UFC Ulitmate Fight Night 5 will be this Wednesday, June 28th on Spike! Can there be too much of a good thing, when it comes to MMA not for me! We just had the TUF 3 finale and now UFN 5 and don't forget UFC 61 is right around the corner on July 8th. Here's the card for UFN 5: Anderson Silva vs. Chris Leben Stephan Bonnar vs. Rashad Evans Luke Cummo vs. Jonathan Goulet Josh Koscheck vs. Dave Menne Jon Fitch vs. Thiago Alves Jorge Gurgel vs. Mark Hominick Jason Lambert vs. Branden Lee Hinkle Justin Levens vs. Jorge Santiago Kristian Rothaermel vs. Rob MacDonald The set up is probably going to be four fights with plenty ads for Xyience, UFC 61, and of course that Spike show Blade. Whatever you do, just don't miss that Silva vs Leben match-up!

Here are the results for the TUF 3 finale. I'll have a write up about the show later. Mike Nickels defeats Wes Combs by rear naked choke at 3:20 in Round 1 Matt Hamill defeats Jesse Forbes by TKO at 4:47 in Round 1 Luigi Fioravanti defeats Solomon Hutcherson by KO at 4:15 in Round 1 Kalib Starnes defeats Danny Abbadi by rear naked choke at 2:56 in Round 1 Rory Singer defeats Ross Pointon by submission triangle choke at 0:44 in Round 1 Keith Jardine defeats Wilson Gouveia by unanimous decision Kendall Grove defeats Ed Herman by unanimous decision Michael Bisping defeats Josh Haynes by TKO at 4:14 in Round 2 Kenny Forian defeats Sam Stout by rear naked choke at 1:46 in Round 1

It's taken more than four years but the original champ of the 155 division is back with the UFC. Yes that's right Jens "Little Evil" Pulver is signed and ready to make his long awaited return to The Octagon. As some of you may remember Jens was the first champion of the 155 division who was essentally blacklisted from the UFC after his win over Bj Penn. After the Penn fight contract negotiations fell apart between Jens and the UFC - leading to long standing feud between Pulver and UFC President Dana White. Jens in only another quality fighter that the UFC has signed to the newly revamped lightweight division that really is going to be one to watch. And considering that Jens never acutally lost the belt, one can only hope that he will be in the mix for the title once again. Pulver is also rumored to be a coach on The Ultimate Fighter season five as well.

Well not quite six degrees but I thought this was interesting... Did you know that Kendall Grove is cousins with... USC Linebacker Kaluka Maiava And Kaluka Maiava is the nephew of none other than... Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson Those are some good genes.

As my old roommate would say, "It's gameday baby!" And there's nothing wrong with a little free UFC on tv! I've got to say at the very least this season of The Ultimate Fighter has been a pretty interesting watch. First off they got rid of those stupid games, thank the lord, once they said that you knew it was all about the fights baby. And someone was smart enough to decide that everyone should have at least one fight - imagine that! I mean you had it all this season: great fights, budding stars, a neurotic Jew, two Brits, throw in a deaf guy, some crappy judges and an even worse girlfriend. In terms of the fights and the fighters, it was way better than what season two had to offer - these guys were actually interesting people inside and outside the Octagon. It didn't hurt that we got to see Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock back to their old ways as well. Actually one of the reasons I tuned in every week was to watch Ortiz and Shamrock in their natural environment - the world of MMA. Ortiz really shined as not only a coach but a mentor to these young guys, he genuinely seemed to care and it showed. Not only did he personally invest his time and effort into the training, he brought in two awesome coaches - Dean Lister and Saul Soliz. It was nice to see the real Tito Ortiz and not the toughguy act he likes to front when he is on Pay Per Views. I hope the crowds will give the guy a little more respect now, I think he's earned it. While Ortiz really showed how great of a coach and competitor he is, Shamrock did what I only can describe as: further destruction to his already crumbling MMA reputation. This is a UFC Hall of Famer we got here people. I don't know about you guys, but this season of The Ultimate Fighter makes me wonder if he really knows anything about the fight game. It's obvious he doesn't know squat about groundfighting. Which is funny because in the past he was known as a submission specialist. He didn't seem care about his fighters at all, except towards the very end. This show was just an opportunity for him to get some tv time - and that showed too. Season three will easily go down as my favorite season so far, I hope the final fights live up to the rest of the season. Hell the season was a great achievement solely due to the fact: it actually makes me excited about watching the onesided beatdown known as Shamrock vs Ortiz II! UFC 61 here I come... Before I go on with my picks, I do want to add that the fights you see on the finale or even on Ultimate Fight Night Live shows are merely appetizers to the main course. In the world of MMA, the main course would be something like UFC 61. So don't go in watching these fights with high