If you live close to McHenry, Illinois, you are probably wondering if there is a cheaper way to watch UFC 143 than to order in your own home and get some grub. Thankfully you can go out to a bar to enjoy the festivities of UFC 143 and we have the listing for you.

Windy City Wings
815.344.4242
1266 North Green St.
McHenry, IL

Halftime Bar & Grill
815.344.0345
2405 W. Johnsburg. Rd
Johnsburg, IL

Snuggery @ McHenry
815.578.9600
801 North River Road
McHenry, IL

Firewood Restaurant & Sports Lounge
815.578.9400
2314 Illinois 120
McHenry, IL

If you don’t live in McHenry but want to find a bar that is showing the fight near you, check out the UFC Bar Finder. Please tip your waitress and bartender.

On Saturday night the Ultimate Fighting Championship will crown a new welterweight champion for the first time in over three years…kind of. With the current welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre, arguably the second best fighter in the world, injured and would presumably not be able to defend his crown for more than a year, the UFC had to fill that void with an interim title bout between the division’s top two fighters. Carlos “The Natural Born Killer” Condit will try and stop the four-year and 11 fight win streak of Stockton’s own Nick Diaz during the main event in Las Vegas at UFC 143.

This is a very exciting match-up between the UFC’s 170-pound division elite. Condit is the owner of a four-fight win streak and the winner of 12 out of his last 13 MMA bouts. His only lost during that time was a split decision loss to Martian Kampmann back in April of 2009. Any ‘split decision’ can be debated for hours on why someone won or lost. I almost consider split decisions the same as a draw in MMA, almost. These match-ups in the UFC are so equal sometimes that it becomes very hard to score. Condit is also on a roll regarding the nightly bonuses given out by the top UFC brass. He has picked up two Knockout Of The Night in his last two fights against Dong Hyun Kim and Dan Hardy. Before that he won a Fight Of The Night bonus for his victory over Roy McDonald in June of 2010. Condit is a very well rounded fighter. He has racked up 27 wins in his MMA career and 13 are by T/KO and another 13 by submission with one decision victory. His striking technics are thrown with a singular focus, which is to end the fight. Do not forget that he will have Greg Jackson in his corner who just had Donald Cerrone fight Nick’s brother Nate last month. Jackson has been thinking about the Diaz brothers for several months straight now, and they know how to game plan. However, Cerrone did lose to Nate in that lightweight bout.

Nick Diaz is a very unique person in general and stands out even more when placed in the Octagon for his brash attitude and high-level MMA skills. Winner of his last 11 MMA bouts including his destruction of two-time titleholder BJ Penn in late October of 2011. However, that is his only victory in his second stint in the UFC in his last 11 bouts. Before then he spent several years fighting in Dream, EliteXC and Strikeforce. Most people will tell you that the best fighters are in the UFC and other MMA organizations only house second or even third-tier fighters. While I am one of those people, I think that traveling to Japan, bouncing around the continental United States and winning ten straight MMA bouts is equal to beating BJ Penn under the bright lights of the Octagon. He and his brothers’ boxing has been top notch in resent bouts with victories over other top boxers such as Penn and Paul Daley. If the fight goes to the ground he will have the experience of a BJJ black belt from Cesar Gracie to fight with against Condit. I believe that most of the bout will take place on the feet as both men like to showcase their striking skills for the world to see.

Interesting note: Both men have won the World Extreme Cagefighting Welterweight Championship. Diaz in March of 2003 and Condit in March 2007.

Prediction…
I see this fight going into the championship rounds with excellent striking given and taken by both fighters. Both men will probably take a quick trip to the hospital after the fight, but only one will carry that 12 pounds of gold, diamonds and leather with them.

Diaz by unanimous decision (48-47) to be come the UFC’s Interim Welterweight Champion.

On the January 31st edition of RecapRadio, hosts Brent Todd and John Petit discussed a variety of topics. The discussion started off with a UFC on Fox 2 breakdown followed by UFC 143 previews.

The undercard for UFC on Fox 2 was first discussed as the Chris Camozzi versus Dustin Jacoby fight was not aired at all contrary to reports. This was rather unfortunate as not only was it an exciting back and forth battle, but Camozzi finished the fight with a 10-finger guillotine choke.

The conversation moved onto the rest of the undercard with a good debate on the knockout of the night. While both of us agreed that Lavar Johnson’s knockout over Joey Beltran deserved the bonus, Cub Swanson’s mouthguard knockout over George Roop was just cool.

Additionally the topic of the calf crusher submission by Charles Olivieria was discussed as we both found it weird that Joe Rogan didn’t even know what the submission was at the time of the call.

The main card of UFC on Fox 2 was broken down and we agreed on several things, but disagreed on the scoring of the Bisping-Sonnen fight. We both felt that if the original fights were in place and the fighters that showed up were the same in those fights, that Munoz would have beaten Sonnen, and Bisping would have destroyed Maia.

Instead we were presented with a rather lackluster performance by Maia who had no excuse for why he gassed. His opponent, Chris Weidman, at least could fall back on the fact that he cut 30 pounds in 10 days and he still beat Maia.

The main event was as predicted, and it just confirmed what we already knew about Davis. While he is talented and a good fighter, Evans is just on a different level.

When it came time to breakdown UFC 143 we first discussed a facebook stream fight of Dan Stittgen versus Stephen Thompson. Stittgen is a local fan favorite, but Thompson is undefeated in not only his mixed martial arts career, but also his Muay Thai career. We both said it should be an interesting fight, as styles make fights.

Breaking down the main portion of the card, we both agreed on nearly every fight. We predicted Ed Herman and Roy Nelson would earn unanimous decisions over Clifford Starks and Fabricio Werdum respectively. We expect a great fight in the bantamweight bout between Renan Barao and Scott Jorgensen, predicting Barao finishing Jorgensen. We expect Koscheck and Pierce to be a lackluster fight and could see it going either way.

As for the main event, we both felt that Carlos Condit is one of the best welterweights in the division. We even said that against anyone else, he probably wins. However we both think that Diaz is more than capable of avoiding a big shot, or if he is hit, can recover fast enough. Diaz has shown he is on a different level when it comes to fighting and we both predicted he would finish Condit off in the 2nd round.

You can listen to the podcast below.

RecapRadio recapping UFC on Fox 2 and breaking down UFC 143 [ 1:30:10 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

UFC on Fox: Beltran vs Johnson photo by Joey Hill

When the officials were announced for UFC on Fox 2 here in Chicago, some eyebrows were raised after only a single ref from Illinois would be inside the cage during the event. Helping out John McCarthy and Herb Dean, was Rob Madrigal got the assignment from the Illinois State Athletic Commission.

While Madrigal had only been inside the cage for 15 pro fights prior to his UFC on Fox assignment, since January of 2011 he has overseen 138 amateur fights.

Marc Ratner, the UFC vice president of regulatory affairs stated, “I do not go in anywhere and tell the commission what to do. He’ll get some exposure and I look forward to meeting him.”

While many are quick to point out the short comings of the Illinois State Athletic Commission, it should be noted that the UFC had the faith in them to select the correct candidate(s) for the job.

Madrigal oversaw two preliminary fights on the UFC on Fox card, Chris Camozzi versus Dustin Jacoby and Lavar Johnson versus Joey Beltran. The first fight between Camozzi and Jacoby featured three kicks to the groin all of which Madrigal was not only in the correct position to see, but did exactly what a ref is supposed to do.

At the conclusion of the fight, Camozzi locked in a 10-finger guillotine, a rare modification of the choke hold. Madrigal was at first on one side of the fighters, but quickly moved to where he knew he could see a tap by Jacoby if there was going be one. Sure enough there was and Madrigal was quick to stop the fight.

The other fight Madrigal oversaw featured two heavyweight fighters who in the past have shown they have massive power and knockout ability. It is the referee’s job to know when a fighter is injured or knocked out, but to not interfere with the fight.

At the start of the fight Lavar Johnson hurt Joey Beltran with a big left hook to Beltran’s body. It sent Beltran to the canvas, but Beltran was quick to get up. Madrigal showed poise and precession in his duties as he moved himself into a position to see what would follow.

Through out the fight there were several directional changes and Madrigal again stayed calm and was present through out all the action. If one fighter shifted while against the cage to almost prevent the ref from seeing what was going on, Madrigal would run to the other side to see what was happening.

Even when Johnson was chasing Beltran at one point to follow up on his damaging blows, Madrigal was quick to get out of the way, yet still be in a position to see what was going on.

When it came to the conclusion of the fight, Johnson landed several uppercuts on Beltran knocking him out on his feet. Madrigal was right there and called off the fight the moment that Beltran went unconscious.

All the talk about how Madrigal didn’t have enough experience and that he should “be eased into it” was for naught.

Those that did have a problem with the assignment should not have voiced their opinion prior to the fight, rather they should have waited to see what kind of job Madrigal did. Only if he had made a mistake should there have been an issue.

From the article that was originally written it made it sound as if Madrigal would have let a fighter beat another fighter to death and that he was incompetent at his job. That was clearly not the case, and Madrigal made those who complained about the assignment seem foolish.

Fabricio Werdum - Photo by Brent Todd

Heavyweights will slug it out in the co-main event of UFC 143 as Roy Nelson takes on Fabricio Werdum. UFC 143 is headlined by Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit and will be taking place in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay events center. Befor the welterweights battle it out for the interim title, Jiu-Jitsu fighters with some notable hands will try and take a step up in an ever-growing UFC heavyweight division.

A well-rounded fighter and specimen, Roy Nelson has hammers in his hands and a ground game that is commonly unchallenged. Since winning The Ultimate Fighter Season 10, Nelson has gone 3-2 in the UFC, dropping back-to-back fights to Junior Dos Santos and Frank Mir. Debuting a smaller mid-section, he most recently TKO’d Cro Cop, giving him some job security. He will need to beat Werdum to get back into the top mix again.

Werdum, a Jiu-Jitsu ace, is making his second run in the UFC. He couldn’t make a ground battle in his recent bout with Alistair Overeem, and lost a decision despite finding some success in banging it out with the striker. This follows a shocking win over Fedor Emilienanko which skyrocketed Werdum in rankings. Werdum will have to avoid the power punches of Nelson, and despite not being a wrestler, take advantage of an exposed lack of take-down defense in Nelson’s game.

It is clear that Nelson is more dangerous on the feet, and that Werdum is more dangerous on the ground. It is not like either of them should fear the others strength though; Wedum very well may be able to competitively kick-box with Nelson, and it is also very possible that Nelson could survive with Werdum on the ground. The fight will come down to who implements their style of fighting the most, and whether Werdum can avoid a right-hand bomb from landing on his chin.

If Nelson can make this a brawl of tagging one another, I could see him earning a TKO. If Werdum can use an effective jab, accumulate his own damage on Nelson, take him down in a clinch and out-work him, I could see a decision going his way. It’s an odd fight, and a fairly tough call to make. I will have to side with the man who will more likely finish.

I will go with Nelson and predict that he finishes the fight by TKO in the second round.