Georges St. Pierre was shocked (along with the rest of the world) at UFC 69 when Matt Serra knocked him out in the first round. Since losing his UFC Welterweight Championship in that fight, GSP has been on a mission back to the top, and he accomplished that mission in April at UFC 83, winning back the belt with a TKO win over Serra.

On his way back to the title fight, St. Pierre had convincing wins over future Hall of Famer Matt Hughes and young contender Josh Koscheck.

His opponent at UFC 87 is Jon Fitch. Fitch is 21-2 in his career, and 8-0 so far in 3 years in the UFC. His only losses were way back in 2002, to Wilson Gouveia and Mike Pyle. Fitch is on a 15-fight win streak, and is now getting the chance to fight for one of MMA's most elite prizes, the UFC Welterweight Championship.

My Pick: GSP will successfully defend his title, winning by TKO in the 4th. Fitch will fight well, though, and I'm predicting a rematch very soon, either way.


In one of the other headliners, heavyweight Brock Lesnar looks to redeem himself against Heath Herring, after losing his UFC debut in less than 2 minutes against Frank Mir. Lesnar has already gained fame as a pro wrestler, and now looks to succeed in REAL fighting. He needs a win against Herring, or his chances of sticking around in the UFC will be slim. While Lesnar is favored to win, Herring is definitely no slouch. He has wins over Cheick Kongo and Brad Imes, and has gone the distance in all of his UFC fights, so he will probably have no fatigue problems if the fight moves into the 3rd round.

My Pick: Lesnar will win this one, because he has to. 2nd round TKO, after some ground and pound.


The other big fight is Roger Huerta and Kenny Florian. The winner of this one immediately becomes the #1 lightweight contender, and will likely get a title shot against BJ Penn in a few months. Florian was beaten pretty badly in his loss at UFC 64 by Sean Sherk. The fight went the distance, but Sherk won the easy decision. Since then, however, Florian has been dominant, winning 4 fights, 2 each by submission and TKO.

Former SI cover boy Roger Huerta is 21-1-1, and a perfect 6-0 so far in the UFC. He has shown the ability to knock out his opponents, submit them, and win by decision. Huerta's last fight was a huge win against Clay Guida, where Huerta looked defeated, but choked out Guida early in the 3rd round.

My pick: Huerta in the 1st, by submission.



Other Fights:
Manny Gamburyan vs. Rob Emerson (LW)
Jason MacDonald vs. Demian Maia (MW)
Luke Cummo vs. Tamdan McCrory (WW)
Cheick Kongo vs. Dan Evenson (HW)
Andre Gusmao vs. Jon Jones (LHW)
Chris Wilson vs. Steve Bruno (WW)
Ben Saunders vs. Ryan Thomas (WW)


[UFC 87]