UFC 134 is one of the most anticipated events of the entire year as the UFC will be returning to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil for the first time in 10 years. The fight card is centered around the main event, Anderson Silva who will be defendin…
UFC 134 is one of the most anticipated events of the entire year as the UFC will be returning to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil for the first time in 10 years. The fight card is centered around the main event, Anderson Silva who will be defending his title against Yushin Okami.
Silva who was born in Curitiba, Brazil will be returning to his home country in hopes of putting on a show for a sold out Arena. The remainder of the Fight Card is filled with 11 other electrifying fights including the Forrest Griffin vs Mauricio “Shogun” Rua rematch and Minotauro Nogueira vs. Brendan Schaub.
The following slides are Fight-By-Fight Predictions for UFC 134. Please sit back and enjoy.
At UFC 134 Silva vs. Okami in Rio de Janeiro, all the attention will rightfully be on the UFC’s return to Brazil and Anderson Silva, who has time and again proven himself to be a cut above the rest and arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter in the w…
At UFC 134 Silva vs. Okami in Rio de Janeiro, all the attention will rightfully be on the UFC’s return to Brazil and Anderson Silva, who has time and again proven himself to be a cut above the rest and arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
There is, however, another unheralded, but phenomenally talented youngster, Edson Barboza Jr., who is also on the main card at UFC 134, taking on former Ultimate Fighter winner Ross Pearson.
Barboza is still unbeaten at 8-0 (2-0 UFC) in MMA and boasts an incredible six knockouts and one submission with only one fight going the distance to a unanimous-decision victory.
In his two fights in the UFC, he displayed a vicious arsenal of leg kicks, providing a Muay Thai clinic on his way to a TKO victory over Mike Lullo at UFC 123 and at UFC 128 against Anthony Njokuani, which produced the Fight of the Night.
At UFC 134, Ross Pearson (12-4, 4-1 in the UFC) will provide Barboza’s toughest test to date, and expect there to be fireworks in this battle. The Brazilian boasts a kickboxing record of 25-3 with 22 of those wins coming by way of knockout and is a Muay Thai specialist, emphasizing that he is one of the top strikers in the lightweight division (155 pounds).
He is also proficient on the ground, holding a purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and is just 25 years old.
Edson Barboza continues to evolve and develop as a mixed martial artist, and expect him in the near future to develop into a serious championship-level contender and make a genuine run towards becoming the future UFC lightweight champion.
RIO DE JANEIRO — When you’re trying to conduct an interview through a translator, not everything gets through with perfect clarity. When you’re trying to do it through two translators, that’s when it starts to feel a little like communicating through smoke signals.
Take Wednesday afternoon’s workouts, for example.
When a Brazilian reporter attempted to ask Yushin Okami whether he thought UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva deserved to be called the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter, that question then had to be translated from Portuguese to English for Okami’s trainer/translator — at this point, ‘pound-for-pound’ became ‘weight-for-weight,’ which confused everybody and necessitated a minute or so of word-wrangling between the two translators — then into Japanese for Okami, who listened intently like a man trying to work out an Algebra question in his head before answering in Japanese, so that it could be translated into English by his trainer and finally into Portuguese by the UFC’s translator.
It’s like a game of telephone, only the subject always has something to do with grown men beating each other up for money, so at least there’s a context you can guess at. From what we heard out of Okami, who was all business in the midst of Wednesday’s Brazilian beach party, my guess is he expects to leave Rio as the UFC middleweight champ, even if he won’t say how he plans on accomplishing it.
“I understand many people are saying Anderson Silva is the [best] pound-for-pound fighter, but it really doesn’t matter to me,” Okami said via his translator. “I’m going to beat him, and I’m going to be the middleweight champion.”
And how will the fans in Brazil feel about that, if Okami really does ruin their party in the UFC 134 main event on Saturday night? He doesn’t know, and, not surprisingly, he doesn’t particularly care.
Fighting Silva on neutral territory would be enough to think about. Fighting him in Brazil, where people have been “very warm” to him so far, according to Okami, is something he seems to be trying to put out of his mind entirely.
“I kind of knew that [the UFC] would ask [me] to come to Brazil. I knew it was coming,” Okami said, adding later, “I don’t think about where I fight; I always think about who I fight. This time I’m going to fight Anderson Silva.”
