Author: Antwyn Jackson

UFC 142 Fight Card: Is Vitor Belfort’s Career Coming to a Close?

Yes, Vitor Belfort’s career is coming to a close, but it’s not a sad occasion like the end of Chuck Liddell’s career or more recently Mirko “Cro-Cop” Filipovic’s career.  His career is coming to a close simply because of his age, that’s it.  …

Yes, Vitor Belfort’s career is coming to a close, but it’s not a sad occasion like the end of Chuck Liddell’s career or more recently Mirko “Cro-Cop” Filipovic’s career.  

His career is coming to a close simply because of his age, that’s it.  He’s still ferocious.  He’s still deadly with his hands.  He’s still one of the best finishers in the business.  Most importantly, he still has the mind of a champion and a heart of a lion.  The question is his motivation.  Does he have enough in the tank to make another title run.

There are a lot of things to consider when looking at the future for Belfort.  First thing, if he is motivated by getting the belt, then he has to hope Anderson Silva either retires or is beat by Chael Sonnen or Mark Munoz.  There’s no way that he gets a rematch with the champion any time soon, considering the epic fashion in which he lost.

Second, is he tied to the middleweight division?  If he wants to get another shot at the belt, he could look to go back to the light heavyweight division and try to make waves there, but that is a very difficult hill to climb.  However, with the fact that Jon Jones is wiping out other contenders, who knows what could happen?

Consider this list: Anderson Silva, Alistair Overeem, Randy Couture, Tito Ortiz, Dan Henderson, Kazushi Sakuraba and Chuck Liddell.  Those the men who have defeated Belfort in his career.  Looks like a list of Hall of Famers.  If Belfort’s career is indeed coming to a close and he doesn’t get the elusive title-shot he feels he deserves, he has a career anyone can be proud of.  

Here’s to hoping he does get one more chance at the gold.

 

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UFC 142 Fight Card: What A Jose Aldo Win Means for the Featherweight Division

What would a Jose Aldo win mean for the featherweight division?In a word—nothing.Aldo still has meaningful fights at 145 that would keep Dana White and Joe Silva from looking at some sort of “superfight.” However, what we may see is Aldo start to…

What would a Jose Aldo win mean for the featherweight division?

In a word—nothing.

Aldo still has meaningful fights at 145 that would keep Dana White and Joe Silva from looking at some sort of “superfight.” However, what we may see is Aldo start to test the waters at 155 to see if he actually can compete against top-level guys in that division.

Similar to the way that Anderson Silva dipped his toe in the light heavyweight division over the years, Aldo can alternate between divisions with relative ease because of how easy he can cut weight. Naturally, Aldo is probably more accustomed to 155, so it would be interesting to see how he fares.

Though he still has meaningful fights, Aldo doesn’t have any blockbuster type fights that would excite fans. Fans would get more of a kick out of seeing him move up and fight an Anthony Pettis, or dare I say it, Gray Maynard. If he were to venture in the heavier weight class, Aldo should fully expect to be thrown to the wolves from the jump.

A win for Aldo would probably have Dustin Poirier or Eric Koch in line for a shot at the belt. But because of the organization’s reluctance for superfights, look for Aldo to test the waters in the lightweight division and work his way to a position where Silva and White have to give him a title shot in the lightweight division.

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UFC 142 Predictions: Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Ednaldo Oliveira

Welcome to the UFC Ednaldo Oliveira.Welcome back Gabriel Gonzaga.  This fight is hard to predict because we don’t know what were getting out of Gabriel Gonzaga.  The man that launched the head kick heard around the world in his defeat of the …

Welcome to the UFC Ednaldo Oliveira.

Welcome back Gabriel Gonzaga.  

This fight is hard to predict because we don’t know what were getting out of Gabriel Gonzaga.  The man that launched the head kick heard around the world in his defeat of the legendary Mirko “Cro-Cop” Filipovic, has made his way back into the UFC after over a year away.

At one time, Gonzaga was on the short list of contenders for the title, but since his decision loss to Brendan Schaub at UFC 121, Gonzaga got cut and faded away from the public eye.  Now he appears to have one more title run in him and his first step is to welcome Ednaldo Oliveira to the UFC.

Ednaldo Oliveira brings an undefeated record into the octagon—and one special edge: he trains with someone who beat Gonzaga already.  As a training partner of the UFC Heavyweight champion, Junior Dos Santos, Oliveira can use the win Santos had over Gonzaga at UFC Live: Jones vs. Vera as a blueprint.  

Along with this tidbit of information, Oliveira has a pretty solid boxing pedigree from working with the champ.

I think this will be a short explosive fight with the youngster capitalizing on his knowledge from his training partner and exposing Gonzaga with a knockout victory.

Gonzaga won’t be cut after losing this one, but his level of competition will greatly decrease.

(Ednaldo Oliveira by Second Round KO)

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UFC 142 Predictions: Edson Barboza vs. Terry Etim

If the Jose Aldo/Chad Mendes fight is a dud, this fight is a dark horse candidate for fight of the night. Terry Etim is coming off a 17-second welcome-home submission victory over Edward Faaloloto that signaled to the UFC that he was back and…

If the Jose Aldo/Chad Mendes fight is a dud, this fight is a dark horse candidate for fight of the night. 

