UFC 90: Silva vs. Cote Preview

For the second time in two weeks, the UFC is back with a 3-hour show, presenting “UFC 90: Silva vs. Cote” on pay-per-view.

The show will come to us from Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill., and is headline by a bout for the UFC middleweight championship between champion Anderson Silva and challenger Patrick Cote.

Due to a last second change of plans, I found some good deals and decided to head to the show with a friend of mine. We got $200 face value tickets for $115 on StubHub.com and then got a really nice hotel room for the night for $60 on Hotwire.com. While I was going to go to the football game, seeing the best fighter in the world is an opportunity I couldn’t pass on.

So let’s get this preview started with the opening bout of the pay-per-view telecast, which will be contested in the lightweight division between former MSU wrestler Gray Maynard and veteran Rich Clementi.

This is your typical up-and-comer against veteran bout and Clementi is trying to play spoiler to Maynard’s rising star.

A big underdog in his last fight against Frankie Edgar, Maynard used his improved striking to take a unanimous decision.

After being a contestant on “The Ultimate Fighter 4,” Clementi has found a niche in the UFC as being a gatekeeper for the lightweight division. Lately, he’s sent Melvin Guillard, Sam Stout and Terry Etim back to the drawing board.

This fight is all going to depend on Maynard’s rate of growth since his last fight in April and if he can stay out of a submission by Clementi.

Despite being a wrestler, I think Maynard is going to want to keep this one mostly on the feet. Sprinkle in a few takedowns for some points and I see Maynard taking a split decision win back to Las Vegas. This is going to be a close fight, as Clementi can do a lot of things, but he won’t have enough for the win.

In the heavyweight division, top contender Fabricio Werdum takes on UFC newcomer Junior dos Santos.

Not a lot is known about dos Santos, but I’ve read he’s got good kickboxing and a decent ground game.

Regardless of that, Werdum is a top-10 heavyweight for a reason and he’ll submit dos Santos with an armbar in the first round.

Next up is a lightweight clash between former champion Sean Sherk and Tyson Griffin.

This is going to be a great fight. Both of these guys never tire, so this should have a great pace to it.

Despite having only lost three times in his career (and to Matt Hughes, Georges St-Pierre and B.J. Penn at that), I think Sherk is on the downside of his career. Despite being a big favorite in this one, I don’t think he’ll be able to hang in there with Griffin, a guy who comes from a great camp (Xtreme Couture) and has a lot of hunger.

I think this is going to boil down to a striking match and I like Griffin a lot better than Sherk in that situation. I think Griffin will be more powerful than Sherk and will be able to get takedowns when he has to. Griffin by unanimous decision.

In the co-main event of the evening, Thiago Alves and Josh Koscheck clash in a crucial welterweight bout.

With a win, Alves is essentially in as the next No. 1 contender at 170 pounds while Koscheck, with a win, puts himself in great position, as well.

Koscheck is stepping in on short notice, replacing Diego Sanchez, who had with withdraw with an injury.

Koscheck claims he’s in shape, as he was already in training for his December fight with Yoshiyuki Yoshida.

This is going to be a great fight. Like Maynard, Koscheck has made a meteoric progression since being on “The Ultimate Fighter” as essentially a wrestler.

While his striking has improved 10-fold at least, it’s still not on the level of Alves, who’s scrambled a lot of brains during his UFC tenure.

This is the definition of a pick’em fight to me, but Alves hasn’t shown anything on the ground that’s impressed me. Josh Koscheck is not Matt Hughes, who Alves knocked out in June. Koscheck has a great power double-leg takedown and will no doubt drive Alves into the cage with it on many occasions.

Style-wise, this is Koscheck’s fight to take. It’s up to him to not make any bonehead errors that will leave him staring at the lights trying to remember the last half-day.

With all that being said, I’m going to go with Koscheck by unanimous decision or a ground-and-pound TKO in round three if Alves doesn’t have much left in the gas tank.

Now it’s time for the main event of the evening, one that doesn’t really have a whole lot of suspense at this point.

In one corner you have a great story in Patrick Cote, a man who lost his first four UFC bouts, only to roar back with four straight wins to earn a title shot.

Unfortunately for him, standing across the Octagon will be the best fighter in the world, Anderson Silva, who has won his fight seven UFC fights and, with a win, will tie the record for most consecutive wins in the UFC, joining Royce Gracie and Jon Fitch as the only men to win eight straight.

As my friend is saying, “if you have a farm, bet it on Anderson Silva.”

While Cote can throw some bombs, I can’t remember Silva ever being even slightly rocked. Cote’s best chance of winning this fight is to take it 25 minutes and somehow out-point the champion.

In other words, it ain’t gonna happen.

Like Alves, Silva has done his fair share of brain scrambling during his time as UFC champion.

After his usual 45-60 second feel-out process, Silva will brutalize Cote from every angle imaginable (see his finishing sequence from the second fight against Rich Franklin). Let me put it this way: Cote’s first mistake will almost certainly be his last.

Here are Silva’s fight times in the UFC: 0:49, 2:59, 7:11, 4:50, 6:07, 9:52, 1:01.

Cote is nowhere near as good as Franklin (the 2:59 and 6:07 on the list), nowhere near as well-rounded as Nate Marquardt (the 4:50), or nowhere near as tough as Dan Henderson (the 9:52).

This is a pretty easy decision: Anderson Silva by first round KO.

As for the preliminary bouts, I’ve got Thales Leites to submit Drew McFedries in the first, Josh Burkman to decision Pete Sell, Spencer Fisher to KO Shannon Gugerty in the second, Dan Miller to submit Matt Horwich in the first and Hermes Franca to KO Marcus Aurelio in the second.

All in all, I am pumped to being going to this show. All 10 fights have great potential. I can’t wait.