But here’s the thing: coming off of last week’s event in Germany, this weekend’s show in suburban Detroit (read: Auburn Hills) needs to be solid, at the very least. Drop-dead awesome would remove all risk, but since shows like that are few and far between, UFC 123 sure better hit the mark or we could have a pack of angry, hungry fans flooding the Internet and trying to find a way to make December 11th get here even sooner.
Since I’m looking forward to the last show in WEC history the week before – and to a lesser extent, the TUF 12 Finale – it would really work best for all involved if the eleven fights making up the event lived up to their potential and offered something most everyone is happy with.
Personally, I think we should be fine.
Tyson Griffin (14-4-0) vs. Nik Lentz (21-3-2)
My love of Lentz’s nickname / physical appearance combination aside, I will concede that his last bout was the visual representation of the word boring. Fifteen minutes of pressing Andre Winner against the cage will make even me, a staunch advocate against the use of that word in the description of this sport to use that word.
That is why his pairing with Tyson Griffin is perfect; the little man with the gigantic ass (facts are facts) has never been in a boring fight.
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Getting lit up by Takanori Gomi last time out may have sucked for Griffin, but it wasn’t boring. His fight with Evan Dunham in Vancouver this summer was far from it, and the five Fight of the Night awards on his mantle should be enough to slam the point home.
On an unrelated note, though I know he’s going to come out to “Eye of the Tiger” like always, how awesome would it be for Griffin to step out to “Bootylicious” just once? Bonkers… just sayin’.
Paul Kelly (10-3-0) vs. T.J. O’Brien (16-3-0)
Lemme get this straight: O’Brien wasn’t good enough to fight his way onto this season of The Ultimate Fighter, getting tattooed by Marc Stevens in 13 seconds, but I’m supposed to believe he stands a chance against Kelly?
Never mind that Stevens was subsequently choked out not once, but twice, by the same move, but Kelly will be making his eighth trip inside the Octagon and has faced quality opponents as both a welterweight and lightweight in the process.
While the UFC was certainly in a pinch after Gabe Ruediger got hurt and had to pull out of the contest, couldn’t they have done better than the kid with the spider shaved into his head from the TUF 12 prelims?
Edson Barbosa (6-0-0) vs. Mike Lullo (8-1-0)
Though both are making their organizational debuts in this bout, I actually feel better seeing Lullo opposite Barbosa than his original opponent, Darren Elkins. Not because I think the XFO veteran has a better chance of defeating the impressive Brazilian newcomer from Florida, but it saves Elkins from becoming a descriptor.
See, my original plan was to petition that moving forward, the words “Darren Elkins” be used to describe any poor soul being fed to an impressive-looking UFC newcomer, as in, “Fighter X got the Darren Elkins when they offered him a bout with Fighter Y.”
Now, Barbosa faces a fellow unknown commodity and Elkins gets a reprieve on becoming a part of my vocabulary. Well, not really. See how that worked?
Karo Parisyan (19-5-0) vs. Dennis Hallman (45-13-2)
Fool me once is shame on you, and fool me twice is shame on me. On the off chance that Karo Parisyan pulls out of this bout at the 11th hour, thereby fooling Dana White for a third time, someone needs to tell me who gets shamed in that scenario? Joe Silva maybe?
All the positive energy I have is being directed to Parisyan right now, that he has dealt with his anxiety issues and is able to return to being a colorful and entertaining piece of the welterweight division. If his head is on right, the Armenian judoka is a dangerous fighter and potential dark horse contender heading into 2011. If not, we’re in for another epic Dana White audio clip. Win-win if you ask me.
With all the attention focusing on Parisyan’s return, Hallman falls well under the radar heading into this bout, and that is a dangerous thing. Guys with a legitimate 45 wins on their resume rarely go unnoticed at this level, yet people continue to sleep on “Superman.” He’s twice submitted Matt Hughes, in a combined 38 seconds no less, and has the grappling skills to hang with Parisyan a la Dong Hyun Kim.
Aaron Simpson (7-1-0) vs. Mark Munoz (8-2-0)
Earlier this year, Simpson coaxed a lot of warm and fuzzy feelings out of people who were smitten with his unbeaten record and late-in-life success inside the Octagon.
Those feelings, like the 36-year-old “A-Train,” got knocked off the track at the TUF 11 Finale by Chris Leben. Now, the Arizona State alum needs to right the rig or be left at the station. With that, I have filled by “train analogy” quota for the year.
