UFC 82: Pride of a Champion :: Columbus 1/3

[DoyleG]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/46/UFC_82_Official_Promotional_Poster.jpg

Main Card
Middleweight Unification Bout: Anderson Silva v. Dan Henderson
Heavyweight Bout: Heath Herring v. Check Kongo
Middleweight Bout: Evan Tanner v. Yushin Okami
Middleweight Bout: Chris Leben v. Alessio Sakara
Welterweight Bout: John Fitch v. Chris Wilson

Preliminary Bouts
Heavyweight Bout: Andrei Arlovski v. Jake O'Brien
Welterweight Bout: Luke Commo v. Luigi Fioravanti
Welterweight Bout: Diego Sanchez vs. David Bielkheden
Welterweight bout: Josh Koscheck vs. Dustin Hazelett
Lightweight bout: Jorge Gurgel vs. John Halverson

Hate being the person who had to put together this card.

The heavyweight class looks like its gonna get cleaned up a bit.

[General Disarray]

a little off subject, but seeing Joe Rogan at the Funnybone on Thursday....

[xisco7]

greco roman clinch vs. muay thai clinch....ouch.

[ssanchez]

Kongo against Herring should be fun

[CrewDust]

I had friends who bought tickets for this on pre-sale hoping to resell. They got killed, prices are going for 1/3rd of face.

[DoyleG]

a little off subject, but seeing Joe Rogan at the Funnybone on Thursday....

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51DM2HIbriL._AA280_.jpg

[BigGuy]

It will be very interesting if Silva can get Henderson in the clinch. If he does Henderson is going down.

If silva can control him he will knock him out. But can he I am not sure about that. Should be a good fight but it would not go 5 rounds for sure.

[BigGuy]

I had friends who bought tickets for this on pre-sale hoping to resell. They got killed, prices are going for 1/3rd of face.

So buy them and go.

[Unak78]

Ended up watching this one at Champs instead of Hooters and it was a much more professional and educated fan there that you could actually have intelligent conversations about the fights even if their guy lost without getting beer spit in your face. It's in a bit of a bourgie part of town and a bit of a drive but it was worth it. Anyway here's what my honest picks were for last night:

Silva vs Henderson - by late KO
Herring vs Kongo - by decision
Sakara vs Leben - by 2nd or 3rd round KO
Okami vs Tanner - by 3rd round TKO
Wilson vs Fitch - by decision

So I went 3-2 last night. Kongo had all the tools to win that fight but he just gets lost when he gets the takedown and he was taking down and overpowering Herring at will. But strength alone does not a ground fighter make and I question his decision to constantly take this fight to the ground. He didn't know what to do while on top and had no escape plan whatsoever when on his back. He had the same problem against Assuerio Silva but this time it came back to bite him in the ass. I think his success on the ground against Cro Cop Filipovic gave him some false confidence.
Fitch seemed rocked early and unable to contend with Wilson's reach in the standing. But like most strikers in the UFC not named Anderson Silva or Georges St. Pierre, he had no ground game and no idea how to get the fight back to standing.

The same sloppy, head-first rush that made Chris Leben so much fodder for Anderson Silva's calculated strikes, served dividends as Sakara just wasn't accurate enough to expose Leben's obvious weaknesses as Silva and K. Starnes have in the past. Leben is a bad fighter whose style is so odd and uneducated that good fighters will occasionally be at a loss as to how to engage him. Sakara is a better fighter but with Leben's busyness, he is liable to get caught with a stray punch if he is unable to punish Leben effectively during his mad rushes. Strike two for Sakara (time to drop to welterweight or DW will fire your ass for losing too many times).

Welcome back to televised fighting Yushin Okami. See what a new contract gets you in the UFC. An easy televised fight against a guy who hasn't fought in forever and can't seem to decide who he wants to train with and an obvious shot at the title coming up. A. Silva's been waiting for this one for awhile now. This is likely to be the first of Anderson Silva's "erase the past" matchups with Ryo Chonan being pursuaded to move up in weight to fight him later.

That said, I was happy to see Evan Tanner back where he belongs, it's been too long. It's good to see him overcome his problems.
Seems like, outside of the Kongo fight, the whole night was "Six degrees of Anderson Silva". Men who he had fought in the past made their way through the octagon plying their respective trades, pretenders for the crown, until the ultimate test of A. Silva's skills walked into the Octagon in the person of "Hollywood/Dangerous" Dan "Hendo" Henderson. I was happy to see that this time the DW allowed him to walk to the ring with the belt he earned in Pride. And for one round I was feeling something that I hadn't felt watching an A. Silva fight since that February night in 2007,... fear for my favorite fighter.

Then the second round started. And we all realized that not only was A. Silva an insanely gifted athelete, but he was a cerebral competitor able to make changes in his game plan mid-fight. The knockdown was followed by a bit of ground and pound and then he got his back. Now this moment caused me to think about the previous bout of the night. Cheick Kongo had Heath Herring's back at one point too. And then for some inexplicable reason,... he stood up??!!! Anderson Silva didn't show the same inexperience in what was supposedly his greatest weakness,... the ground game.


Great win for the Spider!

[ssanchez]

I am a long time fan of tanner, although he is getting up in age I think that his biggest drawback is his lack of consistant training.
Cheick Congo needs some sereous work on his ground game, he never controlled Hearing and never put him in any danger.
Other than that I would have loved to see the Sanchez and Arlovsky fights.
overall very good card.

[Puro_Sinaloa]

Awesome fights! I used to be a big fan of boxing, now I hardly even care about it. The only problem that i see right now, is the possible monopoly that the UFC has on this sport.

[Beltran]

These fights keep getting better and better! Chingon!

[Califas]

Im disappointed they didn't show the Diego Sanchez fight! From what I heard, it was a good one.

[pupusa3000]

I think the UFC should just close up shop now on the middleweight division. After Okami, there is no one left for Silva. Supposedly he walks around at 200 lbs, maybe he moves up to LHW.

[Puro_Sinaloa]

I think the UFC should just close up shop now on the middleweight division. After Okami, there is no one left for Silva. Supposedly he walks around at 200 lbs, maybe he moves up to LHW.

He is too big for that division. The guy ought to move up

[TheSlipperyOne]

Cheick Congo needs some sereous work on his ground game, he never controlled Hearing and never put him in any danger.


Maybe they'll make Congo and Lesnar stand in front of each other and swing away.

[Puro_Sinaloa]

Maybe they'll make Congo and Lesnar stand in front of each other and swing away.

Lesnar will take him straight to the ground.

[ssanchez]

Lesnar will take him straight to the ground.

The issue that both have is once on the ground they can't finish. Maybe lesnar can control you, but a good not great BJJ guy will submit him. Standing up Kongo has the advantage of Kickboxing background. Would be an interesting fight though.