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Alessio ‘Legionarius’ Sakara 14-7-1 vs James ‘the Sandman’ Irvin 14-5 1NC

Sporting a 8-1 pro boxing record and a 9-3 MMA record, Sakara got the invite to fight against Ron Faircloth at UFC 55 and suffered a NC as Faircloth wildly sent a kick into Sakara’s man-berries. Sakara survived that match and earned a decision win over Elvis Sinosic before dropping fights to Dean Lister and Drew McFedries. A TKO win over Victor Valimaki kept Sakara employed and a crushing KO loss to Houston Alexander kept him crazy. A barrage of punches leading to a TKO win over James Lee got Legionarius back in the win column, and also led to his decision to drop a weight class. In his MW debut, Leben knocked him hungry as he came back with a head kick KO win over Joe Vedepo and a hard fought decision win over Thales Leites which led to Leites’ release from the UFC. The American Top Team fighter looks to welcome James Irvin to the hard hitting MW division.

James Irvin’s road to the UFC started with a 7-0 record with all fights ending in the 1st round,, the 1st WEC HW championship belt, and wins over Bo Cantrell and Scott Smith. He was invited to fight against Kyle Noke (now on TUF11) and suffered his first loss via KO before returning to the WEC and defending his belt against Doug Marshall in his first match that went to the 2nd round. Irvin returned to the UFC as a LHW and wowed many with his highlight reel flying knee KO over Terry Martin before submitting to Stephan Bonnar’s kimura. Irvin returned to fight in the WEC again as a LHW and was decisioned by Lodune Sincaid. A pair of wins in smaller promotions (and a NC in Strikeforce for falling out of the cage) earned Irvin an invite back to the UFC to face Hector Ramirez and score a TKO win, showcasing his Muay Thai skills. A pair of strange fights for Irvin ensued as a knee injury suffered against Thiago Silva earned a loss and an illegal knee to the head from Luiz Cane earned him a win. The Sandman next faced the hard hitting Houston Alexander and unleashed a Superman punch that gave Houston a problem staying awake, earning an 8 second KO win. Irvin next stepped up to fight Anderson Silva in Silva’s LHW debut after 4 other opponents ran screaming for the bout proposals on short notice. In hindsight, Irvin probably should have also turned that fight down because Silva destroyed him, opening up a gash under his eye that probably turned on some strange adolescent boys. What happened next in Irvin’s career is truly a series of unfortunate events as he became addicted to painkillers, backed out of his MW debut against Drew McFedries with a torn meniscus, and backed out a fight with Wilson Gouveia with the same injury, now having him on the shelf for now 20 months. Now on his 3rd attempt, Irvin will finally make his 185lb debut with his Ultimate Training Center and Fairtex team behind him.

This is a hard fight to pick with both fighters having the ability and style of knocking people out ASAP. While I must admit that Sakara’s man-beard and tattoo combo kick the crap out of Irvin’s lame-ass Bad Boy tattoo, the deciding factors in this will be Irvin’s health, his cage rust, and if he is able to handle the transition to the 185 lb division. While he certainly has the power advantage, Sakara’s patience and technical boxing skill will suit him well in this fight. Sakara should also have the cardio and BJJ advantage but probably has the weaker chin of the two. This fight should go a lot like this; Irvin tries to find Sakara’s off button with some huge strikes while Sakara tries to counter with good looking punches. Irvin gets frustrated and starts trying to throw flying knees, spinning kicks and elbows, but gasses out and slows down leading to a boxing match between a boxer and a very tired Muay Thai guy with a ton of bad luck. Sakara eventually finds the way to win and Irvin has to decide if he wants to continue trying to be a middleweight.

Cheick Kongo 14-6-1 vs Paul ‘the Headhunter’ Buentello 24-11

Kongo is probably one of the most intimidating looking fighters to look across the cage and see out there in all of MMA. He is a solid 6’4”, 240 lb striker with a 19-2 kickboxing record. Kongo suffered losses to Gilbert Yvel and Rodney Glunder as well as wins over Hans Nijman, Joop Kastel and Dave Dalgiesh before coming to the UFC and taking out Gilbert Aldana and Christian Wellisch. A split decision loss to Carmelo Marrero exploited Kongo’s weakness in his wrestling, but in a pair of decision wins against Assuerio Silva and Cro Cop, Kongo didn’t worry too much about takedowns. Heath Herring brought that all back to light in his win over Kongo in which Kongo was out-grappled. Following that loss Kongo went to train at Wolfslair MMA alongside Mike Bisping and Rampage Jackson to help with his wrestling. With the Wolfslair Camp behind him, Kongo steam-rolled Dan Evensen, Mostapha Al Turk, and Antoni Hardonk in TKO wins. Cain Velasquez used his superior wrestling to nullify Kongo’s kickboxing, but not without getting tagged with some of Cheick’s bombs. In Kongo’s last outing, he was completely dominated by Frank Mir, first getting dropped with a big left before deciding to have a quick siesta in the arms of Mir. On the verge of losing his 3rd straight match in the UFC, Kongo may me fighting for his contract and employment this time out and has been lucky to draw a HW that will stand with him and test his strongest skill.

