Author: D Wizzle

UFC on Fuel 2 Preview: Gustafsson vs. Silva

The UFC had a short hiatus but is finally back with a show this Saturday live from Stockholm, Sweden. There will be 12 fights total with six fights on the prelims and six on the main card. The main card will be shown on Fuel TV starting at 12 p.m. PT…

The UFC had a short hiatus but is finally back with a show this Saturday live from Stockholm, Sweden. There will be 12 fights total with six fights on the prelims and six on the main card.

The main card will be shown on Fuel TV starting at 12 p.m. PT while the prelims can be viewed on the UFC page on Facebook at 9:30 a.m. PT on Saturday.

Alexander Gustafsson takes on Thiago Silva in the main event. Gustafsson will be fighting in his hometown and in front of many friends and family members. He is a legitimate contender in the light heavyweight division, and if he wins he might be a fight or two away from challenging current champion Jon Jones for the title.

Silva is the underdog in this fight and his opponent will have a four-inch reach advantage.

Although Gustafsson is from Sweden, he trains out of Team Alliance in San Diego, Calif., along with current UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz.

There are many fighters from Europe on this show since this is the first European card this year.

Brian Stann will fight Alessio Sakara in the co-main event. This fight promises to be a good stand-up brawl as both of these fighters like to keep the fight on their feet.

The “All American” Stann is coming off a loss to Chael Sonnen last November and suffered a family tragedy two days before Christmas when his brother-in-law was killed in a violent death.

Sakara was on a three-fight winning streak until he lost to Chris Weidman in his last fight. Sakara trains out of Miami with American Top Team.

Most MMA fans are anticipating the UFC 145 show on April 21 because of the main event grudge match between Rashad Evans and Jon Jones, but this Saturday’s card is very underrated.

Other fights that could be exciting are Dennis Siver vs. Diego Nunes, Papy Abedi vs. James Head and Siyar Bahadurzada vs. Paulo Thiago.

Siver is making his featherweight debut on this show and it will be interesting to see how the weight cut affects the muscular fighter.

Although there are a lot of unknown fighters on this card, this show in Sweden might have better fights than next week’s UFC 145 show.

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UFC on Fox 2 Was a Huge Disaster

UFC on Fox 2 was a huge disaster as fans inside the arena were leaving during the main event.  Television viewers watching on Fox were probably switching channels during the two-hour broadcast last Saturday evening.The pre-lim portion of the card …

UFC on Fox 2 was a huge disaster as fans inside the arena were leaving during the main event.  Television viewers watching on Fox were probably switching channels during the two-hour broadcast last Saturday evening.

The pre-lim portion of the card in Chicago actually had some decent finishes but all three fights on the Fox broadcast went to a decision.

I don’t know whose idea it was to have Demian Maia vs. Chris Weidman as the first fight on the show but it wasn’t a smart one. Maia was supposed to face Michael Bisping but Bisping subbed in to fight Chael Sonnen after Mark Munoz was injured in training camp.

Weidman was the late replacement for Bisping.

Fox and the UFC could have substituted Maia’s fight vs. Weidman for one of the prelim fights such as Lavar Johnson vs. Joey Beltran or Cub Swanson vs. George Roop.

Both of those fights had knockout finishes.

It is kind of funny how fans were complaining how the Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos fight was too short on UFC on Fox 1 and now they are complaining about the three fights going the distance on UFC on Fox 2.

Fans are not just complaining about the lackadaisical fights on the broadcast but also about the many commercials and on-air talk between the Fox broadcasters.

The first fight did not start until after 20 minutes into the first hour and there was only one fight in the first hour. Talk about a good way to drive viewers away.

The UFC and Fox should have a high-profile fight to start off the show next time and maybe fans would continue to tune in to the whole show. Skip all the on-air talk between the broadcasters and maybe there can be five fights shown live instead of just three.

Spike TV was showing old UFC fights during the Fox broadcast and those fights were vastly more entertaining than any of the fights on Fox.

Let’s hope the UFC will have a better show this Saturday night when UFC 143 takes place in Vegas.

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Rampage Jackson vs. Matt Hamill: UFC 130 Post-Fight Thoughts

Overall, the show was just OK. The main event and co-main event were not very good fights. Rampage Jackson did enough to earn a title shot against Jon Jones, but not many will pick him to win against Jones. Hamill said he would break Rampage’s will…

Overall, the show was just OK. The main event and co-main event were not very good fights.

