Side Note: I strongly considered Rousimar Palhares vs. Demian Maia, both have displayed impressive skills on the ground but not everyone can appreciate jiu-jitsu displays, even great ones. Also, neither have truly proven themself in the UFC quite yet.
Light Heavyweight(205 lbs.) - Lyoto Machida (13-0) vs. Wanderlei Silva(32-8-1)
What do you do when you have someone who you're pretty sure might be one of the best fighters in the world, but you can't really tell because he somehow manages to win while throwing a fifth of the punches as his opponent? Solution: Lock him in a steel cage with an absolute psycho who will completely and utterly massacre him if he dosen't fight back.
For some time, Lyoto Machida has chosen to sit back and wait for his opponent to open the door for him and invite him to deliver a point-scoring blow while his own doors remain air-tight. If he were to use that strategy against Wanderlei Silva then those doors would simply be hacked to bits by the "Axe Murderer" who has a tendency to invite himself in. If there is anyone who can bring out the "Dragon" in Machida, it's Silva.
This fight is plain and simple. Old-school vs. new-school. Legend vs. hopeful. Put up or go down. Winner fights for gold.
Heavyweight(265 lbs.) - Cheick Kongo (11-4-1) vs. Fabricio Werdum (11-3-1)
Fun fact: there are heavyweights not named Lesnar, Slice, or Emilianenko. I know, crazy, right? Well, here's another one for ya! If given the chance, Cheick Kongo will become the dominant force in the heavyweight division. That sort of thing tends to happen when your game runs the world's most dangerous striker out of town.
He may have lost most recently to Heath Herring, a fight I failed to witness, but the scorecard said it was a split decision, so at least one person feels he won the fight. Besides, Kongo is one scary dude and has the look to be the poster boy of the UFC.
I'll admit it, I am rather partial to members of Chute Boxe. But "Vai Cavalo's" outing against Andrei Arlovski in his UFC debut looked more like S--t Boxe. In case you fell asleep, Arlovski won the decision and was compelled to apologize to the crowd for how horrendous the fight was. But since then, Werdum has TKO'd Gabriel Gonzaga and Brandon Vera, in the first round no less, putting him well on the road to the belt.
Kongo has heavy hands and has put them to good use, earning himself seven TKO or KO wins. As stated before, Werdum's last two wins came by way of TKO, a stark contrast to his six submission wins. So we are left to wonder, would Werdum's well-roundedness overcome Kongo's one area of expertise he has been training since five years old?
There you have it, UFC 89: Devin's Delight. Well maybe not quite, but any one of those bouts on a fightcard would be sure to turn heads away from the glimmering gold. Let's just hope Joe Silva checks out the Bleacher Report from time to time.
5 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete