This is a big match up for both guys, one to be legit and the other to not fall off….my pick for fight of the night!!

I hope Diego can come back from his staph and whoop some ass.

This should be a great fight. The whole fight card for 76 is great. People complain too much about Liddell fighting Jardine that night, but if they ever run a multi-million dollar fight organization (unlikely) they will understand the matchups.

I’m gonna give Diego the benefit of the doubt, that he wont fight a boring fight like he did against Koschek. I’ll chalk that up to the Staph infection and the fact that he was fighting against boring Koschek. with that said, I expect diego to come out gunz blazing. He was 19 and 0, than lost to Kos. For a guy that won 19 fights in a row and then lost 1, he is gonna come out like his life depends on it. Fitch always comes to fight, so I expect this to be a war.

I thought it was weird that the oddsmakers have Fitch has the favorite considering the fact that he hasn’t faced as high a level of competition that Diego has faced. However, diego has left greg Jackson’s camp, who’s fighters have performed like crap this past year anyway, to go train with “Shaolins” camp. With diego’s specialty being Ju Jitsu, I would have liked to c him go to a camp that specializedc in other areas of mma istead of ju jitsu. With all that being said, its tough to try and predict how Diego will fight on September 22.

Fitch has displayed a brutal ground n pound game since entering the UFC. He is an outstanding wrestler, who always looks well conditioned, and always shows up to fight.

Although Fitch hasn’t faced as tough opponants as Diego has, I’m gonna have to go with fitch in my prediction. There are just to many questions about Diego right now, that I cant pick him as the winner in this fight.

If fitch is gonna win, it will happen towards the end of the fight. Coming of a loss, diego isn’t gonna quit. Fitch will have to put constant pressure on him and try to wear him down physically and break him mentally. It wont be an easy task because Fitch will wanna wrestle, and Diego’s grappling is no joke. Fitch is gonna have to struggle for position on the ground, look to land some big elbows, while trying to constantly escape Diego’s submission attempt.

This fight wont end before the 3rd round, and I could c this going to decision. If it does go to a decision, it will be an exciting 15 minutes, not a lay n pray decision win. This coujld be the fight of the night, depending on how much of a fight Forrest can put up against shogun.

Prediction: Fitch 3 rd TKO (elbows) or Fitch by Decision

right on the money john….right until u said fitch by tko or decision

Diego tko 2nd round

I don’t know much about Fitch, but I’d rather see Diego go up against a striker with good take down defense and get KTFO. Don’t tell me Joe Riggs was a big striker either. Diego needs a real beating. Maybe that will tame his LAME attitude and his disrespectful fight enterence.

[quote comment=”141631″]right on the money john….right until u said fitch by tko or decision

Diego tko 2nd round[/quote]

We all know Diego is a very skilled animal, but there is just too much unknown about Diego going on into this fight that I dont feel comfortable predicting Diego. Matt, u might be right though. Diego is more seasoned, he is a good wrestler, and top level ju jitu. Diego is usually very mentally tough, so I dont think that his loss and lackluster performance vs. Koschek will be a mental hurdle to overcome.

Matt, u r right though. If diego is going to win he’s prolly gonna have to do it off his back via submission. He also has to do it in the earlier half of the fight because in the later
half of the fight blood and sweat will make submissions hard to pull off.

Some of the unanswered questions about Diego going into the fight are:

1.Greg Jackson has been in Diego’s corner for most of his career, so we pretty much knew what to expect from Diego going into a fight. How is his training with the new camp gonna help and hinder his performance at UFC 76?

2.Diego was undefeated in his mma career until his last fight.
That means he won 19 fights in a row which creates alot of self confidence that helped make him the mentally tough fighter that he was. How is he gonna rebound from a loss to Koschek?

In a close fight like this, predictions don’t mean much anyway. This fight is gonna come down to preperation, conditioning, and mental toughness which are areas that no one
can predict. Both fighters are great grapplers, who are gonna have to fight hard for positioning throughout the entire fight. Both fighters have always been well conditioned and I don’t see that changing. This is so mma cliche but in this case its true: 1st person to make a mistake (especially in grappling positioning) will loose. It will be Wild and action packed…..that I can predict.

It will be very close. Fitch by split decision.

Diego seriously needs to pack on the muscle he had back in his tuf days, it looked like he lost a lot of it in his fight against kos. Diego is an amazing grappler and is extremely difficult to hold down for very long, I personally think diego has the advantage in this one if he could get back some muscle and forget trying for the big KO. Fitch has fought a lot of no bodies and this will be his first real test, my prediction, diego by unanimous decision.

I think that Diego is going to take this one. Diego just has that natural ability to end up on top, even when Kos took him down in that fight Diego reversed it and got his back.

I’ll go with Fitch via decision.

dont forget, Fitch is a LOT bigger than Diego, in my opinion fitch will beat diego, however we saw some holes in his game(ground/takedown defense) vs roan carniero so i dunno i could see it either way, hopefully it will be awesome tho.

