This is how UFC 86 stacks up.  I will extend a word of caution for anyone looking to wager on Cote, as Almeida’s ranking is still volatile due to the fact he is only one fight off of a long bout of inactivity.  He still needs to once again prove himself against a good opponent and has his chance to do so here.

UFC Light Heavyweight Championship
[#1] Quinton Jackson vs. [#4] Forrest Griffin

Middleweight
[#18] Patrick Cote vs. [#91] Ricardo Almeida

Lightweight
[#21] Joe Stevenson vs. [#60] Gleison Tibau

Welterweight
[#5] Josh Koscheck vs. [#36] Chris Lytle

Lightweight
[#14] Marcus Aurelio vs. [#15] Tyson Griffin

Heavyweight
[#7] Gabriel Gonzaga vs. [NR] Justin McCully

Lightweight
[#108] Jorge Gurgel vs. [#122] Cole Miller

Lightweight
[#121] Melvin Guillard vs. [#159] Dennis Siver

Lightweight
[*] Justin Buchholz vs. [*] Corey Hill

Ranking Note: Gray font represents an approximate ranking. An asterisk represents a fighter who is ranked, but too low for an approximation. These two scenarios will clear up slightly as we move forward. “NR” means the fighter is not ranked, due to inactivity, or due to a rating that is at or below the default starter rating.

Since this is such a large event, we figured we would air our predictions out there for all to see.  As a statistical based site, we’re going to analyze this based more on statistics and trends versus style analysis.  So, enjoy!

+1


Light Heavyweight
[#7] Sokoudjou vs. [#17] Kazuhiro Nakamura

FightMatrix Comments: Kind of disappointed this didn’t make the main card (per Wikipedia).  Statistically, these two are hard to get a read on.  Nakamura tends to lose decisively against top-notch competition, but win decisively versus the rest.  Sokoudjou on the other hand, took the scene by storm with two dominant wins over two Top 10 Light Heavyweights, before putting on an embarrassing performance against Machida.  Some would like to say those wins against Nogueira and Arona are flukes, but we’re not foolish enough to dismiss two back-to-back quality wins.  Sokoudjou regroups and batters Nakamura for the stoppage.  Sokoudjou wins by (T)KO



Main Card

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