It wasn’t the most entertaining fight, but Shane Roller is walking away from UFC 148 with his second UFC victory—a much needed win given that he was coming off three straight losses.John Alessio was a game opponent and dangerous on his feet, but …
It wasn’t the most entertaining fight, but Shane Roller is walking away from UFC 148 with his second UFC victory—a much needed win given that he was coming off three straight losses.
John Alessio was a game opponent and dangerous on his feet, but Roller was able to use his superior grappling to bring the fight to the ground and control the fight in the second and third rounds.
All three judges scored the bout 29-28 in favor of Roller.
What we’ll remember about this fight
Tough to say because it wasn’t too entertaining.
Possibly Alessio yelling out, “Do you wanna fight me or do you wanna ride me?” when Roller had his back in the third round. It’s not unusual for a fighter to be frustrated by being repeatedly taken down, but it’s rare that someone is so vocal about it.
Also, Alessio staggered Roller at the beginning of the third round. For a moment, it looked like he might steal a come-from-behind victory.
What we learned about Shane Roller
Nothing really. We knew he had decent striking and a solid wrestling base and that’s what he showed in this fight.
We did learn that Roller deserves to be a part of the UFC roster, which was questionable prior to this victory.
What we learned about John Alessio
He probably won’t survive in the UFC’s lightweight division. Alessio’s takedown defense is lacking and 155 lbs is filled with elite wrestlers.
His striking looked good, but not good enough to make up for what his grappling game is missing.
What’s next for Shane Roller
Sam Stout would make sense. Stout can test Roller’s striking, and given that Stout has been working hard on his wrestling Roller would be a good opponent to see how good Stout’s grappling has become.
What’s next for John Alessio
The UFC will likely keep Alessio around for another fight. He’s an entertaining guy and comes to fight.
Al Iaquinta seems a logical choice. Both men like to strike and are 0-1 in the UFC.
Andrew Barr is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and a stand-up comedian.Check him out on Twitter @AndrewBarr8.
Let’s get ready to say goodbye to former greatness tonight at UFC 148. There is no question that Tito Ortiz was one of the most dominant light heavyweights of his time.What was so great about him is that he loved being the bad guy. He’s had…
Let’s get ready to say goodbye to former greatness tonight at UFC 148. There is no question that Tito Ortiz was one of the most dominant light heavyweights of his time.
What was so great about him is that he loved being the bad guy. He’s had feuds with everyone from Chuck Liddell to Ken Shamrock to Dana White. He’s beaten some of the best in the sport’s history and is a deserving member of the UFC Hall of Fame.
Across the cage will be Forrest Griffin, Ortiz’s closest rival. In two fights, both men have earned one split decision each. This will be the match that ends not only the feud, but also Tito’s illustrious career.
What to Watch For
Striking
In the last fight between the two, Griffin dominated the action on the feet. He wasn’t as crisp as he’d been in the past but he was catching Ortiz with good shots. Tito got in his fare share of shots, too, but in the end it wasn’t enough to give him the nod on more than one judge’s scorecard.
I expect Ortiz to study that tape extensively and find holes in Griffin’s striking. Look for Tito to utilize his jab and low kicks more often to set up his possible takedowns.
Grappling
This fight will contain its fair share of grappling, and Griffin was the dominant one in that department in the last fight. Both guys on their best day are equals, and if anything, Griffin should enjoy an advantage with his Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt. Look for Griffin to initiate the clinch and go to work.
The Finish
It’s hard to see this fight not going to the judges’ scorecards once again.
We’ll get some good striking, solid grappling and an all-around brawl between these two. Neither man will gain a clear advantage and it will once again go down to the wire. Both fighters will put it all out on the line, and I expect to see each one genuinely looking to have their hand raised.
It may be wishful thinking, but I’m hoping to see the grave digger one more time before Ortiz rides off into the sunset.
This card has it all. A fight between two fast-paced, dynamite finishers. A grappling battle between two of the best ground fighters in the game. A stand-up war that will end with someone staring up at lights. Oh yeah, and there’s that Anderson Si…
This card has it all. A fight between two fast-paced, dynamite finishers. A grappling battle between two of the best ground fighters in the game. A stand-up war that will end with someone staring up at lights.
Oh yeah, and there’s that Anderson Silva guy fighting too.
With all that said, the one thing UFC 148 is not is a one-fight card.
Excitement top-to-bottom, drama, passion: It’ll all be on display inside the Octagon tonight in Las Vegas. But as for the matches on paper? Let’s take a look at how they stack up against each other.
Middleweight champion Anderson Silva is entering the most anticipated fight of 2012 tonight at UFC 148 in Las Vegas. He defends his title in a rematch against American Chael Sonnen. Silva must do a few essential things to come out on top.First, Silva m…
Middleweight champion Anderson Silva is entering the most anticipated fight of 2012 tonight at UFC 148 in Las Vegas. He defends his title in a rematch against American Chael Sonnen. Silva must do a few essential things to come out on top.
First, Silva must stay off the ground. The first time the two met in 2010, Silva was punished for most of the fight. It was not until the final round that he locked Sonnen in a choke to finish off the fight.
Getting into a wrestling match with Sonnen is not in his best interests, as that is what got him into trouble in their first match. Silva’s Muay Thai fighting style is what he needs to use in order to set the tone.
