Well, with a little under a month to go until UFC 117 I thought I would throw out my predictions on the fights that will be shown on the main card on pay per view.  These are my thoughts and use them at your own risk. haha.

MAIN CARD

• Champ Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen (for middleweight title)

With 2 poor performances in a row, I believe Silva has 2 ways to go here.  He can either toy with Sonnen for 5 rounds and beat the crap out of him just to rub it in Dana White's face and basically dare him to cut the pound for pound best fighter in the world.  Or he will KO him in the first round.

Sonnen has yet to show me that he can stand with anyone half skilled so I predict Silva KO's him in the first and will look as dedicated as ever.  I think he will want to cement himself as the #1 guy now that Fedor has lost.

• Thiago Alves vs. Jon Fitch

This has fight of the night written all over it.  Alves is an amazing striker and Fitch is relentless.  Alves split decision victory will take this fight.

• Rafael dos Anjos vs. Clay Guida

Guida has made a career in getting his face beat in.  He makes every fight exciting and bloody... usually his own blood, but who cares.  While I've only seen Rafael fight one time, I think it will be an other blood bath loss for Clay here.  The guy never gets knocked out though so I'm predicting a 30-27 win for dos Anjos.

• Ricardo Almeida vs. Matt Hughes

Matt Hughes is a legend.  Almeida is not.  Enough said.  Hughes by rear naked in the second.

• Junior Dos Santos vs. Roy Nelson

Dos Santos I think is one of the best strikers in the world.  Roy Nelson is one of the fattest strikers in the world.  The beer belly isn't fighting Kimbo any more and will go down and must go down hard.  Dos Santos in a 3rd round stoppage by the always wonderful Herb Dean.

Well, there you have it.  My picks for UFC 117.  If you bet on the fights, please do so at one of our sponsors sports books.

Headlining the UFC 116 Main Card is a contentious battle between heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar and interim heavyweight champion Shane Carwin. What's with the "interim" (in case you're unaware) is that actual champ Lesnar had to take an almost yearlong hiatus to battle diverticulitis, which left contender Carwin wearing the interim belt until such time as Lesnar could give him an honest fight for the title. That honest fight, which was supposed to have taken place in November, 2009's UFC 106, has finally come.

On the main card with Lesnar and Carwin are Kurt Pellegrino vs. George Sotiropulous, Stephen Bonnar vs. Krzysztof Soszynski, Matt Brown vs. Chris Lytle, and Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Wanderlei Silva. There are also 6 preliminary bouts leading up to the main card, including two that will be televised on Spike TV.

Other bouts on the main card include UFC heavyweight legend Randy Couture vs multiple world champ boxer James Toney in his debut in the octagon, a middleweight fight between Rousimar Palhares and Nate Marquardt, and a lightweight match between Gray Maynard and Kenny Florian.

Additionally, fans can look forward to 5 preliminary-card matches, just made official, namely: Amilcar Alves vs. Mike Pierce, Nick Osipczak vs. Greg Soto, Nik Lentz vs. Andre Winner, Terry Etim vs. Joe Lauzon, and Jorge Rivera vs. Alessio Sakara.

Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, June 25 for between $75 and $600.

The other former Ultimate Fighter champs on the UFC 114 fight card are light-heavyweight American Forrest Griffin (who will be taking on Brazilian Antônio Rogério Nogueira), middleweight Englishman Michael Bisping (taking on American Dan Miller), welterweight American Diego Sanchez (taking on Brit John Hathaway), and in the two preliminary card matches that will be broadcast live on Spike TV,welterweight American Amir Sadollah (fighting South Korean Dong Hyun Kim) and Mexican lightweight Efrain Escudero (fighting American Dan Lauzon).

There are then four other preliminary bouts on the UFC 114 fight card which will be broadcast on PPV but not Spike TV. These are the two lightweight matches between Americans Aaron Riley vs. Joe Brammer, and American Melvin Guillard vs. Brazilian Thiago Tavares.

