On Saturday, August 27 the UFC will return to Brazil for the first time since October 16, 1998. That event, “Ultimate Brazil” was headlined by a middleweight title bout between Frank Shamrock and John Lober, but it is perhaps best remem…
On Saturday, August 27 the UFC will return to Brazil for the first time since October 16, 1998. That event, “Ultimate Brazil” was headlined by a middleweight title bout between Frank Shamrock and John Lober, but it is perhaps best remembered for the 44 second beating Vitor Belfort gave to Wanderlei Silva.
The promotion will bring UFC 134 to the HSBC Arena in Rio next Saturday and the event, like the first UFC Brazil event, will be headlined by a middleweight title fight as Anderson Silva defends his title against Yushin Okami. The co-main event will feature Mauricio “Shogun” Rua facing Forrest Griffin. In all, 14 Brazilian fighters will be competing on the 12 fight card. Only one contest will be without a Brazilian fighter.
Appearing on the Spike TV preliminary card will be a lightweights Thiago Tavares and Spencer Fisher.
Tavares will come into the fight with a 15-4-1 record, going 5-4-1 in the UFC. His last fight was a second round KO loss to Shane Roller in March of this year. Fisher is 24-7 in his MMA career and 10-6 in the UFC. In his last four fights he has gone 1-3 with his sole win coming via unanimous decision over Curt Warburton at UFC 120.
Fighting in the deep lightweight division, the loser of this one could have his career on the line.
UFC 134 is one of the most anticipated events of the entire year as the UFC will be returning to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil for the first time in 10 years. The fight card is centered around the main event, Anderson Silva who will be defendin…
UFC 134 is one of the most anticipated events of the entire year as the UFC will be returning to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil for the first time in 10 years. The fight card is centered around the main event, Anderson Silva who will be defending his title against Yushin Okami.
Silva who was born in Curitiba, Brazil will be returning to his home country in hopes of putting on a show for a sold out Arena. The remainder of the Fight Card is filled with 11 other electrifying fights including the Forrest Griffin vs Mauricio “Shogun” Rua rematch and Minotauro Nogueira vs. Brendan Schaub.
The following slides are Fight-By-Fight Predictions for UFC 134. Please sit back and enjoy.
Forrest Griffin and Chael Sonnen both currently fight for the UFC, but their paths crossed several years before they made their debut in the leading MMA organization.In 2003, they participated in the International Fighting Championships light…
Forrest Griffin and Chael Sonnen both currently fight for the UFC, but their paths crossed several years before they made their debut in the leading MMA organization.
In 2003, they participated in the International Fighting Championships light heavyweight tournament. They fought in the opening round.
Griffin, who went into the bout with a 7-1 record, didn’t take very long in utilizing his underrated ground game to submit Sonnen with a triangle-choke two minutes into the round.
He would advance to the semifinals with the victory, but lost to Jeremy Horn after the much more experienced fighter landed a brutal head-kick that knocked him out.
Griffin would go on to compete in the first season of the Ultimate Fighter less than two years later. He would become the TUF champion after the memorable and career-defining fight against Stephan Bonnar.
A successful career followed, which includes him winning the UFC light heavyweight championship in 2008. Back-to-back losses set him back, but two wins followed to bring him to a rematch with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 134.
Griffin defeated Rua the first time they met at UFC 76. It was one of the biggest upsets of the year.
Sonnen will be making his long-awaited comeback fight at UFC 136 when he takes on Brian Stann. He is looking to get a rematch with UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, who takes on Yushin Okami in the main event at UFC 134.
At UFC 134 Silva vs. Okami in Rio de Janeiro, all the attention will rightfully be on the UFC’s return to Brazil and Anderson Silva, who has time and again proven himself to be a cut above the rest and arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter in the w…
At UFC 134 Silva vs. Okami in Rio de Janeiro, all the attention will rightfully be on the UFC’s return to Brazil and Anderson Silva, who has time and again proven himself to be a cut above the rest and arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
There is, however, another unheralded, but phenomenally talented youngster, Edson Barboza Jr., who is also on the main card at UFC 134, taking on former Ultimate Fighter winner Ross Pearson.
Barboza is still unbeaten at 8-0 (2-0 UFC) in MMA and boasts an incredible six knockouts and one submission with only one fight going the distance to a unanimous-decision victory.
