On Saturday night, in the co-main event of UFC 148, former light heavyweight champions will face off, as Tito Ortiz will battle Forrest Griffin.These two will be fighting for the third time, and they have each previously won a split decision over the o…
On Saturday night, in the co-main event of UFC 148, former light heavyweight champions will face off, as Tito Ortiz will battle Forrest Griffin.
These two will be fighting for the third time, and they have each previously won a split decision over the other. Ortiz won at UFC 59, and Griffin won at UFC 106.
Tito has announced that this will be his last fight, and he is looking to go out with a win. Unfortunately for Tito, Forrest will be the one winning this fight, and the trilogy.
Many people have been saying lately that Forrest Griffin is over the hill, and will be done soon. However, what these people fail to realize is that Griffin is still performing at, or near, a top ten caliber fighter level.
Injuries have forced Griffin to only fight three times in the past three years, but in those three fights, he has gone 2-1.
The victories aren’t exactly over the highest level of competition—anymore at least—as the victories were Rich Franklin and Ortiz. The loss came at the hands, and hammerfists, of Mauricio Rua.
Then, on the other end of the spectrum, is Tito Ortiz.
In his last eight fights, Ortiz is just 1-6-1. He defeated Ryan Bader at UFC 132, drew with Rashad Evans at UFC 73, and lost to Rogerio Nogueira, Evans, Matt Hamill, Griffin, Lyoto Machida and Chuck Liddell.
Ortiz has been fighting some of the best fighters in the game, but losing six out of eight fights isn’t good for anyone.
Griffin is younger, has more time left in his career and won the last fight against Ortiz. He’s going to win the fight tomorrow, and he’s going to win the trilogy.
Tim McTiernan is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. For the latest news on everything MMA, follow him on Twitter @TimMcTiernan.
I know what you’ve all been thinking this week. You’ve been thinking “This whole pissed off and angry Anderson Silva is a frightening change of pace, and the press conference was fun I guess, but damn it, I need to know how Steven Seagal will take credit for all of this!” Well don’t worry, person who doesn’t exist – you won’t have to wait until after the fight to find that out.
Ariel Helwani caught up with Cockpuncherto discuss Anderson Silva’s upcoming rematch with Chael Sonnen. After appearing reluctant to give the mere mortal an interview, Seagal explained how Silva’s intense new attitude is entirely his doing. And those concerns you may be having over The Spider’s emotions affecting his performance? Don’t worry, Seagal has an answer for that, too.
I know what you’ve all been thinking this week. You’ve been thinking “This whole pissed off and angry Anderson Silva is a frightening change of pace, and the press conference was fun I guess, but damn it, I need to know how Steven Seagal will take credit for all of this!” Well don’t worry, person who doesn’t exist – you won’t have to wait until after the fight to find that out.
Ariel Helwani caught up with Cockpuncherto discuss Anderson Silva‘s upcoming rematch with Chael Sonnen. After appearing reluctant to give the mere mortal an interview, Seagal explained how Silva’s intense new attitude is entirely his doing. And those concerns you may be having over The Spider’s emotions affecting his performance? Don’t worry, Seagal has an answer for that, too.
Perhaps the most note-worthy quote from this interview was Steven Seagal’s claim to have taught Anderson Silva “two or three things…stuff that we thought was maybe illegal that’s not illegal.” When pressed for more information, Seagal claimed to not want to give anything away so that Chael won’t know to expect it. Of course, for a guy who doesn’t want to give anything away, it’s odd that he clarified that the technique is a stand-up technique.
In other words: Anderson Silva now has Teh Deadly in his possession, he’ll use it to defeat Chael Sonnen, and it looks like a technique that most people thought was illegal but totally isn’t. Awesome.
And on that note, I leave you with this game of patty-cake between The Keeperand Rafael Cavalcante gone terribly wrong.
On a night that will feature the greatest rematch in UFC history, it’s only fitting that the same PPV card offers a variety of dynamic bouts.So while many fans will tune in to see Anderson Silva defend his middleweight title against Chael Sonnen for th…
On a night that will feature the greatest rematch in UFC history, it’s only fitting that the same PPV card offers a variety of dynamic bouts.
