by Robert Cramer

Created on: September 24, 2009   Last Updated: September 29, 2009

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, Fighters and Fighterettes? Anyways, welcome to my first preview and predictions of the upcoming UFC 104. On October 24th, 2009 we will get to see if Lyoto the dragon Machida can defend his newly acquired belt against the ever inconsistent Mauricio Shogun Rua. We will also get too see the up and coming Cain Velasquez against the former IFL Champion Ben Rothwell. We also have two lightweight bouts with Gleison Tibau going up against Josh the Dentist Neer and Joe Daddy Stevenson vs Spencer the King Fisher. At welterweight we have Anthony Rumble Johnson vs Yoshiyuki Yoshida. Fighting at middleweight are Yushin Okami and Chael Sonnen as well as Jorge Rivera vs Rob Kimmons. So without further adieu, Let's get it on shall we?

So I am going to go by weight classes and end with the title fight, just so you know the process I have selected.

Lightweight

Ah the ever exciting lightweight division and this UFC doesn't slow it down. We have two fights at this division. The first being Gleison Tibau vs Josh Neer. Both fighters have done fairly well with Neer and Tibau both coming off losses in their last fight. Neer to Pellegrino and Tibau to Melvin Guillard. One thing to keep in mind is that Josh Neer has actually beaten both Melvin Guillard and Joe Stevenson in the past. Two men who have previously beaten Tibau. The other thing of note is that neither men have been able to elevate their game enough to win a bigger fight, although both are always in the fight. As we know though, past rarely means anything in a fight. So let's look at what these men can do. Tibau is a good wrestler and very good at Jui-Jitsu. His striking is improving but will be giving up a sizeable advantage in the striking game to Neer. On the other side of the coin, Neer's ground game has grown leaps and bounds. He prefers to stand but as seen in the Pellegrino fight, is dangerous off his back. I think Neer will be able to catch Tibau standing before Tibau can get Neer down and submit him. I think best case scenario for Tibau is to grind out a decision victory.

Josh Neer via TKO in Round 2

Our other lightweight bout has potential to be fight of the night if not more. We have Spencer Fisher vs Joe Stevenson. So here we have to veteran fighters who have both been in wars. Fisher is coming in on a 3 fight win streak where as Stevenson is coming off one win after two hard losses. Stevenson has definitely been in more high profile matches and has lost those matches. His

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