I’m really looking forward to Saturday’s UFC 102 in Portland, Oregon.  With Randy Couture fighting Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera, we’ve got a great main event.  Undercard bouts featuring Nate Marquardt, Thiago Silva and Brandon Vera only add to the intrigue of the card.

The main event is really interesting.  Both fighters are coming off unimpressive losses, and losses where they both lost the belts.  Noguiera was dominated by Frank Mir at UFC 92 while Couture lost his Heavyweight Championship to Brock Lesnar at 91.  So, no question, both will be motivated to erase those from their memory.  But that doesn’t even scratch the surface of the intrigue.

The story of 46 year old (46!) Randy “The Natural” Couture is incredible, we all know that.  He retired in 2006 after a loss to Chuck Liddell, then came back a year later to win the Heavyweight Championship from Tim Sylvia.  He defended his title once before losing to Lesnar…but in the fights prior to the Lesnar loss (Sylvia, Gabriel Gonzaga), The Natural looked just that…natural, regardless of his age.  Now it’s his time to prove that the Lesnar loss was just a bump along the road.

Couture wasn’t impressive in that loss, but who is against Lesnar?  I thought that Couture did some nice work while keeping the fight standing, but who can block a Lesnar take down?  No one.  He is a very solid striker and has the ability to push the pace on his feet…and lets not forget, he’s a former Olympic wrestler.

For Nogueira, he really needs to bounce back.  His last fight against Frank Mir was hard to watch, because Nog is such an easy guy to cheer for.  But Mir picked him apart and finished Nogueira for the first and only time of his career.  Mir’s boxing was outstanding, using his jab constantly to wear his opponent down.  Nog needs to show a whole lot more on his feet if he wants to come away victorious against Couture.  Now, don’t forget that Nog’s calling card has always been to get beat up and then win via submission.  That gameplan clearly didn’t work against Mir, and I don’t think it’ll be successful against Couture.  Still…it should be a really fun fight to watch.

It may not be the “co-main event”, but the 185 pound battle between Nate Marquardt and Demian Maia shapes up to be an unbelievable fight for hardcore MMA enthusiasts.  Both are expert Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners, with Maia being perhaps the most advanced we’ve ever seen in the sport.  He’s 11-0 in his career and 5-0 in the UFC, where he’s only gone to the 3rd round once.  Being on the ground against Maia is dangerous.  If you leave even 1 tiny opening in your ground game, he’ll pounce on it and finish with deadly efficiency.  We’ve never really seen Maia in a striking battle, because either he’s taken it to the ground, or his opponent has.

But when I talked to Marquardt on Wednesday, it was clear that Maia’s BJJ game didn’t intimidate him in the least.  Remember, Nate “The Great” is also a BJJ black belt and can grapple with the best of them.  But where Marquardt believes, and I agree with him, he has the advantage is everywhere else…plain and simple, I think he’s a better all round fighter.  That’s no knock on Maia, but Nate’s a guy who has been in there with Anderson Silva (and was doing well before a dumb mistake),  and has shown a ton in his last 2 fights.  Both his last wins (over Martin Kampmann and Wilson Gouveia) came via TKO, and were fairly dominating.  I think Marquardt wins out here.

Keith Jardina takes on Thiago Silva in an ineresting matchup.  Jardine has been a little too inconsistent, having never been able to follow up big wins.  Each of his last 3 big wins (Griffin, Liddell, Vera) have been followed up with lackluster losses (Alexander, Anderson Silva, Jackson).  He needs a win here, that’s for sure.  Silva comes off his only loss of his career, to Lyoto Machida.  He’s a BJJ expert, sure, but I can see this turning into a slugfest.  Thiago holds deadly power in his hands and the matchup would be interesting between him and the unorthodox style of Jardine.

Chris Leben returns to action against Jake Rosholt.  Again, Leben needs a win here after his unimpressive loss to Michael Bisping.  And the Winnipeg kid Kryzsztof Soszynski has his toughest test to date, when he takes on Brandon Vera at 205.  Vera has been up and down, but showed some flashes at UFC 96.  He’s got devestating kick boxing and muay thai skills, so this should be an interesting fight.

Enjoy the card, it should be something!  Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Steinberg960.

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