by Chris Asbrock

Bellator kicked off the weekend with a “freak show” card that featured Shamrock/Gracie 3 and Kimbo Slice taking on his longtime nemesis Dada 5000. As bad as the last two fights were, the night was still a success for Scott Coker and Bellator. There were a lot of eyes that were focused on Bellator and the first part of the card was solid. What occurred in the in co-main event between Dada 5000 and Kimbo Slice shows the downside of the so-called freak show cards that Bellator has been known to put on.

A lot of the credit goes to Bellator and Spike TV analyst, Jimmy Smith, for the way he handled calling that fight. From the middle of round one to the finish in round three, both fighters were completely gassed. The fact this fight went into the third round is a miracle in and of itself. Both fighters were throwing weakened and embarrassing punches. The fight ended when Dada 5000 stumbled and ate canvas after taking a flurry of weak punches from Slice. As bad as the fight was, there was a serious problem at the end of the fight. Dada 5000 suffered serious dehydration and reported kidney failure and was hospitalized overnight.

The much anticipated trilogy fight between MMA legends Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock certainly ended like many expected, with a thud. The expectation of a great fight between two men, who have a combined age of 101, was certainly not there. There were only 13 total strikes that were landed in this fight with only one takedown. Let’s make it clear that this fight card had three solid fights before the gong show took the stage. The main card saw Emmanuel Sanchez defeat Daniel Pineda via split decision. A dominant knockout win by Derek Campos over UFC veteran Melvin Guillard followed on the main card. The last of the three solid fights saw Linton Vassell avenge his loss to Emanuel Newton with a unanimous decision victory.

The UFC wraps up a great weekend of fights with a solid fight card from Pittsburgh featuring a battle between the original Cowboy, Donald Cerrone and the new cowboy, Alex Oliveira. Once again, the UFC is rolling out a great fight card, early in 2016. This card is loaded with big names and solid fighters. One fight to watch is Cody Garbrandt taking on Augusto Mendes. The striking of Garbrandt is something you want to watch. If this fight gets to the ground, Mendes has the advantage with his superior Jui-jitsu. The main event is one you will not want to miss as Cowboy Cerrone is moving up a weight class to take on Cowboy Oliveira. Cerrone is coming off a loss to Rafael dos Anjos in his last fight. This should be a great fight but look for Cerrone to come away with the victory.

Now lets take a look at the picks for tonight’s UFC Fight Night 83 main card.

Shane Campbell (12-3) vs James Krause (22-7)

Pick: Campbell

Joe Riggs (41-16) vs Chris Camozzi (22-10)

Pick: Riggs

Dennis Bermudez (15-5) vs Tatsuya Kawajiri (35-8-2)

Pick: Bermudez

Cody Garbrandt (7-0) vs Augusto Mendes (5-0)

Pick: Garbrandt

Derek Brunson (14-3) vs Roan Carneiro (20-9)

Pick: Brunson

Donald Cerrone (28-7) vs Alex Oliveira (13-2-1)

Pick: Cerrone

Chris Asbrock is a staff writer and analyst for FTI Sports and can be followed on Twitter  and