I’ll be posting predictions from folks who are in the house watching the fight. Those of us on the site gave our predictions yesterday, which you can read.

Predictions:

Dave – Diaz by 2nd round submission (guillotine)
Daniel – Diaz by 3rd round submission
Mike L. – Diaz by 2nd round TKO
Mike S. – Diaz by 3rd round submission (triangle)
GG – Diaz by 3rd round submission

1. Marcus Davis vs. Nate Diaz

Diaz looks awful in exchanges, but with his boxing style, he often does. Davis is landing his left hand at will, yet Davis is the one who has the big cut, which came from when he turned Diaz around and had him up against the fence. Davis landed the bigger shots, but Diaz landed more shots. Davis’ face looked heavily swollen at the end of the round. I’d give the round slightly to Diaz. The cut is nasty.

Davis’ eye is messed up. They may stop it after this round. Diaz is just keeping both hands right in Davis’ face. A couple times in the round, he went in for a shot, and once, Davis ended up on top, but Diaz flipped him over quickly. Davis is taking a beating. I’m not sure how he can see the punches coming.

Diaz may have broken Davis’ orbital bone. He has a half golf ball on his eye now. Diaz is punishing him. It went to the ground and Diaz put him to sleep with a guillotine. That was pretty impressive.

Winner: Nate Diaz by way of 3rd round submission

Predictions:

Dave – Maynard by decision
Daniel – Florian by decision
Mike L. – Florian by decision
Mike S. – Florian by decision
GG – Florian by 3rd round TKO

2. Gray Maynard vs. Kenny Florian

It was a nothing round for the most part. Florian caught Maynard with a short right, but Maynard then finally got his takedown and threw some blows from the top. Maynard probably steals the round with the takedown.
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This is WWE’s most important PPV since WrestleMania. The Nexus angle has been one of the better things in WWE in a while and it feels kind of edgy. Since when has WWE felt edgy?

Along with Nexus, The Miz is over like hot cakes, Sheamus has done a great job as champion, and even Randy Orton seems like he has a little fire in his belly. Many people can be made tonight. We’ll see what WWE thinks is hot after this show is over. Let’s only hope they can continue to give the newer guys the rub. It’s sorely needed.

1. Dolph Ziggler vs. Kofi Kingston

Vicki is all dolled up tonight.

Hmmm. The match was ok, with both guys doing their normal spots. Nothing special, but nothing was wrong either. Kofi missed the Trouble In Paradise and Dolph locked in the sleeper hold. Then the Nexus came in and jumped both guys. Dolph was dumped out on the floor and Kofi was jumped Nexus style. Darren Young hit his full nelson-like slam and then Wade Barrett hit his fireman’s carry slam.

Winner: Who knows?

I think it was fine to do it this time, and it did give them heat. But if they do it continuously throughout the show, it could get old quickly.

Jericho and Edge tried to get Miz to join the team. Jericho promised him it’d be bigger than both Avatar and the Titanic.

2. Alicia Fox vs. Melina

They should’ve worked together more before this match. I think they had some good ideas, but the timing was off. There was a delay on the Matrix move that Melina stole from Trish and it stopped the match dead. Then, she hit a one legged drop kick, or maybe it wasn’t supposed to be a one legged drop kick. She beat Fox with a face buster. It wasn’t very competitive.

Winner: Melina

Melina started to cry and Josh Matthews came into the ring to interview her. Michelle McCool and Layla came out to chastise her and she tried to beat them both. Of course, that didn’t work. Alicia tried to get her kicks in on Melina and LayCool beat up Alicia too.

3. The Straight Edge Society vs. The Big Show

Fun match for what it was. They did all the big man and strong man spots. It wasn’t much of a match as it was tornado style, so it was more of a brawl. The best part was early on when Show cleaned house on Joey Mercury and Luke Gallows and then he looked at CM Punk and Punk grabbed the tag rope. Show choke slammed Mercury onto Gallows for the win. Punk ran off.

Winner: The Big Show

Kane and Sheamus had a romantic talk backstage. Not quite Heidenreich and Snitsky, thankfully. They teased something down the line.

The Miz came out and cut a great promo about how all of Team Raw came out and tried to butter him up. His best line was that John Cena told him that he was the only one who could see him. He said he would join Team WWE and he will lead them to victory. It was fantastic stuff. He’s got “it”.

4. Sheamus vs. Randy Orton
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We’re just a couple hours away to see if Chael Sonnen can back up his amazing trash talking. But there are other fights on the show which will make or break this card.

I’m predicting Anderson Silva via 2nd round TKO, Jon Fitch via decision, Junior Dos Santos via 2nd round TKO, Matt Hughes via decision, and Rafael Dos Anjos by decision.

I thought they would’ve opened the show with Clay Guida vs. Rafael Dos Santos, but no, we get to see the big dudes first.

1. Roy Nelson vs. Junior Dos Santos

Nelson came out to Weird Al Yankovic’s Fat yet again. And Junior Dos Santos comes out to Gonna Fly Now.

They started out throwing big blows and though it didn’t seem like anything landed, Big Country lost his balance and tried to grab a leg. He shot in and pushed Dos Santos against the cage, but couldn’t get a takedown. Dos Santos landed a huge uppercut and just started teeing off with uppercuts on Nelson. Nelson just tried to cover up and did a pretty good job. Those shots should’ve put him away. He got caught with another huge uppercut and went down, but Dos Santos wasn’t able to finish him. He gave him a huge beating. Has to be a 10-8 round.

Nelson is hanging in there, but Dos Santos is still landing the better shots, especially to the body. Nelson started to go for takedowns later in the round and nearly got one. The cage saved Dos Santos. There’s a cut under Dos Santos right eye, but I’m not sure if it was a punch or a knocking of the heads. Big Country looks exhausted, but Dos Santos does look a bit tired too. The ending of the second round was pretty sloppy.

