It’s been almost a month since UFC 110 and things have been very slow except for the attention centered around James Toney. Our waiting is almost at an end, the UFC is showing an unprecedented 3 events in 10 days.
Starting next Sunday on March 21, the UFC debuts on the Versus channel with a great card, see fight card below.
UFC ON VERSUS
Brandon Vera vs Jon Jones
Junior Dos Santos vs Gabriel Gonzaga
Cheick Kongo vs Paul Buentello
Alessio Sakara vs James Irvin
Then on Saturday the 27th, we have UFC 111 showcasing 2 title fights, a #1 contender fight and some other great match ups to go along with a free preliminary show on spike.
UFC 111 – Main Card
Georges St. Pierre vs Dan Hardy
Frank Mir vs Shane Carwin
Ben Saunders vs Jake Ellenberger
Jon Fitch vs Thiago Alves
Jim Miller vs Mark Bocek
Spike broadcast
Nate Diaz vs Rory Markham
Ricardo Almeida vs Matt Brown
If that isn’t enough, Wednesday March 31 is Ultimate Fight Night 21 headlined by Florian vs Gomi which will precede the first episode of TUF 11.
Ultimate Fight Night 21
Kenny Florian vs Takanori Gomi
Roy Nelson vs Stefan Struve
Ross Pearson vs Dennis Siver
Nate Quarry vs Jorge Rivera
Great stuff on the way folks, which fight are you most excited to see?
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Caesar Gracie
John
Yael Grauer
Dale
Tyler Johnson
felo
Mike
Tony
Shawn
Ben Cartlidge
I actually like Dan Hardy. What is Matt Serra going to help him out with though, making sure not to get beat up as badly?
Hardy is a tough kid but I think he showed in the Swick fight that he lacks the killer instinct to finish a fight. He had many opportunities to finish Swick off but instead chose to grapple him even when he had him hurt backing up into the cage.
Second, I think this fight is going to come down to hand speed. GSP’s striking is on another level and I see Hardy missing almost every strike he throws until he eventually gives up and stops throwing punches all together after GSP takes him down a few times.
Hardy is tall and lean (much like Jon Fitch) but is more muscular than Fitch,hence, slower. GSP was beating Fitch to every punch and I think he will do the same.
I suppose the real question comes down to who has a stronger chin,
Mike Swick or GSP. I still haven’t seen GSP rocked by a strong puncher in years and Hardy does have power.
I used to hate Hardy and i picked against him in every fight, then he went ahead and won every fight. His antics have become less disrespectful and more comical as time went on, so he’s grown on me. I’m picking against Hardy again in this one and I hope he doesn’t surprise us again.
I was actually impressed with his win over Swick, he showed he can take a punch in that fight.
Last time we saw GSP rocked was against Serra but since then he’s gone pure wrestling on guys. He sets the takedowns up with strikes but he hasn’t actually tried to win the fight standing up.
I have to say that he could be in trouble if he can’t take Hardy to the ground but I think the wrestling gap will be too hard to overcome. In fact, Hardy has never faced a good wrestler in the UFC yet. He’s been working hard on his wrestling for this fight, but 3 months is not enough to beat GSP.
with there fight just around the corner, i’d like to hear everyones thoughts on Gomi vs. Florian. i know we had a brief discussion about it when they first announced it, but i wanna know whos picking who, and how do you think the fight will play out?
i see Florian weathering the early storm and picking Gomi apart in the second and third. i would love to see Gomi make a big splash in the light weight division and give us someone to be excited about as a potential contender for BJs title, but i dont think hes the same “fireball kid” that he used to be.
I would have said Gomi takes it 2 years ago – right now, ring rust – therefore, Florian handles him.
I just think a warmup would have been nice, the only guy they have done that favor for is Rampage Jackson ..
Cro Cop also got a gimmie in his first with Eddie Sanchez, but yeah aside from that the Pride vets havent gotten many favors.
Good call RJ .. forgot about that
yeah same here, I’d love to pick Gomi here but everything is against him in this fight. First fight in the UFC, fighting the #2 guy in the division, cardio problems etc..
I’m trying to stay optimistic though, so im picking Kenny but hoping for a crazy 1st round KO for Gomi.
They’re kind of throwing Gomi to the wolves in his first fight but if he loses to Kenny it doesn’t look as bad as if he lost to someone lower on the ladder. Even with a loss to Kenny they could still make a fight with BJ happen anyways assuming he has a decent performance.
We all know the UFC doesn’t use rankings and they just arrange whatever fights they feel like so that’s a good thing for Gomi.
you can bet you asss if Gomi smashes Kenny in the first they will hype him as the next contender like no tomorrow, and if he loses you wont be able to wipe the smirk off Danas face for about 6 months.
Yep .. Dana loves making Pride fighters look BAD .. he also likes to gloat at securing their contracts when things go their way ..
How about Herring? he got Jake O’Brien first, not exactly a gimme, but I wouldn’t say he was fed to the wolves.
Herring wasnt a huge “Pride star” and really only hardcore fans knew about him. Rampage and Cro Cop are both very marketable fighters and it was a “look who we got now, nana nana boo boo” thing with them because Rampage got his title shot after beating the top pound for pound champ, Marvin Eastman! (lol) and Cro Cops second fight with Gonzaga was supposed to be a kinda gimmie. so yeah getting Herring crushed doesnt do a lot for the “Pride sucks!” campaign anyways so he didnt need and overly easy OR tough fight in his first UFC bout.
I am interested in seeing Cro Cops next fight, he looked a little better conditioned and a bit more confident in the weeks leading to as well as the night of his most recent fight, although thats not saying a lot since he was fighting a no name LHW for all intents and purposes ..
C’mon BV… “Herring”? .. how long did it take you to jog your memory on THAT guy .. Herring is cool, but by no means is he a top 10 HW .. Wand was a top 10 when he came in, and so was Mirco, so was Jackson, Anderson was a bit of a sleeper .. Gomi, well not sure where he stands but he’s getting top 5 competition walking in the door, cannot say the same for Heath Herring..
Nah, not a top 10 guy, but he definitely counts as a Pride guy.
My point is that at the time they fought, Obrien was undefeated, and he bested a new to the cage Herring, not exactly a gimme is right .. notice they always get undefeated fighters, or really top named fighters, top competition… that was my point.
Guys I am going to train MMA at West Side MMA with Rolando Delgado and Mike Wessel this weekend – should be sweet. I will let you know how badly I get injured Monday ;)