Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

Here are ultimate-fighter.net's official predictions for UFC 73 "Stacked"

Chris Lytle vs Drew Fickett
Lytle looked fairly impressive in the Ultimate Fighter Finale loosing a close decision to current UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra. Meanwhile, Drew Fickett holds wins over mega contender Josh Koscheck and Josh Neer. Fickett has also fought and lost to Josh Burkman, but has beated Kenny Florian. This is a tough one to pick, but given Lytle's fights with Matt Hughes and Matt Serra, I'm going to give the edge to Chris Lytle.

UFC 73 Prediction : Chris Lytle

Big Nog vs Heath Herring
Minotauro Nogueira vs Heath Herring is Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira's UFC debut fight, but it should be Heath Herring who is nervous. Big Nog already holds a win over Herring as well as wins over Mirko Cro Cop, Josh Barnett and Ricco Rodriguez. His match against the monsterous Bobb Sapp is legendary. Minotauro's only weakness is his takedown defense, but that's rarely been a problem since his BJJ is unmatched in the heavyweight ranks. Clearly I'm picking Minotauro to win this fight.

UFC 73 Prediction : Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

Anderson Silva vs Nate Marquardt
Anderson Silva stormed onto the UFC scene with a big KO win over Chris Leben. He followed that up by crushing Rich Franklin and winning the UFC middleweight title. He's sort of defended the title once (sort of because Travis Lutter didn't make weight) and won a submission victory over Lutter, but not before Lutter showed some holes in Silva's game, mainly his take down defense. Now, in Silva's defence, he was injured at the time and Travis Lutter is a real world class BJJ specialist.

Nathan Marquardt holds victories over some pretty impressive fighters, including Dean Lister, Crafton Wallace, Joe Doerksen and Ivan Salaverry. The real question is "can he beat Anderson Silva?" All of Nate's top wins have come by submission or decision, which matches up nicely with Anderson Silva who's losses have only come by submission or decision. Now, most of Anderson Silva's wins are by TKO, while Nathan has never been TKO'd. All of this leads me to believe that this will be a great fight. Although many "experts" have been picking Marquardt to win this fight, I have to go with the champ.

UFC 73 Prediction : Anderson Silva

Tito Ortiz vs Rashad Evans
Tito has more experience and better ground and pound than Rashad. The rest I put even.

UFC 73 Prediction : Tito Ortiz

Sean Sherk vs Hermes Franca
My head says that Sean Sherk is too strong and too good a wrestler, but my heart says that Hermes Franca will find a way to win this fight.

UFC 73 Prediction : Hermes Franca

The UFC 73 Fight Card, named appropriately "Stacked" has been finalized according to UFC.com. Of course, we've known all about this stellar card for a long time, but here is the official version from UFC.com.

First of all, there are two title fights. The middleweight and lightweight titles are on the line on July 7th.

UFC Middleweight Title Fight:
Anderson Silva vs Nate Marquardt

UFC Lightweight Title Fight:
Sean Sherk vs Hermes Franca

If there were no other fights on the UFC 73 Fight Card than those two, it would still be worth watching, but in the immortal words of Ronco, but wait, there's more!

How about the UFC debut of top heavyweight submission artist Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira facing Heath Herring in what is sure to be a match set up to decide a UFC Heavyweight title shot.

and there is also the return of lightweight wizard Kenny Florian who faces UFC newcomer Alvin Robinson

and the night is rounded out with three more fights:
Jorge Gurgel vs Diego Saraiva
Chris Lytle vs Drew Fickett
Frank Edgar vs Mark Bocek

But wait, there's more!

Stephan Bonnar is also back in the octagon, taking on Ultimate Fighter season three alumni Mike Nickels.

Ok, if I stopped here you would buy the PPV, wouldn't you, but as I said before...wait, there's more:
Tito Ortiz vs Rashad Evans
Who knows if the bad blood between these two is for real, or just their attempt to hype the fight. Let me tell you, this fight does not need hype. It will be an all out war between two wrestlers who've improved every aspect of their game. I am not looking forward to having to do a prediction on this fight!

