This weekend has kind of snuck up on me as there is quite a bit of quality mma this weekend. This weekend there is M-1 Challenge, Bellator, Strike Force, 2 Shooto cards, Pancrase, and of course WEC to close out the weekend on Sunday night.
Bellator has their first tournament final this weekend as Joe Soto takes on Yahir Reyes for the Featherweight Championship. Joe Soto really shocked me when he upset tournament favorite Wilson Reis and I am finding it very hard to come up ways for him to lose to Reyes. Soto is a well rounded fighter who can finish you either on the feet or on the ground. Reyes was little more than a Mexican journeyman before entering this tournament and there are more than a few people who are surprised that he is in the final. This is certainly not the best tournament final sheduled for Bellator this season. On the undercard, Wilson Reis will be looking to bounce back with a victory as he will be taking on Roberto Vargas.
StrikeForce is Saturday night and I am very excited for this card. The main event is Robbie Lawler vs Jake Shields at a catch weight of 182. Obviously, is the fight stays standing it's advantage Lawler and if it goes to the ground it's advantage Shields. I still am not sure who I am picking in this fight, it's just going to be a great fight between two top 5 guys in their weight classes. Nick Diaz vs Scott Smith should be a toe-to-toe slugfest. Interesting to see how much name value Diaz has coming off his win over Frank Shamrock. Andrei Arlovski and Brett Rogers is a really good late addition to this card. Two or three years from now I would probably be picking Rogers, but right now you gotta like Arlovski with all the good experience he has gotten over the years. And I do not care about Phil Baroni/Joe Riggs or Kevin Randleman/Mike Whitehead.
And of course WEC this weekend has the rematch between Mike Thomas Brown defending against Urijah Faber. Really good fight and people will of course be giving Brown respect this time around and actually believe he does have a chance. The general public still has no idea who Brown is and Faber is a lot more well known. However, I don't see how this fight is going to go any different. The first fight was only six months ago and I think it will go pretty much the same way. It will go longer than the first fight, but the outcome will be the same. Jose Aldo is fighting Cub Swanson and Aldo will continue to show that he is the real deal. Donald Cerrone will be looking to bounce back from his title fight loss to Jamie Varner and he should against James Krause. On the undercard, I am very excited to see Manny Gambaryan finally make his WEC debut at his proper weight class.
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