(He may not have invited him to the BBQ afterward, but Anderson was going to make sure that Griffin squealed like a pig one way or another.)
The salaries for UFC 148’s twenty-two fighters were released earlier today, and it appears that Chael Sonnen earned exactly one dollar for every insult he aimed at the people of Brazil, which is 50% higher than the UFC’s current average compensatory rate for drawing the ire of an entire nation, a.k.a the Josh Koscheck clause, so a tip of the hat is in order for The Orgeonian in that regard. It will surely by him all of the medium rare steak sandwiches he could ever hope to have.
In other news, despite getting rocked on more than one occasion in his fight with the now retired Tito Ortiz and sprinting out of the cage like he was reliving his fight with Anderson Silva before the decision was even read, Forrest Griffin managed to walk away with the W and a cool $275,000 to boot. Actually, when you add in his $75,000 FOTN bonus, the total comes to…a much higher number. It would be impossible for us to crunch those kinds of numbers and still get this article together in just 8 hours, so take it for what it is and shut up.
The full list of salaries, along with our thoughts (read:complaints), is after the jump.
(He may not have invited him to the BBQ afterward, but Anderson was going to make sure that Griffin squealed like a pig one way or another.)
The salaries for UFC 148′s twenty-two fighters were released earlier today, and it appears that Chael Sonnen earned exactly one dollar for every insult he aimed at the people of Brazil, which is 50% higher than the UFC’s current average compensatory rate for drawing the ire of an entire nation, a.k.a the Josh Koscheck clause, so a tip of the hat is in order for The Orgeonian in that regard. It will surely by him all of the medium rare steak sandwiches he could ever hope to have.
In other news, despite getting rocked on more than one occasion in his fight with the now retired Tito Ortiz and sprinting out of the cage like he was reliving his fight with Anderson Silva before the decision was even read, Forrest Griffin managed to walk away with the W and a cool $275,000 to boot. Actually, when you add in his $75,000 FOTN bonus, the total comes to…a much higher number. It would be impossible for us to crunch those kinds of numbers and still get this article together in just 8 hours, so take it for what it is and shut up.
Overpaid: Look, we know Cung Le is a big time movie star (He was the bomb in Phantoms Pandorum, yo.) and all, but is he really popular enough to earn a 150 thousand dollar paycheck? We’ll give him all the credit in the world for his performance against Patrick Cote, which was easily his finest since he permanently impacted five pounds of undigested raw meat into Scott Smith’s small intestine at Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum, but to think that his base rate is almost as high as Silva’s is pretty unbelievable. Granted, Silva likely took home a significant cut of the astronomical PPV dollars, which likely boosted his salary toward the half mil mark considering those numbers. We imagine that was the case, though to a lesser extent, for Sonnen as well, because 50K doesn’t seem like much compensation for a man who has been tirelessly trolling the MMA world for a good two years now.
Also, Riki Fukuda apparently makes 28K to show. If we could tell you who that is, we would surely have more of an opinion on the matter.
*Checks Sherdog*
Ah, he’s the defending DEEP middleweight champion. Nope, still nothing.
Underpaid: Honestly, there isn’t really any figure that jumps to our immediate attention. We just hope DW threw Cody McKenzie a few extra dollars for essentially jumping on a grenade against Chad Mendes. And while we’re speaking of Mendes, considering that the man is a former title challenger, he isn’t exactly living up to his “Money” moniker. Let’s hope when his contract expires he can at least start making the money he rightfully deserves as the number 2 featherweight in the world.
(YOU JUST HAD TO ORDER THE COLONEL’S TRIPLE SUPER EXTRA CRISPY RECIPE, DIDN’T YOU, JUSTIN?!)
You can call this lazy journalism if you want (and I’d sorta agree with you), but I am going to repost the story that TUF 10 veteran Justin Wren recently posted on the Underground verbatim, because there is simply nothing that could describe the apparent spontaneous combustion then rejuvenation of the roof of his mouth more than the photos themselves do. Despite everything I know about medical science, which I learned on that one episode of Scrubs I caught a few years back, Wren appears to have contracted, then recovered from, one of the worst cases of necrotizing faciitis I have ever seen. To put it in the words of a cliched film critic, when looking at this series of images, “I laughed. Then I cried. Then I applauded. Then I vomited. Then I passed out in said vomit. Then I stood up an cheered before vomiting once more.”
