UFC 100 Picks - Stephan Bonnar vs. Mark Coleman

Mark Coleman is an aging man by society’s everyday standards, but by MMA standards, he’s practically ancient. Yet like any former elite fighter and anyone who takes pride in their profession, Coleman reminds confident, even borderline cocky.

The 44-year-old grandfather of the ground-and-pound style has said recently that his style matches up well with light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida even as most think even the elite, younger fighters in Coleman’s weight class have little shot at beating him.

Coleman will need that swagger in his UFC 100 fight against Stephan Bonnar, as he is a +250 to -350 underdog to the former Ultimate Fighter TV show star from the first season.

Bonnar is a solid all-around fighter but he looked ragged in his last loss against Jon Jones. He also looked pretty slow, which is good news for Coleman as athletic fighters are his biggest nemesis at this point in his career.

Coleman actually did fairly well against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and stayed in the fight until the end, but in his post-fight interview he looked absolutely exhausted to the point where it seemed he may never want to fight again. That’s what makes this such a tough matchup to predict.

The key will be for Bonnar to keep the fight standing and the out-strike Coleman, and he’s definitely capable of doing that. Bonnar has a solid takedown defense through his training with Xtreme Couture, Randy Couture’s camp, and he also has a 3-inch height advantage on Coleman and a more versatile stand-up game.

Coleman isn’t finished by any stretch, however, and the threat of the takedown will be enough to keep Bonnar from committing himself too much to landing the big knockout blow.

Expect this UFC 100 fight to be a long, drawn-out affair that could come to a decision at the end. With Bonnar’s ability to score points using his range, leg kicks and speed advantage, as well as his superior overall jiu-jitsu skills, it seems as though Bonnar has the edge over Coleman as the favorite in this one.

Throw in the motivation factor for Bonnar after he was embarrassed by Jones and it looks like Bonnar will be the one with his hand raised at the end of the night on Saturday with a decision victory to add to his resume over a true MMA all-time great.