The Ultimate Fighter 21 Finale: Ellenberger vs. Thompson

Between Invicta on Thursday, UFC 189 on Saturday and then the TUF finale on Sunday, there are alot of fights packed into a weekend.  Ladies and gentlemen we need to be serious for second.  By the time McGregor has dispatched of Mendes, Stef and Marc have downed about six yard drinks each, Phil has had his share of birthday celebrations, and Bobby tries to find another girl who looks like Bellatrix Lestrange, it's going to be the middle night on Sunday with but a few hours before the morning sun peaks over the horizon, signaling the end of a long weekend.  Well at least in a normal weekend because for some reason the UFC has booked another card IN THE SAME CITY less than 16 hours later.  What type of hungover, half empty arena are they expecting these guys to be fighting in front of?  It's as if six months ago due to a clerical error they double booked MGM grand for the 11th and 12th and couldn't get out of the rental and thought "fuck it, we'll just have two cards back to back." The main event should be entertaining and we will be seeing the UFC debut of the former Invicta atomweight champion Michelle "The Karate Hottie" Waterson who already owns a victory over recent title contender Jessica Penne.  I'm making these picks quick and dirty. If you want to hear a break down of the main event, download and listen to our latest podcast.

Jake Ellenberger vs. Stephen Thompson - Ellenberger
Hayder Hassan vs. Kamaru Usman - Hassan
Michael Graves vs. Vicente Luque - Graves
Cezar Ferreira vs. Jorge Masvidal - Masvidal
Angela Magana vs. Michelle Waterson - Waterson
Maximo Blanco vs. Mike De La Torre - De La Torre

UFC Fight Night: Jedrzejczyk AKA "Champion" v. Penne Predictions

The UFC returns to Germany with a Fight Pass card headlined by a championship fight for the first time in the online service's history. The main event has UFC Women's Strawweight Champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk taking on former Invicta Atomweight Champion Jessica Penne. The co-feature is a bout between Tatsuya Kawajiri and Dennis Siver at 145 lbs. The rest of the card...is not great. Regardless, check out our picks.

Via the champ's Twitter account. Other fighters take note.
This is taking your trash talk to the next level looks like. 

UFC Strawweight
Joanna Jedrzejczyk v. Jessica Penne

The first UFC Fight Pass event with a title fight will showcase the UFC's first ever Women's Strawweight Champion. Joanna Jedrzejczyk AKA Joanna Champion (of both the UFC and my heart) will defend her title against Jessica Penne. This past March at UFC 185 we saw Champion (hell yes I'm calling her that) become the star of a PPV that included Anthony Pettis, Johnny Hendricks and Alistair Overeem. She did this with her hilarious pre-fight trash talk and intense staredowns. Oh, she also beat the crap out of the defending champion, Carla Esparza. This is a tall task for Jessica Penne to overcome. In you're an inferior striker, beating Champion likely depends entirely on your ability to take the fight to the ground. If Esparza couldn't get Joanna down, it's hard to imagine that Penne will be able to. I think Jedrzejczyk will light Penne up like a Christmas tree and the fight will be over within 7 minutes. Then again, I picked Cain to beat Werdum so what do I know? Jedrzejczyk by 2nd round KO.

Jedrzejczyk: All of us
Penne: