Ufc 117

[sc13ntific]

This event could easily have been called USA vs Brazil. Hopefully we will see a night of exciting fights. The only dissapointment is Thiago Silva having to pull out of the Tim Boetsch fight.

I am in the minority as I want Sonnen to pull off the upset. Win or lose i think that Anderson Silva's future is at LHW. He hasn't seemed motivated for a MW matchup in a while and his performances have reflected that.

The only way Sonnen can win is to use his wrestling to control Silva on the mat. Chael has been caught in submissions before, and Anderson has a solid BJJ game. So even there Sonnen isn't safe,just not in quite as much danger. Anderson was beaten fairly soundly in the first round of the Hendo fight. In the second round Hendo (for some reason) decided to test his standup and that lead to Anderson eventually getting the sub. I don't think Chael is that stupid.

What I would like to happen is Sonnen TKO in the third, but Anderson does have way more weapons in his arsenal to get the victory. All in all I just hope that its a good fight.



My Picks in RED/BOLD (Team America FTW)

MAIN CARD
• Champ Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen (for middleweight title)
• Thiago Alves vs. Jon Fitch
• Rafael dos Anjos vs. Clay Guida
• Ricardo Almeida vs. Matt Hughes
• Junior Dos Santos vs. Roy Nelson
PRELIMINARY CARD
• Tim Boetsch vs. Todd Brown
• Dustin Hazelett vs. Rick Story
• Christian Morecraft vs. Stefan Struve
• Charlie Brenneman vs. Johny Hendricks
• Dennis Hallman vs. Ben Saunders
• Phil Davis vs. Rodney Wallace

[alomar123]

Wow, I am totally wasted right now (thank you spell check.lol), but that sub was WOW. At least chael did what he said he was gonna do, Expose him. Great night.

[No1CeltsFan]

one of the better ppv cards on paper ever and it lived up to it aside from Fitch v Alves.

Junios Dos Santos is flat out scary. Chael Sonnen cemented himself as the # 2 Middleweight in the world. Anderson Silva displayed the heart of a champion in every sense of the word. Hughes submitted one of the best BJJ practioners on the planet. I mean what more could you want? It was awesome!

[sc13ntific]

Agreed

Even though 116 and the VS card were awesome I can't remember enjoying a card more than this one in a long time. Anderson, hopefully, got the wakeup call he needed. With any luck we'll see a rematch. I'm hoping for the year end card. Hughes looked great catching Almeida in the "Submission With No Name". Fitch/Alves went exactly how I thought it would, not the most exciting fighter but I appreciate how effective Fitch is. Big Country took a beating and kept on coming. Dos Santos looked good, but I am not sure I saw anything that makes me believe he can defeat Lesnar should that fight go down. Guida was a caveman again and his fight was exciting as well, winning by Submission: Hug was a bit wierd though. Struve is a warrior, let him put on 20lbs ofmuscle and he will be scary.

I hope that Chael's hype brought a lot of new fans to the sport because this was the perfect PPV card to show a newcomer to the sport.

[No1CeltsFan]

end of the year card is GSP vs. Koshcheck - UFC 124 in Vegas


November supposedly could be Silva vs Belfort or Silva vs. Sonnen 2. All I know is UFC 118 better be good cuz I got some great seats for it and I cant wait to see BJ win his title back.

[Red_on_the_head]

One of the best cards I've seen in a long time. Sonnen vs Silva was actually the fight that I thought would be the most boring on the card but it turned out to be the best. I was very disappointed in dos Santos not being able to finish Roy Nelson. How does he think he's going to beat Brock if he can't end a guy like Nelson?


I put the Sonnen vs Silva fight in my top 5 of all time that I've personally seen.

[BostonSully]

Man I felt bad for sonnen on that one. It didnt seem like he consciously tapped maybe it was muscle memory or something, I think he wouldve stayed in that triangle awake until the bell on pure heart alone. Silva on the other hand got outstruck??? wth? Silva landed one or two good bombs standing but sonnen landed 3 or so that wobbled silva something I ddnt expect.

Other things learned:
Roy Norris is a freaking badass man. How do you take that kind of punishment and keep going???
Cigano couldn't even finish Nelson, shows he needs to work on other parts of his game mainly takedown and gnp.
Struve is the man, "gota good surgeon, ok youll be fine!"

[newtogolf]

I don't understand Sonnen. He goes almost 23 minutes fighting the perfect fight and in the last two minutes decides to sit up on Silva and give him the perfect setup for a leg triangle. Anyone that trains BJJ or watches alot of MMA knows you don't sit up on a black belt in BJJ unless you want to get choked out. All he had to do was lay on top of him, and punish him how he did for 4.5 rounds and he'd be the champion.

Dos Santos is a beast and Big Country can take a beating. I'm not sure Dos Santos has the power to take the title from Brock, given he couldn't finish Big Country, but he definitely is one of the best strikers in the Heavyweight division.

[TN94z]

Wow, I am totally wasted right now (thank you spell check.lol), but that sub was WOW. At least chael did what he said he was gonna do, Expose him. Great night.

He didn't expose anything really. Everyone knows that Anderson does not do as good against wrestlers. IMO, Chael was lucky he didn't get submitted earlier. That submission was there all night long.