Remember to stop by UFC Ultimate Fighter for UFC 73 Predictions in the coming days/weeks and UFC 73 Results following the fight

Just a quick update on a bunch of different things:

Upcoming UFC events
UFC 71 - Chuck Liddell vs Quinton Jackson May 26th
UFC Fight Night Live - Sam Stout vs Spencer Fisher June 12
UFC 72 - Rich Franklin vs Yushin Okami June 16th
Ultimate Fighter 5 Finale Jens Pulver vs BJ Penn June 23rd
UFC 73 - Tito Ortiz vs Rashad Evans July 7

Looks like the next month and a half will be extremely exciting for the UFC fans out there. Also, lets not forget the debut's of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Mauricio Shogun Rua. Also Forrest Griffin, Keith Jardine, Heath Herring, Anderson Silva, Nate Marquardt, Kenny Floirian, Chris Leben, Sean Sherk, Hermes Franca and a number of other big names are spread across these cards. Keep tuned here for predictions on all the big fights.

Also, post a comment on who you'd like to see Shogun face first in the UFC. I think he should warm up with Stephan Bonner.

UFC 73 is shaping up to be one of the best cards ever. With two championship bouts and the debut of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira this card will be amazing. When is the last time you saw a Tito Ortiz bout take the back seat to three other bouts on a card?

Champion Sean Sherk vs Hermes Franca
Champion Anderson Silva vs Nate Marquardt
Heath Herring vs Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
Rashad Evans vs Tito Ortiz
Kenny Florian vs Alvin Robinson
Stephan Bonnar vs Mike Nickels
Jeff Joslin vs Chris Lytle
Jorge Gurgel vs Diego Saraiva

It looks like Big Not will take on the Texas Crazy Horse in his UFC debut at UFC 73. Expect a fast paced fight, eventually ending with a Nogueira submission. However, don't count Herring out, he is difficult to submit and anything can happen in an MMA fight.

Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira has one of the best records in Mixed Martial Arts, with the record is what I believe to be the most complete resume of any fighter in the UFC heavyweight division. Soon, "Minotauro" will make his UFC debut and this is one fan who can't wait!

Nogueira like Chuck Liddell has gained revenge on every opponent to ever defeat him, with one exception. For Chuck, the exception is Quinton "Rampage" Jackson who he faces on May 26, 2007. For "Big Nog", he will likely need to wait longer to face his nemesis, Fedor.

If you think that Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira's name with nickname is too long and confusing, double your confusion by adding in that he has a twin brother who is also a Mixed Martial Arts fighter. His twin brother goes by Antonio Rogerio "Minotoro" Nogueira...now that's confusing. In fact, the first time I saw his "little" brother competing I thought I was watching Rodrigo.

Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira's record according to Sherdog.com is 29-4-1, that's a lot of experience, most of it against top notch heavyweight fighters. He's beaten the likes of Mirko Cro Cop, Dan Henderson, Heath Herring, Josh Barnett, Ricco Rodrigeuz, Fabricio Werdum, Bob Sapp, Semmy Schilt, Gary Goodridge, Valentijn Overeem, Mark Coleman, Sergei Kharitonov and Jeremy Horn. Only Fedor has had a dominant win over "Big Nog" and even then, he didn't finish Nog. Looking over his losses, Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira has only ever lost by decision, no KO's, TKO's, ref stoppages or being submitted for this former Pride champion.

I think that Antonio Rodrigo's amazing submission skills, combined with good stand up and extreme toughness will be hard to beat in the UFC cage. In fact, I only see a couple of fighters with a real chance of beating "Big Nog", one of them is Mirko Cro Cop. Cro Cop had a good first round when he fought against Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira, but was caught in an arm bar in the second round.

Let's play the guessing game for who Nogueira's first UFC opponent should be:

Tim Sylvia might be a good choice, former champion vs former champion. Both of these fighters have defeated Ricco Rodriguez and both are looking toward reclaiming championship glory.

Mirko Cro Cop would also be an excellent match up, playing on their previous match and the fact that Mirko just got KO'd by Gabriel Gonzaga.

Andrei Arlovski to decide a title shot would be another excellent match up, but I doubt that this will materialize as Arlovski has already been promised a title shot and a match with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira might de-rail that train.

Most would agree that Nogueira is good enough and has an extensive enough background to deserve a title shot right away, but there is already a line up two deep to face Randy Couture. First will be Gabriel Gonzaga and after that, the winner will face Andrei Arlovski...at least according to Dana White, UFC president. that's how it will play out.

An excellent match up would see either Brandon Vera or Frank Mir against Nogueira, although Mir is not the fighter he used to be (before the accident). In his prime, Mir would have given Big Nog all that he could handle. I hope Mir works his way back up to that level of performance.

