UFC 133 Fight Card: 11 Epic Perspectives of Saturday's Fight Card

On paper, how does the UFC 133 fight card look to you?

Does it look like another bust of a UFC fight card primarily due to injuries plaguing the initial fighters on the card?

Does it look like an underrated card that gets knocked on simply because it appears to lack star power in the eyes of some fans?

Does this card even have anything special to it...in other words, is this card "just there" as a Mixed Martial Arts event card?

Any way you look at it, the UFC 133 fight card does spark a gallon and a half of interest and intrigue.

To get specific on this matter, I'd like to tap 11 bases of this card and give you at least one perspective from each.

There's more than one way to look at a fight card, and in all honesty, more than one way to look at this card's main event as well.

So, without further ado, let's have a look at the 11 perspectives of the UFC 133 fight card!

1. One Main-Card Welterweight Star Must Burn out in Philadelphia

Rory MacDonald is arguably one of the top young prospects in the UFC Welterweight division, and this guy has the potential to rule the roost in the UFC Welterweight division, as do fellow Welterweights Charlie Brenneman, John Hathaway and Rick Story.

He got set back by a loss to Carlos Condit, but he came back with as strong a showing as he could've put on against Nate Diaz.

Meanwhile, Mike Pyle was widely seen as a stepping stone for Hathaway, but he spent all three rounds of their UFC 120 bout making Hathaway look like he did not know what he was doing.

Against Ricardo Almeida, the same thing was expected, but Pyle did the same job on Almeida that he did on Hathaway.

So far, Pyle is 2-0 in fights that he was not supposed to win definitively, and MacDonald is coming off of his first career rebound victory, and there's a 97 percent chance by De Souza's Wild Guess standards that Pyle walks into this bout as the underdog.

However, he was the underdog twice before and prevailed both times.

Then again, MacDonald was something of an underdog when he fought Condit at UFC 115 in his own hometown, and Condit was losing that fight before the end of the third round when Condit finished MacDonald off.

Both guys are young stars to watch out for, but the unfortunate thing about this is that as much as some may want to believe otherwise, this one will be no split draw.

One of these two stars will have to burn out temporarily come Saturday night.

2. "Money" Must Speak Up Now If He Wants Jose Aldo or Kenny Florian THAT Badly

Money talks in a major way sometimes, but if you're Chad "Money" Mendes, sometimes it's hard to tell if your words are coming in loud and clear.

Mendes thought he'd be getting an injury-free Jose Aldo at this event, but "Scarface" was still recovering from his UFC 129 epic with Mark Hominick.

Rather than give Mendes a half-assed challenge, Aldo opted to heal up, and Mendes opted to risk his crack at Aldo (or possibly Kenny Florian) against Rani Yahya.

On one hand, Mendes' performance can speak powerfully enough to where he puts Yahya's career in some jeopardy and also puts himself back in the front of the line for a UFC Featherweight Title shot, regardless of whether the UFC Featherweight Title changes hands at UFC 136 in Houston.

On the other hand, the last man to defend his title shot against Aldo while waiting for the champ to heal was Josh Grispi, and he didn't quite get around to dominating Dustin Poirier at UFC 125.

If Rani Yahya makes Mendes lose his "0," it will send Mendes back to the beginning and it will then be up in the air as far as another chance to get into title contention.

If Mendes wants to plead his case for a crack at the belt, he'll have to make a powerful statement against Yahya.

That might mean a finish more than just another dominant decision, and if Mendes can't do that, it could be awhile before we talk about a fight between him and either Aldo or Florian.

3. Injuries and Shuffling Issues Make Some of These Fights VERY Mysterious

Phil Davis pulled out with an injury, as did Vladimir Matyushenko, as did Rogerio Nogueira, as did Alessio Sakara.

With the UFC unable to find a replacement opponent for Rich Franklin, "Ace" was scrapped from the card, and Vitor Belfort's fight with Yoshihiro Akiyama was promoted to the main event.

Of course, we all know what led to Tito Ortiz becoming a part of the main event, and as for Matt Hamill, he's now on the Spike TV portion of the card as a replacement for Matyushenko, which could only be one tough draw for Alexander Gustafsson.

Now while Ortiz-Evans II and Hamill-Gustaffson are fights that have excitement potential, two of the fights no one has talked about are the fights that are mysterious in that we don't quite know what to expect.

Riki Fukuda, fresh off of what many (myself included) would call a hard-fought unanimous decision win over Nick Ring at UFC 127 despite the opinions of the judges, was forced out of his bout with Rafael Natal, making way for Costantinos Philippou to replace Fukuda.

