The UFC makes its way back to the True North this Saturday as UFC 131 takes place live from Vancouver, British Columbia. The card will be headlined by two of MMA’s most dangerous strikers, Junior dos Santos and Shane Carwin. It will also feature …
The UFC makes its way back to the True North this Saturday as UFC 131 takes place live from Vancouver, British Columbia.
The card will be headlined by two of MMA’s most dangerous strikers, Junior dos Santos and Shane Carwin. It will also feature Kenny Florien making his featherweight debut against Diego Nunes.
Originally the card was supposed to feature former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar. Lesnar was forced to pull out due to another bout with diverticulitis.
Despite the loss of Lesnar, expect the card to be an exciting show. Here are my predictions for submission, KO and fight of the night.
The UFC took a heavy blow when Brock Lesnar was forced to withdraw from his main event fight against Junior dos Santos at UFC 131 due to his second bout with diverticulitis.The promotion recovered quickly, moving the highly ranked Shane Carwin into Les…
The UFC took a heavy blow when Brock Lesnar was forced to withdraw from his main event fight against Junior dos Santos at UFC 131 due to his second bout with diverticulitis.
The promotion recovered quickly, moving the highly ranked Shane Carwin into Lesnar’s spot against Dos Santos.
As fight night approaches, the UFC is facing a foe that even they may struggle to overcome, Game 5 of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals.
The Vancouver Canucks are in the midst of an exciting seven game series with the Boston Bruins and after the teams each won their two home games in the Finals, the series will return to Vancouver for Game 5 on Friday night.
Vancouver hosted UFC 115 last year, selling out that event in 30 minutes according to a tweet from UFC president Dana White.
A quick check at ticketmaster.ca reveals that tickets remain available for UFC 131.
The Canucks have not been to the Stanley Cup finals since 1994, losing that series in seven games to the Mark Messier led New York Rangers.
Since joining the NHL in 1970, the Canucks franchise has never captured a Stanley Cup. To be only two wins away from capturing one of, if not the, most highly prized trophy in sports, well, it’s just bad luck that the UFC has to compete with that.
UFC 131 will take place on Saturday, June 11 from Rogers Arena in Vancouver. The UFC will stream five preliminary fights on their Facebook page, beginning at 5:50 p.m. ET. Spike TV will then broadcast two preliminary fights at 8:00 p.m. ET. The main card will follow at 9 p.m. ET on pay-per-view.
UFC 131 Fight Card Features A Styles Clash Between Demian Maia and Mark MunozDemian Maia’s mixed martial arts career was at a crossroads following an embarrassing loss to Anderson Silva at UFC 112. He is one of the best submission fighters in the histo…
UFC 131 Fight Card Features A Styles Clash Between Demian Maia and Mark Munoz
Demian Maia’s mixed martial arts career was at a crossroads following an embarrassing loss to Anderson Silva at UFC 112. He is one of the best submission fighters in the history of the sport, but he had lost two of his previous three fights following that loss. He knows that his style has to evolve if he wants to get back into championship contention.
“When I see wrestlers fight, they train a lot of boxing because they don’t want to end up on bottom,” Maia said. “I don’t have this issue. I know he’s very powerful when he’s on top, but I’m okay with that. I don’t think it’s going to be just a stand-up fight.”
Even if it is, however, Maia wouldn’t necessarily run from that. Earlier in his career he rushed to get opponents to the mat because, as Maia put it, he was “really afraid” of standing and trading punches. Now he’s more comfortable on the feet, even if his decision to contest more fights there has led to fewer submission wins lately.
“Now I’m more relaxed, so I think sometimes I don’t put enough on the ground to submit [them]. I think it’s just, I’m changing my style and it will come back,” he said.
Maia is still not a great striker, and he probably never will be, but if he can reach a point where his stand-up game isn’t a weakness, he will be very dangerous.
He is sacrificing some elements of his Brazilian Jiu Jitsu skills by trying to become more adept at the stand-up, but when you suffer a loss like he did against Silva you are going to try anything.
Munoz presents an interesting challenge because despite his solid wrestling background, he is more comfortable standing and trading with opponents.
If Maia wanted the perfect fight to test his stand-up skills, this is it. I look for him to stand and trade with Munoz for a round to see how far his skills have come. If he looks good, he will continue to do it. If he doesn’t, or if he finds himself falling behind in points, he will use his BJJ to grind out a victory.
Either way, I see Maia winning this fight via decision in a very close fight.
If you missed the UFC 131 countdown show last night, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.
