Posts Tagged ‘Urijah Faber’

Odds and Predictions for UFC 139: Mauricio “Shogun” Rua vs. Dan Henderson

Saturday, November 19th, 2011

UFC 139 will take place Saturday, November 19 from the HP Pavilion in San Jose, CA. The fight card is stacked with former champions from various MMA promotions, including UFC, PRIDE, WEC and Strikeforce.

Headlining the card will be Dan Henderson and Mauricio Rua, two former champions that will be looking to put themselves in line for the shot at the ultimate prize. That is, Jon Jones’ UFC light heavyweight title.

Henderson, a former champion in Strikeforce and PRIDE, is 4-1 in his last five fights with all four of those victories coming via knockout. The last time Henderson fought in the UFC was at UFC 100, where he delivered one of the most memorable knockouts in UFC history by putting Michael Bisping to sleep at the 3:20 mark of Round 2.

Henderson’s opponent, “Shogun” Rua, has a record of 4-3 since joining the UFC in 2007. Two of those wins came by knockout and the other two came via TKO. Of Rua’s three losses in the Octagon, the one that most likely nags at him the most is the loss to Jon Jones at UFC 128 in a fight that saw Jones wrestle the title away from Rua in dominating fashion.

The co-main event of the evening will see former Strikeforce champion Cung Le face off against former PRIDE champion Wanderlei Silva.

Le brings a record of 7-1 into his Octagon debut. Of those wins, five have come via knockout and two via TKO. He will look to add another stoppage victory to that list when he faces the struggling “Axe Murderer.”

Silva has a record of 2-6 since 2006. Of his six losses, four have come via knockout or TKO. After his last loss, a 27-second knockout at the hands of Chris Leben, UFC president Dana White openly expressed the fact that he was considering pulling a “Chuck Liddell” and basically forcing Silva into retirement

While that did not come to pass, to say that Silva needs a big win in this fight would be an understatement.

Also on the pay-per-view card, former WEC champions Urijah Faber and Brian Bowles will face off, with the winner looking to get a shot at current UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz.

UFC 139 Odds:

Mauricio Rua (-145) favorite over Dan Henderson (+115)

Cung Le (-160) favorite over Wanderlei Silva (+130)

Urijah Faber (-220) favorite over Brian Bowles (+180)

Rick Story (-150) favorite over Martin Kampmann (+120)

Kyle Kingsbury (-140) favorite over Stephan Bonnar (+110)

Ryan Bader (-340) favorite over Jason Brilz (+270)

Michael McDonald (-420) favorite over Alex Soto (+320)

Chris Weidman (-325) favorite over Tom Lawlor (+265)

Miguel Torres (-345) favorite over Nick Pace (+275)

Gleison Tibau (-180) favorite over Rafeal dos Anjos (+150)

Matt Brown (-155) favorite over Seth Baczynski (+125)

Danny Castillo (-325) favorite over Shamar Bailey (+265)

UFC 139 Main Card Predictions:

Dan Henderson vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua:

Both Dan Henderson and Shogun Rua enter this fight coming off knockout wins, Henderson over Fedor and Rua over Forrest Griffin. With both fighters having a nice run of KO victories coming into this fight many are expecting this one to end abruptly. I wouldn’t bet the farm on that, in fact I see Henderson taking this one to the ground via his wrestling skills and grinding out the win.  Henderson by unanimous decision.

Wanderlei Silva vs. Cung Le:

There comes a point in every great fighters career where they should retire, sadly, it seems as if Wanderlei Silva is well past that point. He’s 2-6 in his last eight fights and four of those knockouts, including a 27-second KO in his last fight, have been pretty nasty.  Silva will be facing a UFC newcomer in Le, but that newcomer has finished every single fight he has won with a KO or TKO.  I don’t see this one ending any differently. Le by TKO

Urijah Faber vs, Brian Bowles:

This fight may very well decide who is the next fighter to challenge for Dominick Cruz’s bantamweight title.  Both fighters probably deserve to be in this situation, with that being said Faber is probably a level higher in overall talent than Bowles add to that the fact that Bowles quit in his corner in a title fight because of a broken hand, and Faber has the advantage in mental toughness as well.  Add these things up and you have the makings of Faber vs. Cruz III.  Faber by unanimous decision.

