Complete Guide to Super Saturday: UFC 180, Bellator 131 and WSOF 15 Collide
Fight fans will have their fingers on the remote control on Saturday night, as MMA's top three promotions will go head-to-head on live television for the first time. World Series of Fighting and Bellator will both start at 9 p.m. ET with stacked cards, joining the UFC prelims on Fox Sports 1 already in progress at 8 p.m.
It's an absurdity of riches including some of the sport's most exciting fighters and compelling figures. While Tito Ortiz vs. Stephan Bonnar and Mark Hunt vs. Fabricio Werdum have gotten the bulk of the attention, plenty of excellent fights lurk on the undercards.
Choice can be a good thing—but it can also leave fans looking a bit like a deer in the headlights. Which fights are worth watching, and which are fine to click right past? Deciding might be a bit overwhelming.
Luckily, we are here to help. We break down all three cards and then pick our favorite fights of the night.
Disagree? Something else have your interest piqued? Sound off in the comments.
World Series of Fighting 15
1 of 4
Main card (NBC Sports Network, 9 p.m. ET)
- David Branch vs. Yushin Okami (Middleweight Title Fight)
- Justin Gaethje vs. Melvin Guillard (Lightweight Title Fight)
- Jessica Aguilar vs. Kalindra Faria (Strawweight Title Fight)
- Jorge Patino vs. Eric Reynolds
Undercard (Streaming, 6 p.m. ET)
- Javier Torres vs. Maurice Salmon
- Troy Gerhart vs. Anderson Hutchinson
- Ryan Keenan vs. Jose Andres Cortes
- Tony Way vs. Fred Moncaio
- Hector Ochoa vs. Robert Reed
- Reggie Pena vs. Joe Johnson
- Matt Frevola vs. Josh Zuckerman
- Christian Reed vs. Steven Esquivel
Main Event
Although David Branch comes from a family of boxers, including former title contender Sechew Powell, his own game is based firmly on the ground. A Renzo Gracie black belt, he has a solid submission attack and an advantage over most when it comes time to play the positional game of thrones.
Yushin Okami, however, is not most fighters. An enormous middleweight who once challenged the great Anderson Silva in the UFC, Okami typically only goes where he wants. This one could be a grinding battle against the fence. The skill level will be high—but it won't be a fight for the easily bored.
Fireworks Display
Melvin Guillard has been involved in 33 finishes during his 12-year MMA career. The chances of another one here are high. Although he has become more cautious as he ages, Guillard still has the potential for furious and unconscionable violence.
If Guillard is quickly becoming the past, the champion Justin Gaethje is the future. A wrestler who packs a punch, he is looking to make Guillard pay for saying he's not on his level.
Quotable
“I know plenty of wrestlers who are 15-0 and going nowhere,” Gaethje told Bleacher Report's Scott Harris. “This is a making-money business, and the only way to make money is knocking people out. Lying on someone? That’s pathetic to me. You gotta drop a bomb.”
Analysis
As World Series of Fighting cards go, this is about as good as it gets circa 2014. Most of the big names have moved on to the UFC. These, for the most part, are the best fighters the promotion has to offer these days.
And you know what? It's enough to put together a nice four-fight main card for NBC Sports.
Okami and Branch are legitimate middleweights in any promotion, and Aguilar is arguably the best fighter in the world in her weight class. In a few years, with the right opportunities, the same might be said of Gaethje as well.
Bellator 131
2 of 4
Main Card (Spike TV, 9 p.m. ET)
- Tito Ortiz vs. Stephan Bonnar
- Will Brooks vs. Michael Chandler (Lightweight Title Fight)
- Muhammed Lawal vs. Joe Vedepo
- Melvin Manhoef vs. Joe Schilling
- Mike Richman vs. Nam Phan
Preliminary Card (Spike.com, 7 p.m. ET)
- Kyle Bolt vs. A.J. Matthews
- Ron Henderson vs. Jonathan Santa Maria
- Jordan Bailey vs. Alex Higley
- Nick Garcia vs. Matthew Ramirez
- Andy Murad vs. Bubba Pugh
Main Event
Once the biggest star in the sport, Tito Ortiz is like a fine old Cadillac that's running on fumes. He's not a machine that can go 500 miles at top speed. But for a round or two, when all cylinders are pistoning and the stereo is blasting the Limp Bizkit he loves so well, it's easy to forget all those miles on the odometer.
Because, on some level, a Cadillac is still a Cadillac.
Bonnar, to be frank, was a bit of a disappointment after he and Forrest Griffin put the sport on their backs for three thrilling rounds at the first The Ultimate Fighter finale. While Griffin consistently rose to the occasion, even winning UFC gold, Bonnar was never able to win the big one.
Two years since his last fight, it doesn't seem likely that this will be the opportunity he finally makes good on.
