UFC 98 is this Saturday night on PPV. It features UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Rashad Evans (13-0-1 MMA, 8-0-1 UFC) vs Lyoto Machida (14-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC). This will be the first title defense for Evans since he won the belt after defeating Forrest Griffin in December. Evans was the winner of the 2nd season of The Ultimate Fighter and has wins over Tito Ortiz, Forrest Griffin, Chuck Liddell, and Michael Bisping. Machida has wins over B.J. Penn, Rich Franklin, Stephan Bonnar, Tito Ortiz, and Thiago Silva. Machida's karate style has yet to be solved by one of his opponents. This will be the first time in UFC history that a title fight will be decided by two undefeated fighters.
The nights co-main event features the long over due grudge match between the coaches of the 7th season of The Ultimate Fighter as former UFC Welterweight Champion Matt Serra (9-5 MMA, 6-5 UFC) faces former UFC Welterweight Champion Matt Hughes (42-7 MMA, 15-5 UFC). This fight was supposed to go down at UFC 79, but injuries to both fighters postponed the fight. This will be Sera's first fight since losing the title to GSP in April of 2008. Hughes has lost his last two fights when he was defeated by GSP and Thiago Alves. These two fighters truly dislike each other so that may make for a great fight.
Here are the point values and betting lines from the Venetian:
(22pts) Rashad Evans (+160) v. (18pts) Lyoto Machida (-190)
(12pts) Matt Serra (+210) v. (7pts) Matt Hughes (-270)
(5pts) Drew McFedries (-115) v. (5pts) Xavier Foupa-Pokam (-115)
(5pts) Chael Sonnen (+140) v. (4pts) Dan Miller (-170)
(5pts) Frank Edgar (+180) v. (3pts) Sean Sherk (-220)
(2pts) Chris Wilson (+150) v. (1pt) Brock Larson (-180)
(2pts) Tim Hague (+220) v. (1pt) Pat Barry (-300)
(3pts) Kyle Bradley (+300) v. (1pt) Phillipe Nover (-400)
(1pt) Andre Gusmao (+120) v. (1pt) Krzysztof Soszynski (-150)
(3pts) Brandon Wolff (+300) v. (1pt) Hidehiko Yoshida (-400)
(1pt) David Kaplan (-105) v. (1pt) George Roop (-125)
-the full fight card
-Machida discusses his unique style
-Evans talks about the changes he has made in preparation for his first title defense
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