I think fitch is awesome but my gut says Diego will win and set up a grudge match with GSP for taking his territory in Albuquerque.

[quote comment=”141938″]I think fitch is awesome but my gut says Diego will win and set up a grudge match with GSP for taking his territory in Albuquerque.[/quote]

That would be a very interesting fight but it will have to wait cuz GSP gets the winner of Serra vs. Hughes prolly sometime in March or April of 2008

[quote post=”3217″]Diego seriously needs to pack on the muscle he had back in his tuf days, it looked like he lost a lot of it in his fight against kos. [/quote]

The reason Diego looked bigger in his TUF days is because during TUF 1, he fought at MW. Immediately after winning TUF 1, he dropped down to WW. I actually thought that his physique looked a bit soft (and pudgy if you will, but very lightly). Once he dropped down to WW, I thought he looked better - except for when he had that Super Mario Brothers curly hair and mustache going on….

As long as Diego does not come out like he did against KOS, this wil undoubtedly be the fight of the night - unless someone gets cought by a 1 punch KO in the first round, which is VERY unlikely. I see this fight being a war, with Fitch getting the best of Diego. If we get to see the Diego of old, this will be a war!

I’ll be rooting so hard for my boy Fitch, he better get this win. With this super long wait before GSP actually gets the title shot, and seeing that he won a DECISION againt JOSH freaking Koscheck, I don’t think its a bad idea to have this happen:

If (or rather when) Jon Fitch beats Diego, that will make him 7-0 in the UFC. A GSP vs Fitch match would be way better than the GSP vs KOS match. I say that they do it!

I would love noting more in the WW division than for Jon Fitch to beat Diego down, win agains GSP, and then win the title!

I think Fitch is good too, but Diego should beat him. Fitch hasn’t foughten the quality of oppenents that Diego has beaten. I’m not taking anything away from Fitch, but I think that he’ll put the pressure on Diego and Diego will put up another performance like he did against Karo. This match can definately go either way, but I’d like to see Diego win. He needs this win. Both fighters really need this win. With a win, Fitch will be 7-0 in the UFC and a match away from a title match. If Diego loses, it will be his second in a row, which is not good for any fighter, but to be undefeated in 19 fights and drop two in a row can be devastiting to him and his career. I can’t wait to see this fight. Both fighters have so much to gain!

[quote comment=”141991″]As long as Diego does not come out like he did against KOS, this wil undoubtedly be the fight of the night - unless someone gets cought by a 1 punch KO in the first round, which is VERY unlikely. I see this fight being a war, with Fitch getting the best of Diego. If we get to see the Diego of old, this will be a war!

I’ll be rooting so hard for my boy Fitch, he better get this win. With this super long wait before GSP actually gets the title shot, and seeing that he won a DECISION againt JOSH freaking Koscheck, I don’t think its a bad idea to have this happen:

If (or rather when) Jon Fitch beats Diego, that will make him 7-0 in the UFC. A GSP vs Fitch match would be way better than the GSP vs KOS match. I say that they do it!

I would love noting more in the WW division than for Jon Fitch to beat Diego down, win agains GSP, and then win the title![/quote]
Gsp would mop the floor with fitch if it happened but it won’t because gsp already is guaranteed a title shot.

I dont think GSP will fight again before he gets a title shot

Fitch vs. Sanchez = war! This will be a great grappling match filled with ground n pound and sunmission action. On the ground the fighters will have to battle it out for positioning. It could b a very interesting fight.

If Diego looses let him fight Koschek for the 3rd time. Diego is an annoying weirdo but u gotta respect his fight game. U r only as good as your last fight, but we can’t hold that performance against Diego. He was half dead with a nasty staph infection. He was in such bad shape (they thought he had hepititis) that he thougt he had to retire after that koschek fight.

Im gonna give him the benefit of the doubt, I expect Diego to come out vs. Fitch ready for war. This will b the fight of the night unless Forrest puts up a better fight than expected vs. Shogun. This is a very tough fight to predict, Im leaning towards fitch. However, Diego will have a chance at pulling off a submission from his back. This will b war!

FOR SURE FITCH WILL MEET HIS MATCH WHEN HE FACES DIEGO, LOOK HE KNEW THAT KOS WAS A WAY BETTER WRESTLER THEN HIM SINCE DIEGO WAS ONLY A TEXAS STATE CHAMP WHICH IS NOT EVEN THAT GREAT OF A STATE COMPARED TO A COLLEGE D-1 SCHOOL AND WRESTLER, SO I THINK HE HAD IT IN HIS HEAD THAT KOS WAS BIGGER STRONGER AND WOULD BE THE THE MOST DIFFICULT OPPN HE FACED!!

I THINK DIEGO KNOWS THAT FITCH JUST HAS HEART MORE THEN ANYTHING, BUT THE THING IS THAT DIEGO HAS EVEN MORE SO I PUT THAT IN THE BOOKES AS A FOR SURE WIN AND AN EASY SLEEPER PIC FOR SOME MONEY IN VEGAS!!

