polyh3dron
Banned
This is one of the most stacked cards top to bottom that the UFC has put on in a very very long time, regardless of what you may think of the main event participants. Since the above poster was made, Thiago Alves vs. Jon Fitch was confirmed and this will now be the co-main event. The odd thing about this card is how stacked the prelim half of it is, and how Spike TV will not be showing any prelims for this event. :/ Without further ado, here's the card:
UFC Middleweight Championship Bout
Chael Sonnen has looked great in his last two fights both of which he was a HUGE underdog in. He dominated Yushin Okami and Nate Marquardt consecutively and both fighters were considered top contenders in the middleweight division. He is probably the strongest wrestler in the division now that Jake Shields is at welterweight and the only other high caliber wrestler to face Silva (Dan Henderson) came to be too dependent on his heavy hands, letting his wrestling deteriorate like we saw in the Henderson/Shields fight on CBS.
Many people don't give Sonnen a chance against Silva, who has won every UFC fight he has been in. The reality is that this is a type of challenge Silva has never faced, and time and time again lately we have seen seemingly invincible fighters all of a sudden get dominated and sometimes humiliated to the point of looking like an amateur by a good wrestler. A few times in interviews when Silva was asked what he was doing to prepare for Sonnen's takedowns he touted his training with NCAA Div 1 champ turned UFC Fighter Mark Muñoz as being sufficient preparation. Anyone who saw Muñoz fight Yushin Okami last Sunday is probably laughing at that.
Having said all this, Silva could still end up stuffing Chael's takedowns and give us a spectacular KO, some awesome clinch work due to him wanting to get close or just simply a grueling 5 round decision where Sonnen gets outstruck and bloodied to a pulp. The bottom line here is that Sonnen has much more of a chance than most people are giving him and I have Sonnen winning this fight by a dominant decision.
This fight was supposed to happen back in March at UFC 111 but an irregular growth in Alves' brain was spotted by the New Jersey Athletic Commission during the physical examination which made him unable to compete. Luckily the doctors were able to remove the growth without invasive surgery and here they are 5 months later, battling for a title shot against the winner of the Ultimate Fighter Season 12 coaches Georges St. Pierre and Josh Koscheck. Alves hasn't fought since UFC 100 over a year ago when he was dominated by GSP and Fitch has been fighting mostly unworthy competition since his fight against GSP beating Akihiro Gono, Paulo Thiago (yeah he was worthy), Mike Pierce and Ben Saunders. This fight is of course a rematch of an unaired prelim on a Spike Fight Night card from 4 years ago and both fighters have come a long way since their first encounter. Either Fitch will dominate Alves like GSP did, or Alves' improved takedown defense since their first fight will be enough to keep the fight on the feet long enough for him to either get the KO or outstrike Fitch.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that Alves will stuff the takedown enough times and get enough strikes in to take 2 rounds.
Alves by decision because Fitch is damn near impossible to finish.
Can't really think of anything to say about this fight, but I've got Dos Anjos by sub. If Huerta can sub Guida then so can Dos Anjos. Should be a very entertaining fight though. Guida will do his whole high energy thing and it'll probably be an entertaining grappling match.
Here we go with the whole YOU DEFEATED MY MASTERS NOW I MUST AVENGE THEM thing. My pick: Almeida via being younger.
FUUUUUCK YES. Possibly the most interesting matchup on the main card. One one hand you have the wrecking machine that is Junior Dos Santos. The dude has had the toughest list of challengers out of anyone in the upper echelon of the UFC Heavyweight Division. His first fight in the UFC was against Fabricio Werdum, who admittedly was overweight, undertrained and unmotivated for his fight with JDS due to being excluded from Dana White's mini HW title tournament and due to the fact that he saw JDS as an unworthy opponent. JDS was a HUGE underdog in this fight but knocked Werdum out with an insane uppercut that had Werdum leaving the UFC afterwards. Since then JDS has stopped Stefan Struve, Cro Cop, Gilbert Yvel and Gabriel Gonzaga all via brutal punches. The dude is a fucking BEAST.
On the other hand is the man with the moon for a belly, Former IFL Heavyweight Champ Roy "Big Country" Nelson. The guy was a pompous douchebag on the Ultimate Fighter 10 season who turned in some boring (yet dominating and effective) performances up until the spectacular knockout over Brendan Schaub in the live finale. After that he KO'd Stefan Struve which got him this huge step up in competition.
If Roy knows what's good for him (he does), he's going to take this fight to the ground quickly against Junior Dos Santos. We haven't really seen what JDS is capable of on the ground because the only guy in the UFC he fought that would have been a threat to him on the ground (Werdum) didn't last long enough to get him there. Therefore IMO this fight will boil down to either how good JDS can defend Nelson's great takedowns from the clinch, or how good he can fight off of his back. To see how good Nelson is on the ground, check out his fight against Arlovski in EliteXC. The only reason Nelson lost that fight was because the idiotic referee was so quick to stand them up. Roy Nelson has a great ground game and we're about to see how good JDS's is.
Picking a winner in this fight is a real crapshoot but I'm gonna go with my boy JDS via KO. I wouldn't be surprised if Roy got a dominating decision or a sub though.
The winner of this fight will fight the winner of the fight between Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez for the UFC Heavweight Championship.
The prelims are ridiculously stacked too:
Welterweight bout: Dustin Hazelett vs. Rick Story
Light Heavyweight bout: Phil Davis vs. Rodney Wallace
Light Heavyweight bout: Tim Boetsch vs. Todd Brown
Welterweight bout: Johnny Hendricks vs. Charlie Brenneman
Heavyweight bout: Stefan Struve vs. Christian Morecraft
Welterweight bout: Ben Saunders vs. Dennis Hallman
I doubt we'll see many of these prelims make the broadcast because I see at least 3 of the main card fights going to decision.
I don't know WTF Spike is thinking by not opting to show prelims live for this event. They're fucking nuts.