Buentello, a former AKA fighter, is very experienced and has fought against top competition. He holds wins over Mike Kyle, Bobby Hoffman, Bo Cantrell, Justin Eilers, Kevin Jordan, Gilbert Aldana, Tank Abbot, Ruben Villareal, Gary Goodridge, and his most recent , a very drawn out beating of Kiril Sidelnikov. He has earned shots at championships on two separate occasions. First, he lost a UFC title shot against Andrei Arlovski in which it looked like a sniper from the crowd shot him in a KO loss, and then he lost a Strikeforce HW title shot against Alistair Overeem due to punishing ube r-knees to the body. Other losses on Paul’s record have come to Evan Tanner, Dan Severn, and Bobby Hoffman and his most recent, a very close decision loss to Stefan Struve. A former Strikeforce and Affliction fighter, Buentello is not on many people’s top 10 lists and prior to December, had not lost a non-championship bout since 2003, boasting a 12-3 record during that span. Of Buentello’s 24 wins, 2/3rds of them are by TKO as Paul uses the mold of a sprawl and brawl fighter with quick hands for a HW. Buentello, who was suspended from AKA due to managerial issues, now trains with Grudge Team in Colorado alongside Shane Carwin, Brendan Schaub and the occasional visitors from Team Jackson. He has been working extensively with Trevor Wittman to shore up his standup game and Mike Van Arsdale to work his wrestling.

Buentello will need to have really developed his takedowns to give Kongo trouble on the ground as Kongo has been working on his TDD for some time now and Paul is not exactly a world class wrestler. Kongo on the other hand may be capable of putting Buentello on his back and working some ferocious GNP if the Headhunter’s jabs and defense frustrate him enough to abandon the good ole slug it out approach. I’d expect to see some of everything in this fight, good standup, clinch work, some knees to the love spuds, and a bit of wrestling with Kongo having slight advantages throughout. While both are capable of ending it at any time, a decision win is the likely scenario for Kongo here.

Junior ‘Cigano’ dos Santos 10-1 vs Gabriel ‘Napao’ Gonzaga 11-4

Cigano (Gypsy) is a young up and coming Brazilian fighter with great, fast hands, which he showed in his UFC debut where he scored an impressive win with a stunning uppercut KO of the heavily favored Fabricio Werdum. That KO not only ended Werdum’s night, it also led to his exit of from the UFC. Using his sound striking, he dispatched of Stefan Struve in under a minute and stepped in with the biggest name of his career in his next match with Cro Cop. Using a barrage of knee strikes and punches to the deflated Cro Cop., Cigano earned the biggest win in his career by verbal submission. His next match would be at UFC 108 scheduled against Gonzaga, but a staph infection brought in a new opponent in the dangerous Gilbert Yvel. With an obvious advantage on the ground, Dos Santos chose to stand with Yvel and again proved to be a very dangerous fighter to stand in front of as he took just over two minutes to secure the TKO win. JDS has scored 7 of his wins by TKO, one legit submission and two verbal submissions with his lone loss coming by armbar. Training with the Black House team of the Nog brothers, Anderson Silva, Matt Munoz, Jose Aldo, Jacare Souza, Feijao Cavalcante and a flock of top Brazilian fighters all confident that he has what it takes to succeed in the HW division with a BJJ brown belt and an 18-0 Brazilian kickboxing record, JDS looks to fight his way to the top.

Gonzaga is currently floats around in the top 15 in the HW division. He is a Team Link fighter with a BJJ black belt good size and agility and powerful striking. He looks kind of like a mix between Donkey Kong and a human being and also has never gone 15 full minutes in a pro fight. He holds wins over Johnny Lee-Hinkle, Kevin Jordan, Fabiano Scherner, Carmelo Marrero, and then burst onto the radar with his Cro-Cop-esque Cro-Copping of Cro-Cop. His win over Filipovic propelled him into a title match with Randy Couture in which he was dominated and smothered by Randy’s cage tactics. Following that loss a rematch with Werdum (he lost the first match up before entering the UFC) was setup and another loss was added to his ledger as Werdum took a TKO win. Napao bounced back with a nice submission win over Justin McCully, and a great KO win over Josh Hendricks before suffering a surprise KO after having the upper hand against a stunned Shane Carwin. Gonzaga’s last fight was a grisly win over Chris Tuchscherer in which a full 5 minute rest period was needed by Chris after suffering one of the worst looking kicks to the groin in the history of mankind and promptly followed up by a kick to the head and some GNP.

