#4 Luke Rockhold (9-0) vs. #5 Vitor Belfort (6-1)
Pick: Vitor Belfort – Initially I thought this fight was a pick em. But after thinking about it, Belfort looked way better against Jon Jones than Chael Sonnen. And I viewed Chael Sonnen as the 2nd best middleweight in the UFC. Plus Rockhold will have the UFC jitters. Plus Rockhold is coming off a long lay off.
#8 Jacare Souza (7-1) vs. #14 Chris Camozzi (6-2)
Pick: Jacare Souza – The way Jacare finished a streaky Ed Herman made me a believer in Jacare. Camozzi won’t go down as easily, but he’ll still go down.
#13 Rafael Dos Anjos (7-4) vs. #14 Evan Dunham (7-3)
Pick: Rafael Dos Anjos – Dos Anjos has been improving the past couple years. Dunham has shown the makings of a gatekeeper by being so inconsistent.
#28 Rafael Natal (3-2) vs. Joao Zeferino (0-0, #33 WW Prospect)
Pick: Rafael Natal – Zeferino is pretty good, but he’s a welterweight, not middleweight. Natal’s size will be too much.
#8 Yuri Alcantara (1-0) vs. Iliarde Santos (0-0, #8 BW Prospect)
Pick: Yuri Alcantara – Santos will stay in the UFC as a very good bantamweight, but Alcantara will be way too overwhelming for Santos’ very first fight in the UFC. Alcantara’s knockout over Ricardo Lamas a couple years ago proved to me how legit Alcantara is.
#10 Nik Lentz (2-0) vs. #11 Hacran Dias (1-0)
Pick: Hacran Dias – So you know how much I think of Alcantara. Dias’ last fight was a win over Alcantara. This is all Dias.
#15 Gleison Tibau (11-6) vs. John Cholish (1-1)
Pick: Gleison Tibau – Tibau will show that Cholish isn’t a UFC level lightweight.
#32 Roger Hollett (0-1) vs. #33 Fabio Maldonado (1-3)
Pick: Fabio Maldonado – Hollett looked terrible against Matt Hamill in his last fight. Maldonado is good enough to beat him.
#47 Mike Rio (1-0) vs. Francisco Trinaldo (2-1)
Pick: Mike Rio – The season Rio was on TUF, the cast is very under rated and very good. Trinaldo is a lot older and over the hill.
Paulo Thiago (4-5) vs. Michel Richard Prazeres (0-0, #31 WW Prospect)
Pick: Michel Prazeres – I don’t know what happened to Thiago, but he isn’t the same fighter he used to be. Prazeres has 16 wins and 0 losses. He’ll beat Thiago.
#9 John Lineker (1-1) vs. Azamat Gashimov (0-0, #31 BW UFC)
Pick: John Lineker – I’m not impressed by Gashimov’s resume as a prospect. Lineker has already shown he’s beaten tougher fighters.
#10 Chris Cariaso (1-1) vs. #11 Jussier Formiga da Silva (0-1)
Pick: Chris Cariaso – It’s not that Jussier Formiga is a bad fighter. Cariaso is just extremely underrated, having close losses to bigger fighters in Michael McDonald and Renan Barao. This will be a close fight Cariaso will pull out.
Lucas Martins (0-1) vs. Jeremy Larsen (0-1)
Pick: Lucas Martins – Based off of what I saw on TUF from Larsen and what I know about Martins, Lucas is the better prospect and should show it in the fight.