First UFC bash in Australia. Will be in the Acer Arena in Sydney. Pretty good Card. * Heavyweight Bout: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Cain Velasquez * Middleweight Bout: Wanderlei Silva vs. Michael Bisping * Lightweight Bout: Joe Stevenson vs. George Sotiropoulos * Light Heavyweight Bout: Keith Jardine vs. Ryan Bader * Heavyweight Bout: Mirko Filipović vs. Ben Rothwell * Light Heavyweight Bout: Elvis Sinosic vs. Chris Haseman * Light Heavyweight Bout: Stephan Bonnar vs. Krzysztof Soszynski * Welterweight Bout: Chris Lytle vs. Brian Foster * Middleweight Bout: C.B. Dollaway vs. Goran Reljic * Light Heavyweight Bout: James Te-Huna vs. Igor Pokrajac
Sorry for the confusion, but the fights will be broadcast live & take place in Sydney on the 21st, but it will be Sat 20th here in the USA.
I know, but the one that really got me was the Bader vs. Jarden fight. I thought Bader would just try to wrestle Jarden, but he looked more like Ryo from Streetfighter
Sad. Very sad. I'm excited for Cain because he is a guy I can really like, but to see Big Nog get manhandled like that made me sad.
I hate to think this, but I wonder how much time Nog has at the top level. I mean, he's only 33, but he's an *old* 33. Fighting in Pride does that to people - tons of fights, little recovery time. I mean, while it does look like Wanderlei has something left in the tank, he's not the beast that he was in Pride, either. And I'd like to not think that this has anything to do with the fact that Pride had no regulation or drug testing, but that can't be forgotten either.
I don't think guys like Nogueira or Fedor were doing anything unscrupulous, the jury is out on Wanderlei. Big Nog was always a technique guy anyway. But yes, the fights in Pride were more brutal, and frequent than UFC. A UFC fighter may fight 3 times in a year, a Pride fighter could fight 3 times in a night.