Behold, the beauty of the UFC\u2019s seven-division format! A week after the light heavyweight title fight between Jon Jones and Rampage Jackson, another belt goes on the line in a free-TV event this Saturday. Time to make some picks. <\/p>\n
UFC BANTAMWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP: Dominick Cruz (18-1) vs Demetrious Johnson (10-1)<\/strong> Bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz is done being the underdog. He officially elevated himself to juggernaut status with his title defense against the only man to beat him, Urijah Faber, this past July.<\/p>\n Cruz impressed on many levels against Faber. The pace he kept was as relentless as any fighter in the UFC can keep. For five rounds straight, he stuck and moved and danced all around the cage; we kept waiting for him to tire and he never did. Cruz is built to outlast pretty much any opponent imaginable.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s not that Cruz is just a cardio machine. The champ has some of the sport\u2019s trickiest striking. He takes bizarre angles, never stops moving and makes himself impossible to hit. Cruz isn\u2019t a finisher but he\u2019s a point-scoring machine with the judges. His hands are crazy-fast and accurate.<\/p>\n Enter the challenger: rising star Demetrious Johnson. The little sparkplug also keeps a tremendous pace and has overpowered his opponents with his wrestling. His grappling ability and overall fitness give him a chance against Cruz.<\/p>\n However, I don\u2019t see where Johnson has any definite advantage. It feels like no contest in the striking game. Johnson may have a slight power edge but no one can solve Cruz\u2019s technique these days. Cruz has a longer reach, too.<\/p>\n Some bettors may believe Johnson can take Cruz down but I don\u2019t buy it. Though he\u2019s become more of a striker, Cruz\u2019s started as a wrestler. He can handle himself against good grapplers. Faber got the best of him the first time but not in the rematch.<\/p>\n I\u2019d expect a wild pace, minimal damage to both fighters and a decision victory for Cruz on Saturday.<\/p>\n Pick: Cruz -440<\/p>\n Heavyweight: Pat Barry (6-3) vs Stefan Struve (21-5)<\/strong> The odds for Pat Barry and Stefan Struve aren\u2019t up at major books yet but should be any day now given these heavyweights\u2019 names. Both guys have battled some of the division\u2019s best. [ad-3573245]<\/p>\n Of two, Struve is the more well-rounded fighter. The 6\u201911\u201d monster can hurt opponents with his kickboxing and has some of the division\u2019s best, most underrated submissions.<\/p>\n But if there\u2019s a guy built to chop down \u201cThe Skyscraper,\u201d it may be Pat Barry. He isn\u2019t a perfect fighter by any means. In fact, he\u2019s one-dimensional. Barry is a pure kickboxer with little to no grappling ability.<\/p>\n But, boy, does he ever have power in his legs and fists. Barry\u2019s strikes are so devastating that he\u2019s won multiple belts by leg-kick knockout. Though Struve is a skilled young fighter, he has a weak chin. His three losses in the UFC came against Junior Dos Santos, Roy Nelson and Travis Browne, all by highlight-reel knockout.<\/p>\n Struve has good ground skills but he\u2019s not a true takedown artist, so a fighter like Barry won\u2019t have to worry about Struve shooting on him. He should successfully walk through Struve\u2019s strikes and put him away with heavy blows.<\/p>\n Pick: Barry<\/p>\n Welterweight: Anthony Johnson (9-3) vs Charlie Brenneman (14-2)<\/strong> What do we do with Charlie Brenneman? He\u2019s a relative unknown but he\u2019s fresh off one of the year\u2019s biggest upsets. No one expected him to beat Rick Story, especially by outgrappling him.<\/p>\n Does that mean we should take Brenneman seriously against Anthony Johnson? It depends. If Johnson fights a dumb fight and battles Brenneman in the trenches, he could get outworked or outgrappled. But if he relies on his huge size advantage \u2013 there just isn\u2019t a bigger guy at 170 \u2013 then Johnson should use his reach to outstrike Brenneman.<\/p>\n Johnson\u2019s last bout, a victory over Dan Hardy, impressed me because of his gameplanning. He knew he was the better grappler than Hardy and kept the fight on the ground. By the same logic, I expect Johnson to use his striking advantage to keep Saturday\u2019s bout where Brenneman is less comfortable.<\/p>\n Look for \u201cRumble\u201d Johnson to win, possibly via knockout.<\/p>\n Pick: Johnson<\/p>\n UFC Live: Cruz vs Johnson Preview & Picks Behold, the beauty of the UFC\u2019s seven-division format! A week after the light heavyweight title fight between Jon Jones and Rampage Jackson, another belt goes on the line in a free-TV event this Saturday. Time to make some picks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":195,"featured_media":39625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1436],"tags":[52438,52440,52439],"class_list":["post-43898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fight-club","tag-anthony-johnson-vs-charlie-brenneman","tag-dominick-cruz-vs-demetrious-johnson","tag-pat-barry-vs-stefan-struve"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43898","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=43898"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44050,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43898\/revisions\/44050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nUFC odds: Cruz -440, Johnson +350<\/p>\n
\nUFC odds: OFF<\/p>\n
\nUFC odds: OFF<\/p>\nCLICK HERE TO BET ON UFC LIVE AT BETONLINE – FREE CASH TO ALL NEW CUSTOMERS – FREE CASH just for becoming a member.<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"