And welcome back to another edition of The Duel. Internet problems persist but a huge thank you to Sherdog’s Lotfi Sariahmed for filling in late to get this up at a reasonable time. He is a man amongst…. well, other men. He’ll be going against the always educated and formidable opponent, Me. With that said off we Duel:

1. Quinton Jackson will easily dispose of Keith Jardine on Saturday.

Sariahmed: TRUE. If there’s one thing Jardine has shown with his time in the UFC it’s that he’s been consistently inconsistent. The fashionable pick right now is to take Jardine via leg kick destruction but that’s if he could keep Rampage far away enough to prevent this from being a brawl or a battle in the clinch. At some point Rampage is going to come in and attack and leg kicks won’t be this big weapon that Jardine has at his disposal. It’s at that point where I see Rampage getting the better of the standup with his counterpunching and he just has more power than Jardine. I don’t really see it being all that close.

Huckaby: TRUE. I’ll go one step simpler, outside of the odd Liddell fight I don’t think anyone is going to take Jardine seriously against a guy with one punch knockout power. In UFC speak this fight should either go like the Rampage/Wandy fight or the Rampage/Eastman fight in terms of how long it lasts before Rampage nails a right hand that drops Jardine on his face for a ground-and-pound TKO stoppage. I’m not seeing leg kicks or anything else that gives Jardine much of a chance in this one. And we all know when that’s said it’s always blowouts like GSP/Serra where the underdog has no chance of winning….

2. Shane Carwin will continue the run and pull an upset of Gabe Gonzaga.

Sariahmed: FALSE. Even if you’re picking Carwin to win this fight no one is doing it with any sort of confidence. You’re talking about an extremely talented fighter but one who is going from fighting the likes of Christian Wellisch to Gabriel Gonzaga. The jiu-jitsu game alone is miles beyond what Carwin’s faced to this point. NOW with that said if Gonzaga decides he wants to trade on the feet with Carwin he’ll give Carwin the opening to in fact pull off said upset. But barring some colossal brain fart on the part of Gonzaga I just don’t see where Carwin is going to consistently be picking up enough points to win rounds and eventually the bout.

Huckaby TRUE. Considering I thought about changing my answer after reading that one I believe I lose. I’ll play devil’s advocate at the least and say Gonzaga lacks the one thing a successful cage fighter needs…. heart. He’s shown multiple times that you can wear him down and when he thinks he’s out of it he’ll quit. So who better than someone like Shane Carwin to control the action and upset him to the point of giving up hope? I agree that people wouldn’t be surprised if Carwin was submitted or even TKO’d but I don’t know, I think they made this fight for a reason to test where Carwin is at. They’re still not giving this fight to Cain Velasquez, are they? I believe they believe this could be a passing of the torch…. if you can pass a torch from decent to going to be decent and not involve titles or anything.

3. You believe Kirel Sidelnikov’s positive steroid test came from nose spray.

Sariahmed: TRUE. As long as everyone believes that I’m set to fight for the LHW belt come UFC 100 against Mr. Huckaby then sure. And sure, I believe him…as long as he had gone through about 110 bottles of the spray to cause the positive test. Either way he’s culpable and has to know that the nasal spray isn’t exactly your run of the mill nasal spray if you’re going to test positive for steroids because of it. Next time may I recommend Nasonex? Flonase works well in a pinch but Nasonex is really what hits the spot. Come on people, M-1′s trying to protect their guy for once…that’s all this is here.

Huckaby: FALSE. Well you’re the one that said TRUE Mr. Fancy Pants. Though nice product placement might get me a new watch from Nasonex. A nose watch. With steroids. If I may come to the defense, even if you believe the nose spray thing is complete rubbish, I need to defend some athletes when TV talking heads blame everything on them. You know full well there are doctors that give some athletes these things and tell them they’re good to go. We’ve all been on the phone with a company discussing a bill and make an agreement only to find out that employee was wrong. Well then who is at fault? I was talking to a representative of the company and they gave me wrong information. I don’t work for the energy company the same way I’m not a doctor. We have to rely on people sometimes who give us wrong information. Does that have anything to do with this? Probably not but it needed to be said.

4. You look for Hughes vs. Serra to be Hughes’ final UFC bout.

Sariahmed: FALSE. I think Hughes wouldn’t want to go out based on the one bout and probably has another big bout or two on his ledger along the lines of some big last hurrah. Hughes still sells as a name and the only real question is whether or not Hughes is still into it. Given his extensive time off with injuries and the like since his last fight, I doubt Serra would be his last bout because it would essentially amount to a one and done type deal. Can he beat the best in the division? Probably not. But Koscheck v. Hughes would certainly be fun to watch. Or if he doesn’t want to serve as a springboard for someone’s career you could always find another bout with Hughes that the people would buy into.

Huckaby: FALSE. Good points all around. The Hughes/Alves bout proved he can fill in to main event a card when needed against someone like Koscheck. Not to mention he has a newer school I’m sure he like to give more exposure to while he still can. Initially I was leaning to true but the fact is he could Royce it at this point and just fight once a year for two or three years before he goes out. He knows he’s not going to be a world champion again so why not do this on his own terms, make his money and go out how he wishes. Which would probably include lots of strippers and smashing baby birds in the name of Jesus.