Of noting is that the UFC enlisted the help of former WWE writer Paul Heyman to help produce the Camp Carwin segments of the show, which he was likely hired for when it was supposed to be his pal Brock Lesnar fighting dos Santos. It’s likely no coincidence, though that Carwin seemed to have a lot more contrived soundbites than usual like, “I’ve wrestled since I was six years old. These hands are meant to get ahold of people. I get ahold of Junior dos Santos, the fight’s over.”
(Video courtesy of YouTube/UFC)
If you missed the UFC 131 countdown show last night, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.
Of noting is that the UFC enlisted the help of former WWE writer Paul Heyman to help produce the Camp Carwin segments of the show, which he was likely hired for when it was supposed to be his pal Brock Lesnar fighting dos Santos. It’s likely no coincidence, though that Carwin seemed to have a lot more contrived soundbites than usual like, “I’ve wrestled since I was six years old. These hands are meant to get ahold of people. I get ahold of Junior dos Santos, the fight’s over.”
The highlight may be Georges St-Pierre’s attempt at sarcastic humor, when he tells the camera that “Kenny [Florian] is a fool. I even don’t like him. I don’t know why he’s coming here. I despise him.” This may be as close as we ever see GSP trash talking someone, so we’ll take whatever we’ll get.
UFC 131 Results: How Will A Diego Nunes Win Impact the Featherweight Division?Bleacher Report’s Dale De Souza:Mixed Martial Arts is unpredictable to where sometimes the most unfathomable of events can become a reality, but some people forget that any…
UFC 131 Results: How Will A Diego Nunes Win Impact the Featherweight Division?
Bleacher Report’s Dale De Souza:
Mixed Martial Arts is unpredictable to where sometimes the most unfathomable of events can become a reality, but some people forget that anything and everything can and will happen in this sport.
Maybe we’re convinced that fights are going to go a certain way, maybe we just like one guy more than the other, and maybe we’re just going by the name recognition when we pick, but for some reason, we sometimes find ourselves judging certain fights before they happen.
Case in point: Kenny “KenFlo” Florian’s UFC 131 Featherweight bout against Diego “The Gun” Nunes.
Florian is not the Jaime Jara of the lighter weights–he’s not the first (and so far, only) man in MMA history to have won titles in four divisions, nor does he have any sick tattoos or the Stone Cold Steve Austin-like stare in his eyes or a reputation in Gladiator Challenge.
Florian is merely the first person in the UFC to have fought in four divisions, and all to get his hands on one UFC title.
Perhaps that’s the reason why he’s such a heavy favorite to not only defeat, but make convincingly short work of Nunes–because many feel his Jiu-Jitsu, Boxing, and Muay Thai will look its best at the Featherweight level.
However, what if Diego Nunes not only wins against Florian, but beats him decisively?
Filed under: UFCEvery mixed martial arts event comes with its own set of storylines, intrigues that make us emotionally invested in what is soon to happen. Some are obvious, others are much more subtle. When a major superstar like Brock Lesnar rebounds…
Every mixed martial arts event comes with its own set of storylines, intrigues that make us emotionally invested in what is soon to happen. Some are obvious, others are much more subtle. When a major superstar like Brock Lesnar rebounds from a major illness to return to action, we all know it. But every fighter on the card has his own story.
For whatever reason, UFC 131 seems to have quite a collection of head-scratchers. The event is subtitled Dos Santos vs. Carwin, but it could just as easily have been called UFC 131: Question Mark.
Why? Because there is no shortage of things that make you go, Hmmm. From Jon Olav Einemo‘s five-year layoff to Kenny Florian fighting in his fourth division to Shane Carwin‘s weight drop and more, there are plenty of questions to think about.
1. What will Shane Carwin look like after surgery, nearly a year off, and losing over 20 pounds?
Carwin was forced into a long absence due to a procedure that addressed neck, back and nerve problems. Now all healed up and significantly lighter, Carwin may not physically resemble the fighter we got to know over recent years. While it’s true that his improved physical health and less weight may add quickness, we also have to wonder if it will affect his power.
Carwin’s sledgehammer hands have always been his No. 1 weapon, and so we are left to wonder if they will have the same force of power when he faces Junior dos Santos as they’ve had for so long. Even a slight decrease could mean the difference, since we all know that dos Santos likes to fight fire with fire.
2. What do we expect from Jon Olav Einemo?
We know Jon Olav Einemo is a 35-year-old Norwegian with incredible grappling skills, but who is he as a fighter today, after so much time away from the sport? He hasn’t fought an MMA match since Nov. 2006. His UFC 131 opponent Dave Herman started his career the very next month and has fought 22 times since then.
