Well, its the Friday before UFC 68, The Uprising. I am pumped up! I haven’t been this pumped since earlier today when I jetted from work after lunch. Actually, around 6 o’clock this evening I was also equally pumped when I discovered a can of mini ravioli in my pantry. On to the predictions:

Rex Holman vs. Matt Hamill - I am pulling for Matt here, but his last performance was pretty bad. I know nothing about Rex Holman except that he’s buddies with Sean Salmon. Hopefully Sean didn’t give him any tips on defending a head kick. Even if he did, I don’t see Hamill launching any kicks to the noggin. This one goes the distance. Hamill in a split decision

Renato Sobral vs Jason Lambert - I say Sobral all the way. Unless he suddenly develops Wanderlei Silva’s propensity for getting knocked out, I think he will walk through Lambert. By the way, the UFC needs to put some marketing behind Babalou. He’s the real deal. Sure, he got knocked out by Chuck, but that was a bad matchup for the guy and Chuck was and is still the champ. After he walks through Lambert, how bout a lining him up against Tito, Evans or the Dean of Mean? Sobral in a 2nd round submission

Matt Hughes vs. Chris Lytle - Lytle got robbed in his bout against Serra. Does anyone know if the UFC used real judges for the TUF finally, or was it some UFC flunkies? Oh well, Hughes is going to hurt Lytle. Not a good matchup for Lytle. Lytle can’t expose Hughes with strikes like George did, and Hughes will win the ground battle decidedly. Hughes in a 2nd round TKO

Rich Franklin vs. Jason Macdonald - This is the second most interesting bout of the night. Rich got his nose pushed into his cranium by the Spider in his last fight. It was probably one of the most one sided title fights I have ever seen. So, how will he respond coming of the loss? Well, lets look at what happened to the Axe Murderer last week at Pride 33. He was coming off a brutal KO from the hands (actually leg) of CroCop and he proceeded to get knocked out again. I am picking the upset - Macdonald in a 3rd round submission

Tim Sylvia vs. The Natural - Hmmmmm. I did not want to see this fight happen. Randy is just too old and Tim is a big big man. Now that its a done deal and going to happen, I think Sylvia is going to walk through Couture. He’s just too big. At the weigh in earlier today I think the dude had 40 pounds on Randy. Sylvia in a 2nd round KO

outtie.