Jon Fitch might be focused on his upcoming bout against Johny Hendricks at UFC 141, but he still intends on competing for a future title shot.While making his prediction for the heavyweight bout involving Brock Lesnar and Alistair Overeem, scheduled to…
Jon Fitch might be focused on his upcoming bout against Johny Hendricks at UFC 141, but he still intends on competing for a future title shot.
While making his prediction for the heavyweight bout involving Brock Lesnar and Alistair Overeem, scheduled to headline the event this weekend, Fitch also spoke about the current status of the UFC welterweight division.
“I think things become a mess when the clear number two welterweight in the world, which is me, is injured and out of the mix,” Fitch told Fighting Famous TV. “I have a big fight in front of me with Johny Hendricks and I look forward to fighting him and hopefully putting him away.”
Fitch last entered the Octagon in a pivotal bout against BJ Penn, which saw both competitors fight to a draw. Following the result, while protesting for an immediate rematch with the Hawaiian, Fitch suffered a shoulder injury which has kept him out of action for a majority of the year.
Fitch intends on making a statement in his bout against Hendricks, and retain his contender status, in hopes of earning an opportunity to face either Nick Diaz or Carlos Condit.
“I think with my credentials and with what I’ve accomplished in the UFC and a big fight with Johny Hendricks, I think I should seal a fight with whoever wins [the Nick Diaz vs. Carlos Condit fight],” he said.
UFC 141 is scheduled for this Friday night, live from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
LAS VEGAS — Watch below as Jon Fitch discusses his UFC 141 against Johny Hendricks, his injury-plagued 2011, how the UFC took care of him this year, why he is afraid MMA will become pro wrestling, how he is perceived, and much more.
LAS VEGAS — Watch below as Jon Fitch discusses his UFC 141 against Johny Hendricks, his injury-plagued 2011, how the UFC took care of him this year, why he is afraid MMA will become pro wrestling, how he is perceived, and much more.
The UFC returns Friday with a stacked year-end card featuring the return of former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, who will be facing former Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem in the main event.Lesnar returns from over a year-long…
The UFC returns Friday with a stacked year-end card featuring the return of former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, who will be facing former Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem in the main event.
Lesnar returns from over a year-long absence from the sport due to diverticulitis while Overeem was last seen beating Fabricio Werdum in a June rematch.
In the co-main event, lightweight contenders Donald Cerrone and Nate Diaz will battle it out for a possible shot at a No. 1 contender’s bout. Whoever wins, it promises to be exciting.
Other main-card bouts include Jon Fitch vs. Johny Hendricks, Vladimir Matyushenko vs. Alexander Gustafsson and Nam Phan vs. Jimy Hettes.
Fight of the Night: Donald Cerrone vs. Nate Diaz
Cerrone comes into the bout with four UFC victories under his belt in 2011. Of those, he has earned three bonuses, including submission, knockout and fight of the night.
For non-champions, Cerrone could be considered a worthy candidate for Fighter of the Year if he gets past Diaz, who has never been stopped in the UFC despite coming up short five times against tough opposition in both the welterweight and lightweight divisions.
This is one of those fights that promises to go the distance considering the toughness of both competitors, but it can’t be overlooked that both are finishers. Of their 31 combined victories, 27 have ended by submission or knockout.
With the constant shifts in momentum that this bout promises to deliver, it will be the most exciting fight on the card and deserve the Fight of the Night bonus.
Submission of the Night: Jacob Volkmann
Lightweight standout Jacob Volkmann will welcome back The Ultimate Fighter winner Efrain Escudero, who is stepping up on short notice to replace T.J. Grant.
With two experienced wrestlers like Volkmann and Escudero, this fight has the potential to play out and be determined by who gets the more dominant positions over their opponent on the ground. Either that, or it will be fought entirely standing, which favors Escudero.
If Volkmann is to get a submission victory, it will probably come late in the fight when the wear and tear begins to get the best of Escudero, who has been submitted twice before in his career.
Knockout of the Night: Brock Lesnar
It won’t be the flashiest knockout, but former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar should be able to get the best of Alistair Overeem sometime in the second or third round of their main-event matchup.
It might not be the finish that is impressive, but the firepower that Lesnar will have to go through to win will showcase one of his best abilities, and that’s he can take a lot of punishment and still come out on top.
Lesnar will be at a big disadvantage standing, but he will only have to take so much before he tries for the takedown and most likely gets it. Overeem won’t have the same option to get the fight back to the feet if he is stuck on bottom and can’t get out from underneath the former NCAA Division I wrestler.
Outside of Cain Velasquez, who is unquestionably a much better wrestler than Overeem, nobody has been able to get up after being taken down by Lesnar.
Cardio will also come into play as this fight hits the second and third rounds. Overeem has only been outside the first round twice in the last five years and hasn’t shown the best cardio in the past, especially when he is on the receiving end of getting hit. The blows he will take on bottom will only zap his energy a lot quicker until the stoppage occurs.
