Affliction: Banned thoughts, Elite XC, etc.

I wanted to post again and give my thoughts on last weekend's AFFLICTION: BANNED card as well as the UFC Fight Night that aired against it on Spike TV. Overall, I was pretty impressed with the Affliction card. There were a few technical hiccups (occasional dead air, problems with the audio, etc), the musical intro and mid-show performances by Megadeth were a little over the top, but the general quality of the fights was pretty strong. This was the first opportunity I had to see Fedor Emelanenko fight and I was impressed. He is a quiet, but very dangerous man. I expected it to be more of a fight, with the size difference (Tim Sylvia is 6'8 to Fedor's 6'1) and such. However, Fedor walked through him in 36 seconds, dropping him with a couple of fast punches and applying a rear naked choke. The other fight that made an impression on me was the Andrei Arlovski/Ben Rothwell fight. It appears that the old, aggressive Arlovski may be back.

The UFC Fight Night show was interesting as well. CB Dolloway redeemed himself by submitting Jesse "Uno Cerveza Mas!" Taylor with a great little move called the Peruvian Necktie (more on that below) in the first round. Anderson Silva continued his winning ways, even with the change in weight class, quickly knocking out James Irvin in the first round.

Last Monday, went to class to discover that Frank has really taken a liking to the Peruvian Necktie. He taught it to us and then proceeded to catch me in it when we rolled. I tapped pretty quickly but was seeing spots when he released it, so I don't think it was going to be long before I went to sleep if I didn't tap. The next day my neck was quite sore as it is a combination neck crank and carotid squeeze.See below for the Peruvian Necktie demonstrated:

The Affliction:Banned card is really stacked. This should be a very good show. I am pulling for it to be good because having a second legitimate federation/competition for the UFC will only be good for the sport. My picks are below:

Fedor vs. Sylvia- I pick Fedor to continue his winning ways in this one, KO, round 1 or 2
Barnett vs. Rizzo- Barnett by submission, round 2
Rothwell vs. Arloski- Arloski by KO/TKO, round 1
Lindland vs. Negao- Lindland by submission, round 2
Whitehead vs. Babalu-Babalu by submission, round 1

I will be interested to see if my picks are anything close to accurate

As for the competing UFC free card...

I am predicting Henderson to pull an upset and beat Anderson Silva
I am also picking CB Dolloway over Jesse Taylor