[TN94z]

I don't understand Sonnen. He goes almost 23 minutes fighting the perfect fight and in the last two minutes decides to sit up on Silva and give him the perfect setup for a leg triangle. Anyone that trains BJJ or watches alot of MMA knows you don't sit up on a black belt in BJJ unless you want to get choked out. All he had to do was lay on top of him, and punish him how he did for 4.5 rounds and he'd be the champion.

Actually, posturing up is the defense against a triangle. Sonnen is known for giving it up. Big Country has a much better chin than Brock IMO

[breakout89]

I still can't believe Sonnen lost that fight.

[TN94z]

I still can't believe Sonnen lost that fight.

I can't believe he would put himself in that position when he has lost like that before. He is known for being easy for the triangle and it was open ALL NIGHT LONG!! I honestly can't believe that Anderson didn't submit him earlier.

Reports are that Anderson had a cracked rib from sparring with Machida a week prior. The doctor told him that he shouldn't fight but he did anyway. After the first round, he told his corner man that he couldn't breathe and his corner man told him not to think about the rib and get back in there. I really believe this because Sonnen of all people can not stand with Anderson and he landed more shots on Anderson than anyone ever has...that was my first clue that something was up.

[BostonSully]

I can't believe he would put himself in that position when he has lost like that before. He is known for being easy for the triangle and it was open ALL NIGHT LONG!! I honestly can't believe that Anderson didn't submit him earlier.

What I read in an interview with Silvas trainer was that Silva had bruised the rib bone/muscle training (idk if it was with machida) a week prior to the fight. Silva took 5 days off and only did light training before the fight. In the first round after Sonnen had rocked silva and knocked him down the Rib Broke and it affected silva the rest of the fight. I was honestly still very impressed by sonnens striking Ive never seen the Spider get clipped before let alone in the first round or 3 times in a fight!

I am even more impressed at the submission traingle and then he switched to armbar because he probably couldnt squeeze due to the broken rib very impressive heart of a champion. Sonnen should've taken the easy way out and danced around for 5 mins and walked away witha unanimous 49-45 victory but he wanted to take silva down got lazy and paid the price. I want Sonnen vs Belfort for no1 contender while silva is out till next year feb-march timeline. Fights I want after 118 are: Roy Nelson vs Carwin JDS vs Brock or Cain Silva vs GSP (superfight) Belfort vs Sonnen That would make an illmatic card.

[sc13ntific]

Fights I want after 118 are:

Would make a great Super Bowl card imo

[newtogolf]

Fights I want after 118 are:

I agree with them all except Belfort. Dana has hyped Befort, but he hasn't done anything recently to earn #1 contender status. I think Sonnen deserves an automatic rematch and let Belfort fight Leben for #1 contender after the rematch.

[TN94z]

What I read in an interview with Silvas trainer was that Silva had bruised the rib bone/muscle training (idk if it was with machida) a week prior to the fight. Silva took 5 days off and only did light training before the fight. In the first round after Sonnen had rocked silva and knocked him down the Rib Broke and it affected silva the rest of the fight. I was honestly still very impressed by sonnens striking Ive never seen the Spider get clipped before let alone in the first round or 3 times in a fight!

YOu are correct as far as what you read. I read the same report. Silva did say that he couldn't breathe and that is what prompted the initial doctor visit. IMO,Sonnen does not have good striking. He did clip Silva and that is why it should be obvious that something is up. Marquardt, Henderson, Franklin, Leben, etc...all have better striking than Sonnen and Sonnen is the one that starts catching him? Yeah, I don't think so. Sonnen is screaming for a rematch, but I honestly think a rematch wouldn't go as well for Sonnen. Think about this for a minute. Anderson is a specialist in standup, specifically Muay Thai. He practiced his entire camp on throwing knees when his opponent shoots for the takedown. Now, think back or watch the fight again and count how many knees he threw in those situations. None. That is VERY unusual for Anderson. Those two things alone should clue everyone in that Anderson was not up to par that night. And for him to still get the sub after all of that....just shows his will to win, his heart to not give up, and his chin....because he took a beating to set that submission up. I know many, many people see his win as luck, but with my BJJ background, I saw it as pure technique. Thats BJJ. Its real hard to force a sub on sombody who knows its coming. Its all about waiting for that lapse in thinking and going for it. In our classes we use to say "fake it, take it, and break it." He had been setting that up the entire fight. As far as the fights...I like them all except the GSP one. If GSP wants to come to MW then I'm all for it. But Anderson dropping to 170 to fight him does nothing for the sport IMO. Belfort is a guy that Anderson will need to watch out for much more than Sonnen, I think. Belfort is so explosive it's ridiculous. The reason he would be pushed to number 1 contender is because he has won and won big and Anderson has beaten everyone else. I always like to see new fights first instead of rematches. Oh yeah, Sonnen goes on a losing streak now and we don't hear much else from him unless he convinces the UFC of an immediate rematch, which is dumb. Sonnen had Silva in the exact position he wanted him in for 22 minutes and still didn't get the win....why go through that again?

[heyscuba]

get your popcorn ready, gonna be a show,...!!!