Anyways, the story begins like this:
Two days ago I was helping lead at a youth camp of 750 youth kids… I was talking and then a girl yelled… “Justin! Your teeth are bleeding!” I walked outside and spit a mouthful of blood… I went to the bathroom and spit out 3 or 4 full mouthfuls of blood… I filled up 4 full 16 ounce cups of blood within an hour or so… I was told by the 4 person med team it looked like the roof of my mouth was caving in or falling off! I had some sort of strange deep infection in my palette…
The full story, complete with pictures, is after the jump. Fair warning: These pictures are f*cking disgusting.
(YOU JUST HAD TO ORDER THE COLONEL’S TRIPLE SUPER EXTRA CRISPY RECIPE, DIDN’T YOU, JUSTIN?!)
You can call this lazy journalism if you want (and I’d sorta agree with you), but I am going to repost the story that TUF 10 veteran Justin Wren recently posted on the Underground verbatim, because there is simply nothing that could describe the apparent spontaneous combustion then rejuvenation of the roof of his mouth more than the photos themselves do. Despite everything I know about medical science, which I learned on that one episode of Scrubs I caught a few years back, Wren appears to have contracted, then recovered from, one of the worst cases of necrotizing faciitis I have ever seen. To put it in the words of a cliched film critic, when looking at this series of images, “I laughed. Then I cried. Then I applauded. Then I vomited. Then I passed out in said vomit. Then I stood up an cheered before vomiting once more.”
Anyways, the story begins like this:
Two days ago I was helping lead at a youth camp of 750 youth kids… I was talking and then a girl yelled… “Justin! Your teeth are bleeding!” I walked outside and spit a mouthful of blood… I went to the bathroom and spit out 3 or 4 full mouthfuls of blood… I filled up 4 full 16 ounce cups of blood within an hour or so… I was told by the 4 person med team it looked like the roof of my mouth was caving in or falling off! I had some sort of strange deep infection in my palette…
The full story, complete with pictures, is below. Fair warning: These pictures are f*cking disgusting.
I literally felt my pulse in my teeth! I felt like they were going to explode!
Here is a chunk of skin that fell off of my palette.
Obviously from the pics I was advised to go straight to the emergency room… The camp prayed for me and I was off… I called my orthodontist who was in the New Orleans area and he said if I could handle it I could drive out to see him the next day and I wouldn’t have an emergency room bill, and he could send me to a specialist and they could take care of me… I couldn’t afford the ER so I took off…
That night I woke up LITERALLY choking on the roof of my mouth! I had to reach as deep as I could and struggle to pull it out of my esophagus…
That was absolute nastiness! Swallowing it made me start bleeding terribly and I laid on my side the rest of my night alternating from spitting blood and trying to bite down carefully on the edge of the skin so I wouldn’t swallow it if I fell back to sleep. I was DEFINITELY contemplating the ER bill…
The next morning I woke up to this…
I was on my way to the specialist and my girlfiriend’s sister texted me, called me, and my girlfriend’s dad called leaving me a voicemail… Because at this time I couldn’t talk it was SO painful… and he said that they sent the photos off to THREE dentist, my girl’s sis is a dental assistant and he sent it off to two of his friends who are really well known. ALL three doctors told me I needed an oral surgeon and they had sent my pics to an oral surgeon who was going to meet me for an emergency case late at night on his night off! My grilfriend’s father said that he was going to PAY for it, but if I still didn’t go their would continue to pray.
I got to the specialist… They said they couldn’t do anything until the retainer was off, but I had some pain meds before they tried to take it off, they had scalpels ready… and then they popped the retainer off. The specialist looked around, poked around… and said I needed to rinse the blood out for him to see what was going on. I went and rinsed and then I came back and laid down…
Previously the med team had removed a quarter size chunk of skin, a half dollar chunk of skin and then that pic of a chunk of skin fell out… and with the retainer coming out a SILVER DOLLAR size chunk of skin came out…
I rinsed and laid back down and all he could find was two identations where the retainer was, there wasn’t an infection at all like I was put on antibiotics for… there wasn’t a hole up to my sinus infection like they thought they may have found. There wasn’t anything! I rinsed, they looked around, they released me and didn’t need the scalpels or anything that they got ready!
