Tag: UFC 146

UFC 146: Early Predictions for the UFC’s 1st Ever All-Heavyweight Fight Card

UFC 146 comes to you live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday, May 26, 2011, and features the very first all-heavyweight card in UFC history.Headlining the event is the first title defense of 14-1 Brazilian heavyweight phen…

UFC 146 comes to you live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday, May 26, 2011, and features the very first all-heavyweight card in UFC history.

Headlining the event is the first title defense of 14-1 Brazilian heavyweight phenom, newly-crowned UFC heavyweight champion and the consensus No. 1 heavyweight in all of MMA, Junior “Cigano” Dos Santos.

Dos Santos took the belt in just 69 seconds over former champion Cain Velasquez at UFC on Fox 1 and will look to make a successful first defense against consensus No. 1 challenger and former Strikeforce champion, K-1 heavyweight champion and PRIDE FC star “The Demolition Man” Alistair Overeem, who made more that a lasting mark by defeating and retiring former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar.

In the co-headliner of the action-packed and athletically-stacked Memorial Day Weekend event, the now 9-1 Velasquez looks for either his rematch with Dos Santos or his dream fight with Overeem, but before either can happen, the 29-year-old Velasquez faces a tough title eliminator opposite a former UFC heavyweight champion and arguably one of the heavyweight division’s best BJJ practitioners in Frank Mir.

Rounding out the card, Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva makes his UFC debut against “Big Country” Roy Nelson, while Mark Hunt looks up in a tilt against Stefan Struve and Shane Del Rosario defends his 11-0 record against Gabriel “Napao” Gonzaga.

Now the million-dollar question is, “Who will prevail on Memorial Day weekend?”

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Alistair Overeem’s Battery Trial Scheduled for March 27th in Las Vegas


(In an unprecedented move, Alistair’s first character witness will be this gigantic K-1 trophy.)

Following his alleged shoving of a woman at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel on January 2nd, UFC heavyweight #1 contender Alistair Overeem is scheduled to appear at a bench trial in Clark County, Nevada, on March 27th, where the verdict will be determined by a judge without a jury. Cross your fingers that the judge isn’t a die-hard Brock Lesnar fan.

Overeem faces one misdemeanor battery charge, which carries a potential $1,000 fine and up to six months in prison. While we expect his high-powered lawyer to smash these charges like an Uberknee to the ribs, it would be a disaster if this affected Overeem’s scheduled heavyweight championship bout against Junior Dos Santos at UFC 146 on May 26th. Stay tuned…


(In an unprecedented move, Alistair’s first character witness will be this gigantic K-1 trophy.)

Following his alleged shoving of a woman at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel on January 2nd, UFC heavyweight #1 contender Alistair Overeem is scheduled to appear at a bench trial in Clark County, Nevada, on March 27th, where the verdict will be determined by a judge without a jury. Cross your fingers that the judge isn’t a die-hard Brock Lesnar fan.

Overeem faces one misdemeanor battery charge, which carries a potential $1,000 fine and up to six months in prison. While we expect his high-powered lawyer to smash these charges like an Uberknee to the ribs, it would be a disaster if this affected Overeem’s scheduled heavyweight championship bout against Junior Dos Santos at UFC 146 on May 26th. Stay tuned…

UFC 146: The Ultimate Fighting Championship, Where the Big Boys Play

“World Championship Wrestling. Where the big boys play,” said Tony Schiavone and every single WCW announcer in a marketing campaign that seemed to last for years.It was a marketing campaign that didn’t quite work. “Where the big boys play” sounds like …

“World Championship Wrestling. Where the big boys play,” said Tony Schiavone and every single WCW announcer in a marketing campaign that seemed to last for years.

It was a marketing campaign that didn’t quite work. “Where the big boys play” sounds like a pitch for a summer camp for overgrown high school kids—guys a little too old for camp but unable to talk their parents out of it.

Or maybe it’s one of those lame adult “fantasy camps,” the kind of sports experience in which you spend a week throwing the old rawhide with a former Dodgers middle reliever and get a complimentary photo with Tommy Lasorda (unless you hate Tommy Lasorda).

I’m sure the brain trust at WCW thought they had a good thing going—until Kevin Nash and Scott Hall came into the company and immediately shot it to shreds.

“This is where the big boys play huh?” Nash asked Eric Bischoff. “Look at the adjective. ‘Play.’ We aren’t here to play.”

Ignore, for a moment, the basic failure of this speech. I’m sure his grammar teacher felt like she had been powerbombed on her head after hearing it. More importantly, it showed how something that felt so right could be made to look oh so wrong.

The UFC is walking that same fine line as it promotes an all-heavyweight main card for UFC 146 this May. On paper, it looks awesome. A heavyweight title fight between Junior dos Santos and Alistair Overeem in the main event. Frank Mir and Cain Velasquez competing for the next title shot. And amazing bangers like Mark Hunt and Roy Nelson also on the PPV portion of the event.

What else could you ask for? The chances for explosive knockouts and hilarious slobber knockers? High.