Filed under: UFCWill Brock Lesnar make a triumphant return to the Octagon after more than a year away? Or will Alistair Overeem’s debut mark him as the No. 1 contender in the heavyweight division? Can Donald Cerrone finish 2011 with a perfect 5-0 recor…
Will Brock Lesnar make a triumphant return to the Octagon after more than a year away? Or will Alistair Overeem‘s debut mark him as the No. 1 contender in the heavyweight division? Can Donald Cerrone finish 2011 with a perfect 5-0 record? Or will Nate Diaz hand Cerrone a difficult ending to his stellar year? Will Jon Fitch return to his steady pace of grinding out decision victories? Or will Johny Hendricks become the first man not named Georges St. Pierre to beat Fitch in the Octagon?
We’ll attempt to answer those questions and more as we predict the winners at UFC 141.
What: UFC 141: Lesnar vs. Overeem
When: Friday, the Facebook fights begin at 7 PM ET, the Spike preliminaries start at 9 and the pay-per-view starts at 10.
Where: MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas
Predictions on the five pay-per-view fights below.
Brock Lesnar vs. Alistair Overeem This fight is so fun for so many reasons. The obvious reason being that it’s two enormous men who will attempt to smash each other for our entertainment, but the slightly less obvious reason is that they’ll have two very different approaches to smashing each other, and that each man’s greatest strength aligns well with the other man’s greatest weakness.
For Overeem, the strength is that he punches, kicks and knees people really hard, and Lesnar’s greatest weakness is that he doesn’t react well at all when he gets hit really hard. In his last two fights, Lesnar has been finished by first-round TKO (against Cain Velasquez) and almost finished by first-round TKO (against Shane Carwin). In both cases, Lesnar did little more than cover up on the ground once he got leveled with a hard punch, although we have to give him credit for eventually recovering to beat Carwin. Overeem hits every bit as hard as Carwin and Velasquez do, and so Lesnar looks incredibly vulnerable on his feet.
However, Overeem has never shown that he can fair well against a good wrestler, and Lesnar is certainly that. Lesnar is also bigger and stronger than Overeem (or at least he is if he’s completely recovered from his latest bout of diverticulitis) and so he can’t be thrown around the cage the way many of Overeem’s recent opponents have been. It’s easy to picture Lesnar doing to Overeem what he did to Frank Mir at UFC 100: Getting on top of him on the ground, controlling him from the top, and eventually finishing him with punches.
And that’s what I think he’s going to do. This is a fight that could go a number of different ways, and Overeem probably has more different ways to win — he could easily use his K-1 striking to TKO Lesnar, and I wouldn’t rule out an Overeem win by submission either. But as long as Lesnar is completely healthy, I believe his physical power and wrestling prowess will be enough to take this. Pick: Lesnar
Nate Diaz vs. Donald Cerrone Cerrone jumped to the UFC at the start of the year with the rest of the old WEC stars, and he’s promptly had one of the best years of any UFC fighter not named Jon Jones. Cerrone has already won four fights in 2011, beating Paul Kelly, Vagner Rocha, Charlies Oliveira and Dennis Siver. I think Diaz matches up better with Cerrone than any of those four, but I think at the end of an entertaining and mostly even fight, Cerrone will have landed more effective strikes and come out with a narrow decision victory. Pick: Cerrone
Jon Fitch vs. Johny Hendricks Fitch is finally returning to the Octagon after 10 months off because of a shoulder injury, and in Hendricks — a former NCAA wrestling champion — he might be facing the first opponent since Georges St. Pierre who can force him to abandon his usual tack of winning a decision through clinches, takedowns and top control. However, while Hendricks has much better college wrestling credentials than Fitch, Fitch is better at incorporating his wrestling in MMA. I like Fitch to win this one by decision. Pick: Fitch
Vladimir Matyushenko vs. Alexander Gustafsson Matyushenko will turn 41 next week, but he’s still a sturdy gatekeeper in the light heavyweight division. Yes, he got wrecked by Jon Jones last year, but everyone gets wrecked by Jones. And that fight is Matyushenko’s only loss since he returned to the UFC in 2009. Throw in the fact that Matyushenko’s last two wins have been impressive first-round stoppages, and there’s a lot to like about Matyushenko.
But there’s even more to like about Gustafsson, a 24-year-old Swede who has all kinds of talent. This fight represents a solid test for Gustafsson, and it wouldn’t be a shock to see Matyushenko take it, but I like Gustafsson to win by TKO and offer up another indication that he’s a rising star at 205 pounds. Pick: Gustafsson
Nam Phan vs. Jim Hettes Hettes easily won his UFC debut in August, submitting former Ultimate Fighter contestant Alex “Bruce Leroy” Caceres. Now he gets a step up in quality of competition against Caceres’s Ultimate Fighter castmate, Phan. Hettes is 9-0 in his MMA career, with all nine wins coming by submission, and in training at Greg Jackson’s gym he’s becoming a more complete fighter. Phan has never been submitted in 26 pro fights and probably won’t be submitted this time, but Hettes is good enough that he should beat Phan by decision. Pick: Hettes
The UFC will return to the MGM Grand Garden Arena Friday, December 30 for its final event of 2011. And while no UFC gold will be on the line Friday night, it’s probably a safe bet that UFC 141 will attract a huge crowd both live and in terms of pay-per…
The UFC will return to the MGM Grand Garden Arena Friday, December 30 for its final event of 2011. And while no UFC gold will be on the line Friday night, it’s probably a safe bet that UFC 141 will attract a huge crowd both live and in terms of pay-per-views.
