After a two-week hiatus The Ultimate Fighter is back tonight with the first installment of the semi-final matchups.Out of the two matches I expect tonight, the fight between Ryan Bader and Eliot Marshall is to be the one to watch.
The fight between George Roop and Phillipe Nover will probably be good, but I expect a better fight from the light-heavyweights.
While scanning various websites, blogs and comments on the Internet, the overwhelming prediction for tonight is that Nover will win the lightweight bout. However, I see a lot of mixed opinions regarding Bader vs Marshall.
Here's my prediction . . . I think Marshall will win. While Bader's size ( and most likely strength ) and wrestling background are certainly worthy of respect, I believe that Marshall will have the better mix of MMA disciplines it takes to win in this sport. However it should be interesting to see what kind of takedown defense Marshall has against Bader's world class wrestling skills. I expect that his defense will be adequate, but should Bader be able to shoot in and get a slam takedown, Marshall may be in trouble. I expect that, most likely, this fight will end up on the ground with Marshall managing some type of submission in the second round.
I don't expect the lightweight fight will be as significant as the light-heavyweight bout. Roop's a pretty good scrapper and I'm sure he'll have his fists and feet flying in every direction. But let's face it, against Polakowski they weren't that effective and he has a much better opponent this time around. While Roop might try to take the fight to the ground to counter Nover's power, I imagine that this technique might not be enough. Nover's punching power will be too much to handle by the end of the first round.
