UFC 153 is right around the corner and the UFC will be hosting a conference call this afternoon for the press to speak with the main event fighters.Anderson Silva will be moving up in weight to fight Stephan Bonnar, while Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira faces…
UFC 153 is right around the corner and the UFC will be hosting a conference call this afternoon for the press to speak with the main event fighters.
Anderson Silva will be moving up in weight to fight Stephan Bonnar, while Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira faces off with Dave Herman.
The call will have Silva, Bonnar, Nogueira, and Herman speaking about their upcoming bouts on October 13.
Join Bleacher Report this afternoon for a live blog of the call at 4:00 PM ET/1:00 PM PT.
UFC light heavyweight Phil Davis is set to take on Wagner Prado at UFC 153, in a continuation of the injury-shortened bout the two shared earlier this summer. A cursory glance at the rematch shows two up-and-coming fighters vying to step over one …
UFC light heavyweight Phil Davis is set to take on Wagner Prado at UFC 153, in a continuation of the injury-shortened bout the two shared earlier this summer.
A cursory glance at the rematch shows two up-and-coming fighters vying to step over one another en route to title contention. While this assessment is not wrong, Davis has more at stake than simply moving closer to UFC gold.
Formerly considered a candidate to be MMA‘s next big thing, Davis tore into the UFC by reeling off five straight wins, extending his career mark to a perfect 9-0.
At that point, all was right in Davis’ career. He looked like a legitimate threat to divisional deity Jon Jones, had the admiration of the MMA world and was on the precipice of breaking into the upper echelon.
The only obstacle between validation and himself was Rashad Evans—an obstacle that proved significant.
Evans put a halt to Davis’ momentum, outclassing him on the feet for a full five rounds, even controlling the wrestling game, an area in which many analysts gave Davis an edge. Though he made it to a 25-minute decision, the contest featured almost no positives for Davis, who mounted no serious threat the entire time.
The result of his middling attempt to surpass Evans in the light heavyweight ranks was the loss of something greater than just a fight—Davis’ appearance of being a contender turned from promise to facade.
The perception that Mr. Wonderful might overtake a fighter of Jon Jones’ caliber dissipated in its entirety after the Evans fight, and was replaced by a widely held belief that he is too one-dimensional to strongly impact the title picture at 205.
Frustratingly, Davis’ attempt to disprove this criticism was thwarted by an accidental eye poke, which cut short his follow-up bout with Wagner Prado, at just 1:28 of Round 1.
The worst part of No Contest was not so much the delay in Davis’ re-ascent, but rather that the brief time he spent in the Octagon only fueled the conviction of critics, who watched an uncomfortable Davis struggle to keep pace with his opponent’s strikes.
The culmination of his loss to Evans and lackluster, albeit brief, time in the cage with Prado, has led Davis to a career crossroads—he either comes out at UFC 153 looking underwhelming and substantiating claims that he is a second-tier fighter, or takes care of business and reasserts himself as a future title player.
Davis doesn’t have to best Prado on the feet—no one can reasonably ask that of him—but he has to show that he is capable of nullifying his foe’s attacks. Whether that means executing effective defensive standup, timing takedowns to interrupt onslaughts or mounting a formidable counteroffense, Davis must show he can either rectify or hide his striking inadequacies.
If Davis proves capable of handling Prado’s striking, he can get to his own strengths—his wrestling and grappling—and use them to dictate the pace of the match. And if he can do that, he can win the fight.
But will winning be enough to regain contender status?
Beyond scoring a “W,” Davis must control his UFC 153 match. He can’t take punishment for the first three minutes of each round, then steal points by scoring takedowns.
No, that might be good enough for a win, but it certainly won’t be good enough to make him a contender again.
To become a contender once again, Davis needs to show he can consistently nullify Prado’s standup. He doesn’t need to look like a world-class striker, he just needs to show that he knows how to use his skill set to protect his greatest weakness.
A 15-minute bout that sees Davis keeping his distance on the feet, shooting for takedowns, working for submissions and generally frustrating his opponent is what the former prospect needs to reanimate his lost image.
A first round submission win wouldn’t be bad either, but in some cases, it’s easier to disprove a perception methodically than with a singular bold statement.
This is one of those times.
A quick submission only recaps what we’ve seen from Mr. Wonderful. A lengthy showcase of new tricks shows growth, and growth is what noncontenders need to show to become contenders.
UFC 153: Silva vs. Bonnar features what many pundits are considering one of the most lopsided matchups in the history of mixed martial arts.The fight between consensus No.1 fighter in MMA Anderson Silva and The Ultimate Fighter runner-up…
UFC 153: Silva vs. Bonnar features what many pundits are considering one of the most lopsided matchups in the history of mixed martial arts.
The fight between consensus No.1 fighter in MMAAnderson Silva and The Ultimate Fighter runner-up Stephan Bonnar is scheduled to take place on October 13, 2012.
What will happen when the Spider steps inside the cage with the American Psycho?