Terry Etim is coming off a 17-second welcome-home submission victory over Edward Faaloloto that signaled to the UFC that he was back and ready for a challenge. The UFC responded by giving him the undefeated phenom, Edson Barboza, in his backyard.

Edson Barboza hasn’t shown the enormous promise that has come with his entrance into the UFC, but he hasn’t lost and that stands for something. Perhaps the fact that he isn’t steamrolling his competition is better for him in the long run and will teach him how to stick to a game plan and overcome adversity.

In order for Terry Etim to win, he has to stay way from Barboza’s leg kicks. He has some of the most destructive leg kicks in the business, and it would be detrimental to Etim’s walking ability to stand there and take those kicks. 

Etim also has to get the fight to the ground where he may have a submission advantage. 

On the other hand, Barboza simply has to show his physical and athletic dominance and keep the fight standing. He has fantastic takedown defense, so Etim will have a hard time getting the fight into his comfort zone. 

With that said, it looks like a great fight on paper, but it also looks like Barboza will get the nod.

(Edson Barboza wins by decision)


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UFC 142 Predictions: Jose Aldo vs. Chad Mendes

During the time leading up to tonight’s fight between featherweight champion Jose Aldo and Chad “Money” Mendes, we’ve seen a lot of different opinions on how Mendes is the guy to dethrone Aldo and expose him.  It’s an extremely difficult task, but…

During the time leading up to tonight’s fight between featherweight champion Jose Aldo and Chad “Money” Mendes, we’ve seen a lot of different opinions on how Mendes is the guy to dethrone Aldo and expose him.  It’s an extremely difficult task, but I think he actually can do it.

If you look at Aldo’s last two fights, it shows that if a fighter can withstand his initial onslaught of unorthodox and powerful striking, a fighter with outstanding cardio can push the pace and overwhelm him. When he fought Kenny Florian, he was the fresher man in the later rounds because the effects of the weight cut started to cut into Ken-Flo’s power and speed and took him out of his game plan. Some would argue that it was more of a Florian loss than an Aldo win.

In his fight against Mark Hominick, Aldo’s stamina was really called into question. Aldo blitzed Hominick early on in the fight, but Hominick was able to secure takedowns later in the fight and whittle down Aldo in the waning minutes. Even though it was not enough for a win, it raised eyebrows that Aldo was fallible. 

So if Mendes wants the belt he has to use the cardio that is the calling card of Team Alpha Male fighters. Fellow Team Alpha Male fighter and former WEC champion Urijah Faber didn’t fare so well against Aldo in his attempt, but though many like to compare the two, they have a couple fundamental differences.

Mendes goes for more explosive double-leg takedowns and he sets up his takedowns with his striking.  Faber goes for single-leg takedowns and doesn’t set up his takedowns as much. Mendes seems to be a little stronger in this weight class than Faber was, so if he does secure a takedown, he will be able to use his strength to keep Aldo down.

All in all, Mendes will work with Faber and devise a plan of action that won’t allow him to get kicked in the leg a million times, and will also allow him to control the fight and dictate the pace. I look for Mendes to disguise his takedowns and beat Aldo up on the ground and shock the country.

Chad Mendes by Unanimous Decision

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UFC 139 Results: Miguel Torres’ New Style Is Serving Him Well

Former WEC Bantamweight king, Miguel Angel Torres showed us a different style of fighting than what we are used to seeing from his days ruling the division in WEC.Speaking of his title days, it’s sort of funny that the UFC chose the “six former champio…

Former WEC Bantamweight king, Miguel Angel Torres showed us a different style of fighting than what we are used to seeing from his days ruling the division in WEC.

Speaking of his title days, it’s sort of funny that the UFC chose the “six former champions, six quests to regain gold” moniker but chose to exclude Miguel Torres.

Let’s see, Dan Henderson won two belts in Pride and another in Strikeforce, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua held a belt in the UFC, Wanderlei Silva won a belt in Pride (along with many other accomplishments), Urijah Faber won a belt in WEC, Brian Bowles briefly held a belt in WEC (Ironically with a knockout win over Miguel Torres), and Cung Le held a belt in Strikeforce.  

If my math is correct, that totals six former champions. So why did they choose to exclude Torres?

Perhaps it’s because he wasn’t facing another former champion as the others were, I can understand that. Or maybe it was because he wasn’t on the main card, I can understand that also. But to not even mention it when you mention everybody else’s titles no matter how brief they were?

That wasn’t the coolest thing they’ve done.

However, in spite of the lack of recognition, Miguel Torres took care of business against Nick Pace in a tactical display of striking and octagon control. Long gone are the brawling days of Miguel Torres from East Chicago. Welcome the new George St. Pierre’-esque days of cerebral game plans to pick apart his opponent.  

Torres actually trained with Firas Zihabi in preparation for this fight, so he got some of the same viewpoints that GSP gets for his fights.

The new style isn’t as exciting as the previous style, but it doesn’t put Miguel in the same positions he often found himself when brawling. Torres will look to ride this new style into a potential title shot in the near future.

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Be sure to stay tuned to Bleacher Report for all things UFC 139. B/R is your home for complete coverage of the November 19 fight card, including results and post-fight analysis.  

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