There you have it, another great addition to the UFC heavyweight division. Welcome to the UFC "Big Nog", I hope you do well and get a title shot soon.

What a difference a year makes, especially to the UFC heavyweight division. Just a year ago, it was thought by many that the UFC heavyweight division was the least interesting of the weight classes. In fact, the moment that Tim Sylvia defeated Andrei Arlovski for the UFC heavyweight title in April 2006, it became the UFC's most boring division. In fact, 2 minutes and 43 seconds into that fight Arlovski went down and with it, the excitement left.

July of last year saw a rematch with Sylvia facing Arlovski again, but unlike their first two bouts this one would go the distance. It was the longest 25 minutes of my MMA watching life. Neither fighter engaged, neither landed big shots or attempted big take downs. Something had to be done, the hard core UFC fans did not want to see Arlovski Sylvia 4, and there were no other real challengers.

Something has happened since then, barely 9 months have passed and one title defense later sees the UFC's heavyweight division as the best in the sport. The first event was the signing of Pride standout heavyweight Mirko "Cro Cop". Mirko's incredible striking and strong take down defense earned him recognition as one of the 5 best heavyweights in the world. It was assumed by many, including myself, that Mirko was brought in as a hired gun to end Tim Sylvia's reign of terror and restore honor to the UFC heavyweight ranks.

Mirko may never get that chance, at least not with Tim Sylvia at the helm. As it turns out 43 year old Randy "The Natural" Couture decided to come out of retirement and challenge for the heavyweight title. While I'm not a huge Tim Sylvia fan, I did not give Randy much of a chance because of Tim's enormous size and reach advantage, not to mention that he's 12 or 13 years younger than Randy. Randy proved me wrong by dominating a 5 round fight. The excitement was back and Randy Couture was back on top!

UFC president Dana White was apparently not satisfied with just having a few good heavyweight fighters though, recently he's signed Brazilian submission masters Antonio Rodrigo Nogeura and Fabricio Werdum to UFC contracts. It is unknown when "Big Nog" will get his first fight in the UFC, but we do know that Werdum is to fight former heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski on April 21, 2007 at UFC 70 "Nations Collide". Oh, did I forget to mention the perennial heavyweight contender Heath Herring? While Heath hasn't looked spectacular in his first two UFC outings, he was always near the top when he fought in Japan's Pride organization.

So, here's how the UFC Heavyweight division stacks up as I see it:

1 Randy Couture - UFC Heavyweight Champion
2 Mirko Cro Cop - #1 contender (will get a title shot if he wins at UFC 70 against Gabriel Gonzaga)
3 Antonio Rodrigo Nogeura - #2 contender, no fights set yet.
4 Andrei Arlovski, Tim Sylvia, Fabricio Werdum are all tied for this spot as I see it.
5 Gabriel Gonzaga - if he beats Cro Cop at UFC 70 he will get a title shot.

It's also been rumored that a win at UFC 70 by Andrei Arlovski will get him another title shot later this year.

2007 is a banner year for UFC heavyweight fans. I for one am enjoying the it.

Not so long ago, Andrei Arlovski was thought to be almost invincible. The former UFC heavyweight champion was absolutely dominant with six wins in a row, over such names as: Paul Buentello, Justin Eilers, Wesley "Cabbage" Correira and of course Tim Sylvia. That all came to a crashing end with two successive losses to Tim Sylvia, the first by TKO and the second by decision.

Arlovski has come back to defeat Marcio Cruz by KO in the first round at UFC 66. With UFC 70 coming up this Saturday, Arlovski his work cut out for him against Fabricio Werdum. I'm sure most UFC fight fans will give Arlovski the edge in this fight based on his outstanding stand up, but Werdum is also an extremely accomplished fighter. This one might turn out to be a war, a war that Arlovski needs to win to keep re-climbing the heavyweight ranks.

Recent additions to the UFC heavyweight division include Mirko Cro Cop and Antonio Rodrigo Noguera as well as Heath Herring. Certainly the additions of Cro Cop and Big Nog push Arlovski a little further down the heavyweight food chain. I personally hope he wins this upcoming match with Werdum in style, then maybe we'll eventually get to see Arlovski vs Big Nog, or Arlovski vs Cro Cop. One thing for sure, I have no interest in Arlovski vs Sylvia 4.