Martin Kampmann vs. Rick Story:

Two fighters that had runs toward the top of the welterweight division derailed will meet up in this bout.  Kampmann is coming off two controversial losses that could have gone either way, while Story is coming back from a loss to a fighter that was ranked much lower than he was.  I don’t think Kampmann is in danger of being cut with a loss here, as he was close to winning both of his last two, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t going to fight like his back’s against the wall.  Kampmann by unanimous decision.
Stephan Bonnar vs. Kyle Kingsbury:

This one may not be the best fight for a main card if you look strictly at rankings, but if you look at this one as pure entertainment, well, you could do worse.  Look for a pure stand up battle, that will go the three round distance.  Kingsbury by split decision.


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UFC 132: A Cold, Hard Look Back at the Main Card

Tuesday, July 12th, 2011

Time to take a look back at the UFC 132 main card.

After defeating Nate Diaz at UFC 125 Dong Hyun Kim called out UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre. At UFC 132 Carlos Condit let Kim know, in no uncertain terms, that looking past the other fighters in the welterweight division and setting his sights at the top was a big mistake.

Condit handed Kim his first career loss on July 2, landing a perfectly placed flying knee to Kim’s chin. Not only did that knee give Kim his first loss, it earned Condit a nice $75,000 bonus for “Knockout of the Night.”

The victory also moved Condit’s record to 12-1 in his last 13 fights and 27-5 overall. Of those 27 wins, 26 have come via some form of stoppage.

So, what’s next for Condit, one of the few top ranked welterweights that St-Pierre has yet to face? Speaking to 106.7 The Fan, Condit offered the following, “I would like to think it (the win over Kim) puts me in the top five. There are some other big names that I have yet to fight (Jon) Fitch, (Josh) Koscheck, I have a loss to (Jake) Shields. I feel like I really should beat a guy before I’m ranked above him, but I’m right in the mix.”

Former UFC light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz was fighting for his UFC career when he faced off against heavily favored Ryan Bader at UFC 132. Ortiz made short work of the younger Bader, dropping him to the canvas with a big right hand and then applying a guillotine choke that forced Bader to tap at the 1:56 mark of the first round. After the bout Bader claimed that he had briefly been unconscious from the punch that dropped him.

Ortiz had a good night; he saved his career, pocketed a nice check for his performance ($450,000) and added the $75,000 “Submission of the Night” bonus.  Ortiz wasted no time in calling for his next opponent, saying he wouldn’t mind facing the winner of the Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua versus Forrest Griffin bout that is scheduled for UFC 134. The win was Ortiz’s first since he defeated Ken Shamrock back in 2006.

Ortiz would be wise to consider retiring on his own terms at this time, but when your check is almost half a million dollars for, at most, 15 minutes of work, well, that will make anyone think twice about stepping away.

Bader has now lost two fights in a row, the first to current UFC light heavyweight champion. With the loss to a fighter that he was such a favorite against in Ortiz, ‘Darth’ Bader will have some work to do to regain his standing in the light heavyweight ranks.

The lightweight bout between Dennis Siver and Matt Wiman was a very even fight, but in the end all three judges saw it 29-28 for Siver, giving the surging lightweight his fourth straight win. Wiman, obviously thinking that the fight was his, ripped his arm free from the referee when Siver was announced as the winner. Wiman continued his performance, throwing off his hat, and removing his tee shirt before stalking out of the cage in disgust.

