UFC 130 PREDICTIONS AND DISCUSSION

Here we go ladies and gentlemen, UFC 130 is coming at you live and direct tonight from Las Vegas, Nevada. The event will be broadcast on Facebook, Spike TV, and then Pay Per View.  The Facebook prelimins are scheduled to begin at about 6:45 pm eastern time on the UFC Channel.   Then on Spike TV at 8:00, and PPV at 9:00.

10 fights in total, which is down from the normal 11 or 12, but stacked with all sorts of intriguing matchups.  Make sure to get your fights locked in ASAP, as the person tonight with the best picks will win the BetOnFighting.com $500 Contest.   Thank you BetOnFighting.com!!!

Your prediction results and leaderboard ranking will AUTOMATICALLY show up in any posts made on this thread. If you want to embed your full listing of picks you can do that also.  The full leaderboard can be found here.

Fight Card, Prediction Breakdowns, Betting Odds:
1) -360 Renan Barao (74% Tapology) vs. +295 Cole Escovedo (26% Tapology)
2) -380 Michael McDonald (89% Tapology) vs. +320 Chris Cariaso (11% Tapology)
3) -350 Gleison Tibau (93% Tapology) vs. +280 Rafaello Oliveira (7% Tapology)
4) -145 Kendall Grove (61% Tapology) vs. +120 Tim Boetsch (39% Tapology)
5) -135 Miguel Torres (69% Tapology) vs. +115 Demetrious Johnson (31% Tapology)
6) -140 Brian Stann (71% Tapology) vs. +115 Jorge Santiago (29% Tapology)
7) -210 Thiago Alves (83% Tapology) vs. +180 Rick Story (17% Tapology)
8) -140 Travis Browne (30% Tapology) vs. +115 Stefan Struve (70% Tapology)
9) -135 Frank Mir (49% Tapology) vs. +110 Roy Nelson (51% Tapology)
10) -285 Quinton Jackson (82% Tapology vs. +240 Matt Hamill (18% Tapology)

Enjoy the fights and good luck in your predictions!

REMINDER: No requesting of or posting links to illegal streams of this broadcast.

My overall outlook on UFC 130 is that it was about like UFC 129, in the sense that all the fights were really exciting and deserved all the praise in the world except for the main event. However, at least Rampage and Hamill were actually willing to fight, not throughout the entire fight, but at least they fought. Unlike GSP/Shields.

1. Renan do Nascimento Mota Pegado vs. Cole Escovedo = Not the most exciting that I've ever seen, but a very good technical and tactical match-up that saw the right fighter get the win.

2. Michael McDonald vs. Chris Cariaso = A fight that was right where it belonged on the card. Neither fighter really did anything that I really impress me, but who knows somewhere down the road one of them could be a future superstar in MMA.

3. Gleison Tibau vs. Rafaello Oliveira = Tibau showed a lot of improvement on his overall fight game, but of course it's easy to look good against a B-level fighter. Tibau just might be someone making his way towards title contention or a really good gatekeeper. What this fight proves, is that if Tibau is a really good gatekeeper, Oliveira doesn't belong in the UFC just yet. If Tibau is a contender, then put him up against Melvin Guillard, Jim Miller, or George Sotiropolis. I think Sean Sherk needs an opponent.

4. Tim Boetsch vs. Kendall Grove = Boetsch needs to learn a better way of cutting weight, and Grove might need to go to Strikeforce or Bellator.

5. Demetrious Johnson vs. Miguel Angel Torres = One of the greatest tactical and technical ground fights ever in MMA history, but because of this, it also proves that the judges know nothing about true MMA or BJJ. If this fight had taken place in Japan, or PRIDE was still in existence, Torres would've won this fight by UD. No matter what, both fighters put on a great fight, and should be proud of themselves win or lose. Both fighters are extremely tough, and have a ton of heart. I was very impressed with both fighters. They should pat themselves on the back for one of the greatest ground fights ever.

6. Brian Stann vs. Jorge Santiago = I really felt that since Stann KO'd Leben, this fight was an insult to Brian Stann. Stann did exactly what I said he was going to do, just one round later. Stann deserves a fight against one of the top tier fighters at 185 or at least Mark Munoz.