Of course, that part of the equation is something he experienced before, when the two met in Honolulu in 2006, where Okami came away with a victory via disqualification after Silva hit him with an illegal upkick. That was many fights ago for both men, however, and lately Okami has been training in Oregon with Chael Sonnen, who took Silva to the brink last summer before succumbing to a fifth-round submission.
While Okami said that his first meeting with Silva gave him “a lot of lessons,” he suggested that his approach in Saturday’s title fight would be more than just a facsimile of Sonnen’s game plan.
“I and Chael are different fighters, so obviously I cannot just imitate his fighting style,” said Okami. “I need to adjust my style to fight Anderson Silva.”
On Wednesday it quickly became apparent that the challenger was merely the supporting cast in the eyes of Brazilian fans. Silva was practically the whole show, and Okami was merely a necessary, though forgettable part of the scenery to them. He showed up early, became one of the few fighters to treat the workout portion of the open workouts at least semi-seriously, then answered questions and spent the rest of the time scowling in a corner by himself, waiting to leave.
As part of the pre-fight hype for this event, he’s finally gotten his due from UFC president Dana White, who called him the “best fighter to come out of Japan.” As far as UFC success alone, that’s probably true.
At the same time, it’s hard to tell how much of that is genuine appreciation for Okami’s skills and how much is a marketing tactic.
Fortunately, Okami doesn’t seem too influenced one way or another.
“I’m very glad to hear that coming from Mr. Dana,” Okami said of White’s praise. “But I’m doing this to be the best in the world, so I’m going to prove it in the next fight.”
And how, exactly, does he plan to beat the man who many consider to be the “weight-for-weight” best in the world? There was one question he heard often, and one he certainly seemed to understand, but he wisely chose not to give a straight answer to it.
For now, all Okami is saying is that his strategy will be different from Sonnen’s — and it will work. That’s the language of pre-fight certainty that all fighters understand. No translation necessary.
RIO DE JANEIRO — When you’re trying to conduct an interview through a translator, not everything gets through with perfect clarity. When you’re trying to do it through two translators, that’s when it starts to feel a little like communicating through smoke signals.
Take Wednesday afternoon’s workouts, for example.
When a Brazilian reporter attempted to ask Yushin Okami whether he thought UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva deserved to be called the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter, that question then had to be translated from Portuguese to English for Okami’s trainer/translator — at this point, ‘pound-for-pound’ became ‘weight-for-weight,’ which confused everybody and necessitated a minute or so of word-wrangling between the two translators — then into Japanese for Okami, who listened intently like a man trying to work out an Algebra question in his head before answering in Japanese, so that it could be translated into English by his trainer and finally into Portuguese by the UFC’s translator.
It’s like a game of telephone, only the subject always has something to do with grown men beating each other up for money, so at least there’s a context you can guess at. From what we heard out of Okami, who was all business in the midst of Wednesday’s Brazilian beach party, my guess is he expects to leave Rio as the UFC middleweight champ, even if he won’t say how he plans on accomplishing it.
“I understand many people are saying Anderson Silva is the [best] pound-for-pound fighter, but it really doesn’t matter to me,” Okami said via his translator. “I’m going to beat him, and I’m going to be the middleweight champion.”
And how will the fans in Brazil feel about that, if Okami really does ruin their party in the UFC 134 main event on Saturday night? He doesn’t know, and, not surprisingly, he doesn’t particularly care.
Fighting Silva on neutral territory would be enough to think about. Fighting him in Brazil, where people have been “very warm” to him so far, according to Okami, is something he seems to be trying to put out of his mind entirely.
“I kind of knew that [the UFC] would ask [me] to come to Brazil. I knew it was coming,” Okami said, adding later, “I don’t think about where I fight; I always think about who I fight. This time I’m going to fight Anderson Silva.”
Of course, that part of the equation is something he experienced before, when the two met in Honolulu in 2006, where Okami came away with a victory via disqualification after Silva hit him with an illegal upkick. That was many fights ago for both men, however, and lately Okami has been training in Oregon with Chael Sonnen, who took Silva to the brink last summer before succumbing to a fifth-round submission.
While Okami said that his first meeting with Silva gave him “a lot of lessons,” he suggested that his approach in Saturday’s title fight would be more than just a facsimile of Sonnen’s game plan.