Munoz is in need of a bounce-back performance as well, having most recently lost to the division’s new #1 contender, Yushin Okami, back in August. Heavy-handed with a very good collegiate wrestling base of his own, this is probably the ideal level for Munoz; his two forays higher up the food chain produced his two career defeats, while he looked most impressive in his comeback win against Kendall Grove, another fighter who should solely reside in this region.
The contest kicks off the Spike TV Prelims LIVE portion of the evening, and should hit the mark as far as the television side of things go; both like to keep a quick pace and swing with violent intent, the two key criteria to a good free TV lead-in fight.
Matt Brown (11-9-0) vs. Brian Foster (14-5-0)
Brown is an amalgamation of two MMA media members, sharing the name of this site’s Editor-in-Chief while barring a striking resemblance to Bloody Elbow chief Luke Thomas. None of that has anything to do with how he may perform in the cage, but it’s the first thing that pops into my head every time I see he’s fighting, and I thought I would share it with you.
You’re welcome.
In terms of the stuff that matters, this is undoubtedly a must-win fight for Brown, who was originally schedule to face Rory MacDonald before the young Canadian was sidelined by a knee injury. “The Immortal” has dropped back-to-back bouts, being submitted in the second round of each oddly enough, and while some fighters avoid the axe after three straight losses, Brown probably would not be so fortunate.
He needs to get back to the style that endeared him to fans following his appearance Season 7 of The Ultimate Fighter, attacking and pushing the pace, instead of the more measured and cautious approach we’ve seen of late. Perhaps that was in part due to being outclassed by his last two opponents, but either way, Brown needs a win here to stick around.
Like Brown, Foster’s last loss came to Chris Lytle; the 26-year-old tapped to a kneebar at UFC 110 in Australia last February, than spent a number of months rehab the injury he sustained in the process. Unlike Brown, Foster has rebounded since losing to Lytle, stopping Forrest Petz in impressive fashion just over two months ago.
Despite a .500 record through four fights with the company, Foster has impressed the UFC and the fans with his consistently spirited efforts, and his last outing shows that he’s developing some power to go along with his strong wrestling base.
Much like the first contest scheduled for Spike, this one too should be a feisty affair and serve as an energetic introduction to the main events of the evening.
George Sotiropoulos (13-2-0) vs. Joe Lauzon (18-5-0)
The Aussie’s climb up the competitive ladder continues with a bout that should result in the winner entering the Top 5 of the lightweight division.
Sotiropoulos was an outside pick of many to earn a title shot in 2010, especially after looking so impressive beating Joe Stevenson in his native land last February, but it wasn’t to be. Instead, Frankie Edgar and B.J. Penn contested the title twice, with Sotiropoulos scoring another strong victory over Kurt Pellegrino in the meantime. Unbeaten in six appearances inside the UFC cage, if the Australian jiu jitsu player can continue to rack up victories, it’s only a matter of time before an opportunity to compete for the championship belt is before him.
The same applies to Lauzon as well, though the Massachusetts native has never managed to string together the same number of wins as his opponent to this point in his UFC career. That won’t matter if he’s able to build off the performance he delivered at UFC 118 in Boston, a first-round submission mauling of Gabe Ruediger that was the best version of Lauzon we’ve seen in quite some time.
Both men enjoy the grappling game, so we’re either going to get a high-level jiu jitsu match that causes some of the audience to boo like idiots, or a bad kickboxing match between two guys with limited stand-up arsenals that will irritate most. Yet another reason why the ground game isn’t nearly as bad as its critics would lead you to believe.
Phil Davis (7-0-0) vs. Tim Boetsch (12-3-0)
Davis is one of the best prospects in the sport, if you can call a guy riding a three-fight winning streak in the UFC a prospect. A four-time All-American and former National champion wrestler at Penn State, Davis isn’t your typical collegiate wrestling crossover; he has impressive jiu jitsu and an attacking style once the fight goes to the ground.
Boestch earned a win last time out in his return to the organization; he split four fights during his first pass through the UFC, and is eager to ensure that he doesn’t feel the pain of being released for a second time. Though not nearly as decorated as Davis, Boetsch was also a collegiate wrestler and has been working with Matt Hume to further develop and tweak his overall MMA skills.
This bout is a litmus test for Davis, a chance to see where his ceiling sits or know for sure that he’s ready to step up to the next tier of competition during his sophomore year in the organization.
Gerald Harris (17-2-0) vs. Maiquel Falcao (25-3-0)
When Season 7 of The Ultimate Fighter got underway, Harris was the early favorite to take home the six-figure contract. Of course, no one told Amir Sadollah, and the affable medical technician dispatched Harris on the way to winning the entire thing.
