Rameau Sokoudjou vs. Luiz Cane
This will be a war between two talented light heavyweights that should not go the distance. This is a tough one to call, as one of them will be knocked out and it could go either way.
Rameau “The African Assassin” Sokoudjou (5-2) looked to be a force in the UFC coming from Pride, where he performed very well. His biggest victory to date was a huge upset win over Antonio Rogerio Noguera with a 23 second knock out. Sokoudjou is extremely strong, immensely powerful and likes to strike with his opponents. He is a Muay Thai practitioner and has a background in Judo, where he was the 2001 U.S. Open Judo champion. In his UFC debut he was outclassed by Lyoto Machida courtesy of an arm triangle. He then rebounded at UFC 84 with a TKO over Kazuhiro Nakamura.
Luiz “Banha” Cane (8-1) is a talented Brazilian Jiu Jitsu fighter. Cane is no stranger to talking trash about his opponents, looking to get into their heads. He comes into to each fight with a KO in mind. He loves to throw his fists and is very aggressive. Not one of his fights has gone past the first round. His only blemish on his record came by a disqualification over James Irvin, where he tried to smash his face in, with an illegal knee while Irvin was down. Cane shows no mercy in the Octagon and loves to dictate the pace of the fight.
I feel Sokoudjou is stronger than Cane, and will show the fans and the UFC why he was brought here. This fight will not go to the ground and will end with Sokoudjou landing too many clean punches and kicks, ending with a secound round TKO.
More details on this event can be found at our UFC 89 predictions page or for odds visit the UFC 89 odds page.
