Birthday boy Jason MacDonald is in Vegas to party... and to corner Ryan McGillivray for his UFC debut Saturday.
I left off my blog this week until late because I wanted to wait for the announcement about the finale. Why? Because I'm down here in Las Vegas to corner Ryan McGillivray, who's fighting Shamar Bailey on The Ultimate Fighter 13 finale Saturday.
I haven't trained with Ryan in a few years, but him being from Edmonton, we did train together for a few years. So when he found out about this fight, he called me and asked if I would corner him and I was happy to do so.
So I've been in Vegas this week and it's been very interesting. It's the first time in a long time that I've been at a UFC event and going through all the routines but not actually fighting. It's a different experience.
I'll tell you this much: It's a lot less stressful. You get to sit back and not worry about your weight and what you're eating. That's all on Ryan, but at least I've been able to help him out.
I've also never been up on the UFC stage for weigh-ins before where I wasn't the guy weighing in. I didn't know where to stand! I'm used to going on the scale and doing the face to face, but this time I was just standing there and felt out of place. It was funny. I was thinking, 'Where should I go?'
Overall it looks like a really good card. Hopefully Ryan has the same experience I had in my first official UFC fight, where I finished Ed Herman (who interestingly is also fighting on the card.)
On to my picks (watch The Ultimate Fighter 13 finale on Sportsnet at 6 p.m. PT):
I'm looking forward to this one. Pettis is always exciting, but we've yet to see him against a guy like Guida, who's a legitimate contender. Pettis fought a great fight against Ben Henderson, but I also thought Henderson had a bad night. If the same Henderson that fought Mark Bocek in Toronto had fought Pettis that night, I think we would have seen a different outcome. Guida has the same kind of relentless style that Henderson had against Bocek. He didn't give him an inch. He was on him and on him. So I'm going with Guida.
Ed Herman vs. Tim Credeur
Herman is back against Credeur, both of which we haven't seen in a long time. It was tough for Herman, who injured his knee, got back to training, then injured his knee again. We'll see how it unfolds. I'm going with Credeur in that one. He has a dangerous submission game, and obviously we've seen Herman is susceptible to that.
Danny Downes vs. Jeremy Stephens
I can't believe this fight doesn't even make it onto the main card. You've got Kyle Kingsbury against a fighter Fabio Maldonado I've never heard of, but a fight between two standup guys who are going to throw down is on the undercard!? That being said, I think Stephens is too big and too strong for Downes. They look like they belong in separate weight classes.
Grispi is a guy the UFC fast-tracked to the top, and then he had a horrible fight in his last fight. He'll be looking to rebound and looked in great shape. I expect good fight for him. I'm picking Grispi.
Here's a guy in Jorgensen who was just fighting for the title. I expect him to come back strong and get back on track with a victory.
Ryan McGillivray vs. Shamar Bailey
I don't know much about Shamar because I didn't really follow this season of the show, but Ryan said he's fairly confident because they trained together a lot and he seems to think he has the tools to beat him. Shamar appears to be predominantly a wrestler so we've been working a lot on submissions and takedown defence over here. He also worked hard on his standup in his training camp, so I'm looking for him to either submit him or knock him out. We definitely don't want him to hold us down for three rounds so we've been working on not letting that happen.
Tony Ferguson vs. Ramsey Nijem
Like I said, I didn't really watch the show this year, so I'm not picking the other fights, but I guess I have to pick the final. The one episode I did see was where the one guy got drunk, so if that's any reflection of personality, that's not a good sign. Ramsey looks like a pretty solid fighter and Ryan speaks highly of him so I'm going to go with Ramsey.
On a side note, I think the Georges St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz fight announced this week is a great fight. There aren't a lot of fights out there for Georges that people are going to get excited about. But this is one people can get excited for.
I'm excited to see him fight Diaz, because we know he's going to fight. We've seen in every one of his fights he comes to fight, he looks to push the pace and move forward.
We've also seen Diaz susceptible to be taken down, so him being aggressive will make for an easy fight for GSP to take him down, but we'll see what he can do from there.
Lastly, it's my birthday today (Friday). I turned good old 35. It's always nice to be in Vegas on my birthday and you couldn't ask for better weather. It's been 30 degrees and sunny ever since we arrived here.
Friday morning Ryan was three pounds overweight, so we went to the sauna and then we put him in the hotel room in the afternoon, at which point the rest of us went out to the pool party they have every Friday at The Palms, where we're staying. It was definitely like twisting my arm to drag me back inside to go to the weigh-ins. But Ryan did make weight no problem.
And as I'm writing this, my wife and I are going out to dinner for my birthday. To all my readers, enjoy the fights Saturday night.