Now, I know that the human body is capable of doing some equally abhorring and amazing things, but this takes the blood-filled cake. Either Wren was part of some Wolverine-esque secret government program when he was a child that has just begun to take effect, or he has become close friends with Tom Savini and pulled off the most extraordinary injury hoax in the history of MMA for reasons that still remain unclear. I am choosing to believe the former, as it somehow makes more sense when given the evidence at hand. In either case, I hope your lunch tasted as good coming up as it did going down.
(Sonnen tries to remain calm while scanning for the nearest exit at the UFC 148 pre-fight press conference.)
How the high and mighty have fallen, Potato Nation.
Just a few days after coming up short (again) against Anderson Silva at UFC 148, the rumors and speculations of what lies in store for middleweight contender Chael Sonnen have already begun to take on a life of its own. And at the forefront of those rumors, is the possibility that we may never see perhaps the greatest fight-hyper in the biz in the octagon again. Now, we aren’t normally quick to buy into retirement rumors that come in the immediate aftermath of a fight, even when they are coming from the fighters themselves. Because, as was the case for B.J. Penn and Jamie Varner, these supposed “retirements” were more or less a way of coping with the frustration that comes with of a string of losses (or in Sonnen’s case, a particularly hard loss to swallow), and were over before most of us compile a “Best of” list for either man. The jury is still out on how long Nick Diaz will hold out, but we’re guessing it will likely coincide with his recent suspension.
But regardless of the semi-thesis statement we’ve just laid before you, the head grappling coach at Xtreme Couture, Neil Melanson, feels that we may have seen the last of Sonnen for now. Melanson took over Sonnen’s UFC 148 training camp after Scott McQuary, Sonnen’s longtime head coach, suffered a heart attack a couple months back, and recently sat down with the ironically-titled Verbal Submission Radio to discuss Sonnen’s future in the sport:
Any time you’re a part of training camp or you’re friends with somebody and they lose, you just worry about them like, how are they gonna handle it mentally? Are they gonna come back from this? You know, I don’t know what Chael’s plans are, but I got a feeling he’s done fighting. I don’t know. I’ve just got a feeling he’s done. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think he was serious when he said, ‘If you beat me, I will leave forever,’ and there’s a very good chance of that.
(Sonnen tries to remain calm while scanning for the nearest exit at the UFC 148 pre-fight press conference.)
How the high and mighty have fallen, Potato Nation.
Just a few days after coming up short (again) against Anderson Silva at UFC 148, the rumors and speculations of what lies in store for middleweight contender Chael Sonnen have already begun to take on a life of its own. And at the forefront of those rumors, is the possibility that we may never see perhaps the greatest fight-hyper in the biz in the octagon again. Now, we aren’t normally quick to buy into retirement rumors that come in the immediate aftermath of a fight, even when they are coming from the fighters themselves. Because, as was the case for B.J. Penn and Jamie Varner, these supposed “retirements” were more or less a way of coping with the frustration that comes with of a string of losses (or in Sonnen’s case, a particularly hard loss to swallow), and were over before most of us compile a “Best of” list for either man. The jury is still out on how long Nick Diaz will hold out, but we’re guessing it will likely coincide with his recent suspension.
But regardless of the semi-thesis statement we’ve just laid before you, the head grappling coach at Xtreme Couture, Neil Melanson, feels that we may have seen the last of Sonnen for now. Melanson took over Sonnen’s UFC 148 training camp after Scott McQuary, Sonnen’s longtime head coach, suffered a heart attack a couple months back, and recently sat down with the ironically-titled Verbal Submission Radio to discuss Sonnen’s future in the sport:
Any time you’re a part of training camp or you’re friends with somebody and they lose, you just worry about them like, how are they gonna handle it mentally? Are they gonna come back from this? You know, I don’t know what Chael’s plans are, but I got a feeling he’s done fighting. I don’t know. I’ve just got a feeling he’s done. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think he was serious when he said, ‘If you beat me, I will leave forever,’ and there’s a very good chance of that.