So while many fans will tune in to see Anderson Silva defend his middleweight title against Chael Sonnen for the second time in two years, others will be tuning in all night long.
Here are 10 bold predictions for UFC 148, an event that could very well be the best the UFC has to offer in 2012.
In perhaps the biggest grudge match in UFC history, Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen are set to do battle on Saturday night to determine the undisputed middleweight champion.Despite losing to Silva at UFC 117, Sonnen has paraded around with a replica UF…
In perhaps the biggest grudge match in UFC history, Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen are set to do battle on Saturday night to determine the undisputed middleweight champion.
Despite losing to Silva at UFC 117, Sonnen has paraded around with a replica UFC title strapped firmly to his shoulder.
People have made the mistake in calling the Oregon native “crazy” and “delusional,” but Sonnen knows exactly what he’s doing.
For four-and-a-half rounds, he dominated Silva in every aspect of fighting. The champ was able to rally late in the fifth round with a dramatic submission to retain his title, but Sonnen’s confidence draws from everything that happened up until that point.
Sonnen truly believes he is the UFC champion and a far superior fighter, despite Silva’s Michael Jordan-esque aura.
This belief has led to trash talking unlike anything ever seen in the sport. If there was ever an invisible line never to be crossed, Sonnen has stepped and spat all over it. The top middleweight contender has thrown verbal jabs at Silva’s wife, teammates and the entire country of Brazil.
After two years of silence, Silva finally lashed back at the UFC 148 media call, promising to “change the image of the sport” and “break all of Sonnen’s teeth and limbs.”
Alas, the time for talking has come to an end. Who has the edge heading into Saturday night’s highly anticipated rematch?
It’s fairly obvious that Sonnen has an edge, at least from a mental standpoint.
Silva’s success has come from his cerebral approach to every fight. Mentally, he is on an entirely different playing field than any of his opponents. If he comes out overaggressive against Sonnen, he will only open himself up to easier takedowns from the world class wrestler.
Like the first fight, takedowns will be key in the rematch. The pressure will be on Sonnen to sift through Silva’s otherworldly striking and get the fight to the mat. This is where some doubt creeps in for Sonnen fans.
If Sonnen had any chance at all to defeat Silva, it would’ve been the first fight. Silva’s striking precision is superhero-like. Sonnen hasn’t proven in the past to be a strong finisher, with 16 of his 27 wins coming by decision.
It’s a tall task to ask any man to go 25 minutes against arguably the most accurate striker in MMA history without eating a good shot.
Luckily, Sonnen has a solid chin and good enough recovery to survive if things get dicey. It wasn’t like Silva didn’t land any significant punches in the first fight.
Silva is arguably the greatest fighter in MMA history, but his takedown defense is average at best. People tend to point to Sonnen being popped for steroids or Silva’s rib injury as reasoning behind the long amount of time the champ spent on his back in the first bout.
With Silva, the writing has been on the wall in regards to his takedown defense for years.
Sonnen, Dan Henderson and Yushin Okami are the only world class wrestlers Silva has faced in the UFC. Out of the three, Sonnen is the only one that never deviated from his wrestling.
Henderson took Silva down relatively easily and dominated the first round of their championship bout. In the second round, he decided he wanted to stand and exchange with the Brazilian, which led to wobbly legs and a second round submission loss.
Okami, on the other hand, threw his game plan out the window completely, and instead, he challenged Silva to a kickboxing match, which quickly ended in a second round TKO loss.
Sonnen stuck with his bread and butter and found success against the champ.
Travis Lutter is a name people tend to forget. He is a highly respected Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner, but his wrestling is mediocre at best. In his UFC 67 bout with Silva, he was able to take the champ down three times without much effort.
Why wouldn’t Sonnen be able to do the same again?
Silva’s BJJ is incredibly underrated, which means takedowns alone won’t win Sonnen this fight. It’s rare that one bout can induce so much hype, but the actual fight won’t live up to the bill. Sonnen will secure takedowns at will and follow a more cautious approach.
It’ll be an agonizing 25 minutes for anti-Sonnen fans as the self-proclaimed “Oregon Gangster” finishes what he started and pulls out a lackluster unanimous decision.
