, but I’m going to give you a couple answers, which is kind of stupid and kind of dumb, but... Either
Lesner by ground and pound ref stoppage by a Mack-runaway-18-wheel-diesel Mack-truck-Peterbilt-run-ya-into-the-ground-beatdown… or
Mir by knockout or submission.
Punkass: You’ve gotta pick one or the other.
Skyskrape: No, I did! I picked! I picked
Mir—
Punkass: By knockout, submission or choke.
Skyskrape: It’s a choose your own adventure match! [Laugh] If
Brock can’t take him down,
Mir’s gonna hit him with a sledgehammer. Then,
Triple H and
The Undertaker come in…[Laughs]