AS FOR A FORREST UP SET LOL THAT JOHN WAS TALKING ABOUT. IF YOU HAVE SEEN SHOGUN FIGHT EVEN AT ALL LOL THE ONLY UP SET IS THE ATHLETIC COMM LETING THAT FIGHT TAKE PLACE, I THOUGHT THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT THE HEALTH OF A FIGHTER, IF YOU DONT KNOW WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT GO WATCH SHOGUN FIGHT RAMPAGE AND ARONA!!

Kros, Fitch and Swick train at the same gym in San Jose so
they asked Kros who he rather fight Fitch or Swick?
Kros said he rather fight Swick because Fitch is a beast.
I think Diego has his hands full. Fitch is like 6 foot and walks around at 190. He’s a smart fight and comes up a game plan like Randy Couture does.

Go Fitch !

Also fitch was suppose to be on the spike tv show called Ultimate fighter with Diego Sanchez.
Fitch was actually at the airport ready to go for the show and like 30 min before his flight, the producers called him and said don’t come.
I think Fitch wants some payback and Diego is going to feel the pain.

I hope this radio broadcast goes a little smoother than the last one I listened to. After it was over, I kept thinking about how sexy Beyonce is!

[quote comment=”142192″]I hope this radio broadcast goes a little smoother than the last one I listened to. After it was over, I kept thinking about how sexy Beyonce is![/quote]

Live radio is unpredictable and very difficult. Plaus last time we had a guest host. This time around it should be killer.

[quote post=”3217″]Kros, Fitch and Swick train at the same gym in San Jose so
they asked Kros who he rather fight Fitch or Swick?
Kros said he rather fight Swick because Fitch is a beast.
I think Diego has his hands full. Fitch is like 6 foot and walks around at 190. He’s a smart fight and comes up a game plan like Randy Couture does.[/quote]

I thought that KROS was a typo at first, but then he did it 3 times. Are you unsure of his name, or it this some type of joke that I am jut not getting?

[quote post=”3217″]Also fitch was suppose to be on the spike tv show called Ultimate fighter with Diego Sanchez.
Fitch was actually at the airport ready to go for the show and like 30 min before his flight, the producers called him and said don’t come.
I think Fitch wants some payback and Diego is going to feel the pain. [/quote]

And that was the best thing to happen to Fitch’s career. Look at how much money he is getting per fight, compared to the fighters from TUF 1. KOS just got $10k to fight GSP as the ‘co-main event’. Fitch got something like 16/32 or 32/64 against Roan Carniero at an Ultimate Fight Night.

Fitch hasn’t beat anyone? First, you have to get the fights you ask for. He called out Karo after he beat Luigi, but he still doesn’t have that fight.

-Shonie Carter - Agreed he’s not Great, but solid in his day
-Jeff Joslin - Controversial, yes….a Win, yes
-Brock Larson - Stud (Fitch beat him at 185lbs)
-Josh Burkman - For all you Karo lovers - go to ufc.com and see what Fitch did to Burkman, compared to what Karo did
-Thiago Alves - Jacked on juice and still got beat
-Kuniyoshi Hironaka - Total fkn Stud
-Luigi Fioravanti - Not great, but solid
-Roan Carneiro - This guy is Underrated! His size would give all the top guys problems

Granted - none of these guys are GSP or Matt Hughes, but I wouldn’t call them “No one.” Diego’s in BIG BIG trouble in this fight. I was more concerned about Roan Carneiro by FAR! Diego will get man handled. Fitch’s only 2 losses came at 205lbs. Fitch is every bit the grappler Diego is, but he’s WAY stronger!

[quote comment=”142009″][quote comment=”141991″]As long as Diego does not come out like he did against KOS, this wil undoubtedly be the fight of the night - unless someone gets cought by a 1 punch KO in the first round, which is VERY unlikely. I see this fight being a war, with Fitch getting the best of Diego. If we get to see the Diego of old, this will be a war!

I’ll be rooting so hard for my boy Fitch, he better get this win. With this super long wait before GSP actually gets the title shot, and seeing that he won a DECISION againt JOSH freaking Koscheck, I don’t think its a bad idea to have this happen:

If (or rather when) Jon Fitch beats Diego, that will make him 7-0 in the UFC. A GSP vs Fitch match would be way better than the GSP vs KOS match. I say that they do it!

I would love noting more in the WW division than for Jon Fitch to beat Diego down, win agains GSP, and then win the title![/quote]
Gsp would mop the floor with fitch if it happened but it won’t because gsp already is guaranteed a title shot.[/quote]

GSP would mop the floor with Fitch? Says who? Look, he might beat Fitch and he might not. What was your prediction for GSP/Serra? This is MMA…there are no absolutes. Fitch is better than you think…you just haven’t seen him fight enough. GSP is a Stud…no doubt about that, but he has lost a few fights…he’s not invincible.