I think overall my fight last weekend in Montreal was a good fight. I wanted to come out this spring and fight a lot. It’s a way to stay relevant, especially if you’re working towards getting into the bigger shows, you want to get good wins against quality opponents. Vernon White may be on the backside of his career, but he’s fought a who’s who of MMA and if you look at his record of late, he hasn’t been finished very often.
So I planned to set a pace that I knew he couldn’t keep up with but one that I would be able to maintain. There were a couple of times earlier in the fight that I may have been able to pour it on and possibly finish him. But I wasn’t sure, so didn’t to take the chance of running out of gas in the later rounds.
I was able to wear him down the first couple rounds and then finish him off with a choke in the third. And I don’t have a mark on me. I felt like I controlled the whole fight and short of bruising my foot on a kick, I came out unscathed. So I was able to get back in the gym on Monday morning and get ready for my fight on April 23 against Matt Horwich.
I had spoken to Denis Kang backstage. He of course had done his homework on White, and told me to put him on his back and he’s a fish out of water. Pat Healy said the same thing; they were teammates in the IFL. I just ran out there and did it and it worked out in my favour.
The win has opened up a lot of opportunities. I’ve had a couple of really good offers since. It’s been busy this week as I’m just trying to go through them and figure out which ones are best for me, both career-wise and financially. Bottom line, it looks like it will be a busy April, May and June for me, which is a good thing and I’m excited about it.
The biggest news on this weekend’s UFC card is Thiago Alves dropping out of the rematch against Jon Fitch. I was pretty disappointed because I was really, really looking forward to that fight. That being said, I hope nothing’s wrong with Alves’ brain. I hope we get to see that fight in the near future.
It’s pretty cool that Ben Saunders is stepping up to face Fitch. He’s been improving in every fight; however, I expect Jon to put him on his back and win.
Of course all the hype from the card is for Georges St-Pierre against Dan Hardy. At first I was thinking GSP would just run right through Hardy. But after watching Primetime I think now that Hardy has a legitimate shot. He’s a much better fighter than I’ve given him credit for.
It looks like he’s extremely well-prepared for this fight and he’s ready to take on GSP. One thing we’ve seen before is talk that GSP can be mentally weak. That’s one thing Hardy isn’t. If he’s got anything it’s confidence in his ability. He’s not going to go down without a fight, that’s for sure.
He’s going to give Georges a fight. I’m looking forward to it. I still think that Georges is the better wrestler, and will have the game plan to go in there and put Hardy on his back.
I believe GSP is going to win it, but it won’t be easy. Hardy will give him a fight, which is good for Hardy and good for the UFC.
Frank Mir vs. Shane Carwin
I think Carwin is a better version of Brock Lesnar. He has decent standup, great wrestling, and jiu-jitsu. And he’s big and strong, if not stronger than Lesnar.
We saw what Lesnar did to Mir. If you let Mir turn it into a technical jiu-jitsu or kickboxing fight, he’ll have a great chance. But if you go out and turn it into an old-fashioned beat down, Mir doesn’t deal with that very well. So I’m picking Carwin all the way.
Mark Bocek vs. Jim Miller
The thing about this fight is Bocek is definitely the better technical guy, but Miller is a tough, physical type of fighter. Bocek is the opposite; he won’t rough you up.
Miller is real strong, I’ve seen a clip of him dead-lifting 470 pounds. I think he’s going to go out there and make it a rough, rowdy fight, and I don’t think Mark will deal with that well. I’d like to pick a fellow Canadian but I have to go with Miller.
Nate Diaz vs. Rory Markham
Diaz is the more technical, ground fighter and he’s used to training with 170-pound guys; for example, his brother and Jake Shields. I’m going to go with Diaz because he’s used to training with welterweights.
Ricardo Almeida vs. Matt Brown
I’m a little bit interested in this fight. Ricardo at one point looked to be unstoppable. But between injuries and time away from fighting, during which the fight game evolved, I’m not sure if he’s at that level anymore. Brown is getting better and better every fight, and they give him a step up in competition each time, and he keeps on rising to the challenge.
If Brown comes out fast, he could win, but Almeida could make it a slow fight. So I’m sitting on the fence. Brown might overwhelm him and TKO him, or Almeida will make it like the Patrick Cote fight and make it boring.