The fight between Chris Leben and Wanderlei Silva was highly anticipated, as a knockout was expected from these two ‘stand and bang’ crowd pleasers. Early on Silva momentarily stunned Leben and moved in for the kill. When Silva advanced on his opponent he did so with no defense and Leben took that opportunity to grab the back of Silva’s head and tee off with strong uppercuts that left the ‘Axe Murderer’ sprawled unconscious on the canvas a mere 27 seconds into the first round.

The KO put Leben back in the win column and put Silva’s career in question. After the fight UFC president Dana White mentioned that he thought it would be the last we would see of Silva in the UFC and that he may have to ‘Chuck Liddell’ him into retirement.

The main event was a grudge match between UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz and the only man to ever beat him, former WEC champion Urijah Faber.  The fight was 25 minutes of non-stop action with the champion offering more aggression throughout the bout. Faber was able to tag Cruz and drop him a few times, but he could not capitalize once he had Cruz stunned. In the end, the odd angles and movement that the champion offered proved too much for Faber to overcome and the unanimous decision went to Cruz.

In the days following the fight the idea of a rubber match was bandied about and honestly, an immediate rematch would probably not be out of line for these two, that’s how good the fight was.

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UFC 132: Dominick Cruz Looks to End all the Talk About Loss to Urijah Faber

Friday, July 1st, 2011

UFC Bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz

When Urijah Faber steps into the Octagon on Saturday, July 2 to face off against Dominick Cruz, he will not be up against the same fighter that he defeated via first round submission on March 24, 2007. The Cruz that Faber choked out in that fight was a young fighter, untested against top competition and fighting on his first WEC fight card.

The version of Cruz that will step into the UFC Octagon on Saturday at UFC 132 is on an eight-fight winning streak, defeating some of the top competition the bantamweight division has to offer. Fighters such as Brian Bowles, Scott Jorgensen and Faber’s teammate Joseph Benavidez have all fallen to Cruz during his run to the top of the bantamweight division. Cruz also holds one thing that is coveted by Faber, the UFC bantamweight title.

Cruz and Faber have a history that has turned Saturday’s fight into a grudge match of sorts. The problems between the two began when Cruz saw the official fight poster for WEC 26. Cruz was not on the fight poster even though he was fighting for a world title and that left a bad taste in his mouth. Cruz, speaking to MMAJunkie said his remedy for the slight was, “So, my way of getting on the poster was to sign where I signed (over Faber’s picture), and it ended up pissing him off.”

The two have exchanged comments and insults since that fight. One of the most recent incidents had Faber declaring, after winning his UFC debut at UFC 128, “Dominick, if you’re out there, hide your kids, hide your wife, hide that UFC belt.”

Later at the post-fight press conference Faber said he was just joking with that comment, “I was just trying to add some humor. I like messing with Dominick. Like I said before, I feel like he chose me as an enemy, and I gladly accepted. I’m just messing around with him and letting him know I’m getting his belt.”

For his part, Cruz is tired of all the talk that has taken place over the past four years. In an interview with MMAFighting.com, Cruz said, “Im just tired of heraring about (the feud with Faber), I’m ready to settle it, get in there (and) fight, that’ll make the talking stop and I can start hearing about me being champion instead of my loss to Urijah Faber.”

Cruz will enter the bout as the top ranked bantamweight in all of MMA, a spot Faber once held in the featherweight division. According to Cruz, those days are past for the fighter that is known as ‘The California Kid.’ Cruz told MMAFighting, that while Faber has improved in some areas he remains a fighter that is tied to one dominant style, grappling, “he hasn’t evolved that much,” Cruz said of his opponent.

The oddsmakers seem to agree with Cruz,  he enters the fight as a slight favorite over Faber, -157 to Faber’s +127 according to betonfighting.com.

UFC 132 will take place on Saturday, July 2. The UFC will stream four preliminary fights to their facebook page beginning at 6:15 p.m. ET. Spike TV will then broadcast two additional preliminary fights at 8 p.m. ET. The five-fight main card which will be headlined by the five round Cruz vs Faber bout will be broadcast at 9 p.m. ET on pay-per-view.

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