UFC 144: Japan Bold Predictions

The UFC returns to the land of the rising sun this weekend with a card that has a little bit of everything for those in attendance as well as the viewers watching on TV. Headlined by a lightweight title fight between Frankie Edgar and Benson Henderson, UFC 144 also has former Pride stars and several of the promotions top Japanese fighters.

Instead of the traditional five bouts, UFC 144 will be supersized and the night’s main card will be seven bouts. The card opens up with one preliminary bout on Facebook.com before moving to FX with four move preliminary fights that lead into the PPV main card.

After a late scratch to last Wednesday’s UFC on Fuel card, there were only 9 bouts. While didn’t knock it out of the park with our picks, we did stay in the positive by going 5-4. That brings the overall bold predictions record to 33-25 and we’ll look to improve on this with our picks below.

Main card (PPV)

155 lbs.: Frankie Edgar will defeat Ben Henderson by Unanimous Decision

205 lbs.: Quinton Jackson will defeat Ryan Bader by 2^nd TKO

265 lbs.: Cheick Kongo will defeat Mark Hunt by 3^rd rd. TKO

170 lbs.: Jake Shields will defeat Yoshihiro Akiyama by 3^rd rd. Submission

185 lbs.: Tim Boetsch will defeat Yushin Okami by Unanimous Decision

145 lbs.: Hatsu Hioki will defeat Bart Palaszewski by Unanimous Decision

155 lbs.: Anthony Pettis will defeat Joe Lauzon by Unanimous Decision

Preliminary card (FX)

155 lbs.: Eiji Mitsuoka will defeat Takanori Gomi

135 lbs.: Norifumi Yamamoto will defeat Vaughan Lee

185 lbs.: Riki Fukuda will defeat Steve Cantwell

135 lbs.: Takeya Mizugaki will defeat Chris Cariaso

Preliminary card (Facebook)

145 lbs.: Zhang Tiequan will defeat Issei Tamura

Tags: Anthony Pettis, Bart Palaszewski, Ben Henderson, Cheick Kongo, Chris Cariaso, Eiji Mitsuoka, Frankie Edgar, Hatsu Hioki, Issei Tamura, Jake Shields, japan, Joe Lauzon, Mark Hunt, Mixed Martial Arts, MMA, Norifumi Yamamoto, Predictions, Quinton Jackson, Riki Fukuda, Ryan Bader, Steve Cantwell, Takanori Gomi, Takeya Mizugaki, Tim Boetsch, UFC, UFC 144, UFC 144: Edgar vs. Henderson, UFC 144: Japan, Vaughan Lee, Yoshihiro Akiyama, Yushin Okami, Zhang Tiequan

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