But here’s the rub, and there is always a rub: There is a chance that this will be MMA‘s Titanic. A disaster. A cluster of 15-minute decisions with large mammoth men leaning on each other and gasping for breath for three long hours.

That’s the risk you run when you attempt to create brilliant art. UFC matchmaker Joe Silva is willing to jump in the deep end. Don’t believe those public service announcements that claim that when you “shoot for the moon, you’ll land in the stars.” That’s goofy nonsense. Sometimes, when you aim for the moon, “Big Country” slips, bumps the cannon, and you accidentally set the circus tent on fire. Metaphorically.

When things get it right though, nothing is better than a special heavyweight fight. There’s an allure to watching the big beasts rut in the mud and run into each other as hard as they possibly can. Five of those kinds of fights in a row? That could be truly breathtaking. It’s a risk worth taking.

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UFC 146: Main Card Packs Plenty of Weight, but How Good Will the Fights Be?

For the first time ever the UFC has filled an entire main card with heavyweights. It might help with pay-per-view sales, but perhaps one issue Dana and Co. haven’t considered is that heavyweight fights are not always entertaining.The flyweights fought …

For the first time ever the UFC has filled an entire main card with heavyweights. It might help with pay-per-view sales, but perhaps one issue Dana and Co. haven’t considered is that heavyweight fights are not always entertaining.

The flyweights fought at a fantastic pace in Sydney recently and really showed why the introduction of a 125 lbs division was long overdue. Fighters that weigh in excess of 250 lbs aren’t capable of keeping up anything like that sort of a strike rate.

When heavyweight fights finish fast they are fun, which has been the case with almost all of the big fights the UFC has put on recently. When they get into the third round the action often slows to a virtual standstill as 10 minutes-plus of carrying around their 260 lbs frames starts to take a toll on the fighters.

I can’t see Junior Dos Santos vs. Alistair Overeem making it out of the first round somehow. Dos Santos will back himself in the boxing exchanges but Overeem has those deadly knees and kicks. Both bring so much power that sooner or later (most likely sooner) one of them will finish the fight.

Dos Santos has a superior ground game to Overeem, but there is nowhere near as much of a difference between their skill sets as there is between those of Cain Velasquez and Frank Mir, who are fighting in the co-main event.

Mir’s stand-up is getting better all the time but he is still best known for breaking the occasional bone with a submission. Velasquez is well known for his stand-up fighting ability but he is also an All-American wrestler who will need to have good takedown defense if he doesn’t want to end up on his back.

The last two fights of the night are outstanding and I have no complaints with them, but the other three on the main card concern me. I could see Roy Nelson and Antonio Silva ending up exhausted and unable to muster up a decent strike between them if this one drags on too long.

Either man could get the first-round knockout but if they don’t, I fear the frequency of boos will increase for as long as the fight drags on. It could be a fun fight but it could also be a very bad one and the UFC are taking a risk with it.

It’s difficult to imagine Stefan Struve vs. Mark Hunt lasting for too long because Struve simply doesn’t do decisions and Hunt is what Joe Rogan will probably be describing as a K-1 level striker, if he hasn’t already.

The first round should be entertaining but after that it will be downhill all the way. The same could apply to Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Shane Del Rosario—although who doesn’t want to see a Muay Thai world champion with an 11-0 MMA record in the UFC?

The UFC are running a real risk by filling the main card with heavyweights. If it pays off then it could pave the way for some superb future fights, but if the fireworks don’t materialize it could be one of the dullest cards ever.

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Stefan Struve vs. Mark Hunt Booked for UFC 146


(Struve channels his inner Keanu Reeves during his UFC 130 bout against Travis Browne.) 

In a fight that is all but guaranteed to end in a decisive, if not brutally violent fashion, it appears that heavyweight contenders Stefan “Skyscraper” Struve and Mark “Mark” Hunt are set to collide at UFC 146, which now features an all heavyweight lineup as its main card for the first time in UFC history. Thank God it’s not being held at a high altitude.

We know what you’re thinking: WHY IS TIM SYLVIA NOT ON THIS CARD?!!!

Hunt has had perhaps the most startling career resurgence in recent memory, scoring three straight octagon victories over Chris Tuchscherer, Ben Rothwell, and most recently Cheick Kongo, with two of those victories coming by way of destructive KO. This was made even more shocking due to the fact that Hunt was only picked up by the UFC in order to fulfill a contract he had signed back in his PRIDE days before the organization was absorbed by Zuffa.

Struve, on the other hand, will be looking to add another three fight win streak to his current 7-3 octagon record come May 26th. We last saw him at UFC on FUEL: Sanchez vs. Ellenberger, when he dispatched Manbearpig Dave Herman via second round TKO. Prior to that, Struve choked out our boy Pat Barry in the first round of their UFC Live 6 co-headliner bout.

UFC 146 transpires at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and features a main event title clash between Junior Dos Santos and Alistair Overeem.

In other fight booking news…


(Struve channels his inner Keanu Reeves during his UFC 130 bout against Travis Browne.) 

