The UFC returns Saturday October 8th,2011 from Houston, Texas for UFC 136. The card is headlined by two title fights as the Lightweight and Featherweight Championships are on the line, as well as a number one contenders bout in the Middleweight devision.
Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar and challenger Grey Maynard will look to settle their score after battling to a unanimous draw back in January of 2011. The Lightweight Championship fight will be rounds 6-10 and will be the third fight between the two.
In order to understand the importance of Saturday's fight, we must look back to UFC 125 which featured the epic second encounter between both men.
Round one was a scary moment for Edgar as he was dropped four times by Maynard and looked as if he was going to lose his championship in embarrassing fashion. The fight came dangerously close to being stopped and when the bell finally rang signaling the end of the round, Edgar was bloody bruised and chicken legged heading back to his corner. If there was ever a 10-8 round, this was it as Maynard absolutely dominated the champion for the entire five minutes.
Watching the fight live, it was amazing that Edgar was able to survive after the bombs that Maynard landed on him. What was even more amazing, was how Edgar was able to recover so well heading into round two. Coupled with the adrenaline dump suffered by Maynard, Edgar came out looking like the fresher fighter. Frankie was light on his feet and even managed a big slam to win the round 10-9.
Round 3-5 were so close that no matter who you speak to you will garner a different view on the outcome. This is evident when the judges that night handed in their scorecards and all three had different results. The scores read were 48-46 Maynard, 48-46 Edgar and 47-47 resulting in a split draw.
Despite the anti-climatic ending, the second battle between these two was without a doubt the fight of the year. Both fighters and fans alike wanted to see an immediate rematch and the UFC granted these wishes, which will culminate this Saturday at UFC 136.
As I watched the promotional videos leading up to the fight, there was one thing which stuck out to me and that was how vastly different the demeanors of both fighters are. For Edgar, he is proud of his performance taking January's bout as a moral victory, and for good reason. Edgar overcame great odds and was able to do enough to beat Maynard in his own mind even after that hellacious first round.
For Maynard, he is treating the fight as a loss and seems to have a chip on his shoulder, also for good reason. Despite believing in his own mind he won, he still does not possess the championship belt he deeply covets.
It is impossible to predict what will happen when these two collide together again in the Octagon. The booking odds say Maynard will come out victorious since he is the much bigger fighter who already holds a victory over Edgar from their first fight back in 2008.
Edgar however, relishes the role of the underdog and is the champion for a reason. Not a single person gave him a chance to beat B.J. Penn and he did so to win the Lightweight Championship. Then afterwards in the rematch with Penn, he thoroughly dominated him again, proving the first fight was not a fluke and that he was for real. The odds finally seemed to be in Edgar's favor until that hook in the first round landed from Maynard, and Edgar had to once again prove himself during the duration of the bout.
I expect the third fight to be a classic just like the second but with a winner emerging victorious. In order for Maynard to win the belt, he needs to remain calm and accurate for the span of the fight. I trust Maynard will look to make this a dirtier, grimier wrestling based fight since he is the much bigger man entering the cage and has outstanding grappling credentials. Maynard is nicknamed “The Bully” because of his ability to dictate where the fight ends up and his impeccable ground and pound skills. This game plan worked in the first fight, and I fully count on Maynard revisiting his wrestling in the trilogy fight and becoming a bully inside of the cage.
For the champ, Edgar needs to make sure his wrestling is crisp and better then ever to keep this fight on the feet. Edgar wants to turn this into a boxing bout and use his footwork to score points since he is the much faster fighter. If the fight turns into a wrestling and grappling match, Edgar may be in for a long night. While he is also a celebrated collegiate wrestler, Edgar is much smaller than Maynard and will not be able to match strength with the bigger grappler.
Edgar's heart is another factor of this fight as the champ has an incredible will to win. It was Edgar's heart which kept him awake during the first round and his fighting spirit which helped him come back and almost win the contest.
Fireworks will be in the air Saturday night, but before the grand finale, another championship will be on the line as Jose Aldo defends his Featherweight Championship against Kenny Florian.
Jose (Joe-say) Aldo is the defending champion and is one of the pound for pound best fighters in the world. When he was competing inside the WEC, Aldo was the most dominant fighter in the promotion and looked unstoppable every minute of every fight. Yet, when Aldo made his way over to the UFC in April for UFC 129, first time Octagon jitters seemed to get the best of him and he did not look so great in his bout against Mark Hominick despite a unanimous decision victory and the fight of the night bonus.
Aldo will need to be in the best shape of his life and preform like his earlier self this Saturday, since Kenny Florian is the best opponent Aldo has ever faced.
Jose Aldo has all the technical skills in the world and is dangerous in almost every position. An incredibly lightning quick striker, Aldo has had twelve of his nineteen professional victories end by way of KO or TKO. This would be a substantial fact on it's own, but what makes it even scarier is that Aldo is a much better fighter on the ground.
His opponent is one of the longest competing fighters in the UFC, Kenny Florian. Beginning during the first season of The Ultimate Fighter reality show, Florian has had seventeen of his twenty-one professional fights within the UFC promotion.
While this will only be Florian's second fight at Featherweight in his career, Florian has competed against much better competition over the years. Florian has competed against notable fighters such as Diego Sanchez, Sean Sherk, B.J. Penn, Takanori Gomi and Grey Maynard amongst others in the UFC and will use his big fight experience to his advantage. Along with an edge in the size and reach department, Florian seems to finally be in the right position to win UFC gold for the first time.