In his two fights in the UFC, he displayed a vicious arsenal of leg kicks, providing a Muay Thai clinic on his way to a TKO victory over Mike Lullo at UFC 123 and at UFC 128 against Anthony Njokuani, which produced the Fight of the Night.
At UFC 134, Ross Pearson (12-4, 4-1 in the UFC) will provide Barboza’s toughest test to date, and expect there to be fireworks in this battle. The Brazilian boasts a kickboxing record of 25-3 with 22 of those wins coming by way of knockout and is a Muay Thai specialist, emphasizing that he is one of the top strikers in the lightweight division (155 pounds).
He is also proficient on the ground, holding a purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and is just 25 years old.
Edson Barboza continues to evolve and develop as a mixed martial artist, and expect him in the near future to develop into a serious championship-level contender and make a genuine run towards becoming the future UFC lightweight champion.
RIO DE JANEIRO — Forrest Griffin isn’t crazy about being in Brazil for UFC 134 this week, and he doesn’t see the point in pretending he is.
“It’d be a great place to come on vacation,” the former UFC light heavyweight champion explained on Wednesday. “Not a great place to work.”
Why? Take your pick of reasons. Griffin has plenty.
“I can’t read the labels on the food. I don’t know what’s going on. I can’t get anybody to cook my sweet potatoes. The scale tells me weird numbers, I don’t know what the f–k they are. I’ve got to do math every time I get on the scale. You guys don’t have distilled water. …Do you want me to keep bitchin’? Because I will.”
And yet, despite all the complaining and the utter lack of enthusiasm, there he was at Wednesday’s open workouts on the famed Copacabana beach, briefly doing something that sort of resembled a workout. Almost. Well, not really.
He got on the mats, at least. He stretched out, heaving his long limbs around in slow, tortured circles like a father getting ready to play a reluctant game of catch with his son after work, driven entirely by a vague sense of duty. Only for Griffin, the game of catch never came. He stretched, he contorted, he threw a punch or two at the air. He worked his way along the edge of the mat, smiling and waving just enough to please the crowd, then he made his exit.
Maybe he’s saving the rest for Mauricio “Shogun” Rua on Saturday night.
When the UFC first told him it wanted him to book the rematch for UFC 134 in Brazil, Griffin’s thoughts on the matter were pretty simple.
“Oh God, please no,” he said.
Gradually, he moved through the stages of grief, he explained, arriving finally at acceptance. As in: “When I got off the plane, I accepted I was in Brazil,” he said.
The first time Griffin and Rua met was at UFC 76 in 2007. That one took place in Anaheim, and Griffin probably wasn’t eager to make even that short trip. If he had it his way, he might only travel from his home to the gym and back. Lately, even that little excursion doesn’t sound as if it’s quite so fun for Griffin, who admitted that he doesn’t have the same kind of fire for the sport that he had several years ago.
“It’s different,” he said. “Life changes, you know? I do this for a whole new set of reasons now.”
Reasons like money. The same reason most people get up and go to work every day. The difference is that, unlike most people, Griffin has to bleed for his cash. And so he does.
“My parents [have] got to retire. My wife’s parents [have] got to retire. My little brother wants to go to college. I’ve got a daughter coming. She’s probably going to want to go to college, and she’s probably not going to be a genius, either. I’ve got to make some money, got to win. Winning pays a lot more than losing.”
But going up against an opponent who’s fighting to not only even the score, but also to revitalize his career after getting dominated by Jon Jones in his first attempt at a UFC light heavyweight title defense, you’ve got to wonder whether the paper chase alone will be enough motivation for Griffin.
Rua’s fighting in front of his countrymen, and he’s fighting a guy who made him look bad in the later rounds of their first fight. The difference this time, Rua said at Wednesday’s open workouts, is that he “trained for four months for this fight. The first time I [fought] with Forrest, I [didn’t] train hard, but now I’m ready.”
The good news for Griffin is, that’s more or less exactly what he’s expecting out of Rua.
“I know one thing: when people beat me up I want to fight them again. You train hard and you take it real serious when someone beats you. I had that fear in the back of my head for the last nine weeks, so I did the best I could. I knew he was going to come out hungry and ready. I’m kind of expecting him to just close the distance and come at it and get going.”
And at that point, with Rua in classic “Shogun” attack mode and an arena full of rabid Brazilian fans screaming in his ear, will a love of money and a sense of self-preservation be enough to pull Griffin through?