5. Ken Shamrock should be considered a decent favorite over Bobby Lashley at “March Badness.”

Sariahmed: FACT. But ONLY because he has SO much more experience than Lashley and that’s it. Otherwise Lashley could kill him and the bout wouldn’t get past the commission. I’ve seen this bout compared to Lesnar v. Mir and obviously on a much lesser level. It’s not a bad comparison. Lashley’s physically imposing but doesn’t offer much in the way of any one standout MMA skill except wrestling. Shamrock’s ground game is better. His standup may be better but ONLY by default. Depending on how you want to interpret decent favorite you can say he shouldn’t be given Lashley’s physical size. But I’ll give Shamrock the benefit of the doubt here but again only based on experience.

Huckaby: FACT. But only because of experience? That’s out there, man! Yes, it’s true, I think Shamrock could make another 3 or 4 years of fights out of beating more physically gifted guys that aren’t on his experience level. He could KO Lashley or he could easily sub him…. or he could die. There’s probably a better chance of the first two but I like Lashley and his people taking this fight both of out my intrigue, using Shamrock as a name and as a stepping stone. If you’re going to lose early you might as well lose to an experienced guy with name value to bump you.

6. Give me your early favorite for the Sengoku FW Grand Prix.

Sariahmed: Marlon Sandro. Hatsu Hioki is the favorite for a lot of people but he’s shaky for me. Though to be fair I’m picking Sandro in part because there’s not as much to pick apart or not as many bad performances to look at because he’s undefeated. That’s what makes this Sengoku tourney as underrated as it is though because you have so many different guys who can win it. L.C. Davis is very interesting as a darkhorse pick if you were to have one as well. I like Sandro but mainly because there are fewer flaws i could find with him compared to everyone else.

Huckaby: Matt Jaggers. Fine, I’m picking the guy facing your guy in the first round. He won’t win but he also lives five minutes from my house and I feel the need. Kadowaki, Sandro and Davis have the best chance to me with Davis probably at the front of the list. I just see Hioki getting caught up in the second round. More than likely none of the 16 will win and someone like Bobby Heenan’s Red Rooster will come out as a replacement in the final to take home a belt. Doesn’t that always happen? I have to go with Davis.

And thank you for joining us for another Duel. We’ll be back next week to discuss UFC 96 and Dream.7 results as well as any new information and rumors to develop.

The bouts added include season six “Ultimate Fighter” reality TV show alumnus Jon Koppenhaver taking on Yoshiyuki Yoshida and Jason Tan squaring off against Korean fighter Dong Hyun Kim.

Koppenhaver last fought for the UFC during the live season finale of TUF 6 on December 8. He recorded a third round TKO over Jared Rollins in a fight that was discussed as a possible fight of the year candidate by several pundits.

Yoshida, who has never fought in the UFC before, has a lifetime pro MMA record of 9-2, according to Sherdog.com’s Fight Finder. He has competed for both the SHOOTO and Cage Force promotions.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REMAINDER OF THIS ARTICLE ON SAM CAPLAN’S PROELITE.COM BLOG

Koppenhaver has been accused of hitting and choking out Darren Zatkow outside of Undisputed, Koppenhaver’s MMA gym, on September 2. Here are some notes from the article:

He said he was confronted by a group of men without shirts who surrounded him as he left the club. He said he was grabbed in a carotid choke hold and dragged a few feet from his friends by one of the men. Zatkow said he did not see who grabbed him from behind.

Zatkow, who practices martial arts but has never competed in tournaments, said he became unconscious 10 seconds after he was choked and regained consciousness moments later.

Friends of Zatkow’s who testified said he was punched in the face while he lay unconscious on the ground. Zatkow, however, said he was not aware of the punch until after he became conscious and felt the pain in his face.

A Detective for the San Diego Police Department stated in the article that a Las Vegas doctor determined Zatkow has suffered four fractures to his left-eye socket in the assault.

Prosecutor David Williams told reporters that if the case goes to trial and “War Machine” is convicted, he will face a maximum sentencing of seven years in prison.

Read the entire article HERE.

(Thanks to MMAJunkie)

Now, let’s break the show down from a overly-analytical perspective.

Is it just me or did last night’s telecast go longer than usual and contain even more commercials than normal?

The commercials nearly killed me. Really, I could not stop bitching about them. They had too many breaks that lasted too long. It’s like this for every live UFC telecast on Spike but I felt last night was especially bad. Maybe there’s no change and it just felt that way?

Or, because Spike is paying the UFC more for its content they have to squeeze more ads in to help offset costs?

Whatever the situation is, without awesome fights between Koppenhaver vs. Rollins and Guida vs. Huerta, the pacing of the show would have killed almost any enjoyment for me.

The pacing on pay-per-views is usually slower than a lot of shows but I’m okay with that. The pacing on Spike TV fight cards is usually a little better but it just seemed to take forever to go from match to match.

I kind of get the feeling that Spike and the UFC wanted to stretch the show out because they wanted to cut into the Floyd Mayweather vs. Ricky Hatton fight as much as possible. I’m not complaining, as I like seeing more matches and I think it’s smart business to show as many of the TUF guys officially fighting for the UFC as possible.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REMAINDER OF SAM CAPLAN’S BREAKDOWN OF THE TUF 6 FINALE (INCLUDING HIS MATCH-BY-MATCH BREAKDOWN, WHETHER HE STILL FEELS ROGER HUERTA IS OVERRATED, THE LONG-TERM PROSPECTS OF EACH TUF CONTESTANT, HIS ANALYSIS OF KENNY FLORIAN’S DEBUT, AND MUCH MORE ON HIS PROELITE.COM BLOG