7. Rick Story vs. Thiago Alves = A fight where I should've went with my original gut instinct. Alves only has himself to blame for this loss. He knew what Story's gameplan was, and he fell right into it. Whether people agree with the decision or not, Alves has only himself to blame for letting this fight go to the judges. There was several times where Alves could've won or ended the fight, but didn't capitalize, and he just let Story control the pace of the fight, and where the fight took place.

8. Travis Browne vs. Stefan Struve = KO Of The Night!!!! Both fighters gave everything they have, and put on one hell of a performance. Struve needs to develop his stand-up defense, while Browne proved that he just might be the darkhorse of the UFC HW division. His next fight should be against Roy Nelson or Ben Rothwell.

9. Frank Mir vs. Roy Nelson = This should get Fight Of The Night IMO. Both fighters gave it everything that they had. This was the HW version of Forrest Griffin/Stefan Bonnar at TUF 1. I really thought this was going to be Roy Nelson's shot to get over the hurdle of beating a top 10 HW, but low and behold Roy once again lost. I'm actually glad this fight went the way it did. I feel bad for Roy Nelson, but I'm very happy for Frank Mir. Mir showed a wealth of improvement to his overall game. Both fighters need to work on their stamina/cardio, but other than that, they have nothing to be ashamed of at all. Both fighters should be proud of their performance, and we should be honored to have witnessed to great warriors giving it everything that they have.

10. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson vs. Matt "The Hammer" Hamill = The Hammer got hammered. Rampage should've put him away, but at least he won the fight. This fight just proves that Hamill isn't top tier, and Rampage needs either a rematch with Machida or a rematch with Forrest Griffin. Rampage needs a true challenge.

All in all it was a great night of fights. The main event didn't quite deliver the way I that I thought it would, but none-the-less, it was comparable, or maybe even better than UFC 129. Even without Edgar/Maynard 3.

My favorite card in a long time. I was very happy with all the fights.

Torres kinda' screwed my score, but **** happens.

3 new awards from this card, can't complain about that.

@OldMan congrats on the awards man! I got 2 awards and a promotion to 3rd degree purple belt...Not a bad card for us!

Thanks @SoccerKick.  Which awards for you?  Mine were the 4 & 5 perfect on one card and the moderate upset for the Story/Alves fight.

I got my 250 winners and 25 total Bantamweight winners...4 and 5 perfect is awesome man! I struggle getting perfects!

Nice, I've got a ways to go to get those awards.

Looking at the leaderboards of the four UFC events I've picked since joining Tapology, I think SilentOutlaw is the only person to get more points than me, and by 50. I think a great addition to the site would be an overall leaderboard that includes points from all events that have happened. Then you could do smaller leaderboards of just UFC events, etc.

KO of the night : Travis Browne..... Sub of the night : Gleison Tibau........ Fight of the night : Frank Mir Vs Roy Nelson (dont see how it didnt get it Mir just gets robbed of bonuses)... Thoughts : MIR VS NELSON : I thought Mir Vs Nelson was a great fight and much like Dos Santos vs Nelson as in Mir just beat on him for 3 rounds but he didnt just outstrike him he grapple****** him too .. Mir looked like a through well rounded mixed martial artist last night... RAMPAGE VS HAMMILL : I think Rampage did ok but he didnt get enough going offensively but his tdd was great and that could work wonders against Jones who I think he could beat even after that performance... STRUVE VS BROWNE : Holy **** what a knockout this jumped to 3rd in my knockout of the year after the 2 front kicks .. Wow Struve really has to work on not getting caught so much .. All of his losses in the ufc are by brutal first round knockout and he was nearly stopped by Morecraft in the first aswell ... ALVES VS STORY : Story done just enough to get the decision and it wasnt in great fashion or anything he couldnt take Alves down but Alves still had to be on the defensive the whole time .. Alves was just starting to get his rhythm when the fight ended .. 5 rounds Alves would of won for sure.

@thiago, youre just biased towards mir. no way should a one sided affair be fight of the night. sure roy was tough but he didnt do much.

@Kallousklown... I dont care how one sided it was fight of the night is supposed to be the most entertaining fight on the card and Mir Vs Nelson was exactly that.. I found Mir vs Nelson to be much more entertaining than any other fight... If they werent gonna give the fight of the night to Mir vs Nelson surely next it would be Torres vs Johnson not Stann vs Santiago come on...

Damn.  Those were some poor picks on my behalf!