Almost two years went by before Harris would get his opportunity to fight in the Octagon, and he hasn’t looked back since, winning three straight. With a lack of new and entertaining talents in the middleweight division, the explosive 30-year-old could make a charge up the rankings in 2011.
For his fourth appearance in the Octagon, Harris will welcome Falcao to the organization and the middleweight division.
A Chute Boxe student, Falcao has spent his entire career competing as a light heavyweight. He’s racked up 25 wins, 21 of which have come by TKO, in the process, but there is no way of knowing what the cut to 185 will do to Falcao. What can be said with some certainty is that the Brazilian will come out aggressively and ready to exchange; while they may not be producing the assassins they turned out during their glory days, Chute Boxe still produces dangerous strikers, Falcao included.
This is a trilogy fight that I never thought I would see; Hughes looked like he was on his way down, while Penn seemed focused on dominating the lightweight division.
But a funny thing happened on the way to this series staying even: Hughes got hot and started looking like he was having fun again, while Penn dropped the lightweight title and rematch to Frankie Edgar, looking thoroughly uninspired during the performance. Now we’re at Auburn Hills and these two historic champions are going to settle the score.
Seeing Hughes beat Matt Serra and Renzo Gracie in back-to-back bouts was neither unexpected nor overly entertaining; the former was a slow affair fought on the ground, while the latter was a really bad kickboxing match that took place in the desert.
Those efforts were erased and forgiven when Hughes choked out Ricardo Almeida in August. The greatest welterweight champion in UFC history (for now people, relax) looked like the guy who marched to that championship in the first place, putting the former middleweight to sleep with a serious front-headlock chokehold. While a winter of rest and hunting was originally scheduled, a chance to resolve things with Penn couldn’t be missed, and I for one and thankful for that decision.
As for Penn, the former two division champ not only needs a win, but a statement win. He has looked lethargic in his last two outings, being beaten to the punch over-and-over against Edgar, and since he seems to have outgrown the lightweight division, moving to welterweight with a loss – to a resurgent, but non-contending Hughes – would leave Penn with very few options moving forward.
To put it bluntly, this might be Penn’s last chance to start following through on the years of wasted promise and talent we have endured. If he shows up unready or unwilling to push himself to his limits, a loss and a place as the greatest “what could have been” fighter in the sport’s history awaits him. Should he win, “The Prodigy” will buy himself another chance, though few, if any, believe he will ever reach his full potential.
We should know early on which Penn we’re dealing with, and while watching a well-conditioned Penn go toe-to-toe with Hughes would be the best case scenario, seeing an out of shape and sluggish Hawaiian get a beatdown from a crotchety old farm boy wouldn’t be all that bad either.
These two former light heavyweight champions collide off dramatic losses. Though neither has fallen far from the top of the division, they also have limited time to return to the pinnacle, as guys like Rashad Evans, Forrest Griffin and Rich Franklin will soon be joined by emerging stars Jon Jones, Ryan Bader and Phil Davis in the chase for “Shogun” Rua’s crown.
Stylistically, this is a very interesting pairing, as the raw power of Jackson is capable of ending anyone’s night, including Machida. The problem – and hook here – is that you have to connect for that power to mean anything, and no one is better at avoiding danger than “The Dragon.” Machida is the quicker of the two, and probably the more well-rounded on the ground should the fight happen to find its way there, so it will be on Jackson to make his own opportunities. All that depends on what kind of shape Jackson shows up in.
If “Rampage” really has been as focused on this fight as reports have indicated, than the former Pride champion has a legitimate chance of getting back in the win column. Rua showed that Machida is capable of being put to sleep with a well-placed punch, and Jackson has thrown a few of his own over the years. Out of shape, however, Machida will be able to stick-and-move, scoring points at will while handing Jackson a second-consecutive loss.
The outlook for Machida is much more simplistic; if he can avoid getting dropped, he should earn his 17th win in 18 attempts. Depending on who emerges from next year’s title fight between Evans and Rua, a win could also earn Machida a title shot if Evans manages to wrest the belt away from the injured current champion.
Machida is still the elusive and dangerous fighter who inspired Joe Rogan to proclaim the beginning of “The Machida Era” when he earned the light heavyweight title, so while the belt is no longer around his waist and the almost untouchable aura that once existed is gone, he’s still one of the most talent fighters in the world, regardless of weight class.
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