Fireworks Display
Melvin Manhoef is one of the most destructive fighters the sport has ever seen. That sounds like hyperbole, but the 38-year-old kickboxer has the resume to prove it. Of his 29 career wins, 27 have come by way of knockout. And, as Doug Marshall learned the hard way early this year, power is the last attribute to betray an aging fighter.
If anyone in Bellator can match Manhoef strike for strike, however, it's Joe Schilling. A middleweight kickboxer who advanced to the finals in Glory's eight-man championship tournament earlier this year, he won't be intimidated by Manhoef's legend.
Whether that's a mistake remains to be seen.
Quotable
"I'd like to count all the number of hours he's stayed up and worried about all of those things because they don't matter," Michael Chandler told Bleacher Report's Duane Finley about opponent Will Brooks. "On the flip side of this, I haven't paid any mind to any of it. I haven't let him rile me up. I haven't let it bother me, and I've kept my focus on the task at hand.
"You have to keep the main thing the main thing, and that's the fight coming up. On Nov. 15, it won't matter what was tweeted or said. It won't matter who has the better comebacks or who is the better trash-talker or who can sell the fight better."
Analysis
Normally, it's not fair to compare a UFC pay-per-view with a free show on Spike TV. The difference between budgets is stark, skewing the competition dramatically in the UFC's favor.
This weekend is a bit of a different story. The UFC's show has fallen apart. First, heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez was forced to drop out of his long-anticipated title defense. Then fan favorites Diego Sanchez and Joe Lauzon both fell off the card due to injury.
Suddenly, it was Bellator, on free TV, with the most star-studded event of the entire weekend. Every fight on the main card either has a major star or is set to feature major league violence like Mike Richman vs. Nam Phan. This is must-see MMA.
UFC 180
3 of 4
Main card (PPV, 10 p.m. ET)
- Fabricio Werdum vs. Mark Hunt (Interim Heavyweight Title Fight)
- Jake Ellenberger vs. Kelvin Gastelum
- Ricardo Lamas vs. Dennis Bermudez
- Augusto Montano vs. Chris Heatherly
- Edgar Garcia vs. Hector Urbina
Undercard (Fox Sports 1, 8 p.m. ET)
- Yair Rodriguez vs. Leonardo Morales
- Alejandro Perez vs. Jose Alberto Quinonez
- Jessica Eye vs. Leslie Smith
- Gabriel Benitez vs. Humberto Brown
Prelims (UFC Fight Pass, 7 p.m. ET)
- Enrique Briones vs. Guido Cannetti
- Marco Beltran vs. Marlon Vera
Main Event
The UFC never wanted Mark Hunt. The company inherited his contract when it bought rival Pride Fighting Championships and preferred to pay him to sit at home instead of stepping into the cage.
Hunt, however, is a fighter. He refused the easy money, choosing to earn it in competition. And, though he lost his first fight in the Octagon, he came on strong and finds himself in a title bout on Saturday. It's a story too good to be true—but it couldn't be more real.
If he puts his big ham hocks on Brazilian jiu-jitsu wiz Fabricio Werdum, the 40-year-old Hunt could walk out of Mexico City as the interim heavyweight champion. In 2014. That's something worth celebrating.
Fireworks Display
Jessica Eye is a better athlete than Leslie Smith. Like most other sports, that's a pretty big first step toward victory. If Eye keeps her distance and controls the fight with her solid jab, this should be a big comeback for a fighter with major league potential.
But fighting isn't always that simple. Both women love to scrap, and that's an instinct that can be hard to stifle. If Smith can sucker Eye into an old-fashioned brawl, she has a real chance to score with her looping punches and fight-changing high kicks.
I expect Eye to go off message at times. That might make her coaches crazy, but it will make for a fighter fans love.
Quotable
"I think the pace I set will give anyone trouble," Kelvin Gastelum told Bleacher Report's Duane Finley. "I believe a lot of people aren't ready for the type of pressure I bring. I come forward, and once I get my hands on them, it's a different type of pressure than they are used to. It's bad news.
Analysis
This fight card, top to bottom, is dreadful. Pay-per-view—once home to household names and fighters who had built their reputations on Spike TV—is now home to fighters who aren't even worthy of Wikipedia entries.
To be fair, this started as an interesting foray into Mexico for the first time. Injuries to Joe Lauzon vs. Diego Sanchez hurt the card's depth, and losing heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez eliminated all vestiges of star power.
What's left is brutal on paper—but longtime fans might be willing to overlook that to see Hunt finally get a chance to write his name in the UFC's record books.
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Staff Recommendations
4 of 4
Tito Ortiz vs. Stephan Bonnar (Bellator 131)
While Fabricio Werdum and Mark Hunt put fists to skull in Mexico for the UFC Interim Heavyweight Championship...while Jessica Aguilar looks to extend her winning streak and further cement herself as the best 115-pound female mixed martial artist on the planet...and while Justin Gaethje and Melvin Guillard try their damnedest to turn cerebral matter to mashed potatoes at World Series of Fighting 15, the fight I'm most jazzed about will take place under the Bellator banner.