One of the main reasons to expect a solid turnout is the fact that the fight card will mark the return of Brock Lesnar to the Octagon. Lesnar has not fought since losing the UFC heavyweight title to Cain Velasquez back in October 2010. A subsequent fight with Junior dos Santos had to be scrapped after Lesnar faced a second bout of diverticulitis. Lesnar was forced to undergo surgery, putting him out of commission for a prolonged period.
Lesnar’s UFC 141 opponent will be a newcomer to the promotion—former DREAM, K-1 Grand Prix and Strikeforce champion Alistair Overeem. Overeem will enter the Octagon on an 11-fight unbeaten streak. The last time Overeem dropped an MMA bout was September 2007 when he was knocked out by Sergei Kharitonov.
The co-main event on the card will feature a lightweight battle between Nate Diaz and Donald Cerrone. Cerrone is enjoying a great 2011, going 4-0 over the course of the year and earning three “Fight of the Night” bonuses in the process.
For his part, Diaz has gone 1-2 in 2011. Despite the losing record, Diaz—much like Cerrone—is a fighter that can be counted on to deliver an exciting fight, no matter the opponent. This bout is an early favorite for Fight of the Night honors.
Also appearing on the pay-per-view portion of the card will be highly ranked welterweight Jon Fitch. Fitch, coming back from shoulder surgery, will face a fellow high level wrestler in Johny Hendricks on Friday night.
In all, UFC 141 will feature 11 fights, with the five fight pay-per-view card kicking off at 10 p.m. ET.
Bleacher Report MMA will be your source for news, analysis and opinions on all the fights on the upcoming fight card.
Check back often as the fight card nears for all the UFC 141 information you need.
UFC 141 is coming up fast, and will close out the 2011 year for MMA and the UFC.The 2010 year left off with Welterweight title fight—Georges St. Pierre vs Josh Koscheck at UFC 124, to be followed by the Lightweight Championship match of Frankie E…
UFC 141 is coming up fast, and will close out the 2011 year for MMA and the UFC.
The 2010 year left off with Welterweight title fight—Georges St. Pierre vs Josh Koscheck at UFC 124, to be followed by the Lightweight Championship match of Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard on New Year’s Day.
Now we have come to the end of this year, and are ready to finish it strong, as well.
The reason for mentioning the 2010 closeout is that 2011 is a special circumstance in UFC’s history. Every year that the UFC has been in existence, the last show they put on each year has had either a title, or an interim title on the line.
Most of the events showcase a championship bout to close out the year. This included the tournament styles of early UFC’s as well, but it is very interesting that each and every year a belt is on the line to end it.
This year, 2011 will be the first in UFC history to not end with a title match.
UFC 141 brings to the fans two humongous heavyweights that are very well-known and popular in their own worlds. Brock Lesnar and Alistair Overeem will go toe-to-toe in the Octagon this Friday.
They are two of the biggest and strongest fighters in the UFC, and in the MMA world. They will fight to determine the next challenger for the UFC Heavyweight title against current champ Junior Dos Santos.
The card itself is a new change as a whole, as well. The main fight is not a championship bout, and the time of the event has been moved back to the original 10 PM EST from its previous 9 PM EST.
To top it off, while PPV events are always on Saturday nights, UFC 141 will be happening on this Friday night.
While hosting the first non-title end-of-year fight card, UFC 141 does bring the next best thing. The event’s main card boasts three different fights that will help determine the number one contenders in their respective weight classes.
To start, you have the aforementioned Lesnar vs. Overeem, a heavyweight matchup that will determine the next man to take on JDS.
Brock will be looking to get back into the division strong after his sickness layoff, and Overeem will be trying to prove himself amongst the ranks of UFC HW’s. This fight has huge implications.
Second, is the co-main event—Nate Diaz vs. Donald Cerrone.
Cerrone has been on a tear through the lightweight division since he came over from the WEC and is proving he is at the top of the heap. While champ Frankie Edgar is defending his belt against Benson Henderson, Donald will look to make a statement for being next in line.
If he can beat Diaz, he will move on to six wins in a row. If he finishes him dominantly, he could be given the next shot.
Lastly, there is a welterweight matchup between Jon Fitch, and Johny Hendricks.
Hendricks is running on two wins in a row, whereas Fitch has five, not including his recent Draw. Currently 23-3, he will be looking to prove that his name belongs in the deserving title shot talks. Constantly underwritten due to his seemingly boring style, a definitive win over Hendricks would do wonders for his career right now.
All in all, UFC 141 is stacked to be a good night of fights, headlined by the big showdown of the titan heavyweights. No belts are on the line, but all are in situations as if they were, and should fight accordingly.
Come 2012, title contentions should start to thin out, but with this sport, you never know what will happen.
Jon Fitch might be focused on his upcoming bout against Johny Hendricks at UFC 141, but he still intends on competing for a future title shot.
Will