Maybe it depends how much he loves money. Or how much he fears being without it.
“I don’t want to play it up or whatever,” Griffin said, “but I was poor once and I’ll never be poor again.”
It might not be what we’re used to hearing from pro fighters, but at least it’s sincere.
RIO DE JANEIRO — Forrest Griffin isn’t crazy about being in Brazil for UFC 134 this week, and he doesn’t see the point in pretending he is.
“It’d be a great place to come on vacation,” the former UFC light heavyweight champion explained on Wednesday. “Not a great place to work.”
Why? Take your pick of reasons. Griffin has plenty.
“I can’t read the labels on the food. I don’t know what’s going on. I can’t get anybody to cook my sweet potatoes. The scale tells me weird numbers, I don’t know what the f–k they are. I’ve got to do math every time I get on the scale. You guys don’t have distilled water. …Do you want me to keep bitchin’? Because I will.”
And yet, despite all the complaining and the utter lack of enthusiasm, there he was at Wednesday’s open workouts on the famed Copacabana beach, briefly doing something that sort of resembled a workout. Almost. Well, not really.
He got on the mats, at least. He stretched out, heaving his long limbs around in slow, tortured circles like a father getting ready to play a reluctant game of catch with his son after work, driven entirely by a vague sense of duty. Only for Griffin, the game of catch never came. He stretched, he contorted, he threw a punch or two at the air. He worked his way along the edge of the mat, smiling and waving just enough to please the crowd, then he made his exit.
Maybe he’s saving the rest for Mauricio “Shogun” Rua on Saturday night.
When the UFC first told him it wanted him to book the rematch for UFC 134 in Brazil, Griffin’s thoughts on the matter were pretty simple.
“Oh God, please no,” he said.
Gradually, he moved through the stages of grief, he explained, arriving finally at acceptance. As in: “When I got off the plane, I accepted I was in Brazil,” he said.
The first time Griffin and Rua met was at UFC 76 in 2007. That one took place in Anaheim, and Griffin probably wasn’t eager to make even that short trip. If he had it his way, he might only travel from his home to the gym and back. Lately, even that little excursion doesn’t sound as if it’s quite so fun for Griffin, who admitted that he doesn’t have the same kind of fire for the sport that he had several years ago.
“It’s different,” he said. “Life changes, you know? I do this for a whole new set of reasons now.”
Reasons like money. The same reason most people get up and go to work every day. The difference is that, unlike most people, Griffin has to bleed for his cash. And so he does.
“My parents [have] got to retire. My wife’s parents [have] got to retire. My little brother wants to go to college. I’ve got a daughter coming. She’s probably going to want to go to college, and she’s probably not going to be a genius, either. I’ve got to make some money, got to win. Winning pays a lot more than losing.”
But going up against an opponent who’s fighting to not only even the score, but also to revitalize his career after getting dominated by Jon Jones in his first attempt at a UFC light heavyweight title defense, you’ve got to wonder whether the paper chase alone will be enough motivation for Griffin.
Rua’s fighting in front of his countrymen, and he’s fighting a guy who made him look bad in the later rounds of their first fight. The difference this time, Rua said at Wednesday’s open workouts, is that he “trained for four months for this fight. The first time I [fought] with Forrest, I [didn’t] train hard, but now I’m ready.”
The good news for Griffin is, that’s more or less exactly what he’s expecting out of Rua.
“I know one thing: when people beat me up I want to fight them again. You train hard and you take it real serious when someone beats you. I had that fear in the back of my head for the last nine weeks, so I did the best I could. I knew he was going to come out hungry and ready. I’m kind of expecting him to just close the distance and come at it and get going.”
And at that point, with Rua in classic “Shogun” attack mode and an arena full of rabid Brazilian fans screaming in his ear, will a love of money and a sense of self-preservation be enough to pull Griffin through?
Maybe it depends how much he loves money. Or how much he fears being without it.
“I don’t want to play it up or whatever,” Griffin said, “but I was poor once and I’ll never be poor again.”
It might not be what we’re used to hearing from pro fighters, but at least it’s sincere.
The 
At UFC 134 Silva vs. Okami in Rio de Janeiro, all the attention will rightfully be on the UFC’s return to Brazil and 
RIO DE JANEIRO —