Rampage Jackson did enough to earn a title shot against Jon Jones, but not many will pick him to win against Jones.

Hamill said he would break Rampage’s will, but in fact it was Hamil whose will was broken. Hamil was unable to take down Rampage during the fight.

It wasn’t a surprise that Rick Story upset Thiago Alves. Alves has trouble with wrestlers, and Story had a great game plan. Meanwhile, the fans booed Story because they wanted to see Alves deliver a highlight-reel knockout.

Rampage was booed as well because he couldn’t finish Hamill. It was smart of Rampage not to mention the boos during his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan.

Brian Stann was impressive against Jorge Santiago. It is not a surprise that Santiago lost, as he has not been successful in the UFC and has been knocked out many times in his career.

Meanwhile, Travis Browne’s Superman punch knockout of Stefan Struve was exciting. Browne needed a good win because his last fight against Cheick Kongo was rather boring.

San Francisco’s Chris Cariaso fought well in his decision loss to Modesto’s Michael McDonald. In my opinion, this fight could have gone either way.

Middleweight Tim Boetsch looked great in dominating Kendall Grove. It seemed like he broke Grove’s will during the fight with his ability to take him down.

Perhaps the most controversial fight was that in which Demetrious Johnson’s earned a decision win over Miguel Torres. This was a back-and-forth fight that could have gone either way; the judges gave it to Johnson.

Dana White was critical of Frank Mir and Roy Nelson for their performances, but I don’t know what White expected from them. These are two big heavyweights and it wasn’t a great match-up to begin with.

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Why I Don’t Watch The Ultimate Fighter 13

I used to be a big fan of UFC’s The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) reality TV show. The first few seasons were captivating and interesting. The TUF series made stars out of fighters such as Forrest Griffin, Michael Bisping, Rashad Evans, Josh Koscheck and …

I used to be a big fan of UFC’s The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) reality TV show. The first few seasons were captivating and interesting. The TUF series made stars out of fighters such as Forrest Griffin, Michael Bisping, Rashad Evans, Josh Koscheck and Chris Leben.

Unfortunately, the show has gone stale and there is no reason to watch it anymore. TUF 13, which is on SPIKE TV every Wednesday night, has had very low ratings.

Fans are tired of seeing boring fighters and fights on the show and the coaches this season (Brock Lesnar and Junior Dos Santos) are not creating enough drama to warrant viewership.

The UFC thought that having Lesnar on TUF 13 would spike up the ratings, but this hasn’t been the case.

Maybe it is because Lesnar isn’t the heavyweight champion anymore or maybe it is because Lesnar is calmer and more mellow than before.

Casual MMA fans don’t know who Dos Santos is, even though he is one of the best heavyweights in the world. Lesnar and Dos Santos have been cordial to each other in the episodes, and there is no tension between them.

Fans used to flock to their TV sets to watch Ken Shamrock and Tito Ortiz go at each other verbally every week on TUF 3. Rashad Evans and Quinton Jackson as coaches on TUF 10 helped ratings too, as well as having street fighter Kimbo Slice on the show.

The smart fans are sick and tired of the UFC and SPIKE TV hyping up the episodes and not delivering. Who can forget the weekly previews that implied Kimbo would fight again on TUF 10 even though he lost and was out of the competition already?

How about the time when Dana White kept on saying that one of the fighters on the show (Phillipe Nover) was going to be the next Anderson Silva? Nover isn’t even in the UFC anymore after getting cut.

I can’t even name one of the fighters on TUF 13. I do know who Lew Polley is since I saw an episode where Polley (Dos Santos’ wrestling coach) was riding the guys too hard in practice.

None of the fighters stand out, and I don’t think there is a future UFC champion on TUF 13.

WWE’s Tough Enough reality show is way more interesting than TUF 13 thanks to the charismatic Stone Cold Steve Austin. Austin has more charisma than all the TUF 13 coaches and fighters combined.

It doesn’t really matter who the coaches will be on TUF 14 because the show is getting old and boring. The best option might be to have Evans and Jon Jones as coaches and bring in better fighters and personalities to compete.

If Evans and Jones are not available, I think I would rather see Miesha Tate and Gina Carano as coaches than any of the male fighters on the Zuffa roster.

SPIKE TV and the UFC need to revamp the show quickly and change it up if they want more viewers.

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