Nemesis

Those beautiful words have finally been written on Zuffa stationary...Liddell vs Silva.

This matchup is intersting on several different levels. Besides pitting the UFCs & PRIDEs two best-known knockout artists, it also matches up two stand-up fighters who have lost their last two fights AND who have traditionally struggled against other stand-up fighters. Here's why Liddell will come out on top:

PRIDE fighters, as a rule, have a difficult transition when joining the UFC. I don't know if it's the fact that they can get pinned to a cage without having a bunch of screaming Japanese refs slapping their hands, or those pesky unified rules that forbid soccer-kicking a downed opponent in the face, or the hands-down safer saner unbiased refereeing in general.

If you subscribe to the theory of MMAth, you're probably already aware of the fact that a young Tito Ortiz had no problem manhandling Silva a few years back. Chuck > Tito > Wanderlei.

And finally, let me just point out...I'm a rabid Liddell fan who was never a huge fan of Wandy so I have to pick Chuck, even though he's lost his last two matches to fighters with styles similar to Silva's, & even though he's traditionally performed better with lots of extra time between fights. (This will be his 3rd fight this year...May, September, December.) So I'm going to say that the PRIDE factor is reason enough to go against Silva (remember Forrest vs Shogun, people).

This fight, if it goes the way I think it will, should finally put to rest the mystique of PRIDE.

Oh yeah, & Serra will successfully defend his title against Hughes. More on that later.

---m