Marco Alvan (Team Link head coach) - "To pick dos Santos as the favorite is stuff for fans or people who don't follow the sport. Gonzaga is the better athlete overall. Who will win? Inside the Octagon we'll know. For Gonzaga, being doubted is one more motivation for him to give his best performance ever. We're training in the mountains of Utah and he's going to knock dos Santos out."

Gabriel Gonzaga - "My victory would be the ideal move towards what I want, the title shot. Getting close to it pumps me up. I've been training since 2001 and I'm not afraid of trading strikes with anyone on this planet. Although I have much more experience on the ground, I don't underestimate him there. Man, let's play and see who hits harder and has the best submissions."

-- Gabriel Gonzaga is energized for another title run.

HT: ufc.com

Unlike most weekends in which mixed martial arts action is rampant on Friday and Saturday nights, this weekend will provide us with a slight change as Sunday evening will be thrust into the spotlight as both the UFC and DREAM promote events. Only the hardest of the hardcore fans will sit through both events as DREAM 13 will begin in the early hours of Monday morning, but UFC fans who have access to Versus will surely tune-in for the intriguing card that will take place at the 1st Bank Center in Broomfield, Colorado.

The card will be headlined by a light heavyweight battle between rising prospect Jon Jones and long-time UFC veteran Brandon Vera, but it'll also spotlight a potentially crucial heavyweight showdown between the surging Junior Dos Santos and the formidable Gabriel Gonzaga. Before we delve deep into the relevant battles at the top of the card, let's take a closer look at the laundry list of battles that may potentially make the broadcast on Sunday evening.

Headlining the preliminary card, Chicago's Clay "The Carpenter" Guida (25-11, 5-5 UFC) will bring his intense pace and conditioning into a lightweight clash with San Diego-native Shannon Gugerty (12-4, 2-2 UFC). Guida enters the contest riding a two-fight losing streak as he dropped a split decision to Diego Sanchez at The Ultimate Figher IX Finale and was choked out by Kenny Florian at UFC 107. Gugerty is also coming off some misfortune as he was submitted by Britain's Terry Etim at UFC 105.

Gugerty will need to rely heavily on his submission skills if Guida intends to use his pace and wrestling to smother him, but there is an outside chance that Gugerty could use the stand-up game to his advantage. Guida has consistently talked about his improving striking game, but the results of that training have never come to fruition in the Octagon. If Gugerty can put together a technical gameplan standing and maintain his feet, there is a slim chance he could pull out a victory. Unfortunately, I'm not on that side of the argument. Gugerty, while having a chance with his guillotine choke, will likely succumb to Guida's grit and heart in this one.

  Belarussian fighter and former IFL champion Vladimir "The Janitor" Matyushenko (23-4, 4-2 UFC) will battle The Ultimate Fighter Season 8 alum Eliot Marshall (8-1, 3-0 UFC) in a light heavyweight contest that will put the undefeated Marshall in a position to vault himself into the upper-tier of the division with a win. Marshall is entering the contest after wins over Jason Brilz, Vinicius Magalhaes, and Jules Bruchez. Matyushenko was scheduled to face Steve Cantwell at UFC 108, but Cantwell suffered an injury that caused the bout to be cancelled. His last win was over Team CroCop member Igor Pokrajac at UFC 103.

This won't be an easy fight for either fighter. Marshall's height and reach will be problematic for Matyushenko's striking, but Matyushenko has also shown some visible improvement in his stand-up game in his last couple of fights. While he still hasn't shown true knockout power, he has shown improved accuracy and the ability to land combinations consistently, which will be useful if he can get past the length of Marshall.

On the floor, Marshall's length will be a positive asset in his arsenal coupled with his Brazilian jiu-jitsu prowess, but Matyushenko has rolled with some of the best in the world and came out unscathed. His wrestling and strength will be formidable, but age becomes a huge factor when a 29 year old battles a 39 year old. Can Marshall overpower "The Janitor"? I'm inclined to believe Matyushenko wins here, but Marshall might not be a bad underdog bet.

