Sherdog Pick’Em Trends: UFC on FX 3

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Ian McCall did not battle to a draw with Demetrious Johnson at UFC on FX 2; he just ran out of time.

At least that seems to be the line of thinking among participants in Sherdog.com’s MMA Pick’Em fantasy game, as 76 percent like “Uncle Creepy” to defeat Johnson in the UFC on FX 3 main event at the Bank Atlantic Center in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., on Friday.

McCall ended the first meeting between the two in style, pounding “Mighty Mouse” with strikes and nearly finishing the fight in the waning moments of the third round. A scoring error initially awarded the decision to Johnson, and by the time it was corrected to a majority draw, it was much too late to bring the flyweights back to the cage for a decisive sudden-victory round.

A former Tachi Palace Fights 125-pound champion, McCall had won four consecutive bouts before his scrap with Johnson, earning wins over Jeff Willingham, Jussier da Silva, Dustin Ortiz and Darrell Montague. His only losses have come at the hands of UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz and WEC veteran Charlie Valencia.

Johnson experienced plenty of success as a bantamweight in both the WEC and UFC before falling to Cruz at UFC Live 6 in October. The AMC Pankration representative owns notable victories over Nick Pace, Damacio Page, Norifumi Yamamoto and Miguel Torres.

Other Pick’Em trends for UFC on FX 3:

• Players are intrigued by the potential of Erick Silva, who has been in the Octagon for just 69 seconds in his two fights: a win against Luis Ramos and a controversial disqualification defeat to Carlo Prater. A solid 78 percent have chosen the Brazilian to defeat wrestler Charlie Brenneman in their welterweight clash. Brenneman earned a unanimous decision win over Daniel Roberts in his last outing to improve to 4-2 in UFC appearances;

• In a battle of well-traveled veterans, 65 percent of users are siding with Mike Pyle in his welterweight fight against Josh Neer. Pyle has won four of his last five bouts in the UFC, while Neer has won six straight fights, including two inside the Octagon;

• Eddie Wineland has not been granted any favors since coming to the UFC, and players do not see his luck improving against Scott Jorgensen in a bantamweight scrap. A lopsided 85 percent of participants believe Jorgensen will hand the former WEC titlist his third consecutive loss inside the Octagon. Wineland’s previous two setbacks came at the hands of Urijah Faber and Joseph Benavidez. Jorgensen, meanwhile, had a two-fight winning streak snapped by Renan Pegado at UFC 143;

• In preliminary bouts, pickers have sided with Mike Pierce (76 percent) over Carlos Eduardo Rocha, Seth Baczynski (82 percent) over Lance Benoist, Leonard Garcia (80 percent) over Matt Grice, Dustin Pague (68 percent) over Jared Papazian, Tim Means (86 percent) over Justin Salas, Caio Magalhaes (69 percent) over Buddy Roberts, Henry Martinez (79 percent) over Bernardo Magalhaes and Sean Pierson (67 percent) over Jake Hecht.