UFC Fight Night 13 Preview and Picks- Free Euphoria, Again

Tommorow's UFC Fight Night 13 has a fight card thats more intriguing than most UFC PPV's. The main event is a match-up of 2 lightweight contenders, Joe Lauzon and Kenny Florian(with the awful nickname "Ken-Flo'). Apart from that fight, you have overnight sensation Tim Boetsch taking on the TUF 3 alum Matt Hamill and how about Judo specialist Karo "The Heat" Parisyan clashing with the very tough Thiago Alves. Wait, I'm not even close to finished with this amazing card. Nate Diaz takes on the always scrappy Kurt Pellegrino and in what promises to be a slugfest Houston Alexander looks to return to form against James Irvin. Also,in a clash of 2 outstanding wrestlers Frankie Edgar meets Gray Maynard, Gray coming off his 9 second KO victory against Joe Veras and Edgar coming off a dominating performence against Spencer Fisher. Those are the main bouts on the card, but the undercard is stacked as well with the always entertaining Clay Guida fighting UFC newcomer Samy Schiavo and to round things out
-Din Thomas vs Josh Neer
-Marcus Aurelio vs Ryan Roberts
-Manny Gamburyan vs Jeff Cox
-Tommy Speer vs Anthony Johnson
-George Sotiropoulos vs Roman Mitichyan

Picks

Kenny Florian vs Joe Lauzon- Tough fight to pick, but I think the saviness and experience of Florian will overcome the strength and style of Lauzon in a hard fought decision.

Tim Boetsch vs Matt Hamill- It would be dumb of me to not point out that Boetsch's only loss came at the hands of another great wrestler, Vladimir Matyushenko, but it would be even dumber to not point out that he took that fight on 2 days notice and only 4 days after another fight and he managed to last the whole fight and he even had Vlad in some trouble. Hamill likes to stand and bang sometimes, if he does Boetsch has the advantage if he utilizes those dangerous front kicks like he did against David Heath. I think Boetsch proves he's not a one hit wonder and pulls the TKO upset.

Karo Parisyan vs Thiago Alves- Alves has some heavy hands and could suprise Karo, but the Heat's judo will again be the deciding factor. So Karo gets another unanimous decision victory, his 9th out his last 11 fights, hopefully its more entertaining than his last UD.

Nate Diaz vs Kurt Pellegrino- Pellegrino is a tough opponent for anyone, but Diaz is at the top of his game. I like Diaz by Sub in the second round.

James Irvin vs Houston Alexander- Irvin does have a little bit of a ground game compared to Houston's zero ground game, but this will probably be a stand-up war with someone landing the big KO punch. I like Alexander to get back on track with a brutal KO.

Frankie Edgar vs Gray Maynard- Edgar is rolling right now and I don't think Maynard has what it takes to beat him. Gray just hasn't faced this level of competition yet. Edgar ends this quickly in the first round with some ground and pound.

On the undercard I like Guida, Neer, Gamburyan, Tommy Speer, Aurelio and Mitichyan.

Our Voice Was Heard! Spike TV Extends UFC Fight Night 13 to 3 Hours!!

We have succeeded in extending this stacked card to 3 hours. Here is the story from mmajunkie.com

The MMA fanbase recently kicked off a letter-writing campaign to Spike TV executives asking that the broadcast run three hours rather than the usual two. UFC President Dana White recently stated that the decision was Spike TV’s — and Spike TV’s alone — to make, which prompted a campaign fueled by MMA blogs and message boards.

April 2

Kenny Florian vs. Joe Lauzon
Thiago Alves vs. Karo Parisyan
Tim Boetsch vs. Matt Hamill
Houston Alexander vs. James Irvin
Nate Diaz vs. Kurt Pellegrino*-Just Added!!!
Frank Edgar vs. Gray Maynard
Marcus Aurelio vs. Spencer Fisher
Josh Neer vs. Din Thomas
Clay Guida vs. Samy Schiavo
Roman Mitichyan vs. George Sotiropoulos
Anthony Johnson vs. Tommy Speer

Props to everyone who took the time to send the email.

Tim Boetsch Replaces Stephan Bonnar for April Fight Night Against Matt Hamill

This is some good news, here is the article from MMAWeekly. Boetsch was extremely impressive against David Heath at UFC 81, now we will see if he can handle a wrestler the caliber of Hamill.

Tim Boetsch will again step up for the Ultimate Fighting Championship on short notice, this time taking over for the injured Stephan Bonnar. He will take on Matt Hamill as a part of the April 2 UFC Fight Night in Broomfield, Colo. as confirmed by MMAWeekly.com with sources close to the fight.

Boetsch made a very impressive debut for the UFC just earlier this month, finishing David Heath in the first round. He took the bout on extremely short notice when Heath’s original opponent dropped out due to injury.

The Pennsylvania-based light heavyweight looked devastating in his first fight with the UFC, displaying strong stand-up and tremendous power throughout his match-up with Heath.

Hamill is fighting for the first time since his very controversial decision loss to Michael Bisping at UFC 75 in September.

No official word from the UFC if the bout will be on the main card as Bonnar vs. Hamill was originally intended to be, but an announcement about the final card is expected in the near future.

Stephan Bonnar Forced Out of Matt Hamill Fight, Injured in Training

This is absolutely horrible news, this is a fight I was so pumped for. This just sucks, here is the meat of the article from Kevin Iole at yahoo sports.

Bonnar said he was working on his jiu-jitsu in preparation for his April 2 light heavyweight bout against Matt Hamill in Denver. He said he heard a pop and later learned that he had torn the lateral collateral ligament.

"I was doing nothing out of the ordinary, just working on my (jiu-jitsu) getting ready for my fight," a downcast Bonnar said. "I heard a pop and I thought, 'Damn, what is this?' I walked around on it a little, but when I got home, it was really stiff and swollen."

Though it was initially diagnosed as a partial tear, an MRI revealed a complete tear. He'll have surgery soon in Los Angeles. A ligament from a cadaver will be placed into his knee.

Bonnar, who became one of the UFC's most popular fighters after his rousing fight with Forrest Griffin in the finale of The Ultimate Fighter 1, hasn't fought since submitting Eric Schafer at UFC 77 on Oct. 20 in Cincinnati

Read the rest here

Clay "The Carpenter" Guida to Return to Action on April 2 at UFC Fight Night 13

Anytime there is Clay Guida news I will be covering it. Guida is always entertaining win or lose and one of my favorite fighters. Guida is set to face Samy Schiavo, a fighter I personally don't know much about except that it will be his UFC debut and he comes from Cage Rage with 10-4 record.

For more in-depth info about the news CLICK HERE