And as understandable as it is to imagine that Chael would be feeling rather hollow after failing to defeat Silva on two separate occasions, despite performing better than any other challenger has against the champ in the process, I would have to say that this would be a huge mistake on his part. Before any of you jump down my throat with claims that I am a “Sonnen nuthugger” or a “Silva hater” as you are apt to do, know this: I am a fan of both Sonnen and Silva, for entirely different reasons.
Yes, I wanted Silva to win on Saturday night, if only to end the smorgasbord of ridiculous claims that have constituted Sonnen’s career over the past two years, but there is no denying that the Gangster from Oregon is still a threat to everyone in the middleweight division. In both his fights with Silva, Sonnen dominated early and often, only to have a simple mental error lead to his undoing. Surely his spinning backfist attempt at UFC 148 was the more glaring of the two, but Sonnen’s presence in the middleweight division is almost a necessity. And besides, who else can cut a promo as awesome as this? No one, that’s who.
The fact remains that Silva has absolutely decimated all challengers to his throne, and, minus a couple of legit challenges he may face down the line (not you, Mr. Bisping), Sonnen was the only man to, as CrushCo so brilliantly stated, make us believe he could actually beat Silva. And to be fair, there’s a good chance that Sonnen could do so if he stuck to and never deviated from the takedown and GnP oriented offense that saw him dominate Silva in the first round of their fight last Saturday. I place a lot of emphasis on the if.
But according to Melanson, whether or not Sonnen will truly call it quits is a matter of his mental toughness when dealing with such a hard loss:
I never met anyone that had a scenario where it’s like, ‘If I don’t win this then I’m done,’ it never worked out positive for them because, just in my experience, you have to love the grind and if you love the grind, eventually you’ll get what you want because you give up what you need to give up. Apparently Chael had his limit like, ‘This is it, I’ve had enough. If I don’t win this then it’s all not worth it.’ Having lost that, yeah, there’s a very good chance he could pursue other things. He’s a very smart guy, very well spoken. I know, whether he’ll admit to it or not, he has a lot of passion to be a broadcaster of sorts. He seems to excel in any type of speaking arrangement. He loves doing interviews. He loves hyping fights and I’m sure he loves training. He’s a good fighter. He’s a great fighter and he’s an awesome athlete but he can’t fight forever and maybe he’s at a point he’d like to do something else. Maybe I’m wrong. I hope I’m wrong.
Well, if the comments made by the man himself are any indication, Melanson is most certainly wrong. When asked on this very subject by ESPN’s Franklin McNeil, Sonnen declared that:
It’s tough but, unfortunately, it’s not my first athletic defeat. You can’t get down. You can’t get depressed. Every single day you get up, you’ve got to make the most of it.You’ve got to man up sometimes.
Truer words have never been spoken. At least not by Chael P. Sonnen.
So what do you think, Potato Nation? Is Sonnen headed for retirement, destined to be the #2 man at middleweight forevermore, or simply biding his time for yet another run at the title?
There must be something about early July that gets Americans riled up at the British. This year it’s former Marine (not Army, as I mistakenly implied last time) Brian Stann who is ready to do battle with vile, pasty British person Michael Bisping. Ok, so if you want to get technical about it, Bisping kind of called out Stann first. Whatever. The point is that Stann is the latest in a long line of Americans who have stood against this insufferable British menace.
Now, I try not to devolve into hyperbole, but I think it’s safe to say that since his humiliating loss to Dan Henderson, Michael Bisping has had one thing on his mind – the destruction of America itself. Though presumably suffering through the devastating aftereffects of the H-Bomb, Bisping bided his time with a detour through a few Brazilians, where he met with mixed success. When he was ready, he returned to the rebellious colonies, determined to finish the war his forefathers had started centuries ago.
His first strike against Dan Miller went largely unnoticed; there was no reason to suspect Bisping would dare take any further action against America. Bisping then took on Japan’s Yoshiro Akiyama, which seemed to cement this theory – but is it a coincidence that Japan, Akiyama’s home country, is under the protection of American troops? I think not. Bisping became more brazen after this conquest, challenging Army veteran and Tim Kennedy training partner Jorge Rivera. Rivera admirably attempted to subvert the devious Brit’s diabolical scheme using psychological warfare, but it backfired in brutal fashion. Bisping was befuddled by Rivera’s tactics to the extent that he forgot the rule against kneeing the head of a downed opponent, leading to Rivera’s demise. Bisping also forgot common decency and sportsmanship, a staple of British culture from all accounts, and proceeded to spit at Rivera’s corner in the heated aftermath of the fight. Or he was never aware of them to begin with. Either way, his anti-American agenda was made clear.
