UFC Seek and Destroy Hits Minny

By E. Spencer Kyte
Love of Sports Correspondent

While July 19th may have been a momentous day in the eventual history of Mixed Martial Arts, this Saturday is sure to offer another outstanding collection of fights.

This time, they’re all on one card.

UFC 87: Seek and Destroy takes place in Minneapolis on Saturday and features three intriguing fights across three very competitive and very important weight classes.

This card actually serves as a homecoming of sorts for one of the combatants in the heavyweight tilt of the night, as former Minnesota Golden Gopher and WWE Champion Brock Lesnar makes his second trip inside the Octagon to take on “The Texas Crazy Horse” Heath Herring.

A verdict on Lesnar’s ability inside the Octagon is still a long way away, but a win over a battle-tested veteran like Herring would do wonders to silence some of the critics. Then again, stopping Frank Mir instead of falling into a submission would’ve done the same thing in his first UFC appearance.

While Lesnar’s the bigger name of the newcomers to MMA, Herring’s been around the block a time or two and has danced with some of the best bigs in the business, having fought Fedor Emelianenko, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and thrice losing to Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera.

Switching gears, moving from heavyweight to lightweight, the fight everyone’s talking about most is the bout between Kenny “KenFlo” Florian and Roger “El Matador” Huerta, myself included.

These two have been part of some terrific fights over their careers, and Huerta, in particular, seems ultra-motivated to get in the ring with Florian and run right through him. Of course, that’s far easier said than done. My only concern is that Florian, who doubles as an anchor on ESPN’s MMA Live and does some PPV commentary as well, hasn’t spent as much time focusing on his work inside the Octagon as he has outside it.

And then we have the Main Event – George “Rush” St. Pierre defending his welterweight belt against Jon Fitch.

For all the adoration and admiration Rush gleans from critics and fans alike, the simple truth of the matter is that he’s 0-1 in welterweight title defenses, having dropped the belt to Matt Serra the first and only time he’s been in this position.

While GSP’s certainly looked good, if not great, in working his way back to the belt and avenging his loss to Serra, Jon Fitch is no joke.

Fitch is 21-2 for his career and 8-0 in UFC. Among his victims are guys being tagged as future superstars, like Thiago Alves and Diego “Nightmare” Sanchez.

There’s just something about this fight I like more than anything, considering what happened the last time St. Pierre defended this title. Also, the track record of Jon Fitch scares the bejesus out of me.

Punched Up Predictions

Chris Wilson over Steve Bruno
Ben Saunders over Jared Rollins
Cheick Kongo over Dan Evesen
Tomasz Drwal over Andre Gusmao
Tamdan McCrory over Luke Cummo
Manny Gamburyan over Rob Emerson
Demian Maia over Jason McDonald
Heath Herring over Brock Lesnar
Roger Huerta over Kenny Florian
Jon Fitch over George St. Pierre