UFC 117: Whats Next For The Winners and The Losers

Well that’s three decent cards in a row for the UFC and I am starting to love Joe Silva more and more each day. It seems like he is really getting to know what the people want to see.

After UFC 117 the unthinkable happened. The Spider just about got squashed by Chael Sonnen. The man who everyone thought wasjust another easy win for Silva as soon as the fight was announced, the man who had so much trash talk coming from his mouth he became the laughing stock of the UFC’s fans.

While this was by far the biggest news from this event, there was plenty more highlights from this exciting card. A hall of famer turns in a dominant performance and Fitch moved a step closer to a title shot.

While Fitch’s future is pretty much set since Dana said that the winner would get the winner of the Koscheck vs GSP fight, his is the only future that was set in stone. Here’s my thoughts on some of the key players performances and where I think they will end up next.

Silva shows he is beatable, but performs the biggest comeback of all-time

I’ll be honest I hated Silva going into this fight, but coming out of it I have a lot of respect for him. Not just because of his performance but the amount of respect he showed Sonnen. Most men would have rubbed a victory in the face of someone who trash talked them for so long, but not Silva.

I think after this fight Silva is back in the good graces of the majority of the UFC fans, and the UFC brass as well. Prior to UFC 117, White had already stated that Silva would meet Belfort next if he was to win. I’m not so sure of that now.  I’m sure that after such an impressive performance by both Silva and Sonnen,  there is no doubt about it that a Silva vs Sonnen rematch has crossed the minds of Dana and Joe Silva.

I still don’t see the rematch happening though. Silva will meet Belfort possibly on the final card of the year. Silva also had stated a rib injury hampered his performance against Sonnen and that throws one more thing into the equation, solution listed below.

Sonnen earns the respect of the MMA world with a loss

Chael Sonnen shocked the MMA world by taking the fight to Silva and coming two minutes away from pulling off the biggest upset in MMA history. Unfortunately, he fell victim to a submission again. Before he tapped he was showing dominance on the ground and he was hanging with Silva standing up, something I’ve not seen anyone do yet.

That’s a lot from a guy that was written off as soon as the fight was announced. Once again a rematch has to cross everyone’s mind here but as much as everyone would want to see it, it isn’t happening. So I got two potential match ups for Sonnen in my mind.

The first once is a match up with Wanderlei Silva. This isn’t necessarily a match up that is at the top of my list, I would rather see him welcome Jake Shields to the UFC but Jake already has a fight in the pipeline.  This could be a potential number one contender fight if the middleweight landscape remains unchanged.

Now for the wild card, if Anderson’s rib injury is serious it could put the champ on the shelf. If that’s the case, we could have the best possible scenario. A Sonnen vs Belfort fight is by far the best case because it presents a possible rematch. Not only that, Belfort has yet to fight at Middleweight since his return so this will be him earning his shot instead of being handed to him on a silver platter.

The Belly maybe jelly but the chin is Granite

Roy Nelson got beat on pretty bad and took numerous shots that would have knocked out the majority of the UFC roster. I was impressed not only by Roy’s chin but also his cardio. I’m not saying his cardio was outstanding but the fact that someone in Roy’s shape didn’t pass out in the third round shows that Roy’s athleticism is better than it appears.

At any rate prior to his fight with Junior, Roy said some pretty harsh words to Carwin. He said that Shane had not earned his shot at the title implying that Carwin wasn’t on the level that JDS or even Nelson is at. Well I say we let Roy put his money where his mouth is and not just the cheeseburgers,

I would love to see Carwin against Nelson. I’m not a fan of Roy Nelson because of his time of TUF, he seemed like he thought the UFC owed him something because of his past accomplishments. Fact of the matter is, neither fighter is no longer undefeated in the UFC so it’s a good time to let one of them get some good traction back to climb the rankings again.

Hughes wins his third straight, is he back in the mix?

Matt Hughes wins again and in a shocking fashion. Ricardo Almeida isn't a scrub and Hughes won this one decisively. Problem is that Hughes is getting up there in age and you have to worry about him going the way of other legends who have stuck around for too long.

I can’t tell you who is next for Matt Hughes but I can tell you who I would like to see, Jon Fitch. Fitch out wrestles every opponent he faces. I would like to see him out wrestle Matt Hughes. If he can’t do that then he stands no chance against GSP or Koscheck for that matter.

 

Quick Hits

Stefan Struve needs to change his nickname to “The Comeback Kid”. So far in every fight I’ve ever seen Struve in he has come from behind to get the victory. It’s difficult though to warrant a step up in competition with his performances.

I really wish Clay Guida was a lot better. He doesn’t have knockout power and he struggles with top level fighters. At any rate I Feel like Guida is going to be a gate keeper for the rest of his career, which is fine by me because I love watching the guy fight. Win or lose he puts on a great show.

Thiago Alves refused to cut the 1 ½ pounds to make the welterweight fight. Since this is not the first time Alves hasn’t made weight, Dana has every right to force him into the middleweight class. I know a lot of people have said that they don’t want Alves to lose his job because he would be a smaller middleweight, but even if he did lose some fights and lost his job he brought it on himself.

Is Forrest Griffin and Chael Sonnen related, I swear they have the softest skin in the world. Both of them bleed like it's part of their fight strategy.

Jon Fitch is a very boring fighter…