Well, we’ve got a big UFC event coming up this weekend, which means you should all head over to fightpicker.cagepotato.com (or apps.facebook.com/fightpicker) and make your predictions for UFC 116: Lesnar vs. Carwin. Congrats to FightPicker Grandmaster Aaron Rampey for becoming the first player to crack the 10,000 chip mark. Well done, buddy. That’s gonna look awesome on your CV.

Of course, if you had some balls you’d bet actual money on the fights, and not silly-ass "PotatoChips." As usual, we’d like to help you win some cash for Saturday’s event — or at the very least not take heavy losses. Betting lines are below, courtesy of BestFightOdds.com; if you don’t know what this stuff means, read this first.

MAIN CARD
Brock Lesnar (-130) vs. Shane Carwin (+140)
Yoshihiro Akiyama (-200) vs. Chris Leben (+185)
Chris Lytle (-195) vs. Matt Brown (+160)
Krzysztof Soszynski (-218) vs. Stephan Bonnar (+195)
George Sotiropoulos (-195) vs. Kurt Pellegrino (+160)

SPIKE TV PRELIMS
Brendan Schaub (-295) vs. Chris Tuchscherer (+264)
Ricardo Romero (-145) vs. Seth Petruzelli (+120)

PRELIMINARY CARD
Kendall Grove (+145)
Gerald Harris (-245) vs. Dave Branch (+200)
Daniel Roberts (-170) vs. Forrest Petz (+145)
Karlos Vemola (-160) vs. Jon Madsen (+150)

Read on to get that paper…


The Main Event: As long as Carwin is an underdog, he’s worth betting on. I don’t see him getting physically bullied the same way Lesnar’s previous opponents have, and Shane’s notorious punching power has stopped every one of his UFC opponents in the first round. Plus, Lesnar is dealing with a year’s worth of ring rust, due to a rematch with Soszynski). I should warn you that even though you may be unfamiliar with the names Ricardo Romero and Karlos Vemola, they’ve performed like beasts in their pre-UFC careers and are front-runners for good reason.

The Good ‘Dogs: Goran Reljic has only fought once since 2008 — a decision loss to CB Dollaway at UFC 110 — and has never won a fight at middleweight. So I’m not sure why he gets to be the favorite against Kendall Grove. (Remember how good Grove looked against Mark Munoz at UFC 112? You know, before he got his ass kicked?) I’d also point out that Chris Tuchscherer is probably being undervalued at +264. Schaub may be younger and more energetic, but is he really that much more talented than Tuchscherer? I could see the far-more-experienced Tuchscherer using his wrestling and weight advantages to grind Schaub down.

Suggested Wagering Breakdown, Based on a Hypothetical $50 Stake:
– $20 on Carwin
– $10 on Grove
– $5 on Tuchscherer
– $10 parlay on Sotiropoulos, Soszynski, and Harris
– $5 on either Pellegrino, Brown, or Leben

(BG)