Posts with the tag "UFC 84"

OK, this is a little late but still worth going over. The UFC 84 event was absolutely outstanding. The billing was great with fighters such as B.J. Penn, Tito Ortiz, Wanderlei Silva, and Lyoto Machida to name a few. Another bonus was the fact that most of the fights were quick, so we got to see many of the undercard fights.

B.J. Penn once again proved he is the top lightweight fighter in the world. He was able to pick apart Sherk one punch at a time. I still wonder why Sherk didn't try to take down Penn more, I guess he didn't think he could get him to the mat.

Wanderlei Silva again proved he is one of the most dangerous fighters in the mixed martial arts. He absolutely destroyed Keith Jardine who once again looked old and slow. From this point forward, the plan executed first by Houston Alexander and now by Wanderlei Silva will be a blueprint for others to defeat Jardine.

Finally, the fight between Tito Ortiz and Lyoto Machida went exactly as planned. Ortiz's loss will justify the UFC cutting him loose. Machida's performance was lackluster, but he showed how to execute a perfect strategy. The question remains, can the UFC make Machida a star?

In only a few hours, the lightweight title will be decided at UFC 84 "Ill Will." The challenger Sean Sherk will face the champion B.J. Penn in a five round fight. After reading some predictions, there seems to be two different schools of thought on how this fight will take place.

The first line of thinking is that Penn is too explosive and talented for Sherk. Therefore, Penn will win this fight in the first or second round by TKO or submission.

The second line of thinking is that Sherk will be able to wear out Penn and win a decision or eventually get some stoppage.

I tend to lean towards the second line of thinking. Sherk is a conditioning freak and Penn has yet to prove to me that he can go THREE rounds and this is a FIVE round fight. I am picking Sherk to win this fight via decision!

OK, so the fight is only a few hours away and I haven't weighed in with my opinion. I was a little surprised to see most of the experts picking Keith Jardine to defeat Wanderlei Silva. Now I know Jardine was able to defeat Liddell while Silva lost to him, but still I have a feeling that Silva will win this fight.

The only point I can stand on is this. Jardine lost to Houston Alexander who is a very explosive fighter. Sound familiar? Wanderlei Silva is also an explosive fighter, so I expect him to have the same success against Jardine. I think Silva wins the fight via early round knockout.

The Tito Ortiz era in the UFC is coming to an end. A run that started in 1997 will end with a fight against the very talented Lyoto Machida. The UFC had a couple of options with Ortiz, but ultimately decided to gamble on using his name to promote another fighter.

By showing the Tito Ortiz fight, the UFC will be exposing Lyoto Machida to a slew of new fans. However, the UFC is gambling that Machida will win the fight. With a win, Machida potentially becomes a superstar and simultaneously tears down Ortiz's value on the free agent market.

This scenario has the potential to backfire on the UFC. If Ortiz can find a way to win the fight, the UFC loses a star in Ortiz and hands Machida his first loss. Expect Machida to want to strike and Ortiz to take the fight to the mat. I believe Machida wins this fight by stuffing Ortiz's takedown attempts and pulling out the decision.

This may sound like a broken record, but Antonio Mendes will be making his debut at UFC 84. Including Mendes that will be 6 fighters new to the octagon! His opponent will be Thiago Silva who brings a perfect 11-0 record to the fight.

Silva last fought at UFC 78 where he dominated Houston Alexander. Now, he looks to make the jump to contender with a quality win.

A quality win may be a stretch as I have not heard of Mendes before. I took a lookk at his UFC profile and started laughing out loud. These three questions and answers were my favorite:

• Do you have any heroes? No
• Did you go to college and if so what degree did you earn? Yes
• What was your job before you started fighting? Prison guard

So, by my account he doesn't look up to anybody, he went to college but didn't have a degree and finally he earned a living watching criminals. Sounds like a tough dude, but we will see this weekend. I expect the hard hitting Thiago Silva to win this fight, most likely by TKO.

UFC 84 is already less than a week away. With the UFC cutting contracts left and right, don't be surprised to see the UFC cut any fighters that don't perform. Here are the under card fights for UFC 84:

Ivan Salaverry vs. Rousimar Palhares - Right off the bat, we have a seasoned veteran in Salaverry taking on a newcomer Palhares. Salaverry finds himself in desperate need of a victory to stay in the UFC. With his age and recent losing streak, the UFC needs a new reason to keep him on the roster. I expect Palhares to win this fight.

Rameau Sokoudjou vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura - With all the hype surrounding Sokoudjou, he better win this fight. His two consecutive losses have raised some concerns, but I expect him to finish Nakamura. With a loss, Nakamura is another fighter that may be on the way out of the UFC.

Rich Clementi vs. Terry Etim - Clementi continues to get "No Love" as he is once again on the under card. He is currently riding a three fight win streak with wins over Sam Stout and Melvin Guillard. Etim is good young talent, but this is an extremely tough matchup for him. Expect Clementi to overpower the younger Etim and win by submission.

Jon Koppenhaver vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida - Yosida by submission.

Jason Tan vs. Dong Hyun Kim - Tan buy TKO.

Christian Wellisch vs. Shane Carwin - Carwin by decision.