As mentioned above, this match was to unify the Heavyweight title Lesnar had won from Randy “The Natural” Coture at UFC 91 last November, and the Interm Heavyweight Title Mir won from Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in December at UFC 92. Mir’s upset victory not only garnered him that interim title, but it added heat to the unification bout since he defeated Lesnar in the first round of his UFC debut.

Now to more immediate info.

UFC 96 is live this Saturday on PPV. As has been my duty in the past, I’m going to give you a look into the money lines, the backgrounds, and my feelings on a few of the fights. First lets his the specifics:

UFC 96 Live on Pay-Per-View, Saturday March 7th, 10pm est. All lines courtesy of BetUs.com.

Quintin “Rampage” Jackson (-350) v Keith “The Dean of Mean” Jardine (+250)

The top fight on this event will see one of my all time favorites take on one of the ugliest men in the business. Rampage has been up and down over the last year. He lost the Light-Heavy title to Forrest Griffin, decided to stop eating and sleeping for a week, went for a highly publicized drive that resulted in injuries and damages to other people and their cars, fired his trainer, and joined a new camp in England. After all of that he still found it in him to turn out the lights on Wanderlei Silva and win the Knockout of the Night award back at UFC 92 in December. It’s rumored if Rampage wins, his next fight will be to reclaim the Light-Heavy title against a surging Rashad Evans.

There isn’t a lot of nice things I have to say about Keith Jardine. He has never wronged me personally and I haven’t met him. As a fighter I just don’t like him.

He is a guy who fights up to the talent level of whoever he’s fighting. That tells me he is lazy. He’s beaten both Forrest Griffin and Chuck Liddell, but during this span he has also lost to a failing Wanderlei Silva (who placed one hand on Keith’s neck and used the other to punch him ugly) and a worthless Houston Alexander.

What I am saying is Keith wins fights he should lose and loses fights he should win. His best bet at beating Rampage is by using leg kicks and hoping he can cause the same type damage Forrest Griffin did against Jackson.

My Pick: Rampage via KO in the First.

Gabriel “Napo” Gonzaga (-160) V. Shane Carwin (+130)

This is a fight I want to watch. I have no idea what is going to happen in it, but we have one guy in Gonzaga who has the ability to have really fun bouts, and we have a guy in Carwin who is something of an up and comer. Gonzaga has a two-fight win streak going, and both have been dominate. That being said Fabrico Wedum and Randy Couture both TKO’ed him not that long ago.

Shane Carwin is someone I don’t know much about. I have watched his fights without ever really remembering him, of course that probably speaks more to my alcohol consumption then to his memorability. What I have learned about Carwin is that he is a wrestler by nature and he looks like he belongs in the WWE. Most importantly, he has never had to go out of the first round to get a win.

I don’t see it being out of the realm of reasonability that, with Mir out, this becomes a #1 contenders match. Whoever wins gets a shot at Lesnar at 98? I know it’s a bit of a stretch, but it would help the UFC add some last minute heat to a PPV which is seriously lacking buzz.

Just for you the reader, as I was finishing this article I happened across an interview with both Gonzaga and Carwin. It is because of this interview I am changing my prediction:

My Pick: Gonzaga via armbar in the second

Outside of these two fights, there isn’t a whole lot for me to add to this prediction. The actual PPV card is a bit weak for the UFC. Sure the Pete Sell Vs. Matt Brown match could turn into a slug fest, but neither man will turn into a title contender by winning. I am personally hoping to see Matt “The Hammer” Hamill drop to the new comer Mark Muno, but that is solely based on the fact Muno trains with Urijah Faber.

What is probably the most interesting fight on this card is the Brandon Vera v Michael Patt. It’s not interesting because of the matchup, but because Vera is within one loss of becoming a sports cautionary tale. He spent a year in a contract holdout to make huge money, pissed people off, got what he wanted, came back and hasn’t been impressive at all since. If Vira looses this fight, he will have gone from main event-caliber name to a pink slip in less then a year. After having watched the fighters weigh in, Patt looks like the town drunk, but Vera looked like he was already beaten. I wont be suprised if this goes to a decision or if Vera looses via TKO.

First off I need to mention a new fighter has broken onto my “Must buy Pay-Per-View” list. We called him “Beard Guy”, but his god given name is Dustin Hazelett. He won me over by coming out to CCR’s Bad Moon Rising, then solidified his spot on my must-watch list by nearly breaking the arm of Tamdam McCroy with a reverse arm bar. Then, in the post fight interview, Hazelett told Joe Rogan his goal is to get the most “Submission of the Night” awards. This kid had me at CCR, but now I’m hooked.

In other awesomeness last night, Jeremy Stephens showed us all why HD is so important to professional fighting. The uppercut he landed on Rafael dos Anjos looked like it was straight out of a movie. The slow motion replay reminded me of that scene in Snatch where Brad Pitt’s character takes the uppercut and almost goes out for the night. Anjos’ face was whipped across his own head, the saliva flowing out his mouth while his eyes rolled a jackpot, and it showed why standard definition has no place in my UFC viewing.

While on the subject of slow motion replays, Garberial Gonzaga’s knockout on Josh Hendricks didn’t look like much until they replayed it. The near side replay it almost looks like Gonzaga’s fist hit Hendricks chin, then slid down to his shoulder and went through his body. It was sick.

Now of course, Kenny Florian fought tonight, and while he is on my “Must Buy PPV” list, it was pretty much by-the-numbers domination by Ken Flo. Nothing too spectacular about that fight.

Best fight of the night, according to my living room, saw Aaron Riley defeat Jorge Gurgel via unanimous decision. This was the only fight all night which went the distance. These two pounded the snot out of eachother and put in a hell of an effort. I’m glad the UFC was able to get this on the telecast.

Now we get to the main event. Brock Lesnar Vs. Randy Couture. For those who don’t know, Brock Lesnar was an NCAA wrestling champion and he held the WWE World Title on many occasions. Couture has been something of a mutant in the world of MMA. He held the heavyweight title at the age of 45. He has retired, come back to won the belt, then fought with the UFC over contract issues (read: money), and spent the last year on the shelf. Randy Couture put in a hell of a first round, and managed to wear Lesnar down a bit. He even opened a cut above Lesnar’s eye. Lesnar’s freakishly large self was able to finally get some solid leather on Couture’s face in the second round. Randy Couture went down, Brock Lesnar pounced on him and became the first person to ever hold both the WWE World title and the UFC Heavyweight title.

Overall this was a solid event. We saw some some great jiu-jitsu, a few spectacular knockouts, and a changing of the guard. If you are at all interested in MMA I would suggest going out and finding a way to see this event.

[tags]mma, ufc, brock lesnar, randy couture[/tags]