If Nelson had any energy, he might’ve had a shot here. Dos Santos continued to throw punches and even got a takedown. He was throwing leg kicks too to mix it up. At no point in the round did you think Nelson was in control, but there was always that thought that he could land a big right hand. But he as simply too tired.

Has to be 30-26 Dos Santos.

Winner: Junior Dos Santos by decision

The scores were 30-26, 30-27, and 30-27. How anyone doesn’t score that first round 10-8 kind of boggles me.

2. Ricardo Almeida vs. Matt Hughes
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They need to have a great fight to close this show. Though I have been entertained, I imagine many casual fans who bought this show need a good closer to feel that they spent their money wisely. I wouldn’t put it past these guys to end this show with a bang.

Juan Diaz vs. Juan Manuel Marquez

R1
Marquez looked great in the first half of the round, but Diaz came back in the second half. Though Diaz didn’t come out swinging crazily, he did start to open up later in the round. Marquez looked great early on, beating Diaz to every punch. Really good first round.

R2
Strong second round. Diaz and Marquez matched each other shot for shot. It was almost like a game of one-upsmanship. Marquez would land a nice shot and then Diaz would land a better one. And then on and on. If I had to judge that round, I would’ve scored it 10-10.

R3
Marquez ended the round brilliantly. I’m threw an amazing combination that ended with a left hook that left me in awe of Diaz’s chin because I was so sure that he was going to fall. These guys are fighting hard. Marquez is breathing hard and already has a bit of blood coming out of his nose.

R4
Marquez beat Diaz like he was a lawyer or something. He buckled him badly with a left uppercut and controlled the entire round. It was a great shot. Diaz is having issues because Marquez is so accurate.

R5
Diaz boxed more in the round but still caught some good shots from Marquez, especially an overhand right that was the best punch of the round. Diaz stayed away and threw shots from the outside.

R6
Marquez is stalking him, looking like he wants to get him out of there. They showed a replay of a great Marquez combination that ended with a left hook and a left uppercut that both landed flush.
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I originally thought Guerrero was the semi-main, but this is the semi-main, probably because it’s technically a title fight in the middleweight division.

The marketing for Shane Mosley vs. Sergio Mora is that no Mexican fighters (Fernando Vargas, Oscar De La Hoya, and Antonio Margarito) have ever beat Mosley and Mora could be the Mexican savior. Highly unlikely, but they need something to sell that fight as a PPV.

Dmitry Pirog Vs. Daniel Jacobs

Jim Lampley pointed out that the reason this is a title fight is because it’s for Sergio Martinez’s belt that was stripped from him after he beat Kelly Pavlick.

R1
Jacobs switched back and forth between southpaw and conventional. The best shot of the round was when Jacobs leaned back against the ropes and the ropes catapulted him back towards Pirog’s right hand. Jacobs landed more punches, but Pirog landed the best shot.

R2
The first half of this round was huge for Pirog. He had Jacobs up against the ropes and Jacobs nearly went down. He went into a low crouch and caught himself. Jacobs is having a hard time timing Pirog’s punches. He started to feel him out much better late, but totally Pirog’s round.

R3
Much better round for Jacobs. He landed two pretty solid right hands that were the best punches of the round. Pirog still has an unconventional style that is giving Jacobs fits.

R4
Very entertaining round. Pirog would land a shot and then act as if Jacobs wasn’t giving him any credit. Then Jacobs would throw a lightening combination to show that he’s the better guy. Pirog is definitely trying to prove to everyone that he’s Jacobs’ equal. Pretty close round too.

R5
And just like that, Pirog went out and took his respect. He knocked Jacobs out. He pushed Jacobs back toward the ropes and just as his momentum was bringing him back toward Pirog, he unleashed a right hand that put him down. Jacobs looked out and then was about to raise his head and the referee stopped out before counting him out.

Winner: Dmitry Pirog by way of 5th round TKO

Jacobs seemed to be very upset that he wasn’t allowed the chance to get up. I imagine Golden Boy was too.

Next up is the main event.

The PPV broadcast was having technical difficulties and they threw it to the international announcing team and they showed Frankie Gomez’s first round win and Sakio Bika’s first round DQ loss for hitting his opponent who was on his knees.

From what I’ve read, it looks like it was a power issue for HBO. But they’re back up and it’s time for Guerrero vs. Casamayor.

Joel Casamayor vs. Robert Guerrero

Pretty much a nothing round. Casamayor might’ve taken the round just because he landed a couple of shots late, but really, nothing happened.

R2

Very sloppy round. Casamayor doesn’t want to be in there. He was deducted a point for holding too much and then took a big left hand and decided that rather than fight his way out of the corner, he would continually shoot in for a double leg take down. Rather than dock him another point, the referee decided to call it a knockdown. 10-7 round.

R3
Easy round for Guerrero, but he’s pretty cautious. Casamayor threw a sloppy left that landed, but he didn’t have much on it.

R4
If Guerrero wants to be a PPV attraction type of fighter, he needs to be able to win a fight like this impressively. He can’t just win on points against a guy who doesn’t really want to be in there. What’s actually happened is that by Guerrero’s patience, Casamayor is getting more comfortable. Guerrero probably wins the round, but not impressively.

R5
Better round from Guerrero, but he seems willing to just throw 1-2 combinations, when it seems like just throwing a myriad of shots would make Casamayor give up. He looks like he’s going to the body more too.

R6
Strongest round for Guerrero since the 2nd. Guerrero looked to be a little upset and grabbed Casamayor by the back of the head and Casamayor took a fall that looked a little acted. Then he unloaded with a left hand that rocked Casamayor. The right hook follow-up is wide open for him too.
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