Relijic made his debut in the UFC in May of 2008 with “Fight of the Night” honors for his 2nd-round TKO of his opponent, Wilson Gouveia. He’s gone on to notch up a 8-1 record, although he’s been sidelined for over 1 1/2 years because of back surgury after an injury. After the 20 month long time out, he entered the Octagon at UFC 110 in February against CB Dollaway and lost in a unanimous judge’s decision.

Headlining the UFC 116 Main Card will be Brock Lesnar taking on Shane Carwin, the interim title-holder, and co-headlining the event is the Wanderlei Silva vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama fight.

The last time Lyoto and Rua faced off, on October 24 of last year, Machida made it all the way to the end of 5 rounds before the judges’ unanimous decision fell in favor of his opponent, the then-and-still champ Lyoto. That should make for some exciting action in the Octagon for UFC 113.

The other big fights on the main card that night will be welterweights Josh “Kos” Koscheck fighting Paul “Semtex” Daley, lightweights Sam “Hands of Stone” Stout fighting Jeremy “Lil’ Heathen” Stephens, heavyweights Kimbo Slice fighting Matt Mitrione, and middleweights Patrick “The Predator” Cote fighting Alan “The Talent” Belcher. Then there are a half-dozen other fights on the preliminary card.

But Florian-Gomi isn’t the only heavy hitting action on the UFC Fight Night 21 main card. There’s also Roy Nelson fighting Stefan Struve, and there’s Nate Quarry fighting Jorge Rivera. Then there’s the winner of The Ultimate Fighter, Season 9, Ross Pearson, battling Dennis Siver.

Florian and Gomi both share in common the fact that they’ve been destroyed by current lightweight champ B.J. Penn and that in this upcoming match they’re fighting for the shot at being humiliated by Penn again.

Contrasting that, in Nelson and Struve’s class, the heavyweight class, they’re among the hottest contenders for the title. With both Nelson’s boxing and Struve’s jiu-jitsu at the top of their class.

What I think some of these guys are forgetting is that they are fighting for a living.  Some guys are not going to have been raised in an MMA gym, which in my opinion is generally higher income families sending their kids.  Some guys are just good at fighting period.  And Lesner is one of those guys.

I for one, can't wait to see Lesner fight Carwin this summer and hopefully knock him out like he did Mir and taunt him just the same.  I could even take some taunting of the UFC sponsors if he so desires.

Maybe if these guys stop stalking Lesner and start preparing more to fight, they wouldn't end up eating ham hock fists all night when they fight the UFC heavyweight champ.

Also eagerly anticipated on the UFC 110 main card is Brit Michael Bisping (aka “The Count” ) against Wanderlei Silva (aka “Axe Murderer”). Silva is the leading legend here and has an intimidating 32-10 record, but this is his first bout as a middleweight, while Bisping is on fire with an even more frightening 19-2.

Similarly matched are Joe Stevenson (with his 36-10 record) and George Sotiropoulos with 11-2 under his belt. But a more even match may be Keith Jardine with his 14-7-1 record vs. Ryan Bader with his 11 undefeated bouts, and Mike Cro Cop at 25-7-2 against Ben Rothwell and his 30-7.

Zuffa announced the full 11-bout card last Monday. The headlining bout on the main card is former light heavyweight champ Rashad Evans vs. Brazilian fighter Thiago Silva. Evans has a 13-1-1 record, but that 1 loss was his most recent fight, and Silva's record even tops his, at 14-1, so there's a lot of pressure on him to turn in a win. Funny coincidence, both Silva and Evans suffered their only losses to Lyoto Machida, both in 2009.

After a lengthy recovery from knee-surgery, welterweight Dustin Hazelett will be squaring off against Brit Paul Daley after Hazelett's originally intended opponent Karo Parisyan pulled out.

Former PRIDE fighter, Gilbert Yvel will face up-and-coming heavyweight contender Junior dos Santos.

UFC 108 will take place in Las Vegas on January 2, 2010.