“I and Chael are different fighters, so obviously I cannot just imitate his fighting style,” said Okami. “I need to adjust my style to fight Anderson Silva.”
On Wednesday it quickly became apparent that the challenger was merely the supporting cast in the eyes of Brazilian fans. Silva was practically the whole show, and Okami was merely a necessary, though forgettable part of the scenery to them. He showed up early, became one of the few fighters to treat the workout portion of the open workouts at least semi-seriously, then answered questions and spent the rest of the time scowling in a corner by himself, waiting to leave.
As part of the pre-fight hype for this event, he’s finally gotten his due from UFC president Dana White, who called him the “best fighter to come out of Japan.” As far as UFC success alone, that’s probably true.
At the same time, it’s hard to tell how much of that is genuine appreciation for Okami’s skills and how much is a marketing tactic.
Fortunately, Okami doesn’t seem too influenced one way or another.
“I’m very glad to hear that coming from Mr. Dana,” Okami said of White’s praise. “But I’m doing this to be the best in the world, so I’m going to prove it in the next fight.”
And how, exactly, does he plan to beat the man who many consider to be the “weight-for-weight” best in the world? There was one question he heard often, and one he certainly seemed to understand, but he wisely chose not to give a straight answer to it.
For now, all Okami is saying is that his strategy will be different from Sonnen’s — and it will work. That’s the language of pre-fight certainty that all fighters understand. No translation necessary.
On Saturday, August 27 the UFC will return to Brazil for the first time since October 16, 1998. That event, “Ultimate Brazil” was headlined by a middleweight title bout between Frank Shamrock and John Lober, but it is perhaps best remember…
On Saturday, August 27 the UFC will return to Brazil for the first time since October 16, 1998. That event, “Ultimate Brazil” was headlined by a middleweight title bout between Frank Shamrock and John Lober, but it is perhaps best remembered for the 44 second beating Vitor Belfort gave to Wanderlei Silva.
The promotion will bring UFC 134 to the HSBC Arena in Rio next Saturday and the event, like the first UFC Brazil event, will be headlined by a middleweight title fight as Anderson Silva defends his title against Yushin Okami. The co-main event will feature Mauricio “Shogun” Rua facing Forrest Griffin. In all, 14 Brazilian fighters will be competing on the 12 fight card. Only one contest will be without a Brazilian fighter.
A heavyweight bout between Brendan Schaub and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira will take place on the main card of UFC 134. Schaub comes into the fight on a four fight winning streak with only one of those fights going the distance. Nogueira has been out of the cage for well over a year with his last fight being a February 2010 First Round knockout loss to current UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez.
On Saturday, August 27 the UFC will return to Brazil for the first time since October 16, 1998. That event, “Ultimate Brazil” was headlined by a middleweight title bout between Frank Shamrock and John Lober, but it is perhaps best remembered …
On Saturday, August 27 the UFC will return to Brazil for the first time since October 16, 1998. That event, “Ultimate Brazil” was headlined by a middleweight title bout between Frank Shamrock and John Lober, but it is perhaps best remembered for the 44 second beating Vitor Belfort gave to Wanderlei Silva.
The promotion will bring UFC 134 to the HSBC Arena in Rio next Saturday and the event, like the first UFC Brazil event, will be headlined by a middleweight title fight as Anderson Silva defends his title against Yushin Okami. The co-main event will feature Mauricio “Shogun” Rua facing Forrest Griffin. In all, 14 Brazilian fighters will be competing on the 12 fight card. Only one contest will be without a Brazilian fighter.
Light Heavyweight’s Luiz Cane and Stanislav Nedkov will face off on the main card at UFC 134. Cane is coming off of a UFC career saving TKO win over Eliot Marshall at UFC 128 while Nedkov will be making his UFC debut on Saturday.
Cane has an overall record of 11-3-0-1 coming into the fight and was on a two-fight losing streak before defeating Marshall. Nedkov is a perfect 11-0, but again, all those wins came outside the UFC.
The 
At UFC 134 Silva vs. Okami in Rio de Janeiro, all the attention will rightfully be on the UFC’s return to Brazil and 
RIO DE JANEIRO — When you’re trying to conduct an interview through a translator, not everything gets through with perfect clarity. When you’re trying to do it through two translators, that’s when it starts to feel a little like communicating through smoke signals.