expectations. The best way to approach these fights is with a wait and see attitude. You're getting to watch free fights so have fun and hope that someone brings something new to the table... Here are my picks, hope you enjoy the fights! Well what can you say about Mike Nickels? He's got a lot of tattoos and he showed a lot of heart in his fight against Matt Hamill. But he also showed a complete lack of any decent stand-up as he essentially got beat up by a one armed wrestler in his TUF match. You knew Matt Hamill didn't have any stand up but man Mike Nickels just looked awful - what was his excuse? Luckly for Mike his speciality is on the ground. And thank heaven for all of us he isn't facing another elite wrestler in his oponent Wes Combs. Unfortunately for Mike his opponent Wes Combs has some heavy heavy hands. Wes is also sporting a record of 12-0 with the majority of the fights ending in KO or TKO. If Nickels doesn't get this fight to the ground it's going to be over for him quick. Then again, we really haven't seen what if anygrounds skills or cardio for that matter Wes Combs has. We've seen Mike Nickles slug it out in a war, Wes hasn't done that yet. Fioravanti is a fighter who really should be in the 170 pound weight class and quite frankly I'm pretty stunned that most sportsbooks have him as the favorite. I don't know maybe they see something I don't. Unless Luigi pulls a "Rory" and manages to get off a miracle kick, Solomon should be able to take Luigi down at will and work his ground and pound to a win. This should be a pretty easy fight for Rory Singer, but with Rory you never know. Rory is one of those fighters who has all the tools but lacks the most important thing for success in MMA: a strong mind. Lets face it, he's a neurotic mess. Ross is a brawler with very little else to speak of skills wise. He's looking to knock you out and dares you to stand up and trade with him. Who knows maybe Ross has become a little wiser since the shows taping and taken to becoming a total fighter. I dobut it. So, unless Rory decides to give up like he did in his fight against Ed Herman, he should be able to take Ross down and eventually secure a submission. This is probably the easiest fight to pick. Kalib Starnes by anything he wants. Danny is way over his head in this fight. Kalib is bigger, more experienced, and far more of a balanced fighter than Danny is. And of course there's the issue of maturity. Kalib is the professional while Danny is still a kid playing a grown-up's game. Unless Kalib hasn't fully recovered from his rib injury, he should be able to run right through Danny. Look for Kalib maybe trade a little in the begining then he'll eventually take Danny down to the mat. From there he'll work some strikes on the ground and eventually submit him. I hope Kalib gets another shot at Kendall down the road. That is re-match I would pay money to see. If there was one fighter who really got jobbed by having Shamrock as his coach, it's Starnes. Barring the unthinkable of happening again - you know Matt breaks his arm during training and thus decides to stand up and strike with Jesse - he should be able to take him down and control Jesse for three rounds. Who knows maybe one of them will show some new skills that we didn't see on TUF. To me Jesse is a fighter cast in the same mold as Hamill. A fighter with a strong wrestling base. Too bad for Jesse he's facing a better wrestler with better takedowns. See where I'm going with this? But in what little we did see of Jesse, he did manage to go for a rear naked choke against Josh. Hell he pretty damn near came close to skining that choke in. You've got give Josh some credit there too, he did an incredible job of fighting off that choke especially in the position he was in. Anyways my point is: if Jesse is somehow able to turn the tables on Matt and got him in a tight spot, does Matt have the training or the ability at this point to counter a rear naked choke? Probably not. Who knows maybe this could end up being the fight of the night. I couldn't tell you, as I've never seen Gouveia fight before. I do know that he comes out of the famous American Top Team academy in Florida. And like many fighters out of ATT, he's got a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu background but he's not afraid to throw strikes either. Jardine is comming off a close decision loss to Bonnar and is probably looking to make amends for that fight. For me this is a toss up, so I guess I'll take Jardine since he's the fighter with more UFC experience. Tito and some TUF alumnus from seasons past training in Big Bear This is the fight I'm most looking forward to. This is going to be a war. Ed Herman reminds me of a lot of a young Tito Ortiz. A fighter with a strong wrestling base who is looking to take the fight to the ground. Actually there's no doubt what he's looking to do: take you down and pound it out. Ironically he won both fights on the show by submission. Depending on who you ask he's looked dominating or a little rusty. Personally I think he's a little overrated. His fight with Danny looked more like a sparring session for him in a very uninspired performance where he easily secured an armbar in round one. His second fight with Rory was a little tougher, untill Rory