Now, I try not to devolve into hyperbole, but I think it’s safe to say that since his humiliating loss to Dan Henderson, Michael Bisping has had one thing on his mind – the destruction of America itself. Though presumably suffering through the devastating aftereffects of the H-Bomb, Bisping bided his time with a detour through a few Brazilians, where he met with mixed success. When he was ready, he returned to the rebellious colonies, determined to finish the war his forefathers had started centuries ago.
His first strike against Dan Miller went largely unnoticed; there was no reason to suspect Bisping would dare take any further action against America. Bisping then took on Japan’s Yoshiro Akiyama, which seemed to cement this theory – but is it a coincidence that Japan, Akiyama’s home country, is under the protection of American troops? I think not. Bisping became more brazen after this conquest, challenging Army veteran and Tim Kennedy training partner Jorge Rivera. Rivera admirably attempted to subvert the devious Brit’s diabolical scheme using psychological warfare, but it backfired in brutal fashion. Bisping was befuddled by Rivera’s tactics to the extent that he forgot the rule against kneeing the head of a downed opponent, leading to Rivera’s demise. Bisping also forgot common decency and sportsmanship, a staple of British culture from all accounts, and proceeded to spit at Rivera’s corner in the heated aftermath of the fight. Or he was never aware of them to begin with. Either way, his anti-American agenda was made clear.
Bisping continued his campaign, this time embarrassing American reality TV host (and cagefighter) “Mayhem” Miller on the finale of a reality TV show. In conquering the most American of entertainment mediums, Bisping was poised to strike at the heart of America itself. Fortunately, the American Gangster himself, Chael P. Sonnen, scored a decisive victory over the villainous Count. However, “decisive victory” in this case refers to whatever is the exact opposite of that, as Bisping is convinced he won that fight. Bisping’s plans were merely delayed, and he has begun to mount a counteroffensive. But much as Britain reached too far when it attempted to reclaim its colonial possessions across the Atlantic, so too has Bisping bitten off more than he can chew in calling out Brian Stann.
Stann is the weapon America needs to defeat the menace that is Michael Bisping. Stann’s one weakness is the ground game. If he gets taken down, he’s in trouble. But have no fear, America, Bisping conveniently lacks the capability to bring the fight to the ground. Also conveniently, Bisping’s one observable weakness – getting hit in the face really fucking hard – happens to be somewhat of a specialty for Stann. Oh, and the fact that a brutal victory for Stann may help save the United States military’s sponsorship of the UFC is a nice touch.
While Bisping has already called out Alan Belcher – who accepted the challenge – it’s obvious which fight is far more compelling. So come on Joe Silva, let’s make Bisping vs. Stann happen. Not just for the fans but for America. Our independence doesn’t amount to squat so long as our fighters and people must suffer the malodorous douchery of Michael Bisping.
(This time around, the UFC’s marketing department is looking to drive home the notion that sex sells once and for all.)
By Dan “Get off Me” George
In the immortal words of Bruce Buffer, “It’s Time!”
On the eve of perhaps the most anticipated UFC rematch in history, I hope to bring my fellow CP readers some insight on how to save your kneecaps from the bookies and perhaps even make a buck or two by trying to follow my logic with regards to potential winners and losers for UFC 148.
For the sake of brevity, I’d like to focus on the dogs. The real money is made betting on the underdogs, and besides, there is nothing more exciting than watching a guy like Alan Belcher twist and turn his way out of certain demise en route to cashing out at three times the amount you originally placed on him (Ed note: Way to rub it in, Dan).
All of our betting odds for this week’s enabler come courtesy of BestFightOdds, so let’s get it on!
I like Roller here, the price is fair and I do not see Alessio being able to do much but play defense in this fight. Look for Roller to pull out a decision while Alessio finds himself on the bottom or defending takedowns for the majority of the contest, not unlike his most recent decision loss to Mark Bocek at UFC 145. Simple.
