UFC 125: Punch Drunk Preview

"The Bully"

Clay Guida (27-11-0) vs. Takanori Gomi (32-6-0)

This is actually a perfect pairing to have as the initial pay-per-view offering of 2011 for a number of reasons.

For starters, Guida has never been in a boring fight in his life, and his between rounds belching is always a good time.

Additionally, the freakishly energetic RV enthusiast is the perfect opponent to push Gomi to his limits and help us determine whether “The Fireball Kid” is going to spend the next year chasing down the lightweight championship or trying to tread water amongst the sharks in the division.

In his two UFC appearances, we’ve seen two different versions of Gomi. The first was overmatched against the improved wrestling of Kenny Florian, beaten for two rounds before being choked out by the MMA Live analyst. Four months later, Gomi showed the quick and powerful hands that made him a threat in Japan, catching Tyson Griffin on the chin, sending him chasing face-down to the canvas in just 64 seconds.

There is only so much room in the middle of the lightweight division, especially with the influx of talent coming from the WEC, so both Guida and Gomi need to start the year with an impressive performance if they hope to rise above the masses in 2011.

Nate Diaz (13-5-0) vs. Dong Hyun Kim (13-0-1, 1 NC)

Why does this feel like the welterweight version of Diaz’s fight with Clay Guida?

After impressing during Season 5 of The Ultimate Fighter and putting together a couple of quality wins in the lightweight division, the kid from Stockton stepped up in competition and fell flat. Three losses in four fights followed, all of which came to tough grapplers who smothered Diaz.

Now that he’s had a couple of quality appearances in the welterweight division, fights that were tailor-made to showcase everything good in the Diaz arsenal, he’s matched up with someone who isn’t going to stand-and-trade, someone who has the ability to grind him into a loss.

Kim has flown under the radar in the welterweight division thanks to only a couple of marketable fights (Karo Parisyan and Amir Sadollah) and injuries holding up his return to the cage. While he may not be a household name, the South Korean “Stun Gun” is a talent to be watched in the welterweight division this coming year.

A black belt judoka, Kim has the size and strength to control Diaz in the clinch and against the cage, a strategy he used successfully against Sadollah. While far from flashy, Kim is extremely effective at implementing his style and controlling the action. He’s difficult to take down and will have an advantage in the measurable points with Diaz.

While they’re of similar size and stature, and both will weigh-in somewhere around the 170-pound limit, Kim will be the bigger of the two in every way on Saturday night, and that could be the ultimate difference maker.

Brandon Vera (11-5-0) vs. Thiago Silva (14-2-0)

Though I know it won’t be the case, there is a part of me that wants to see the loser of this fight handed a pink slip on Monday morning. Not that I have any kind of personal vendetta or hatred for either man, but they’re simply middle-of-the-pack talents who have been forced upon us one-too-many times for my liking and I don’t want to have to endure another round of it leading up to their next fight.

This time two years ago, Silva stood across the cage from Lyoto Machida, both men sporting unblemished records, and only one poised to advance into championship contention. Machida dropped Silva at the close of the opening round, and you know what happened from there.

Last year was a scuttled year for Silva, as he fought just once thanks to a lingering back injury that almost caused him to miss that lone bout in the first place. He lost to Rashad Evans at UFC 108 and spent the remainder of the year dealing with his back troubles, and now he’s more than a year removed from his last win and looking down the barrel of a two-fight losing streak.

The situation is even worse for Vera, the once-hyped star who failed to live up to the advanced billing offered by both the organization and the fighter himself. Having once boasted that he would wear the light heavyweight and heavyweight belts at the same time, Vera has come up well short of those standards. Last time out, Jon Jones literally smashed his face in, leaving “The Truth” with multiple facial fractures that required surgery and a lengthy time on the sidelines to recover.

Both have shown flashes of talent and potential, but it is hard to get behind either fighter when we’ve seen them propped up on promotional material only to come up short on a number of occasions. Neither is a world-beater or going to ascend much higher than their current standing in the division; as such, wouldn’t it just be easier to have one good-but-not-great light heavyweight amongst the rank-and-file?

photo by James Law/Heavy.com

Chris Leben (25-6-0) vs. Brian Stann (9-3-0)

The 2010 Comeback Fighter of the Year (at least on my ballot) gets a chance to keep the hot-streak rolling on the opening day of 2011.

After underwhelming in his back-from-suspension fight against Jake Rosholt, Leben rattled off three-straight wins in 2010, including his impressive two wins in two weeks performance in the summer. Just when you thought “The Crippler” was completely embracing his disappointing, underachieving role in the division, he goes out and looks terrific against both Aaron Simpson and Yoshihiro Akiyama in the span of 14 days.

Stann looked solid in his middleweight debut, catching Mike Massenzio in a triangle during the third round of their August encounter. As former WEC light heavyweight champion and decorated Marine, Stann is an easily marketed fighter who has shown improving all-around skills since he began training in Albuquerque with Greg Jackson and his team of coaches.

While Leben has viewed this bout as a step back after his impressive summer, Stann has the opportunity to throw his name into the discussion near the top of the division with a win, and the stylistic match-up isn’t all that bad. Both men prefer throwing hands and have solid-but-unspectacular ground games in reserve, which means we should end up with an old fashioned donnybrook on our hands.

Frankie Edgar (13-1-0) vs. Gray Maynard (10-0-0, 1 NC)

It would be very easy to look at the first meeting between these two, a meeting that Maynard dominated, and expect the same outcome in the sequel. But if Hollywood has taught us anything about sequels, it’s that while the characters remain the same and the plots may be similar, there are always a few twists and turns along the way that differentiate the follow-up from the first installment.

There is no denying that Maynard is a tremendous wrestler who has used his dominant top game to work his way into a title shot. Regardless of how little you like watching him fight, the former Michigan State Spartan keeps coming out on the right side of the scorecards and good things happen when you keep winning. His boxing has been improving for some time under the guidance of Gil Martinez, and while his size and strength edge was the difference in his initial meeting with Edgar, this time it could be Maynard’s downfall.

Where Maynard has remained roughly the same fighter since he handed Edgar the lone loss of his career, the UFC lightweight champion has evolved into the dynamic fighter who twice defeated the man considered the best lightweight ever.

Since losing to Maynard, Edgar has improved his boxing, both his footwork and striking, to the point that people have forgotten he began his career as a quality wrestler. “The Answer” darts in-and-out better than anyone not named Dominick Cruz, scoring points and avoiding damage at the same time. While he tried to wrestle with Maynard the last time around, expect the champion to employ a stick-and-move strategy similar to the one he utilized against Penn.

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