Brandon “The Truth” Vera (9-2) and Keith “The Dean of Mean” Jardine (13-5-1) face each other in a fight where both guys are desperate for victories in the stacked 205 pound division. Whoever comes away with the victory may catapult themselves towards the top of the division. Whoever loses…well there screwed.
Keith Jardine’s career is best known for inconsistent performances inside the octagon. He has some very impressive wins, including a three round beat down of former Light Heavyweight Champion Chuck Liddell where he teed off on Chuck’s leg for three rounds, and a dominant performance over current Light Heavyweight Champion Forrest Griffin. The problem with Jardine is that with those great victories comes some horrible loses. He was KO’d by Houston Alexander in less than a minute (he sucks) and then our boy Wanderlei Silva took him out in like 30 seconds (he’s a bad ass though). It is hard to determine why Jardine has been so inconsistent given that he works with the best trainer in the game, Greg Jackson. But when you look at Jardine’s fights he has a habit of being overly aggressive in fights and that makes him vulnerable to the KO. Case in point the Houston Alexander loss and the Wanderlei Silva loss. We have a feeling Greg Jackson is going to clean that up.
Brandon Vera started his career with eight-straight wins at Heavyweight (YES Heavyweight) before dropping two straight to Tim Sylvia and Fabricio Werdum. After the second loss at Heavyweight he dropped to Light Heavyweight where most people felt was his natural weight class. In his first fight at Light Heavyweight he beat unknown Reese Andy, but his performance was very lackluster and had many wondering where the Brandon Vera who knocked out 6 Heavyweights went.
Vera is a very well-rounded fighter with a ton of tools. His Muay Thai skills are flat out ridiculous and his submissions skills are dangerous. If Vera is able to establish the clinch he is going to give Jardine a whole lot of trouble with knees. Jardine has the advantage as the better striker with more overall KO power. On the ground Vera is very tough due to his length, but Jardine rolls around with guys like, Rashad Evans, Georges St.Pierre and Nate Marquardt every day in practice so we give a slight advantage to Jardine on the ground.
We really like Jardine at +150. As long as Jardine can avoid the clinch we don’t see Vera posing many other threats. Hate to keep going back to Greg Jackson but his stables of fighters are a bunch of bad dudes and he is clearly the top trainer in the game. Look for Jackson to draw up a perfect game plan for Jardine to execute.
We are going to bet $600 to win $900. You should too! Bet here.
