I'm pretty sure I made a thread on this but I cant find it. (embarrassingly) So heres the fight card Main Card Anderson Silva v Chael Sonnen Co Main Forrest Griffin v Tito Ortiz Cung Le v Patrick Cote Dong Hyun Kim v Demian Maia Chad Mendes v Cody McKenzie Ivan Menjivar v Mike Easton Prelim Gleison Tibau v Khabib Nurmagomedov Fabrício Camões v Melvin Guillard Riki Fukuda v Constantinos Philippou Shane Roller v John Alessio Yoislandy Izquierdo v Rafaello Oliveira (facebook) Years in the making for both Main Card fights. Chael's well known near victory over Silva, the refusal of a rematch (Silva's side), the change of venue from Brazil to Vegas and of course the chance of it never happening due to too much Testosterone. Speaking to casual fans and some fighters I know, its split 50/50. Some say Chael will bring back the magic he brought in their first fight. Others say Silva's rage will finally come through and destroy Chael tonight within the distance. I personally think that Anderson will take it. He now knows whats coming and his striking is top notch and also he hadnt had a break from fighting and is still on a tear. Chael had a lot of personal issues in regards to drug use and legal misconducts. He since came back beating Brian Stann who was at least a top contender at the time (now out with shoulder injury) in decisive fashion. However he had trouble putting Bisping away, some (including myself) say that the decision should've gone to the Brit. Which brings in the nagging doubt, if he couldnt bring Bisping down, could he bring Silva down? (or has the judges really got it wrong and Bisping is now that good that he should be fighting tonight for the title? hmmmmmm) And of course, Anderson's 500lb secret weapon. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri5J8-w2RIE"]UFC 148: Steven Seagal Taught Anderson Silva Special Moves That We Once Thought Were Illegal - YouTube[/ame] The countdown [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPy003iUuVc&feature=player_embedded"]Countdown to UFC 148: Silva vs. Sonnen - YouTube[/ame] Tito's last hurrah. Love him or hate him, he is one of the greats. And like all big name fighters, their performances cannot fight against time. Years of wear and tear do take their toll. Chuck didnt want to admit it, Fedor wanted to go out on a (sort of) high. Tito just wants to fight one more time with his biggest earner. Forrest Griffin, on a bit of a losing streak right now but always game and always tough. I think he should take it considering that he is healthy. will comment more on the others...but I gotta work. Remember the time differences folks and I know its hard not to type up with the adrenaline of a big fight night but please all ya'll use the spoiler tags if you cant resist the urge.
I'm thinking about doing the unheard of and paying for this event. Anyone know if you can watch a pay per view the next day as I'm unlikely to be up till 3o'clock in the morning (gmt start time) without some serious 'help'. I'm gonna be doing it on xbox live if that's any help?
My Brothers Girlfriends Father does it. He buys the PPV then watches it when he can be bothered. Not sure how he does it though.
Anderson Silva seems like the kind of guy who would entertain a steven segal type showing him something and being polite about it and saying cool then when steven takes credit for his winning of the fight not having the chops to tell him too go away but this is just getting to far now, why was he on the stage at the weigh in, does he really believe the crap he is saying in that interview ? starting to agree with Bas Rutten its kind of a slap in the teeth to all his past trainers that anderson hasn't put this guy in his place yet.
The only thing I have to say about the main event is - I hope Anderson "the Spider" Silva destroys, embarress', humiliates, cripples and retires Chael "the A-Hole" Sonnen...
Did anyone see Silva hit/shrug Sonnen at the weighs on Friday. Seemed a bit silly to me, as does the concept of "stare downs" in general so i suppose it's fitting. I couldn't possibly predict the main event, of course there's only two likely outcomes: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rip5kkR82ww"]Chael Sonnen Demonstrates the Omo Plata (BLACK BELT MAGAZINE) - YouTube[/ame] Sonnen By Omoplata. or [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7O2H_9sR4A"]Chael Sonnen: Hook Kick to Spinning Backfist - YouTube[/ame] A Ko fo Sonnen by Hook kick feint to Spinning back fist. I think Forrest beats Tito again. Cote probably beats Le. I think Maia has a hard time trying to down Stun Gun and gets out struck and Chad Mendes beats Mckenzie.
