An injury to Brazilian prospect Thiago “Bodao” Perpetuo has caused a change for the upcoming UFC on FX 7 event taking place on January 19th in Sao Paulo, Brazil.According to Gracie Mag (via MMA Fighting), Bodao is out of the match with a…
An injury to Brazilian prospect Thiago “Bodao” Perpetuo has caused a change for the upcoming UFC on FX 7 event taking place on January 19th in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
According to Gracie Mag (via MMA Fighting), Bodao is out of the match with an undisclosed ailment, which temporarily left Dutch fighter Michael Kuiper without an opponent. However, the gap was reportedly filled in short order by CaioMagalhaes:
BJJ black belt CaioMagalhães replaces Thiago Bodão, injured, faces Michael Kuiper, in UFC, Jan 19, in Sao Paulo. #UFC — GRACIEMAG (@graciemag) December 1, 2012
Bodao previously made his promotional debut at UFC 147 in MinasGerais, Brazil, defeating fellow countryman Leonardo Mafra via TKO in the third round.
Magalhaes wasn’t as lucky in his own UFC debut, suffering his first career defeat against Greg Jackson’s MMA fighter Buddy Roberts by unanimous decision at UFC on FX 3. Magalhaes steps into UFC on FX 7 with a 5-1 professional record, with his five-fight winning streak taking placing entirely in Brazil’s regional circuit.
UFC on FX 7 is headlined by a main event title eliminator featuring VitorBelfort vs. Michael Bisping, with the winner expected to vie for a shot at middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
Additionally, Ultimate Fighter: Brazil winner Daniel Sarafian faces off against Ultimate Fighter 7 veteran C.B. Dollaway in the co-main event, while Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Ben Rothwell supports the main card as the night’s only heavyweight bout.
Michael Bisping is sick and tired of waiting on Anderson Silva, but the famous Englishman can’t ignore the challenge of former champion Vitor Belfort.Despite the threat that Belfort poses to “The Count” in the stand-up, Bisping insists that he’ll be th…
Michael Bisping is sick and tired of waiting on Anderson Silva, but the famous Englishman can’t ignore the challenge of former champion Vitor Belfort.
Despite the threat that Belfort poses to “The Count” in the stand-up, Bisping insists that he’ll be the one dishing out most of the damage after his opponent tires himself out.
During a recent chat with MMA Fighting, Bisping insisted that his game plan simply relied on Belfort faltering after the first round:
It’s well documented, rightly or wrongly, that Vitor gasses quickly. He does slow down after the first round. Obviously, early for me is going to be the most dangerous. The longer the fight goes, he’ll start turning into a walking punching bag. At least that’s the plan.
It’s easier said than done. He’s going to come out hard and fast, and he will be dangerous. He’s a big middleweight. He’s been a heavyweight (tournament) champion, and was a light heavyweight champion back in the day. But these are the kind of fights I’m going to take if I want to back up my talking.
Bisping also reiterated that his UFC on FX 7 main event bout in January against Belfort should be for an interim middleweight championship, wanting to “keep the division moving” in Silva’s absence.
Although Bisping suffered a highlight reel worthy knockout against current light heavyweight contender Dan Henderson a few years ago at UFC 100, he hasn’t been stopped on strikes since then.
Out of the eight men that Bisping has battled since his loss to Henderson, the heaviest hitters were arguably Wanderlei Silva and Brian Stann, both of whom Bisping fought to judges’ decisions. Bisping is coming off a win on a 5-1 run, while Belfort has racked up four first-round stoppages with a 4-2 record in his own recent six fight stretch.
If you have read or listened to an interview with UFC middleweight Michael Bisping over the past year or so, you have no doubt heard “The Count” running down the reasons why he thinks he deserves a shot at middleweight champion Anderson Sil…
If you have read or listened to an interview with UFC middleweight Michael Bisping over the past year or so, you have no doubt heard “The Count” running down the reasons why he thinks he deserves a shot at middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
Bisping is convinced that he and Chris Weidman are the No. 1 and No. 2 contenders for the middleweight crown. With Weidman now out of his scheduled December 29 scrap against Tim Boetsch due to a shoulder injury and UFC president Dana White pushing hard for a superfight between Silva and UFC welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre, Bisping has upped the ante a bit.
He has called for his January 19 fight against VitorBelfort to be for the interim middleweight title.
And you know what? He may have a valid point.
Despite St-Pierre’s seeming disinterest and a fairly deep pool of top contenders in the UFC’s welterweight division, White seems obsessed with getting St-Pierre in the Octagon with Silva.
Hey, I don’t blame the guy for that; he’s got a business to run, and he’s pretty confident that he can sell out Dallas Stadium’s 100,000 seats for a card headlined by that bout. However, outside of the win that the fight would provide to the promotion’s bottom line, it would really screw things up for the welterweight and middleweight divisions.
Silva has not been the most active fighter in defending his crown over the last two years. He defended the title twice in 2011 and once in 2012, winning each of those fights in convincing displays.
If he faces St-Pierre in May, which is the month that White has thrown out there for the potential superfight, you can guarantee Silva will go more than one full calendar year between title defenses, with his last defense being his July 7, 2012 TKO of ChaelSonnen.
Not defending the title for one year or more, superfight or not, best fighter to ever step foot in the Octagon or not, is something that cheats the fans. Not to mention the fact that it puts an entire division of athletes, whose careers are not all that lengthy, on ice for a prolonged period.
As for the welterweight division, throwing St-Pierre in a superfight against Silva would be even worse.
That division has been effectively sitting around waiting since Carlos Condit defeated Nick Diaz for the interim title in February of this year. Now that St-Pierre has become the undisputed champion with his unanimous decision victory over Condit on November 17, does the UFC really want to put that division on hold for another long stretch of time?
I believe Bisping’s suggestion that his fight against Belfort be elevated to an interim title fight has some credence and also lends itself to the thought that if the Silva versus St-Pierre fight were to happen that an(other) interim welterweight champion may need to be crowned.
I won’t deny the fact that a Silva versus St-Pierre fight is compelling, and I would definitely tune in, but for what it would do to the sport and the weight divisions that are ruled over by two of the best fighters we have ever seen, I would argue against making it happen.
With that being said, if the powers that be are hell bent on making that fight happen, they do need to have an active champion in the middleweight division. Why not make it the winner of the Bisping versus Belfort fight? That title would need to come with one caveat; the winner must defend the title during 2012.
If you have read or listened to an interview with UFC middleweight