This line has moved in favor of Fukuda slightly over the past 24hrs, showing that the public likes Fukuda more and more as the small underdog. I like Philippou if for nothing more than his performance against Court McGee, a fighter similar to Fukuda who likes to move forward and press the action. Philippou has ever-improving takedown defense and better striking than Fukuda, specifically with his hands, and I like him to stop Fukuda’s takedowns and make him pay with his fists.
(This time around, the UFC’s marketing department is looking to drive home the notion that sex sells once and for all.)
By Dan “Get off Me” George
In the immortal words of Bruce Buffer, “It’s Time!”
On the eve of perhaps the most anticipated UFC rematch in history, I hope to bring my fellow CP readers some insight on how to save your kneecaps from the bookies and perhaps even make a buck or two by trying to follow my logic with regards to potential winners and losers for UFC 148.
For the sake of brevity, I’d like to focus on the dogs. The real money is made betting on the underdogs, and besides, there is nothing more exciting than watching a guy like Alan Belcher twist and turn his way out of certain demise en route to cashing out at three times the amount you originally placed on him (Ed note: Way to rub it in, Dan).
All of our betting odds for this week’s enabler come courtesy of BestFightOdds, so let’s get it on!
I like Roller here, the price is fair and I do not see Alessio being able to do much but play defense in this fight. Look for Roller to pull out a decision while Alessio finds himself on the bottom or defending takedowns for the majority of the contest, not unlike his most recent decision loss to Mark Bocek at UFC 145. Simple.
This line has moved in favor of Fukuda slightly over the past 24hrs, showing that the public likes Fukuda more and more as the small underdog. I like Philippou if for nothing more than his performance against Court McGee, a fighter similar to Fukuda who likes to move forward and press the action. Philippou has ever-improving takedown defense and better striking than Fukuda, specifically with his hands, and I like him to stop Fukuda’s takedowns and make him pay with his fists.
Not with a ten foot pole, thank you very much. There is no way in hell would I touch Guillard at 30 cents on my dollar, and Camoes (or anyone, really) definitely has the ability to sub Melvin, especially given his propensity to throw as many flying knees as humanely possible against the grapplers he faces. If anything, I would look at the prop on the fight not going the distance, because I cannot see this fight being decided by the judges.
I like “The Eagle” for this one. He’s undefeated, relentless with his forward pressure and wrestling, and is not afraid to swing for the fences in the meantime. Tibau is in -200 territory and often relies on his ground game to get him to a decision win. I think the Khabib uses his Judo, Sambo, and size advantage to keep Tibau against the fence, maybe finishing Tibau later in the fight or winning on the score cards.
My heart wants Menjivar, but Easton has this propensity to win closely contested fights on the cards. It is basically a pick’em, and gun to my head, I am leaning towards Easton. Ivan has always had trouble with wrestlers throughout his career, and may simply be outgunned when forced to deal with the ridiculous speed and power of Easton.
Is there a prop for a fight ending via signature guillotine submission? How this fight even came to fruition is beyond me, but I still don’t like -500 and up territory even in a parlay. How many people got burned by Boetsch or Varner recently by putting -500 and up fighters in parlays? I think Mendes wins, but again, the prop Mendes wins by TKO, Sub or DQ is the way to go to make something off this fight.
I have a hard time picking 40 year-olds to win in the UFC not named Randy Couture. Nothing against Cung, but he is a small middleweight and Cote has the skill set to not be bullied by Le like he was against Tom Lawlor and the chin to withstand most of Le’s offense. Cote also has underrated striking, but I believe this fight will be more of Cote closing the distance on Le and trying to get the fight on the ground, where he can safely earn a decision win to ensure he sticks around for at least another fight.
Kim is built like a 185er, so Maia should not feel too out of place dropping to 170 here. Kim also fights like many of Maia’s past opponents, which would lead me to believe that Kim will spend the majority of this fight inside Maia’s guard. This fight is similar to Sass/Volkmann, where I thought Volkmann would end up winning a 30-27 snoozer across the board. Little did I know that Sass had other plans. In the spirit of great submissions, I like Maia to catch Kim, who despite appearances, is not as strong as the Munoz’s, Weidman’s, Herman’s, and Sonnen’s that Maia has faced before. Maia may be strong enough to control Kim from the bottom and finish the “Stun Gun” as a small underdog.