In a fight that is all but guaranteed to end in a decisive, if not brutally violent fashion, it appears that heavyweight contenders Stefan “Skyscraper” Struve and Mark “Mark” Hunt are set to collide at UFC 146, which now features an all heavyweight lineup as its main card for the first time in UFC history. Thank God it’s not being held at a high altitude.

We know what you’re thinking: WHY IS TIM SYLVIA NOT ON THIS CARD?!!!

Hunt has had perhaps the most startling career resurgence in recent memory, scoring three straight octagon victories over Chris Tuchscherer, Ben Rothwell, and most recently Cheick Kongo, with two of those victories coming by way of destructive KO. This was made even more shocking due to the fact that Hunt was only picked up by the UFC in order to fulfill a contract he had signed back in his PRIDE days before the organization was absorbed by Zuffa.

Struve, on the other hand, will be looking to add another three fight win streak to his current 7-3 octagon record come May 26th. We last saw him at UFC on FUEL: Sanchez vs. Ellenberger, when he dispatched Manbearpig Dave Herman via second round TKO. Prior to that, Struve choked out our boy Pat Barry in the first round of their UFC Live 6 co-headliner bout.

UFC 146 transpires at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and features a main event title clash between Junior Dos Santos and Alistair Overeem.

In other fight booking news…

Light Heavyweight sluggers Igor Pokrajac and Fabio Maldonado are scheduled to square off at UFC on FUEL 3, which goes down on on May 15 at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Virginia and features a headlining possible number one contender bout between Dustin Poirier and Chan Sung Jung. Maldonado, who hasn’t fought since dropping a close decision to Kyle Kingsbury at the TUF 13 Finale, is stepping in to replace Thiago Silva, who in turn stepped in to replace Antonio Rogerio Nogueria against Alexander Gustafsson for the main event of UFC on FUEL 2.

The full event lineup for both UFC 146 and UFC on FUEL 3 is below.

UFC 146 
Heavyweight Championship bout: Junior dos Santos (c) vs. Alistair Overeem
Heavyweight bout: Cain Velasquez vs. Frank Mir
Heavyweight bout: Roy Nelson vs. Antonio Silva
Heavyweight bout: Mark Hunt vs. Stefan Struve
Heavyweight Bout: Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Shane Del Rosario
Middleweight bout: Jason Miller vs. C.B. Dollaway
Welterweight bout: Dan Hardy vs. Duane Ludwig
Lightweight bout: Jacob Volkmann vs. Paul Sass
Featherweight bout: Darren Elkins vs. Diego Brandao
Light Heavyweight bout: Kyle Kingsbury vs. Glover Teixeira

UFC on FUEL 3 
Featherweight bout: Dustin Poirier vs. Chan Sung Jung
Light Heavyweight bout: Fabio Maldonado vs. Igor Pokrajac
Lightweight bout: Donald Cerrone vs. Jeremy Stephens
Lightweight bout: Rafael dos Anjos vs. Kamal Shalorus
Lightweight bout: TJ Grant vs. Carlo Prater
Middleweight bout: Tom Lawlor vs. Jason MacDonald
Welterweight bout: Amir Sadollah vs. Jorge Lopez
Lightweight bout: Cody McKenzie vs. Aaron Riley
Middleweight bout: Brad Tavares vs. Dongi Yang
Bantamweight bout: Yves Jabouin vs. Mike Easton
Bantamweight bout: Jeff Curran vs. Johnny Eduardo
Bantamweight bout: Alex Soto vs. Azamat Gashimov

-J. Jones

UFC 146 Gets Fifth Heavyweight Bout Added to Main Card

The marquee division in combat sports will be in the spotlight for UFC 146, as a fifth heavyweight bout between Stefan Struve and Mark Hunt was finalized by Dana White and added to the main card, according to Yahoo’s Cagewriter Kevin Iole. Both Hu…

The marquee division in combat sports will be in the spotlight for UFC 146, as a fifth heavyweight bout between Stefan Struve and Mark Hunt was finalized by Dana White and added to the main card, according to Yahoo’s Cagewriter Kevin Iole.

Both Hunt and Struve enter the bout having come off impressive victories. Hunt defeated Cheick Kongo in the first round at UFC 144 while Struve stopped Dave Herman at UFC on Fuel TV 1.

The pay-per-view event is set to go down on May 26 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena and will be headlined by a title fight between UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos and former Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem.

Dos Santos won the title when he knocked out Cain Velasquez in November. His UFC career consists of eight victories, five of which came by knockout.

Overeem is currently riding an 11-fight win streak with wins over Fabricio Werdum, Brock Lesnar and Brett Rogers. He brings a 36-11 record that consists of 15 knockouts and 19 submission wins.

Also on the card is a bout between former champions Frank Mir and Velasquez. Mir is coming off his stunning submission win over Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira while Velasquez will look to rebound from the first loss of his career.

Other heavyweight bouts on the main card include Antonio Silva vs. Roy Nelson and Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Shane del Rosario.

Tickets for UFC 146 will be on sale March 30.

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