The UFC is back at Madison Square Garden for the second time following UFC 205 with a highly anticipated fight card worthy of a return to NYC.
The first of three championship fights on the card is women's Strawweight Champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk defending her title against dog faced asshole "Thug" Rose Namajunas. While "Thug" Rose is an excellent well rounded fighter who has always performed very well in her matches, she is a huge asshole who sucks at being a human being. She has demonstrated great cardio, long and short range striking as well as good BJJ/wrestling defense and fight IQ. The champion has excellent striking, is hard to take down/keep down as well as great cardio. She also has the ability to keep herself out of bad positions, making it difficult for opponents to catch her in a submission. This will be a somewhat competitive fight, but Joanna should earn the win in the 4th round.
The second of the three championship fights is men's Bantamweight Champion Cody Garbrandt defending his title against T.J. Dillashaw. This is a rivalry with a great storyline emanating from the Team Alpha Male/Duane Ludwig beef. Since it can be quite lengthy to write about it here, a link to details of that conflict can be found here. Because both fighters are very evenly matched, having great skill and technique, the winner may be the fighter that keeps a cooler head. Cody appears to be the angrier of the two, verbally attacking T.J., with the latter giving the appearance of keeping his cool. It is my belief that Cody is actually getting under T.J's skin and will goad T.J. during the fight into making mistakes. While it would be exciting to see a finish, this fight should end up in a very close decision with Garbrandt raising his hand in victory.
The main event of the card is Middleweight Champion Michael "The Count" Bisping defending his belt against former Welterweight Champion, and future UFC Hall of Famer Georges "Rush" St-Pierre. Bisping is a fighter who is extremely well-rounded and excels in every area of MMA. He has worked his way to the top, avenging losses, improving his skill set and defeating several big names along the way. St-Pierre is also a well rounded fighter who excels in wrestling, but does have roots in Kyokushin karate and excellent MMA defense, having defeated his own who's who of top MMA fighters. Bisping may have the advantage here, being the bigger natural fighter. St. Pierre also may have some ring rust, not having a professional fight since his retirement on December 13, 2013. On paper, it does look like Bisping should be the favorite, but my opinion is that St-Pierre has been extremely determined be mentally and physically ready for this fight, setting up the right training camp and crafting the right fight strategy. I see this fight ending in KO victory for St-Pierre in the 5th round. There will be blood.