Ortiz at +250 territory is quite compelling. Forrest is a new father and something tells me this fight means a lot to him, unlike what we saw in his rematch with Shogun Rua, in which Forrest looked like he was running late for his return flight home. This will be Ortiz’s first and last fight as a UFC Hall of Famer, and he’s been talking like he’s ready to fight to the death, so look for him to try and find Griffin’s off button in the early going. As the two settle in, however, I expect Forrest to find his range and pick Ortiz apart like he did in the their second meeting. The odds should be closer by fight time, though not something to put in a parlay for my liking.
And here we are at last. I like Silva to win via keeping the fight standing and using the clinch effectively like he did against Yushin Okami when the distance is closed. I do not see Silva using many kicks at all, perhaps only when Chael is moving backwards (which Chael does not often do), and instead opting to box with Sonnen while using his footwork and hips (think matador vs bull) to keep Sonnen from getting this fight to the ground. We all know Sonnen’s gameplan by this point; his only chance here is if he can get this fight to the ground. Therefore, I will be looking at the prop Sonnen wins by decision, which should be near the +350 range, and is definitely hedge worthy, as the only way I see Sonnen winning is via 5rd decision.
(Guys, seriously, you gotta stop this or I’m gonna have a harder time hiding this erection than Jean-Claude Van Damme.)
By George Shunick
This weekend, the MGM Grand Garden Arena will host the most highly anticipated fight this year when middleweight champion Anderson Silva faces off against, err, “middleweight champion”Chael P. Sonnen. As we all know, Sonnen was the man who almost took Silva’s title at UFC 117, dismantling the champion through punishing ground and pound and even rocking MMA’s greatest striker on the feet before succumbing to a triangle choke after winning the previous 23 minutes of the fight. Following the fight, it was revealed Silva fought with a badly injured rib and Sonnen had a testosterone to epitestosterone ratio of 16.9 to 1. Regardless, due to Sonnen’s trash talk and how close their last fight was, this fight has the potential to be one of the best fights of the summer.
However, will this be the “biggest rematch in the history of the business,” as Sonnen claims? Maybe, but I doubt it. You could argue Lesnar-Mir II is more likely to be successful financially, or that Liddell-Ortiz II or Liddell-Couture II/III were more culturally significant for a burgeoning sport, but virtually all lacked such a compelling narrative or contained the level of talent featured here. Moreover, in hindsight, they were rather one-sided matchups. Edgar-Maynard II and III were probably of a higher caliber that Silva-Sonnen II will be, simply by virtue of being two of the greatest fights in the history of the sport, but lacked the hype and context that this matchup possesses.
This matchup has the potential to rank alongside Fedor-Nogueira III, which saw the two greatest heavyweights in MMA history – and the two top-ranked heavyweights at that time – fight for the Pride heavyweight title; both fights possess a historic air about them, feature top level talent, and take place within the narrative framework of a rivalry. But I still think the gold standard for a rematch will remain Jackson-Silva II, which had every ingredient you could wish for in a rematch turned up to 11. It had two of the greatest fighters in MMA history, in one of the greatest rivalries in MMA history, in one of the greatest fights in MMA history, culminating in one of the greatest knockouts in MMA history. Suffice it to say, Sonnen-Silva II has a lot to accomplish to validate Sonnen’s comments.
(Guys, seriously, you gotta stop this or I’m gonna have a harder time hiding this erection than Jean-Claude Van Damme.)
By George Shunick
This weekend, the MGM Grand Garden Arena will host the most highly anticipated fight this year when middleweight champion Anderson Silva faces off against, err, “middleweight champion”Chael P. Sonnen. As we all know, Sonnen was the man who almost took Silva’s title at UFC 117, dismantling the champion through punishing ground and pound and even rocking MMA’s greatest striker on the feet before succumbing to a triangle choke after winning the previous 23 minutes of the fight. Following the fight, it was revealed Silva fought with a badly injured rib and Sonnen had a testosterone to epitestosterone ratio of 16.9 to 1. Regardless, due to Sonnen’s trash talk and how close their last fight was, this fight has the potential to be one of the best fights of the summer.