decided to give up and practically hand Ed the rear naked choke. The problem I see with Ed is that he is really really slow. He's got a very methodical way of fighting and it's easy to see where he's trying to go in a fight. Plus he's got little to no stand up and with a fighter like Kendall that could pose some serious problems. Kendall has got some mean elbows and knees and from the clinch they are down right scary. Just ask Ross. If Ed and Kendall clinch, look for Kendall to start throwing his vicious knees and elbows. That's if Ed can get close enough to clinch up with Kendall. You see Kendall's got a serious reach advantage on Ed as well. And if he's smart he'll use that advantage tonight. Look for Kendall to throw that jab out there early and often in hopes of keeping Ed on the outside and offbalance. Who knows maybe he'll get lucky and catch Ed with a kick to the head a la Mike Zwick. Kendall's weakness is his ground game, which is ironic considering that he started out training in Jiu-Jitsu. Specifically his defense on the ground that's the problem. His guard isn't the best, I think it could be best described as porus. Porus in the sense that it's easy for someone on top to get off strikes. When someone has a good guard, the opponent will have a tough time doing much of anything let alone mount a decent offensive attack. Why you ask? Well that's because a fighter with a good guard is constantly moving, controlling his opponents arms so he cant throw a decent strike. Or if he doesn't have arm control, he'll grab onto his opponents upperbody. Holding on or hugging the opponents body will not allow the fighter on top to get the proper seperation he needs to throw effective strkes. Long story short, Kendall doesnt do that. The fighter on top usally is able to get off punches or even pass guard. In his fight with Kalib, he was taken down pretty easily and didn't not defend well against Kalib's strikes. If Ed is able to get Kendall down and keep him there, Kendall could be in for a world of hurt. Here's the rub. While I do think Ed will be able to take Kendall down in the early rounds, he is going to have a hard time keeping him down there. Look for Kendall to "wall walk" back up to his feet, circle out and start throwing those nasty elbows, knees, and kicks. Kendall wants to keep Ed in the "scary area" of space that exists between two fighters: where he's close enough to hit Ed but not close enough to be taken down. It's a window composed of time, space, and opportunity where Ed, like all wrestlers, are dangerously exposed to strikes before they can get a clich or takedown. Anyway you put it, this fight is going to be a war. And I'm going with the upset. Another fighter versus a brawler match up. Haynes is the classic underdog, a little smaller and a little slower than his oppenent Michael Bisping. But he has a lot of heart and it's easy to root for the guy because there's no quit in the guy. I guarantee you one thing, it's that Josh Haynes will leave it all out there tonight. Look for Haynes to bullrush Bisping at the start of this one. I think both fighters will be looking to dish out some heavy leather in the begining. Especially Haynes as his odds of winning this fight get worse and worse the longer it goes on. So Haynes will probably throw everything at Bisping in hopes of catching him early and ending it quick. Bisping is definitely the better athlete of the two. He's got the better stand up and a decent ground game. Though we have yet to see how he holds up against a sustained ground and pound so I really can't say how good his guard is. Quite frankly it really hasn't been tested yet. I think the only area where Bisping has a problem is in his takedown defense. If Haynes can push Bisping up against the cage and work a take down, who knows maybe he'll be able to ground and pound his way to a huge upset win. I do know that his cardio is the stronger of the two, so look for The Count start pouring it on in rounds two and three if he survives Josh's initial flurry. Michael won't have to take the fight to Josh, he can just standback and take his shots if he's smart. I think if Josh's cardio was a little better this fight would goto a decision. But Josh is really a guy who could stand to lose more weight and in the end I believe thats going to catch up with him. I heard the winner of this fight gets to take on Sean Sherk for the belt at 155. I don't know if thats a good thing or not. Honestly I think either of these guys will get wrecked by Sean so I'm not expecting too much. To tell you the truth this fight as a main event really doesn't do a whole lot for me. But like I said, the best way to approach these fights is with a wait and see attitude. Just take it all in and hope to be surprised and keep it at that. This fight in many ways will be a traditional striker versus grappler match up. Sam Stout is an accomplished kickboxer and sports a 9-1-1 MMA record. He's got fast hands and great cardio. Kenny Florian, another TUF alumnus, is your typical grappler - decent hand but someone who is looking to take it to the ground. I think Kenny's going to have a hard time taking Stout down. And after repeated failed attempts, Sam will take over in the later rounds and pick apart a tired Florian with strikes.