In a highly anticipated matchup that will likely set the winner up with a title-elimination fight, expect fireworks with two big boys that like to slug it out with confidence in their standup. Gonzaga will have the size and strength advantage as well as the pure BJJ edge. Dos Santos though is the much more proficient kickboxer and has shown great awareness and dirty boxing form the clinch, one of Gonzaga’s previous weaknesses. I expect Dos Santos to push the pace and keep Gonzaga on the defensive as JDS will have the better cardio. Look for JDS to work his exceptional footwork and create angles for his striking as he cuts off the cage and puts Napao’s back against the cage and works some knees and dirty boxing in. I am curious to see the durability of Gonzaga-Kong’s chin in this and to see just how powerful Cigano’s striking is. I think Gonzaga’s chin holds up, but his cardio doesn’t and JDS capitalizes with a big win and a ticket to the top of the heap of challengers.

Brandon ‘the Truth’ Vera 11-4 vs Jon ‘Bones’ Jones 9-1*

Brandon Vera, the last holder of the WEC HW belt and is 3-2 as a LHW. His first fight at 205 was uninspired in a decision win over Reese Andy as was his in next fight against the tough Keith Jardine. Although the Jardine fight did show a stronger and more conditioned Vera, he still was not showing the form he was at when he was competing as a HW until he came out and destroyed Mike Patt with leg kicks. Brandon Vera

Vera still did not quite look back to his explosive self in his next match as he simply outpointed Krzyztof Soszynski. In Vera’s last fight, he looked very crisp and was impressive in a UD loss to Randy Couture. Vera’s downfall in that fight was his inability to come through with his killer instinct, hurting Randy on a few occasions, but not pouncing and keeping the pressure on when he needed to. Vera has great Muay Thai skills, effectively using kicks and knees peppered in with good straight punches. One of Vera’s highlights which put his striking abilities on display is when he made the late Justin Eilers (RIP) look like a human Pez dispenser. The Truth has wins over Whitehead, Fabio Scherner, Assuerio Silva, Frank Mir, and Krzyztof Soszynski with losses to Tim Sylvia, Fabricio Werdum (in my opinion, a very bad stoppage) Jardine, and Couture. The former Air-Force man wrestled at Old Dominion and with the AF at the US Olympic Training Center. He also holds a BJJ brown belt under Lloyd Irvin. Once a very charismatic and promising prospect who once declared he was gonna hold both the HW and LHW belt, these days Vera’s aim has been lowered to being the #3 LHW in the UFC, a task that still seems out of reach.

A high school state champion and Juco champion with Iowa Central CC, Jones had aspirations of entering law enforcement but a UFC contract and some really impressive performances put that on the back burner. Rattling off a 6-0 record, Jon Jones was invited to fill in for an injured Tomasz Drwal against Andre Gusmao, a young up and coming fighter out of the IFL with considerable hype behind him. Fighting on only 3-weeks notice and with no major camp and his only notable win being over Moyses Gabin, Jones was a huge underdog but used very creative striking and impressive wrestling to score the UD win. He further established himself in the minds of MMA fans with remarkable wins over Stephen Bonnar and Jake O’Brien and made himself a fan favorite with his unconventional striking and YouTube surfing for moves. Jones traveled to train with the Jackson Camp as well as a significant amount of training with GSP and the Tri-Star Gym prior to his next match with Matt Hamill. In a very one sided beating, Jones imposed his will and showcased his striking and wrestling as he dominated Hamill, but was handed a DQ loss for using 12-6 elbows. Working with the Jackson/Winklejohn team in New Mexico will give Jones a whole new element to his game as he has high caliber sparring partners and coaching now.

While Jones unconventional striking has proven to be explosive and effective in the UFC, he has never faced a technically proficient striker like he will with Vera. With Vera desperate to prove he belongs in the elite of the division and Jones eager to take that step up in competition, this looks to be a very exciting and promising bout, possibly setting the winner up with a top 5 match. Vera should use his Muay Thai aptitude here in blasting Jones with leg kicks and shots to the body. Both guys have very strong clinch and Greco Roman wrestling experience, but I would have to give the edge to Vera as he has shown the ability to inflict pain from that position. While Jones certainly has the ability to take the fight to the ground, Vera has the skills to neutralize his attacks on the ground and boasts a dangerous guard. Short of Jones landing one of his crazy spinning flipping twisted ninja elbows and nailing some throws and suplexes, I can see Vera edging out the heavy favorite with clean, crisp striking, solid footwork, and good defense for the decision win.