The second key to Silva winning this fight is maintaining his stamina. If he learned anything from the first bout, this will not be a quick matchup. Sonnen averages nearly 12 minutes of fight time for each bout. To beat him, it will be a grind for Silva.
Silva has had 18 knockouts in his 31 wins, so he is very capable of ending fights early. However, Sonnen will not be the sort of weak opponent who is susceptible to knockout.
He has only lost by KO seven times.
The third key to Silva coming out on top the use of his striking ability. He must continue to strike Sonnen and stay away from the ground-and-pound game. Sonnen is not able to absorb body hits as well as the Spider, and Silva could use that to his advantage to retain his title.
Like a lot of the writers that cover this sport, I haven’t been an MMA fan since UFC 1. Hell, I was only two years old when Royce Gracie shocked the world and dominated the first UFC tournament, and to be honest I didn’t even know what the …
Like a lot of the writers that cover this sport, I haven’t been an MMA fan since UFC 1.
Hell, I was only two years old when Royce Gracie shocked the world and dominated the first UFC tournament, and to be honest I didn’t even know what the UFC was until the premiere episode of The Ultimate Fighter aired one night after I’d gotten my fix of WWE Raw on SpikeTV in 2005.
From that moment forward, I was hooked.
Like most fans that came from watching The Ultimate Fighter, I was incredibly biased whenever my boys from TUF 1 stepped inside the cage, and when original cast member/crazy person Chris Leben stepped inside the Octagon at Ultimate Fight Night 5 against a guy I’d barely heard of in Anderson Silva, I expected an early knockout for “The Crippler.”
Instead, I had my mind blown by the most impressive performance I’d ever seen inside a cage.
It seemed as though Silva couldn’t miss, as he kept on tagging Leben with what seemed like an endless barrage of strikes that all seemed to land right on the button.
Silva ended up landing 17 of his 20 significant strikes thrown. If you had asked me right after the fight, I would have guessed he hit at least 50.
From that moment on, I’ve considered Anderson Silva the most dominant fighter in the world.
For all of us that started watching the sport through TUF, Silva was the first guy that both new and old UFC fans saw blossom into a star with their own eyes.
Guys like Hughes, Liddell and Couture had been around forever and long-time fans had been waiting for them to blow up for a long time.
Silva came out of nowhere and took over the sport right at its most dangerous transition period.
Within a year of Silva’s winning, Hughes and Liddell both lost their titles, and Couture had left the UFC. Suddenly all of the stars the organization had built up through it’s reality show had either walked away or lost their titles, and it forced the UFC to market Silva as must-see TV.
I’ve sat back in awe as Silva has destroyed guys I’d come to know and respect like Rich Franklin, Nate Marquardt and even PRIDE champion Dan Henderson, and even after The Spider’s string of lackluster title defenses against Cote, Leites, and Maia, I never picked against him.
Anderson Silva was the scariest fighter in the world, and I had no reason to believe that anyone was ever going to beat him with anything other than a lucky punch.
That changed at UFC 117, and the fall of Silva will become a reality tonight.
It’s been an incredible six years since Silva came out and forced my brain to explode with his beatdown of Leben, but for the first time since that night, I think Anderson Silva is going to lose.
ChaelSonnen not only has the style to defeat Silva, but he also has the swagger. Many of Silva’s opponents walk into the cage looking as though they’re waiting to get knocked unconscious, and even more start to doubt themselves once Silva gets in front of them and starts easily dodging every strike they throw at him.
The aura that surrounds Silva is a dangerous thing in itself, and Sonnen is truly the only fighter I’ve seen in the last six years that was able to walk right through that mystique and give The Spider everything he could handle.
There’s no point in recapping the first fight, especially just a few hours away from the rematch, but if there’s one thing I got from the UFC 117 bout that matters, it’s that Sonnen had Silva beat.
The testosterone doesn’t matter, the injured ribs don’t matter, and even the triangle choke that put Sonnen away doesn’t matter at this point.
ChaelSonnen knows exactly what he needs to do in order to defeat Anderson Silva.
He’s known it for two years now, and when Sonnen walks out of the cage with the UFC middleweight belt around his waist tonight, my whole view of mixed martial arts is going to be changed forever.
I wasn’t around when Gracie was tapping out everyone in the world. I barely knew what was going on for most of Chuck Liddell’s reign as champ, and Matt Hughes was nothing but the next step in Georges St-Pierre’s career by the time I started watching this sport.
Anderson Silva was the first fighter that I truly believed was unbeatable, and a small part of me is going to hate it when he finally falls.
Tonight will be the end of Silva’s reign as king, and we can just hope the era of Sonnen is as entertaining as those of his predecessors.
Bleacher Report caught up with UFC stars Frank Mir and Matt Serra to discuss tonight’s big middleweight title fight between Chael Sonnen and Anderson Silva.Both fighters analyzed Silva and Sonnen’s strengths and weaknesses.Check out the preview video a…
Bleacher Report caught up with UFC stars Frank Mir and Matt Serra to discuss tonight’s big middleweight title fight between Chael Sonnen and Anderson Silva.
Both fighters analyzed Silva and Sonnen’s strengths and weaknesses.
It wasn’t the most entertaining fight, but Shane Roller is walking away from UFC 148 with his second UFC victory—a much needed win given that he was coming off three straight losses.