My UFC on FuelTV 7 Fight Picks

In my opinion, this is a bad card that's been made much worse. I'm hopeful that the fighters will put on quite a show to make up for the lack of star power. I guess this is the problem with FuelTV cards: with limited availability, there's no good reason to put on a stellar card. I guess on the positive side, the existence of these cards allows the UFC to employee more fighters.

Welterweight Match [FUEL9-13]
N/A
Match Points: 2.03
Rank	Fighter	Line	Points	Total
WW #374	Papy Abedi (8-2)	-136	1.49	3.52
NR	Besam Yousef (6-1)	+111	2.25	4.28

What better way to ensure a fighter from the home country gets a win than to set up two local fighters to face off? Papy and Besam both fought and loss on the last card in Sweden. Hard to think that there could be a fight worth less points than this one. I don't care who wins, so I'll just take Abedi as the favorite

Middleweight Match [FUEL9-12]
N/A
Match Points: 6.40
Rank	Fighter	Line	Points	Total
MW #44	Tom Lawlor (8-5, 1 NC)	-185	3.46	9.86
MW #81	Michael Kuiper (12-1)	+156	9.98	16.38

Lawlor's been in the UFC for a while, but a loss here could see an end to that reign. Kuiper has the far superior record, but it's come against far weaker competition. Regardless, "Judo" is a finisher and has yet to be finished, so I'll take the underdog.

Welterweight Match [FUEL9-11]
N/A
Match Points: 3.04
Rank	Fighter	Line	Points	Total
WW #133	Ben Alloway (12-3)	+163	4.96	8.00
WW #220	Ryan LaFlare (7-0)	-194	1.57	4.61

Who are these guys? I guess Alloway has fought in the UFC once and won, but I don't recall his name. LaFlare is perfect with all wins via finish, so I'll take him.

Featherweight Match [FUEL9-10]
N/A
Match Points: 6.86
Rank	Fighter	Line	Points	Total
LW #79	Conor McGregor (12-2)	-166	4.13	10.99
FW #34	Marcus Brimage (6-1)	+140	9.60	16.46

McGregor was the CWFC lightweight champion before jumping ship to the UFC and dropping down to featherweight. Brimage has three UFC fights and victories, although all have come via decision. McGregor has only made it to the second round 3 times, and he's never been to a third. I worry that with the extra weight cut, that he may not be able to go the distance, and with Brimage, there's a likely chance that'll happen. So I'll go with Marcus.

Welterweight Match [FUEL9-09]
N/A
Match Points: 5.06
Rank	Fighter	Line	Points	Total
MW #47	Adlan Amagov (11-2-1)	-166	3.05	8.11
WW #180	Chris Spang (5-1)	+140	7.08	12.14

Another battle of "Who They?", but I guess both are Strikeforce veterns. Amagov has the better nickname ("The Wolf" versus "The Kiss"), so he's my pick.

Middleweight Match [FUEL9-08]
N/A
Match Points: 4.79
Rank	Fighter	Line	Points	Total
MW #43	Tor Troeng (15-4-1)	-239	2.00	6.79
NR	Adam Cella (4-0)	+194	9.29	14.08

A couple of the members of the current season of TUF, both suffered KO losses in their first fights after getting into the house. I don't know much about either but that, so I'll go with the Swede and favorite, Troeng.

Lightweight Match [FUEL9-07]
N/A
Match Points: 6.24
Rank	Fighter	Line	Points	Total
LW #35	Michael Johnson (12-7)	-231	2.70	8.94
LW #109	Reza Madadi (12-3)	+188	11.73	17.97

Johnson was pretty awful in his last fight but has a massive experience advantage over Madadi. That experience difference will come into play here, and "The Menace" will get back on the winning track here.

Featherweight Match [FUEL9-06]
Fuel / Main Card
Match Points: 10.08
Rank	Fighter	Line	Points	Total
FW #15	Robbie Peralta (16-3, 1 NC)	-357	2.82	12.90
FW #120	Akira Corassani (10-3, 1 NC)	+282	28.43	38.51

The first fight on the main card leaves much to be desired. I'm not familiar with Corassani, but I can see he's from Sweden. That's not going to help him here, and he'll fall to Peralta.

Featherweight Match [FUEL9-05]
Fuel / Main Card
Match Points: 9.97
Rank	Fighter	Line	Points	Total
FW #38	Pablo Garza (12-3)	+173	17.25	27.22
FW #68	Diego Brandao (16-8)	-212	4.70	14.67

Brandao, a former TUF winner, is going to want to end this one early. The longer this match continues, the better chance Garza has to wear him out and steal the decision (or catch him in a submission). If the same Pablo shows up as did in his last fight, I think we'll see "the Scarecrow" steal this decision. With the odds the way they are, I'm willingly to take that gamble.

Bantamweight Match [FUEL9-04]
Fuel / Main Card
Match Points: 12.10
Rank	Fighter	Line	Points	Total
BW #13	Brad Pickett (22-7)	-160	7.56	19.66
BW #41	Mike Easton (13-2)	+134	16.21	28.31

Pickett's only WEC/UFC losses have come to fighters in the title picture and he even owns a victory over the flyweight champion. Easton is 3-1 since moving over to the UFC, but two of those wins are against now UFC rejects. Easton hasn't fought a fighter of Pickett's calibar, and it's going to show on Saturday.

Heavyweight Match [FUEL9-03]
Fuel / Main Card
Match Points: 9.95
Rank	Fighter	Line	Points	Total
HW #34	Matt Mitrione (5-2)	-326	3.05	13.00
HW #75	Philip De Fries (9-2, 1 NC)	+260	25.87	35.82

"Meathead" is coming off of two straight losses after winning his first five fights (all fights have been in the UFC). 4 of his 5 wins have come via (T)KO. De Fries has lost two of his last three and both were via knockout. He's a submission specialist and is going to want to take Mitrione to the mat. As a former NFL player, Mitrione is athletic enough to evade those attempts and should be able to set up the KO in the process.

Lightweight Match [FUEL9-02]
Fuel / Main Card / Co-Main Event
Match Points: 10.68
Rank	Fighter	Line	Points	Total
LW #44	Ross Pearson (14-6)	-401	2.66	13.34
LW #53	Ryan Couture (6-1)	+313	33.43	44.11

While Pearson is by no means a big star, he is by far more experienced and much more dangerous than any foe Couture has faced. Couture's biggest win to date was against K.J. Noons: a bout that many thought he lost. This is going to be a rough welcome to the UFC (perhaps the UFC is trying to bank on the Couture name too early sticking Ryan in a co-main event where he's severly overmatched).

Light Heavyweight Match [FUEL9-01]
Fuel / Main Card / Main Event
Match Points: 13.56
Rank	Fighter	Line	Points	Total
LHW #11	Gegard Mousasi (33-3-2)	-1054	1.29	14.85
LHW #33	Ilir Latifi (7-2, 1 NC)	+606	82.17	95.73

An unfortunately timed cut to Alexander Gustafsson has ruined the one match up of interest on this card. And while Latifi may be better for what I'm giving him credit, he's going to have a rough time taking this fight on short notice. Mousasi will finish this one early.