It’s no understatement to say that the fight between Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar at the TUF 1 Finale basically saved the sport of MMA from those damned dirty machines. What machines are we referring to? These machines. But as you all know, our ambitiously misguided Skynet overlords have continued forward in their quest to replace man on the top of the food chain nonetheless. Lucky for us, the universe is about give birth to the John Connor that will eventually save the sport of MMA, nay, the world, from the cold, lifeless grip of the cyborgs. And by “universe” we mean Stephan Bonnar’s wife, Andrea, and by John Connor we mean Griffin Bonnar, a name so coincidentally similar slash awesome that only this man could have come up with it.
UFC fighter Stephan Bonnar will become a first-time father sometime in October. Bonnar and his wife, Andrea, haven’t decided definitively upon a name for their unborn son, but one name they’ve kicked around is Griffin. As in, Griffin Bonnar.
(Well, at least he’ll be really funny!)
It’s no understatement to say that the fight between Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar at the TUF 1 Finale basically saved the sport of MMA from those damned dirty machines. What machines are we referring to? These machines. But as you all know, our ambitiously misguided Skynet overlords have continued forward in their quest to replace man on the top of the food chain nonetheless. Lucky for us, the universe is about give birth to the John Connor that will eventually save the sport of MMA, nay, the world, from the cold, lifeless grip of the cyborgs. And by “universe” we mean Stephan Bonnar’s wife, Andrea, and by John Connor we mean Griffin Bonnar, a name so coincidentally similar slash awesome that only this man could have come up with it.
UFC fighter Stephan Bonnar will become a first-time father sometime in October. Bonnar and his wife, Andrea, haven’t decided definitively upon a name for their unborn son, but one name they’ve kicked around is Griffin. As in, Griffin Bonnar.
They’ve talked about naming him Brandon, in memory of Andrea’s late brother, Brandon Brown. But Griffin remains seriously in the hunt as a very real, and cool, possibility for the baby’s name.
“It started as a joke, but it kind of grew on us, to name him Griffin,” Andrea Bonnar said. “Then he’d be Griffin Bonnar. It would be such a cute name and it would kind of create a tie to his dad. We’ve got a couple of good ones in the bank, and we’ll look at him when he comes out and decide,” she said, laughing.
While this is undoubtedly a fantastic bit of news for human kind, this obviously means that an indestructible cyborg has already been sent back in time to eliminate any chance of Griffin Bonnar being born. Come to think of it, we’ve got a good guess as to who it could be…
Even on his own home turf, Erick “Indio” Silva can pass the test that Jon Fitch will present, as the former Purdue Boilermaker steps into Silva’s yard at UFC 153 in Rio de Janeiro.Silva answered questions concerning his game when Charlie Brenneman test…
Even on his own home turf, Erick “Indio” Silva can pass the test that Jon Fitch will present, as the former Purdue Boilermaker steps into Silva’s yard at UFC 153 in Rio deJaneiro.
Silva answered questions concerning his game when Charlie Brenneman tested him at UFC on FX 3. In the process, Silva bumped his official UFC run to 2-1, and earned his first fight bonus in three UFC appearances with a first-round submission win by rear-naked choke over Brenneman. The submission win over Brenneman impressed enough for UFC president Dana White to announce Silva as the “Submission of The Night” winner.
Now, nobody questions what Fitch will aim to accomplish. He catches heat because he talks about making fighters feel like they just went through a meat grinder, but he just ends up outwrestling them. Of course, he will want to do the same against Silva on Silva’s home turf, considering he provides a huge step up for the young Brazilian prospect.
The only problem, however, is that he’s traveling to Brazil to spoil the homecoming of a Brazilian.
If we only learned one thing from any of the UFC’s past three outings in Brazil, we should have learned that while other fighters may turn it up to 11 in their own hometown, Brazilians opt to turn it up to something higher than that. Nobody likes facing defeat at home, but Brazilian MMA fighters truly despise losing in their own home country, especially to non-Brazilians.
Silva is no exception to this, despite owning an early career loss by unanimous decision and a no-contest to his namesake. One need look no further than his past performances in order to understand how the energy of his countrymen seems to bring out the best in him. In addition to this, the kid is a growing phenom with tremendous potential—as he has shown in his past three outings—which could elevate him to the status of becoming Brazil’s top welterweight.
Obviously, we must see what he does against Fitch and the rest of the division’s upper echelon before Silva can confirm in our minds that he will rise to that level, but if what we’ve seen from him proved anything so far, the kid known as “Indio” has the best shot out of anyone to achieve that status, starting with Fitch on Oct. 13.
My suggestion: don’t blink this time. This one could end before anyone ever realizes it, and the end result could deliver yet another “W” for one of the sport’s finest young fighters on the rise.
UFC 153 takes place from the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on October 13, 2012. The much debated main event will be Anderson Silva moving back up to 205 to tangle with Stephan Bonnar.The rest of the card is stacked as well.The co-main event of t…
UFC 153 takes place from the HSBC Arena in Rio deJaneiro, Brazil on October 13, 2012. The much debated main event will be Anderson Silva moving back up to 205 to tangle with Stephan Bonnar.
The rest of the card is stacked as well.
The co-main event of the evening features a heavyweight clash between Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Dave Herman.
The 13 fight card will air live, beginning on Facebook. Four FX preliminary fights will air at 8 p.m. ET before the PPV kicks off at 10 p.m.
Here is an early look at the main card with odds and predictions.
UFC light heavyweight 