However, will this be the “biggest rematch in the history of the business,” as Sonnen claims? Maybe, but I doubt it. You could argue Lesnar-Mir II is more likely to be successful financially, or that Liddell-Ortiz II or Liddell-Couture II/III were more culturally significant for a burgeoning sport, but virtually all lacked such a compelling narrative or contained the level of talent featured here. Moreover, in hindsight, they were rather one-sided matchups. Edgar-Maynard II and III were probably of a higher caliber that Silva-Sonnen II will be, simply by virtue of being two of the greatest fights in the history of the sport, but lacked the hype and context that this matchup possesses.
This matchup has the potential to rank alongside Fedor-Nogueira III, which saw the two greatest heavyweights in MMA history – and the two top-ranked heavyweights at that time – fight for the Pride heavyweight title; both fights possess a historic air about them, feature top level talent, and take place within the narrative framework of a rivalry. But I still think the gold standard for a rematch will remain Jackson-Silva II, which had every ingredient you could wish for in a rematch turned up to 11. It had two of the greatest fighters in MMA history, in one of the greatest rivalries in MMA history, in one of the greatest fights in MMA history, culminating in one of the greatest knockouts in MMA history. Suffice it to say, Sonnen-Silva II has a lot to accomplish to validate Sonnen’s comments.
First, it’s important to consider the impact that Silva’s injury had on him; with an injured rib, it became much more difficult for him to stuff takedowns, land punches and utilize the head movement that is so fundamental to his counterstriking strategy. As a result, not only was Sonnen able to take Silva down at will, but he was also able to shock many observers by landing a number of heavy punches on the feet. In this contest, Silva won’t be fighting with an injured rib, so I suspect that Sonnen will not find the same success on the feet as he did in their first encounter. However, Silva may be entering the fight with a knee injury. Although he and Dana White were quick to dispute this, if the rumors are true Silva might find his mobility compromised, and evading takedowns will be difficult for him.
But to be honest, Sonnen could very well find success with his takedowns even if Silva is not injured. Sonnen is a southpaw who favors power double leg takedowns. Anderson is used to fending off single legs from opponents fighting out of an orthodox stance; as his lead leg is closer to their lead leg, it’s the more natural way for his opponent to attempt a takedown. But as Sonnen is a southpaw, his torso is more aligned with Silva’s than most fighters, and this allows him to angle for a double leg, which Silva isn’t as adept at defending. True, he was successful in this regard against Yushin Okami, but Sonnen is a more powerful and tenacious wrestler. Injuries or otherwise, Sonnen can get Silva on his back.
But it’s not going to be that simple. To do so, Sonnen still needs to get in range and that means getting in the Spider’s comfort zone. Silva is more than capable of dismantling Sonnen on the feet, but there are other dangers than merely being humiliated. Silva can use precision jabs to momentarily halt Sonnen’s progress and shift his position so he is no longer vulnerable to a takedown using his extraordinary footwork. From that advantageous position, he can land harder strikes and try to injure Sonnen, though he will probably avoid leg kicks to prevent Sonnen grabbing a hold of his leg and forcing him to the mat. If he manages to discourage Sonnen’s offensive efforts – no easy task – the Spider will win handily.
Even if Sonnen manages to take Silva down, what then? Sure, he’ll be able to land some ground and pound, but Silva’s guard will be much more efficient now that he won’t be dealing with an injured rib. The odds are that Sonnen will not be able to replicate the amount of damage he was able to do to Silva the first time around, whereas Silva will be even more capable of submitting Sonnen than he was during their last matchup. You can make all you like of Chael training with Vinny Magalhaes, but it would be as foolish to assume that a career-long flaw in Sonnen’s game will be corrected over the course of a few months as it would to assume Dana White will grow hair tomorrow.
Best case scenario, this fight is a competitive, back and forth affair that lives up to the hype and helps maintain the attention of old fans and grab new ones while the UFC undergoes its painful expansion process. If that’s the case, this would cement the Sonnen-Silva rivalry as being one of the greatest in the sport’s short history. But if Silva dominates Sonnen to the extent that he manages to utter “Where’s your wrestling now, playboy?”, their last match will be considered more of an aberration than an indication of a truly competitive struggle for supremacy atop the division. I don’t think that will happen, but I do think Silva will win after an early struggle. He won’t knock out Sonnen – or his teeth – but he will knock him down, and finish the fight via rear naked choke.
