Tonight: UFC 156

–This main card is rocking, it has me super excited for a lot of reasons. The fights either have the potential to be great fights or great showcases. Let’s look at the card:

–While Frankie Edgar has only won one fight in his last four fights, he is still a way better challenger than anyone out there for Jose Aldo. Aldo has been out for a year, we last saw him destroy Mendes inside the first frame. Since Aldo vs Mendes, we’ve seen Edgar go back and forth with Benson Henderson in 10 rounds (5 in February and 5 in August). In the eyes of the judges, he’s come up short on those two fights. However some fans believe he won the first fight, and an even larger amount of the fans believe he won the second fight. I am part of the latter. Whoever wins this fight will further cement their case for being one of the greatest UFC fighters of all time. I have a suspicion that Edgar will prove to be the superior fighter. If I’m wrong, please tell me so.

–Rashad Evans is in this odd position of beating Antonio Rogerio Nogueira for what could be a potential shot at Anderson Silva. It’s a bit similar to how Daniel Cormier seems to be in the same position, if he beats Frank Mir, he’ll likely fight Jon Jones next. Nogueira beat Ortiz down badly in his last fight but he’s struggled with Phil Davis in his second to last fight. Evans is much better than Davis. In fact, Evans dominated Davis. While this might seem like a trite case of MMA math, I think Evans will be too much for Nogueira at this stage of the game.

–No denying that Antonio “Big Foot” Silva is a top ten heavyweight. But the thing is, he’s also really, really slow and very hittable. Alistair Overeem is a huge hitter, he’s vicious and brutal. Silva would beat a lot of heavyweights, but men like Velasquez, Cormier, and yes, Overeem will always put him out violently. I see Overeem winning this and going on to fight Velasquez in one of the most anticipated heavyweight tilts of recent memory.

–Styles make fights. Something about Jon Fitch and Demian Maia has me excited. Maybe I’m wrong, but Maia has looked stronger and better at 170 lbs, and I think he’s going to bring out the exciting version of Jon Fitch. I have a soft spot for Fitch since I view him fondly as the second best welterweight of all time. I can see some fun scrambles, some brief striking exchanges, some dominant positions, and some submission attempts. At the end of the day, I think Fitch will land more ground strikes to defeat Maia via decision. This fight had me hooked since it was first announced.

–At one point, Ian McCall was the best flyweight on the planet. He went to a draw with Demetrious Johnson. He took him down, took his back, and was dominating him in the third frame of their first fight. Now after losing decisively to Johnson, he’s back to the drawing board, now facing one of the toughest and best flyweights around. Joseph Benavidez has one of the best work ethics in MMA, so if McCall isn’t prepared or if he’s suffering from some emotional or psychological effects from his divorce, Benavidez is going to capitalize on that badly. This fight is a potential title eliminator, the winner could face Demetrious Johnson next. If Benavidez wins, I hope that he has made the improvements necessary to force a more competitive clash with “Mighty Mouse”. If McCall wins, let’s hope we’ll see the McCall that fought Johnson the first time as opposed to the one we saw in the rematch. From a fan of flyweights, this is just an awesome fight on its own merits.