Einemo’s jiu-jitsu is a known quantity, and Herman can’t be surprised with anything he does there, but the rest of it is a wild card. For years now, Einemo has been training with the famed Golden Glory fight team, a camp that is notorious for building strikers. In five years, you can learn a lot about the striking game. In Einemo, we might see the rise of a new, well-rounded force, or we could see a guy dusting off a forgotten career. Anything is possible.
3. Will Kenny Florian be able to make 145 and maintain his explosiveness & stamina?
When Florian steps into the cage on Saturday, he will become the first UFC fighter ever to fight in four different weight classes, starting from middleweight and working off the pounds all the way to featherweight.
At 145, speed is at a premium. Diego Nunes has very fast hands, strong leg kicks, and judging from the beating he took from former champ Mike Brown — fighting him with one eye for two rounds, and winning — a strong heart and gas tank. From his previous runs as a contender at 155, we know that Florian has the skills to overwhelm lesser opponents, but there has to be a concern about what kind of toll dropping another division will have on his conditioning.
Florian is a consummate professional, and he seemed in good spirits at Wednesday’s open workouts, where he said he has about 14 pounds to cut before weigh-ins, but there is a law of diminishing returns with cutting weight, and he’s certainly flirting with it.
4. Is Diego Nunes a legitimate contender?
Talk about an under-the-radar contender. Nunes is hardly known by most fans despite a 16-1 record, including wins over top featherweights like Raphael Assuncao and Mike Brown.
The former WEC champion Brown was a fairly big-name opponent for Nunes, but he pales in name recognition to longtime UFC star Kenny Florian. If Nunes can beat Florian on Saturday, he vaults himself forward in a hurry. Everyone likes new contenders, and Nunes would clearly announce himself as such with a definitive win.
5. Chris Weidman … you again?
Weidman made his UFC debut on short notice against Alessio Sakara in April, and won. Afterward, he said he was going to take some time to let a broken rib heal. Yet now, here he is just three months later, fighting Jesse Bongfeldt. So what gives?
There is something to be said for giving a young fighter time between fights to improve his skills, but in this day and age, when the UFC calls, you have to be ready. Weidman had gone no longer than two weeks of letting his ribs heal when he got the call to replace Bongfeldt’s originally scheduled opponent. This time, at least Weidman had a full, eight-week camp, but you have to wonder if his rib sufficiently healed that quickly.
6. Munoz vs. Maia – Grapplers delight or standup war?
One was an All-American wrestler, the other is a decorated submission fighter who has no qualms with fighting from bottom position, so it would probably be quite fascinating if Mark Munoz and Demian Maia spent the whole 15 minutes of their middleweight bout on the ground.
Is that likely though? Probably not. Munoz has the ability to dictate the fight’s location, and if he doesn’t want to play in Maia’s guard, he may simply elect to engage in a standup fight, where he has far more power. But Maia is so terrifying on the ground that most fighters don’t even want to play the clinch game with him, for fear of him pulling guard. How will either man approach the other? It should be the most tactically interesting battle of the night.
7. Who is Vagner Rocha?
Not literally, of course. We know he’s a 29-year-old jiu-jitsu specialist who has previously fought in Strikeforce and Bellator, but there’s not a whole lot of tape out there on him, so it can’t be too easy for Donald Cerrone to know what to expect.
Rocha is a black belt under the esteemed grappling wizard Pablo Popovitch, and four of his six career wins are by sub, but Cerrone is usually fairly comfortable playing jiu-jitsu. If he takes Rocha lightly on the ground though, he may find he’s a little better than he expected. It’s never fun facing unknown commodities, and here’s why: this is one of those lose-lose scenarios for Cerrone, who is expected to win, and do so impressively. Anything else will seem like a letdown, regardless of how talented Rocha really is.
8. Mike Massenzio, how bad do you want it? Really bad, is clearly his answer. Massenzio was cut from the UFC last August after two straight losses. He’s fought all of his career as a middleweight, so UFC matchmaker Joe Silva had to be near the end of his little black book when he called Massenzio about not only taking a fight on four days’ notice, but moving up a weight class as well.
Massenzio didn’t blink, accepting the fight with Krzysztof Soszynski. Wise career move? Well, it got him back into the UFC, didn’t it? But we really can’t judge if it was smart until Saturday night.
Like so many other UFC 131 storylines, for now, it’s just another open-ended question.
Mixed Martial Arts is unpredictable to where sometimes the most unfathomable of events can become a reality, but some people forget that anything and everything can and will happen in this sport.
Every mixed martial arts event comes with its own set of storylines, intrigues that make us emotionally invested in what is soon to happen. Some are obvious, others are much more subtle. When a major superstar like Brock Lesnar rebounds from a major illness to return to action, we all know it. But every fighter on the card has his own story.