At UFC 117, Chael Sonnen did the impossible and completely dominated reigning UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva.Whether it was a lack of focus, a broken rib or any of a number of personal reasons, Silva just was not in form, and he nearly paid the …
At UFC 117, Chael Sonnen did the impossible and completely dominated reigning UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva.
Whether it was a lack of focus, a broken rib or any of a number of personal reasons, Silva just was not in form, and he nearly paid the ultimate price for it.
But with their epic rematch a little over a day away, don’t expect a repeat performance.
Silva is extremely motivated and focused for this fight, and he won’t let Sonnen dominate again. In fact, I think the pound-for-pound king will completely turn the tables and put on a show at UFC 148.
Here are five reason why MMA‘s most feared fighter will come out on top Saturday night.
(Guys, seriously, you gotta stop this or I’m gonna have a harder time hiding this erection than Jean-Claude Van Damme.)
By George Shunick
This weekend, the MGM Grand Garden Arena will host the most highly anticipated fight this year when middleweight champion Anderson Silva faces off against, err, “middleweight champion”Chael P. Sonnen. As we all know, Sonnen was the man who almost took Silva’s title at UFC 117, dismantling the champion through punishing ground and pound and even rocking MMA’s greatest striker on the feet before succumbing to a triangle choke after winning the previous 23 minutes of the fight. Following the fight, it was revealed Silva fought with a badly injured rib and Sonnen had a testosterone to epitestosterone ratio of 16.9 to 1. Regardless, due to Sonnen’s trash talk and how close their last fight was, this fight has the potential to be one of the best fights of the summer.
However, will this be the “biggest rematch in the history of the business,” as Sonnen claims? Maybe, but I doubt it. You could argue Lesnar-Mir II is more likely to be successful financially, or that Liddell-Ortiz II or Liddell-Couture II/III were more culturally significant for a burgeoning sport, but virtually all lacked such a compelling narrative or contained the level of talent featured here. Moreover, in hindsight, they were rather one-sided matchups. Edgar-Maynard II and III were probably of a higher caliber that Silva-Sonnen II will be, simply by virtue of being two of the greatest fights in the history of the sport, but lacked the hype and context that this matchup possesses.
This matchup has the potential to rank alongside Fedor-Nogueira III, which saw the two greatest heavyweights in MMA history – and the two top-ranked heavyweights at that time – fight for the Pride heavyweight title; both fights possess a historic air about them, feature top level talent, and take place within the narrative framework of a rivalry. But I still think the gold standard for a rematch will remain Jackson-Silva II, which had every ingredient you could wish for in a rematch turned up to 11. It had two of the greatest fighters in MMA history, in one of the greatest rivalries in MMA history, in one of the greatest fights in MMA history, culminating in one of the greatest knockouts in MMA history. Suffice it to say, Sonnen-Silva II has a lot to accomplish to validate Sonnen’s comments.
(Guys, seriously, you gotta stop this or I’m gonna have a harder time hiding this erection than Jean-Claude Van Damme.)
By George Shunick
This weekend, the MGM Grand Garden Arena will host the most highly anticipated fight this year when middleweight champion Anderson Silva faces off against, err, “middleweight champion”Chael P. Sonnen. As we all know, Sonnen was the man who almost took Silva’s title at UFC 117, dismantling the champion through punishing ground and pound and even rocking MMA’s greatest striker on the feet before succumbing to a triangle choke after winning the previous 23 minutes of the fight. Following the fight, it was revealed Silva fought with a badly injured rib and Sonnen had a testosterone to epitestosterone ratio of 16.9 to 1. Regardless, due to Sonnen’s trash talk and how close their last fight was, this fight has the potential to be one of the best fights of the summer.
However, will this be the “biggest rematch in the history of the business,” as Sonnen claims? Maybe, but I doubt it. You could argue Lesnar-Mir II is more likely to be successful financially, or that Liddell-Ortiz II or Liddell-Couture II/III were more culturally significant for a burgeoning sport, but virtually all lacked such a compelling narrative or contained the level of talent featured here. Moreover, in hindsight, they were rather one-sided matchups. Edgar-Maynard II and III were probably of a higher caliber that Silva-Sonnen II will be, simply by virtue of being two of the greatest fights in the history of the sport, but lacked the hype and context that this matchup possesses.