But when a Middleweight bout between Alessio Sakara and Jorge Rivera fell by the wayside again, Philippou replaced Sakara and Natal now faced former TUF and Strikeforce veteran Paul Bradley.

Now, you might have to care enough about Natal's career, or about the season Paul Bradley was in, in order to care much about the Facebook-only bout, but Philippou is taking something of a major step up in deciding to take on Rivera in a bout that will stay on the main card of the event.

Philippou's UFC 128 bout with Nick Catone was an unaired prelim bout, so we don't know what this kid can do just yet, on one hand.

On the other hand, though, it could be that the little we know about Phillipou, other than him being a Cypriot who fought at UFC 128 and replaced Sakara, should be reason enough to give him a chance against Rivera.

Sure, we don't know what he can do, but how do we know he can't do enough to decisively beat Rivera?

4. Two Underrated Stars Want to Break Ground at 170 Pounds

Brian Ebersole was probably the only person in the world that thought Brian Ebersole could somehow beat Chris Lytle, and by golly, he did it very convincingly.

Now he gets Dennis Hallman, who is the only man that Matt Hughes has never beaten.

Hughes has beaten BJ Penn once, he's beaten Georges St-Pierre once, he's beaten two Gracies, he's beaten Carlos Newton twice, and he's beaten Matt Serra once, yet the greatest Welterweight in UFC--and maybe even MMA history--has never beaten someone as uncommonly known as Hallman.

That should speak to how underrated Hallman is right now, as Heavy MMA's Mitch Ciccarelli will tell you.

However, Matt Hughes and Jens Pulver never had any awkward offense for Hallman to deal with, and awkward offense is what Ebersole brings.

You talk about two underrated names in the Welterweight division, two names that could be closer to the title picture than some want you to believe, Hallman and Ebersole are those two guys.

They're not supposed to be mentioned when one talks about Welterweights who could be contenders, but that's why they've won fights.

Ebersole gets props from me because he beat the one guy who's my favorite Welterweight in the UFC, aside from the champ and Rick Story.

But it takes one big win before he can break his ground in the upper echelon of the Welterweight division, and the last time anyone checked, a big win over Dennis Hallman didn't come easily.

5. The Lone Representative of the Bantamweights

Only one Bantamweight fight exists on this card, but the two guys involved might do well enough in this fight to cause it to stand out head and shoulders above the rest of the fights on this underrated fight card.

Add Dominick Cruz's likely date with Demetrious Johnson at UFC on Versus 6, and maybe Ivan Menjivar's bout with Nick Pace sounds like a fight worth watching despite a lagging Facebook stream.

Yes, this is the same Ivan Menjivar that has a loss against Georges St-Pierre (and now trains with the UFC Welterweight Champion), and he is facing the same Nick Pace who only didn't take home The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale's Submission of The Night bonus because he missed weight.

Remember the Pace Choke, aka The Pacemaker--the pillory choke, aka the armless triangle--on Will Campuzano?

Yep, that guy.

Anyway, Menjivar brutalized Charlie Valencia at UFC 129, and was an early KO of The Night candidate before a certain kick happened.

Can the same thing happen to Pace?

Maybe it can and maybe it can't, but if you're expecting this fight to suck, you're likely going to be greatly disappointed.

The only reason you would be disappointed in this fight is because of your Facebook stream.

6. Matt Hamill Wants to Prove He's Worthy of the Main Event Slot Once Again

The only problem is that when he fought Quinton "Rampage" Jackson at UFC 130, Matt Hamill didn't seem to be in the fight.

Yes, he was a tough fight for Rampage, because not, he would not still be in the UFC.

However, the guy just could not get anything off against Jackson, and it's forced him to go back to the drawing board a bit, but Hamill might be able to change some minds if we see the Hamill we're used to seeing against Alexander Gustafsson.

It all depends on whether Hamill is willing to mix it up with Gustafsson regardless of where the fight goes and if he's willing to put his balls on a swivel in order to get his comfy "W."

Hamill knows what it's like to be a prospect, but even as a prospect, some of the best in the biz have found a way to shut Hamill down.

Time will tell us if Gustafsson will indeed take one leap back at Hamill's hands on Saturday.

7. Mike Brown Has One Last Shot to Get a UFC Win, and Nam Phan Is in His Way

Does it get much more simple than that?

Nam Phan knows about having his back against the wall, because in losses to Gesias Cavalcante and Issac De Jesus, he needed a win in his next fight in order to keep from considering early retirement.

