Thursday, September 23, 2010

Preview: UFC119

UFC 119
Though the main event, it not being a championship match or #1 contender status, does not have as much relevance as these past couple of UFC events, the Main Card is filled with some pretty cool, potentially exciting fights.
The main event fight, to me, seems a little bit of a mismatch, considering the difference in weight and caliber of recent opponents. It's still a fight I want to see. Maybe Cro Cop will walk in there, stalk Frank Mir, stuff a couple of take downs here and there and pick him apart until he either sends him to the hospital or the cemetery, depending on his mood. More than likely, he's going to get out boxed and/or out grappled and finished within the first 2 rounds by Frank Mir, but people are allowed to dream, and maybe this is the fight where he finally gives us the awesome head kick KO.
In my opinion, the most interesting and exciting match in the whole card; the Co main event puts up-and-comer Ryan Bader against an established top level fighter in Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. The fight could go either way. Lil' nog has pretty crisp boxing and his last name is Nogueira, so I'm pretty sure he's a whiz on the ground. Bader has heavy hands and power wrestling. Due to Nogueira's performance against Jason Brilz and how dominant Bader has shown to be against all his previous opponents, including Keith Jardine, I say Bader takes it. He's young blood and seems to have the tools to make Nogueira another stepping stone but it should be a pretty competitive fight.
Chris Lytle and Matt Serra, both with solid ground skills and a knack for throwing haymakers, are scheduled to duke it out as the third fight of the night. Matt Serra, after losing to Hughes, got himself a win over Frank Trigg and is out to prove he's still a top 170-pounder. Chris Lytle, though he's lost most his fights against top fighters including Koscheck and Alves, he always puts on a show and didn't seem too outmatched by either of the contenders. Though I think Matt Serra will walk away the winner thanks to his big overhand right, Chris Lytle has the boxing skills and reach advantage to make it his fight.
Another battle between experienced veteran and up-and-comer, Evan Dunham VS Sean Sherk is scheduled to be the second fight of the night. Evan Dunham came out nowhere with his undefeated record, submitted Efrain Escudero and out grappled and out boxed Tyson Griffin. He remains undefeated and looks to add and even bigger name to his win list. Sherk has been missing for like a year and a half now, last seen in his loss to current champ Frankie Edgar. Though Sherk climbed to the top and once held the title at 155, he has recently opted to try and box with whoever's in front of him instead of shooting for the takedown, and has resulted in a couple of losses. With recent releases from top fighters due to losses regardless of an exciting performance and more lightweights climbing up the ranks, Sherk should go back to his wrestling roots and fight to keep his job, even if people think it's boring. I see Dunham using his reach to outbox Sherk and his ground skills to control the ground game for a decision win.
by. Enrique Cabral 

8 comments:

  1. any fight where frank mir loses is a good fight. i hope cro cop mops the floor with him

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  2. Well you probably won't think this fight is good. Cro cop's got good take down defense but mir has been working on his wrestling. Even if cro cop manages to keep it a stand up affair, mir has outstruck a kickboxer of the same caliber as cro cop in kongo. I just don't see how cro cop beats mir, let alone mops the floor with him.

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  3. I just wanna see ryan bader against the the master of disaster Johnny Bones Jones!!!

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  4. That'd be a bad ass fight but I want to see them establish themselves against the guys already at the top. Bader already took out jardine and has taken the next step against lil' nog. Jones needs to take on a top ten guy already. I've been saying Franklin forever but forrest or t. Silva will do. I just want to see how dominant he is against the next level of fighters.

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  5. Depending how this fight with Bader goes it will determine who the next fight will be for Bader. Lets take a look at the options: 1) Jon Jones- Depending on how quick Bader Defeats Nogi will determine if Bader is fresh enough to take that challenge. 2) Lets take a look at the other 205'ers We have a couple depending on when they are ready to fight we have Forrest Griffin we also have Thiago Silva now me personally I would love to see Forrest against Jones and T. Silva against Bader but I think it would be a fair fight since both Forrest and T. Silva have been out for a while so it would make more since to put Jones against none other than the Randy The Natural and have the winner between that fight fight against the winner between Bader and Nogi. And then from that fight have the winner fight the winner of Machida Vs Rampage. then of course by then have the number ONE contender.

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  6. With Shogun/rashad scheduled for may and machida/rampage for the end of November, someone needs to come out as the clear cut opponent for machida for the next crack at the champ, you know, when he disposes of rampage. With a win over lil' nog, bader would be the obvious candidate. With Franklin and forrest out due to injury and no return date, that just leaves Jones. Thinking about it, I guess bader/jones really is the next logical step. Randy's win over vera doesn't really put him anywhere close to contention and t. Silva is coming off a loss, so I wanna see him against brilz. Brilz needs to start fighting better competition and we'll see whether silva has developed an answer to strong wrestling. Light heavies are the best.

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  7. Man Im so glad i didn't waste time to see this fight. If i'm pissed just reading the comments imagine if I would of actually seen it. What I did see was the co main event and the last round of the main event thanks to MMATKO.COM. Well all I got to say is yes Frank Mir is Really no longer a top HW. TOP HW would be BROCK,CAIN,CARWIN,DOS SANTOS,and FEDOR and maybe ROY NELSON depending on his come back. But Mir was Horrible, Cro Cop should have engaged in some powerful Kicks instead he refused and did nothing to try and win the fight. The only good thing that came out of that fight is that we didn't see Mir celebrate like a jackass cause he himself knew that was a lackluster performance. Now the CO main event was a little better. Now seeing the performance of Bader against a well balance fighter I noticed that Jon Jones would destroy Bader. Even though Jones hasn't really fought top competition I think he would Destroy Bader. Reason being is Jones will expose Bader and beat him at his own game which of course is the Wrestling or he might just finish him in the stand up who knows Jones is bad ass at both. But when Jones finally starts fighting the best of the best which are RAMPAGE,MACHIDA,RASHAD,SHOGUN, thats going to really test Mr Bones. Thank God the next UFC is going to be free. Oh and also JOSE ALDO BABY!!!!! and for your MR MachidaforPresident Jose Aldo would Destroy the Light Weight Division. And he will do it as soon as he clears all the 145's I promise you LOL. Alright guys Good Night Have a Safe Sunday

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  8. First of all, I see frankie, Bj, maynard, and ken flo all being able to beat aldo, but that's an argument for another day. Bader beat lil nog. He might not have done it as decisively as expected, but it did show he can win against guys at the top of the division, and shows that maybe there's another lhw prospect in Jason brilz. Jones can dominate b-level fighters, but we've yet to see him in there against someone with the skills to take it to him. I still favor Jones over bader in a fight but mostly cause I like the guy. I don't see him having a clear cut advantage over bader. Jones dominated a very good wrestler in hamill but bader's just as good of a wrestler as Matt hamill, has more power and crisper striking. Let's see how effective Jon Jones is when he knows he's got power to avoid and isn't sure if his takedown will get stuffed. Let's see bader fight against an unorthodox striker who has the ability to out him on his back abstract has proven to he can do it fairly easy against top level wrestlers. Definitely a fight I want to see, and it'll put the winner one fight away from a championship match.

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