This matchup has the potential to rank alongside Fedor-Nogueira III, which saw the two greatest heavyweights in MMA history – and the two top-ranked heavyweights at that time – fight for the Pride heavyweight title; both fights possess a historic air about them, feature top level talent, and take place within the narrative framework of a rivalry. But I still think the gold standard for a rematch will remain Jackson-Silva II, which had every ingredient you could wish for in a rematch turned up to 11. It had two of the greatest fighters in MMA history, in one of the greatest rivalries in MMA history, in one of the greatest fights in MMA history, culminating in one of the greatest knockouts in MMA history. Suffice it to say, Sonnen-Silva II has a lot to accomplish to validate Sonnen’s comments.
First, it’s important to consider the impact that Silva’s injury had on him; with an injured rib, it became much more difficult for him to stuff takedowns, land punches and utilize the head movement that is so fundamental to his counterstriking strategy. As a result, not only was Sonnen able to take Silva down at will, but he was also able to shock many observers by landing a number of heavy punches on the feet. In this contest, Silva won’t be fighting with an injured rib, so I suspect that Sonnen will not find the same success on the feet as he did in their first encounter. However, Silva may be entering the fight with a knee injury. Although he and Dana White were quick to dispute this, if the rumors are true Silva might find his mobility compromised, and evading takedowns will be difficult for him.
But to be honest, Sonnen could very well find success with his takedowns even if Silva is not injured. Sonnen is a southpaw who favors power double leg takedowns. Anderson is used to fending off single legs from opponents fighting out of an orthodox stance; as his lead leg is closer to their lead leg, it’s the more natural way for his opponent to attempt a takedown. But as Sonnen is a southpaw, his torso is more aligned with Silva’s than most fighters, and this allows him to angle for a double leg, which Silva isn’t as adept at defending. True, he was successful in this regard against Yushin Okami, but Sonnen is a more powerful and tenacious wrestler. Injuries or otherwise, Sonnen can get Silva on his back.
But it’s not going to be that simple. To do so, Sonnen still needs to get in range and that means getting in the Spider’s comfort zone. Silva is more than capable of dismantling Sonnen on the feet, but there are other dangers than merely being humiliated. Silva can use precision jabs to momentarily halt Sonnen’s progress and shift his position so he is no longer vulnerable to a takedown using his extraordinary footwork. From that advantageous position, he can land harder strikes and try to injure Sonnen, though he will probably avoid leg kicks to prevent Sonnen grabbing a hold of his leg and forcing him to the mat. If he manages to discourage Sonnen’s offensive efforts – no easy task – the Spider will win handily.
Even if Sonnen manages to take Silva down, what then? Sure, he’ll be able to land some ground and pound, but Silva’s guard will be much more efficient now that he won’t be dealing with an injured rib. The odds are that Sonnen will not be able to replicate the amount of damage he was able to do to Silva the first time around, whereas Silva will be even more capable of submitting Sonnen than he was during their last matchup. You can make all you like of Chael training with Vinny Magalhaes, but it would be as foolish to assume that a career-long flaw in Sonnen’s game will be corrected over the course of a few months as it would to assume Dana White will grow hair tomorrow.
Best case scenario, this fight is a competitive, back and forth affair that lives up to the hype and helps maintain the attention of old fans and grab new ones while the UFC undergoes its painful expansion process. If that’s the case, this would cement the Sonnen-Silva rivalry as being one of the greatest in the sport’s short history. But if Silva dominates Sonnen to the extent that he manages to utter “Where’s your wrestling now, playboy?”, their last match will be considered more of an aberration than an indication of a truly competitive struggle for supremacy atop the division. I don’t think that will happen, but I do think Silva will win after an early struggle. He won’t knock out Sonnen – or his teeth – but he will knock him down, and finish the fight via rear naked choke.
On Saturday night, in the co-main event of UFC 148, former light heavyweight champions will face off, as Tito Ortiz will battle Forrest Griffin.