Mike Brown's last two-fight skid was after his UFC 47 loss to Genki Sudo, when Joe Lauzon defeated him.

Now, Brown has lost to Diego Nunes and Rani Yahya and needs to put Phan on a two-fight skid in order to finally get a win in the UFC.

The question is, can he get it done?

Nam Phan is no amateur-class fighter, and Brown has to walk from the locker room to the Octagon in order to beat Phan, so it won't be easy at all.

However, the same was said before Brown first fought Urijah Faber, and Brown succeeded.

8. Could the First Time Be the Last Time for Vitor Belfort or Yoshihiro Akiyama?

"And just what is that supposed to MEAN?!" you might be asking yourself.

Well, it's like this:

Vitor Belfort is coming off of the "Knockout of 2011" contender in his now-famous loss to Anderson Silva, while Yoshihiro Akiyama is coming off of the loss to Michael Bisping at UFC 120, which was another "Fight of The Night" bonus for Akiyama.

Keep in mind that every one of Akiyama's bouts, from his debut against Alan Belcher to his UFC 120 date with Bisping, has won Fight of The Night with no gaps in between.

However, Akiyama lost a very tough UFC 116 bout to Chris Leben as well, so that throws his future in the air for the time being:

Does a loss give him a shot at signing his walking papers, despite winning Fight of The Night in all of his fights so far?

On the other side of the spectrum lies another fact:

Belfort lost his last bout to the UFC Middleweight champ, but some might view this bout as the first step (and a definite stepping stone) towards a rematch with Anderson Silva.

Could that one crack at Anderson Silva be the last title shot Belfort ever gets if he loses to Akiyama?

9. We Know What Dana White Is Trying to Get out of UFC 133 and UFC 135...

Rest assured, kiddos, "Tito Ortiz vs. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson" is a marquee fight Dana White can market the holy hell out of, but it's not the fight he's looking to set up after UFC 135 with the UFC Light Heavyweight belt at stake.

It's Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans that Dana White wants to put on, because all the tools needed to market it are already there.

The trash talk between Jones and Evans is very well documented, and it's the fight most fans want to see happen after UFC 135 when Jones faces Rampage.

Add in that Evans was a favorite to prevail even when Phil Davis was the opponent for him, and it seems ridiculous to even think that Ortiz can beat Evans without the judges robbing Evans, right?

10. On Paper, Three Incompetent Judges Are the Only Hope for Tito Ortiz

No, seriously, ask around: if the judges are on point this Saturday, Rashad Evans should be able to take a decision over Tito Ortiz, should the bout come to it.

Now read the above sentence, replace Evans' name with either Forrest Griffin, Matt Hamill, Chuck Liddell or Lyoto Machida, and tell me if the sentence looks familiar.

If you really feel bold, tell me if it looks familiar when Evans' name is replaced with the name "Ryan Bader."

Now, a firebrand "Tito Ortiz fan" I admit I am not...as a matter of fact, I backed Hamill and Bader in their bouts with Ortiz, but a firebrand, dyed-in-the-wool Ortiz fan will ask you this:

"How many people said incompetent judges were Ortiz's only hope against Bader, and what happened against Bader?"

Bader wasn't coming off of an embarrassing defeat over some no-name either; he lost his "0" to a very game Jon Jones, so who won't back Bader when they know that?

Excuses aside, Ortiz proved that he still does belong, and taking this fight could be the best move Ortiz might have made since tending to his injuries rather than giving Chuck Liddell a half-assed third fight.

On paper, Evans is where Bader was last month. He's in a fight he's not supposed to lose, and despite having not fought since facing Rampage Jackson, he's still coming off of a big (albeit uninspiring) win over Rampage.

If you're still convinced that this fight will play out in reality the same as it does on paper, do me a favor:

Ask Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard about fight outlooks on paper, because last I checked, that UFC 125 title fight on paper was supposed to be the worst possible choice for 2011's first UFC main event fight, let alone title fight.

11. UFC 133 Results: Golden Marquees Bring Platinum Hopes to the UFC

Get a good look at the seven men in this picture.

All seven of these men will defend their titles sometime after UFC 133, and only three UFC cards will not see these champions compete.

If Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos gets confirmed for UFC 139, it will make all but the next UFC on Versus card, the UFC Fight Night 25 card, and the UFC 138 card as the only UFC events to not feature a champion.

As it stands right now, the current roll is as follows:

UFC 134: Anderson Silva

UFC 135: Jon Jones

UFC on Versus 6: Dominick Cruz

UFC 136: Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar (The Answer will headline this card)

UFC 137: Georges St-Pierre

Amped yet?

You should be.