Here are my picks for the top three bouts of the night.<\/p>\n
Promotion – Ultimate Fighting Championship UFC 134 odds: Silva -450, Okami +350<\/p>\n Time for Yushin Okami to prove his last \u201cwin\u201d over Anderson Silva wasn\u2019t a fluke. The Japanese import holds the honor of being the last man to technically defeat Anderson Silva. <\/p>\n The victory came more than five years ago; Silva has won 14 straight bouts since then. But not many wins come with the victor lying on the ground, unconscious. Silva knocked Okami cold with an illegal upkick and was disqualified.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a camp of bettors and experts that believe Okami is just the man to take Silva\u2019s title. He\u2019s one of the largest middleweights in the world; he rarely takes major damage on his feet; and his Judo gives him a shot to get Silva to the ground and manhandle him the way Chael Sonnen did. <\/p>\n After all, even though Silva knocked him out, Silva was on his back, so clearly Okami was doing something right to put him in that position.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not one of those people who believe in Okami for this Saturday. Okami is a solid fighter but he\u2019s not extraordinary in any one area. He\u2019s nowhere near the champ\u2019s league in the striking game. He may be the stronger man but Silva has beaten two Olympic-caliber wrestlers, Dan Henderson and Sonnen, with his Jiu-Jitsu and submissions.<\/p>\n Most importantly, there\u2019s just no way Silva, one of the sport\u2019s best showmen of all time, doesn\u2019t show up for a fight on his home soil in Brazil, He should be fired up and ready to do something spectacular. Pick: Silva -450<\/strong><\/p>\n UFC 134 odds: Rua -220, Griffin +180<\/p>\n The second biggest fight at UFC 134 is also a rematch and, like with Silva and Okami, the guy who won the first fight is the underdog the second time around.<\/p>\n So why is Forrest Griffin an underdog against Shogun Rua? It\u2019s not as much Forrest\u2019s fault. He\u2019s been more up than down recently, riding consecutive wins against Tito Ortiz and Rich Franklin and going 5-2 over his last seven fights.<\/p>\n It\u2019s more that Griffin didn\u2019t fight the \u201creal\u201d Shogun back in 2007, when he choked him out to complete of the greatest upsets in UFC history. Shogun injured his knee in that fight and had absolutely no gas tank.<\/p>\n The current Shogun is expected to be in peak form on Saturday. After Jon Jones dominated him to win the light heavyweight belt off him in March, Shogun should be angry and motivated. <\/p>\n He\u2019s back training with Rafael Cordeiro, the man who made him the devastating Muay Thai striker he is today, and that\u2019s bad news for Griffin.<\/p>\n Griffin has the size and conditioning advantage over Shogun but Shogun\u2019s striking and combinations are virtually unmatched when he\u2019s on his game. Griffin could try taking Shogun down but Shogun, a BJJ black belt, should handle himself fine if his conditioning is up to snuff.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll assume that Shogun shows up ready and in shape this time and beats Griffin with his superior striking. Pick: Rua -220<\/strong><\/p>\n UFC 134 odds: Nogueira +180, Schaub -220<\/p>\n It\u2019s the legend versus the legend killer in what could be a No. 1 contender match at heavyweight. If Antonio Rodrigo \u201cMinotauro \u2018Nogueira wins, he may need another \u201cW\u201d to earn a shot at the heavyweight belt. However, a victory could put Brendan Schaub at the top of the latter and ready to meet the winner of Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos. [ad-3573245]<\/p>\n It\u2019s Schaub\u2019s fight to lose. All he has to do is keep the fight standing and avoid Nogueira\u2019s submissions. Schaub should be stronger everywhere else, as he hits harder, he\u2019s younger, he\u2019s the better athlete and he\u2019s stronger.<\/p>\n Most importantly, Schaub has less tread on his tires. Nogueira was famous for taking major punishment and overcoming it to pull off miracle submissions \u2013 but that style has taken its toll. <\/p>\n As we\u2019ve recently seen with other legends like Chuck Liddell and Mirko Cro Cop, whom Schaub knocked out in March, most fighters hit a point at which their chins just give out. <\/p>\n In two of his last three bouts, Nogueira was viciously knocked out. He had never been stopped in a fight prior to those defeats.<\/p>\n I like Schaub to score a KO and add another legend to his list of victims. Pick: Schaub -220<\/strong><\/p>\n Main Card<\/strong><\/p>\n Middleweight Championship: Anderson Silva (c) vs. Yushin Okami Preliminary Card (televised in Brazil\/Spike TV\/Sportsnet) UFC.tv in the UK<\/strong><\/p>\n Lightweight bout: Thiago Tavares vs. Spencer Fisher Preliminary Card (televised in Brazil\/Facebook)<\/strong><\/p>\n Welterweight bout: Paulo Thiago vs. David Mitchell Looking for some inside UFC 134 betting info? UFC 134 Odds to Win for all the matchups, plus the full UFC 134 fight card for this week\u2019s Ultimate fighting championship in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil at the HSBC Arena? The main event features Anderson Silva vs Yushin Okami\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":195,"featured_media":42393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1436],"tags":[51636,51645,51644,29314,471,51634,51643,51638,28641,51635,51637,51639,51640,51641,51642,27516,3365],"class_list":["post-42338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fight-club","tag-anderson-okami-picks","tag-anderson-silva-vs-yushin-okami","tag-antonio-rodrigo-nogueira-vs-brendan-schaub","tag-brazil","tag-free-picks","tag-hsbc-arena","tag-mauricio-rua-vs-forrest-griffin","tag-nogueira-schaub-picks","tag-official-fight-card","tag-rio-de-janeiro","tag-rua-griffin-picks","tag-ufc-134-betting-odds","tag-ufc-134-fight-card","tag-ufc-134-lines","tag-ufc-134-picks","tag-ufc-middleweight-championship","tag-ultimate-fighting-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/195"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42338"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43713,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42338\/revisions\/43713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nEvent – UFC 134: World Bantamweight Championship – Silva vs Okami
\nDate\t– Saturday August 27, 2011
\nTime – 9pm ET\/6pm PT
\nVenue – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil at the HSBC Arena
\nBroadcast – Pay-per-view<\/strong>
\nBet on UFC 134<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nUFC MIDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP: Anderson Silva (30-4) vs Yushin Okami (26-5)<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/UFC-134-150x150.jpg\" "\\"UFC")
Light heavyweight: Mauricio Rua (19-5) vs Forrest Griffin (18-6)<\/h3>\n
Heavyweight: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (32-6-1, 1 NC) vs Brendan Schaub (8-1)<\/h3>\n
UFC 133: OFFICIAL FIGHT CARD<\/h3>\n
\nLight Heavyweight bout: Maur\u00edcio Rua vs. Forrest Griffin
\nHeavyweight bout: Brendan Schaub vs. Ant\u00f4nio Rodrigo Nogueira
\nLightweight bout: Ross Pearson vs. Edson Barboza
\nLight Heavyweight bout: Luiz Cane vs. Stanislav Nedkov<\/p>\n
\nMiddleweight bout: Rousimar Palhares vs. Dan Miller<\/p>\n
\nBantamweight bout: Raphael Assun\u00e7\u00e3o vs. Johnny Eduardo
\nWelterweight bout: Erick Silva vs. Luis Ramos
\nFeatherweight bout: Yuri Alcantara vs. Felipe Arantes
\nBantamweight bout: Yves Jabouin vs. Ian Loveland<\/p>\nLooking for the best site online\u00a0for UFC gambling matchup Preview and free UFC 134 picks?<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"