...As in Down Under! What were you thinking? The UFC® hits Australia for the first time ever on Saturday, February 20, with the venue being the Acer Arena, and as per usual, the card will also roll live on Pay-Per-View. Big Island? You bet. Big Venue? For sure. Big Card? Big Time! Let's break it down...
Cain Velasquez (7-0-0) versus Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira (32-5-1)
This is a fight with serious heavyweight title ramifications. Everyone that follows MMA knows the back story here; the former champion ("Minotauro") trying to get back to being a champion against the dynamic, explosive and undefeated newcomer in Velasquez. Velasquez seems to have it all. His boxing is excellent. His cardio may just be superhuman. He has wicked, come-from-nowhere kicks (especially to the body) and his wrestling pedigree is unquestionable; like 2-time All-American, 2-Time Pac 10 and 1-time JUCO champion. How's that for ground game! Nogueira, on the other hand, looked sharper, faster and more athletic than one can remember in his last outing, which was a dominant victory against Randy "The Natural" Couture. And remember, Couture is one badass wrestler himself, and proved since that defeat that he's still a force to be reckoned with. However, on his best day, in his best shape, "Minotauro" is not the athlete that Velasquez is. With his world-class Jiu-Jitsu skills, I would call the ground game even against Cain's wrestling and physical prowess. The edge that Nogueira does have is simply "Been there done that." Velasquez has fought two names in Cheick Kongo and Ben Rothwell, and he done kicked both da asses! "Minotauro" is the opposite. This guy's resume looks like a who's who of top MMA heavyweights. For Nogueira to win, he has to keep Cain off of him and not let him control the tempo of the fight, and not let him get off early and cause damage. "Minotauro" needs to win some exchanges and get Cain backing up. By the time they go to the ground, he needs to have tired the younger fighter out and not taken too much of a beating himself. So common sense and a bottle of ENDORUSH® says... that ain't going to happen. The only real edge I see Nogueira having here is experience, and you can never underestimate that. However, let's just say almost never. I gotta go with the youngster here; Velasquez wins, and by the end of the fight Nogueira ain't going to be any prettier.
Wanderlei "The Axe Murderer" Silva (32-10-1) against Michael "The Count" Bisping (18-2-0)
The nicknames speak volumes as to how these two fighters' styles contrast. Although they'll both be strong in the stand-up, Silva is a buzz-saw of malice that comes at opponents with reckless abandon. Bisping is the classic "Pick you apart until I knock you out" kickboxer. Here's a little food for thought though: Wanderlei is still a huge draw, but really though, is he still one of the top MMA fighters in the world? He's lost 5 of his last 6 fights. What? That's enough to end most careers. Now he's trying to do what Bisping has already done, which is to drop down to 185, where you think there may be less competition, and maybe you can extend your career. Right, less competition in a weight class where "The Spider" lurks as the king of the MMA world? Anyway, the point is that when you're a balls-to-the-wall, no-hold-barred brawler with suspect defense, long looping punches and you're just a few years older (slower), then this move may not work for you; especially because one of your strengths has always been your knockout power. He's not more powerful when he's 20 pounds lighter! The man never had any body fat to begin with! For Bisping, on the other hand, it makes sense. He's a super-accurate puncher and although he has his share of knockouts, power is not his game. Overall striking ability, sticking to a game plan, and methodically frustrating his opponents is what he does best. This can be done at middleweight just as easily as at light heavyweight. Although I love the fighter that Wanderlei is and how much passion he exudes in every fight, I just see this fight as a tactical nightmare for him. Bisping wins this one.
Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic (25-7-2) takes on Ben Rothwell (30-7-0)
After a loss, a fighter has to ask himself, "What can I do different next time?" In the case of "Cro Cop," he already has. My inside sources tell me that his recent devastating loss to Junior dos Santos was in part due to flying in from Croatia at the last minute and not giving his body time to adjust. We're talking about serious jetlag here... like his body was still at 2:00 AM come fight time and he was falling asleep in the locker room kind of jetlag. So, we do know that he will be in Australia much earlier than his last fight. We also know that he built his own Octagon® and that he has even brought in the conditioning coach for the Croatian national soccer team to increase his stamina. But, back up a second; what's so different about training in a ring versus an Octagon®, you ask? Most of Mirko's success was in PRIDE®... in a ring, which is a totally different beast than an Octagon®. Ask any NFL player that's played in the CFL, which has a longer and wider field, and he'll tell you. When you change the geography, then you have to change the way you do things. Don't count this once-great fighter out. His punches and kicks are still something to be reckoned with. Rothwell is a top-level MMA fighter as well, and will be about 40-50 pounds heavier come fight time. However, I simply think that he's overmatched in this one. "Cro Cop" all the way.
And my two last picks of the night are Ryan "Darth" Bader (10-0-0) over Keith "The Dean of Mean" Jardine (15-6-1) and although this will be, by far, his toughest test, Krzysztof "The Polish Experiment" Soszynski (18-9-1) defeats Stephan "The American Psycho" Bonnar (11-6-0).
Okay, one more pick and that's it. This one is too easy; Joe "Daddy" Stevenson (31-10-0) gives George Sotiropoulos (11-2-0) a worse beating than George's first grade teacher gave his last name.
That's it. I'm out... enjoy the show. Thanks for reading and supporting and as always, have a powerful day!
Posted at 10:36 pm
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