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Over the weekend of April 10, Tiger Woods will return to golf for the Masters.  I'm not going to waste anyone's time here with analysis of Tiger's situation, but needless to say this will be among the most-watched golf tournaments in the modern history of Golf.  The media attention on Tiger will be obscene, which begs the question: will the mainstream press pay any attention to UFC 112?  Over at MMA Payout, Kelsey Philpott had these thoughts:

Just about every media outlet in the world is going to be focused on the Master’s from April 8th to 11th, which means that the UFC’s first event in Abu Dhabi and first ever outdoor event will be fighting for casual sports press table scraps. Tiger is also likely to dominate the news in the days leading up to his event, which happens to be the crucial promotional period of fight week for the UFC.

I don't believe Tiger's return will have much of an effect, though it could provide a convenient excuse for a weak number.  As Kelsey says, the demographic crossover between golf and MMA is very small.  I'd be shocked if it's over 3%, and it's not as if the events are really going head to head.

Further, the mainstream sports press (read: ESPN) has never given any time to BJ Penn or Anderson Silva.  I think BJ's had more airtime on CNN than SportsCenter.  For whatever reason, the executives at ESPN have a list of guys they are willing to cover, and that list does not include Anderson Silva or BJ Penn.  At least not yet.

I've always been skeptical of the argument that getting on SportsCenter or achieving some level of mainstream television coverage does much for buyrates.  UFC 109 had a lot more mainstream coverage than UFC 107, but UFC 107 reportedly did almost double the number of buys.  I think that realistically the UFC is drawing its buys from a pool of a few million fans that are well aware of what's going on, and whether or not the main event stars end up on SportsCenter has little effect on whether those fans buy a show. 

If the UFC was on free television, mainstream coverage and exposure might make a bigger difference, but I don't believe casual sports fans decide to drop 50 dollars on Saturday night based on a television segment.  I've seen no evidence to sustain that belief; in fact, the evidence appears to point to no correlation at all.  UFC 92, which had virtually no mainstream coverage, actually did a higher number than UFC 91, which had a monstrous amount of mainstream coverage.  Similarly, UFC 71 had more mainstream coverage than ever before at the time, but still fell far short of the Tito-Chuck record at the time.

Regular, meaningful coverage of the UFC on ESPN would certainly help grow the fanbase, but a few segments the week of a fight appears to make little to no difference in the buyrate.  On the week of UFC 112, there will be very little media coverage for the show, and not just because of Tiger Woods.  Unless the UFC is flying reporters out to the UAE, it's hard to believe many outlets will pay for flights to send their reporters Abu Dhabi.  With little media coverage in the states and a show on a bad tape delay, this show will really test the drawing power of the UFC's champions.

A few updates on what's been going on in the MMA Twittersphere.

TWAINING TO BREAK SOME "BONES"

"Just found out I weigh 221lbs and I have 6% body fat.. feeling like Spider-man"  -Jon Jones

"Thank you to everyone following me... about 7 days and a couple of hours left and it's my last night here in Big Bear. Sad, but, not really lol. Excited to get off the mountain and get to Denver. Have a good night and God bless... Take care of you and yours... In SD just finished my first session... one more later on tonight. Then, headed to Denver bukas!! It's about time T minus 6days and couple of hrs!!!!"  -Brandon Vera, "Bukas" means tomorrow.

"just when i feel like i am progressing with my athleticism and explosiveness, i get a reality check from @philmrwonderful.. thanks"  -Joey Beltran

"just got done with workout #3 today, feeling like a Meast(mexican beast) with 8 weeks to go"  -Joey Beltran, 'meast'?? that made up word is almost as lame as 'twaining'!

"gettin the a.m training session with vera! He's lookin good and ready to create an upset!!"  -Dominick Cruz

"My Brandon Vera Blog is up! http://bit.ly/b6Cojs"  -Tracy Lee, Vera, Mr. Wonderful, and the rest of the guys from Alliance, training at high altitude.

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