I transitioned from doing MMA to start really focusing on boxing since there isn't any MMA gym I could find in my immediate area, but I have a story sort of on topic to this thread I think the MMA guys will laugh at. I was talking to the owner/instructor of the boxing gym I go to and we got into the subject of him branching out with what goes on at the facilities. He started letting a guy teach Krav Maga there and then he mentioned trying to start a kids MMA there as well. He wants to really focus on getting a fight team together for boxing and start raising fighters for competition but between running fitness classes and boxing classes he doesn't have the time so he wants to get to a point where the gyms making enough money from different things so he can just focus on the boxers. Then we start talking about MMA and he admits, "yeah, MMA is real big now so at some point if I can find some decent instructors I wouldn't mind having that here to. Just the other day I was talking to a guy at an MMA gym and he was all excited about this Anderson guy . . . . " (something along those lines) I stopped him mid sentence and asked him, "Anderson Silva?" Of course that's who he was talking about and for the next bit of discussion I informed him that if he was going to talk about MMA saying "yeah, some Anderson guy" that it is along the same lines of saying, "Yeah, that uhh . . . . Mayweather guy in boxing who is supposed to be good or something." I also told him GSP was another pretty decent MMA guy too. Not entirely relevant to the thread, but since it's about Anderson Silva I was reminded of it : P.
So anyway, as I did record it and watch it on Sunday Spoiler Easton Vs Menjivar showed some fun striking, but got a bit repetitive. Good, explosive performance from Mendes, saw the opportunity and took it without hesitation. Tenacious performance from Maia, unlucky for Dong though, freak injuries are always unsatisfying. Great result for Cung Le and very entertaining, but if he wants to keep competing he needs to develop his ability to finish a fight. Tough call for Tito, coulda gone either way really, but I was very impressed with Forrest's standup. Silva, just wow. As with many others I've harboured some reservations about Anderson, but tonight he proved his greatness. The evolution from the first fight was incredible. Such improved guard control in the first round, then outwrestling Sonnen in the second. Chael really shouldn't have gone for that spinning backfist (probably a bit frustrated). I couldn't quite make it out, did Silva trip him or did he just fall over?
Spoiler Ufc 148 was a pretty weird event everyone gets Tko'd off a body shot, Forrest suddenly thinks he is Joe Rogan and Chael Sonnen actually went for the spinning back fist. Where was the set up hook kick Chael? If you combine my insane prediction, Chael by spinning back fist and in reality Anderson. Then I was 100% right and a prophet. This means by elimination that Sonnen's way to win was to go for the arm bar from mount and transition to an omoplata. First round was pretty standard in terms of Chael fights, although I was surprised Chael got full mount fairly easily. Second round was pretty strange, Chael went for the cage clinch instead of shooting off punches like the first, and just like Okami it wasn't very successful. Chael landed some surprisingly good punches (which probably didn't bother Anderson), but he also ate some big ones. Then he went for the spinning back fist slipped horrendously and then sat still, after all standing still worked great for Vitor. Then Silva knee'd him and he was finished from there. Forrest running out of the ring when he won was also pretty entertaining. From the top angle Sonnen's knee clashes with Silva's but I don't think it was intentional from Silva.
Spoiler nice to see what Anderson can do when he is fit, probably not as good idea to annoy him and make him work hard in training lol Andersons ground game looked good, he took no punishment really, not even when mounted i dont think sonnen wanted to cage clinch i think he was too tired to actually shoot effectively in the second round and andersons footwork was much much better, his shot in the second minute of the round but anderson defended really well his hip movement and use of the whizzer was really nice, anyone else id say it was an accidental trip, but with Anderson who knows, sonnen needs to hit more supplements next time he tired so quickly
Spoiler I heard Sonnen was awarded his BJJ black belt after the fight For being such a spectacular choke artist