An alarming stat about Florian however, is how he has been known to choke in big pressure fights. All four of Florian's losses in the UFC have come in the most important bouts of his career, the first being against Diego Sanchez. The fight with Sanchez was both fighters debuts inside the UFC and was to crown the first ever Ultimate Fighter champion. Sanchez was the much bigger fighter coming into the cage that night and used his size to wrestle Florian to the ground where he used ground and pound to defeat Florian.
Florian's next two losses came in Lightweight title bouts where he lost to Sean Sherk and B.J. Penn respectively. His latest loss was to Grey Maynard in his hometown of Boston, Mass. in a completely one sided affair in which Florian looked horrible and ultimately knocked him out of the weight class. Saturday night may be Florian's last crack at a championship since the UFC has never granted a fighter three title opportunities when they have come up short the previous two times.
Despite the criticisms, Florian has handled himself like a true professional. One of the most respected fighters to ever grace the Octagon, Florian may be the best fighter to never have won a championship. When asked, Florian insists that the challenge Jose Aldo presents is more important to him than the belt but also says the gold would be a great addition.
It has been proven time and time again that anything is possible inside the UFC, and you never know what will happen. Saturday night might be Kenny Florian's time to shine as the old saying goes “three times a charm.”
While these two fights alone could hold their weight and support a PPV by themselves, the UFC is giving the fans two for the price of one as well as a very intriguing match up in the UFC Middleweight devision.
The fight between Brian Stann (11-3 overall 5-2 UFC) and Chael Sonnen (25-11 overall 4-4 UFC) will decide the next challenger to face devision kingpin Anderson Silva.
Brian Stann has been one of the most improved and impressive fighters of 2011 with two huge knockout victories over Chris Leben at UFC 125 and Jorge Santiago at UFC 130.
Stann who was a Captain in the U.S. Military is a recipient of the Silver Star, which is the third highest award for valor in combat. Before his MMA career, Stann served overseas in the Iraq war and personally led two casualty operations, three vehicle recovery operations and multiple close air support missions under enemy arms, machine gun and mortar fire. He is a true American hero and is one of the best role models and inspirations in not only the UFC but in all of sports.
His opponent, Chael Sonnen is arguably the best wrestler in all of MMA and the only man to ever beat up Anderson Silva. Typically a loud mouth trash talking machine, Sonnen has remained quiet and respectful leading up to the fight saying “Brian's not going to get called out by anybody, and I'm no exception to that.” Sonnen however, will not let his respect for Stann get in the way of his mission on Saturday night which is to ultimately take the title off of Anderson Silva.
Sonnen is returning from a thirteen month lay off due to a suspension, and ring rust might be a factor during this contest. Although, Stann is a former WEC Light Heavyweight Champion with big knockout power as well as being a stronger faster athlete, Sonnen is light years better than Stann at wrestling and will dictate how long this fight lasts on the feet.
Stann states that wrestling has been his heaviest trained discipline for the last two years of his fighting career saying “ I don't have to outwrestle him out there on Saturday night” going as far to say that he even checked the bout agreement to make sure he can punch back, since no one is giving him a chance.
While I respect his confidence, two years of training wrestling even if it was for every second every day will still not be enough to stop the take downs of Chael Sonnen. Sonnen's powerful driven take downs are a thing of art and he is relentless with his attempts. I expect Sonnen to play this fight smart and keep it standing for only as long as he needs to before he shoots in and takes Stann to the ground where he will out grapple and control him.
Looking over Sonnen's entire body of work throughout his career, there has yet to be a fight in which Sonnen was beat up in. Even though he has eleven professional losses, he usually lost because he got caught while beating the other person up. With all that being said, I anticipate Brian Stann to be out of his element and Sonnen to get his long awaited rematch with the Middleweight Champion.
Sonnen's fight with Anderson Silva in August of 2010 was by far the fight of 2010. Sonnen did something no one ever thought was possible and that was demolish the seemingly invincible Silva for four and a half rounds before ultimately getting caught in a triangle choke with only two minutes remaining in the fight. Since that time, Sonnen has been sticking his finger in the chest of Silva, picking a fight and promises not quit until he has that title around his waist.
UFC 136 promises to be a great and immensely entertaining night. Along with the two title fights and Middleweight eliminator bout, Saturday night also features the return of Melvin Guillard as he looks to improve his winning streak to six as he takes on Joe Lauzon, as well as Anthony Pettis fighting Jeremy Stephens.
UFC 136 is possibly the most stacked card top to bottom in the promotions history and has been an event I have waited a very long time for. Get ready for one of the best fight nights in quite some time as all bouts look to be highly competitive and feature entertaining athletes.
Predictions:
Grey Maynard defeats Frankie Edgar to become the NEW UFC Lightweight Champion via Unanimous Decision
Jose Aldo defeats Kenny Florian to REMAIN UFC Featherweight Champion via 3rd Round Submission
(Rear Naked Choke)
Chael Sonnen defeats Brian Stann via Unanimous Decision
Leonard Garcia defeats Nam Phan via 2nd Round TKO
Melvin Guillard defeats Joe Lauzon via 1st Round KO
Damien Maia defeats Jorge Santiago via 1st Round Submission (Triangle Choke)
Anthony Pettis defeats Jeremy Stephens via Unanimous Decision
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