"Oh, you're looking forward to the Will Brooks and Michael Chandler rematch, Hunter? Me too!"
Ha! You are sadly mistaken, friend. There is one fight this weekend that I cannot miss, and that's Stephan Bonnar vs. Tito Ortiz in the Bellator 131 main event.
Yes, they're on the downside of their respective careers. Yes, the pro wrestling angle leading up to the fight was ridiculous and shameful.
Yes, it's a fight between a steroid abuser and an ass.
I. Don't. Care.
Fighters like Werdum, Aguilar, Gaethje and Guillard will come and go in MMA. I'll get to watch another legitimate heavyweight title fight in the near future (hopefully...Cain. Cough.). I'll get to watch the next crop of strawweights make their mark in the UFC and eventually rise to superstardom.
But will I ever get to see two aging UFC Hall of Famers fight for another promotion in a fight so improbable it's actually true?
I don't know. But I'm not rolling the dice. Saturday evening, I'm flipping the TV to Spike, and I'm going to enjoy every second of it.
—Hunter Homistek (@HunterAHomistek)
Ricardo Lamas vs. Dennis Bermudez (UFC 180)
The featherweight division has been on the rise for the past two years, and 2015 could very well be the year the weight class hits a new level of stardom. Every fighter in the Top Five wants a title shot, and that makes every scrap between top-ranked contenders all the more exciting.
While this weekend's tilt between Ricardo Lamas and Dennis Bermudez will feature two fighters on the lower end of the name-recognition scale, it's the perfect example of how hot the featherweight division is at the current moment. Lamas has won four of his last five fights, with his only loss coming against Jose Aldo back in February. Meanwhile, Bermudez has won seven consecutive outings, shaking The Ultimate Fighter stigma in the process.
Both fighters bring hard-charging paces. The man standing when the dust clears in Mexico City will be within striking distance of shot at the featherweight crown in 2015.
—Duane Finley (@DuaneFinleyMMA)
Melvin Guillard vs. Justin Gaethje (WSOF 15)
I have to go with Melvin Guillard vs. Justin Gaethje. The verbal salvos between these two (who used to train together) have been ratcheting up all week, culminating in a Guillard tirade during a Thursday media call.
They seem to be heading in opposite directions career-wise but share a propensity for fast and violent knockouts. A belt and a lot of dignity are on the line, and there's a good chance the canvas looks like the scene of a Franzia merlot party when it's all said and done.
—Scott Harris (@ScottHarrisMMA)
Mark Hunt vs. Fabricio Werdum (UFC 180)
The only choice here is the affair between the two combatants who don't have to cut weight. Well, one of them, at least.
Mark Hunt's spiral into this fight alone is a compelling narrative, let alone his entire career arc. It appears the Super Samoan will make the heavyweight limit of 265 pounds as a fill-in for perhaps the best big man of all time in Cain Velasquez.
The once again injured champ had to pull out opposite the better-than-ever Fabricio Werdum. Instead of a bona fide title fight, we get an interim one. The winner of it may or may not go on to unify the belt versus Velasquez—who could be stripped of his title if he doesn't return in time.
Whoever emerges—Hunt or Werdum—will set a career triumph that cannot be measured in gold alone, makeshift or otherwise.
—Brian Oswald (@BR_MMA)
Mike Richman vs. Nam Phan (Bellator 131)
No one has been a bigger critic of stand-and-Wang fighting than me. It's not that I have something against unfettered violence. It's just that I don't agree with the UFC brass that a "close-your-eyes-and-pray-for-the-best" slugfest is necessarily the best fight of the night every night or the right direction to push the sport.
As a result, I wasn't nearly as enamored with Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Nam Phan's fights with human tornado Leonard Garcia as some. In fact, some might even call me a hater.
Yet, despite my well-known aesthetic objections, there is something about this fight that calls to me.
Richman has long been one of my Bellator favorites. He's a rangy southpaw who has added a popping jab to a nifty straight left hand, and I expect him to give Phan exactly the kind of fight the "Just Bleed" fans want to see. Only this time I'll be screaming my head off right beside them.
—Jonathan Snowden (@MMAEncyclopedia)
Jessica Eye vs. Leslie Smith (UFC 180)
The fight between Jessica Eye and Leslie Smith will have my full attention on Saturday.
The winner won't get a title shot, and neither woman looks the part of a serious contender in the division. So why am I excited for this fight? Because these two have the kind of style that almost ensures bonus checks. Smith may be pound-for-pound one of the most exciting fighters in the sport, and Eye delivers in much the same way. Neither will back down.
As soon as the bell rings, I expect the two to quickly hit the center of the cage and start throwing haymakers back and forth for a full 15 minutes. Sign me up.
—Nathan McCarter (@ACCBiggz)
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