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UFC 160: "VELASQUEZ VS. BIGFOOT 2", May 25th, Las Vegas, Nevada
Fight Card
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Cain Velasquez vs. Antonio Silva
Junior dos Santos vs. Mark Hunt
James Te Huna vs. Glover Teixeira
T.J. Grant vs. Gray Maynard
Donald Cerrone vs. KJ Noons
Mike Pyle vs. Rick Story
Dennis Bermudez vs. Max Holloway
Colton Smith vs. Robert Whittaker
Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Abel Trujillo
Nah-Shon Burrell vs. Stephen Thompson
Brian Bowles vs. George Roop
Estevan Payan vs. Jeremy Stephens
Main event has Cain vs Silva. I think Cain has improved drastically since his original demolishing of Silva in their first meeting. He has gotten more confident in his striking and well be looking to tag Silva, get in and out, and use his superior cardio and footwork. He does not want to get into a slugfest with Silva (ala Overeem). Silva meanwhile has improved as well, but moreso in that the Heavyweight division is actually taking him seriously now. His win over Overeem shows us what happens when you take a massive man for granted.
Co-main event pits Junior Dos Santos vs Mark Hunt. Hunt is a great story for MMA. First UFC fight when his lifetime W-L record was 5-7. He lost to Sean McCorkle in his UFC debut. UFC wanted to buy him out previously, but Hunt said he wanted to honor his previous contract with other organization. Hunt all of a sudden rifles off five wins in a row, all in spectacular fashion, and now he's one win away from a title shot! Junior Dos Santos meanwhile has been hungry to get his shot back from Cain, even talking about a rematch when interviewed after the loss. There's no doubt something was off that night for JDS, and even if it was overconfidence, he's definitely the type of fighter to not make that mistake again. Stylistic wise, this has all the makings for a boxing clinic in JDS favor. Obviously his biggest weapon is his jab and mixing up, without getting into a brawl. Brawling is what Hunt does best. In his last fight vs Struve, you wanted Stefan to use his long reach and patter the jab while avoiding Hunts leaping overhand left. Struve didn't do that, and got a broken jaw for it. Here JDS is too smart for that, patters him, keeps Hunt at range, uses his footwork to get out of sticky situations (back against the cage), and cruises to a three-round unanimous decision.
Te Huna vs Glover is interesting. Te Huna, much like Hunt, has an iron chin - and that pits him vs Glover's amazing power. However, you look at his last fight vs Rampage and you wonder where he was. Yes, he did enough to garner the unanimous decision, but it was hardly impressive from a fighter who's considered a top-three contender to Jon Jones at the weight class (I'd say Te Huna and Gustaffson are up there too). Though if Glover can regain that image of a bruiser, Dana White will no-doubt put him up for a title-elimination fight vs Gustaffson.
Couple of other interesting fights on this card that I like... Gray Maynard coming out of retirement on a little notice to fight TJ Grant. Maynard used to being the larger fighter at the weight-class, but Grant coming down from welterweight has looked phenomenal in his last four fights versus pretty good competition.
I'm a big fan of Donald Cerrone and since his last fight, has been kept out of the discussion of the top in his class, but his fight vs a crafty vet should be a good fight. Potential FOTN candidate here.
Interested in seeing how Bermudez keeps up his impressive run; and really interested in the Stephen Thompson/Nah'Shon Burrell fight.
:thumbs:
Fight Card
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cain Velasquez vs. Antonio Silva
Junior dos Santos vs. Mark Hunt
James Te Huna vs. Glover Teixeira
T.J. Grant vs. Gray Maynard
Donald Cerrone vs. KJ Noons
Mike Pyle vs. Rick Story
Dennis Bermudez vs. Max Holloway
Colton Smith vs. Robert Whittaker
Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Abel Trujillo
Nah-Shon Burrell vs. Stephen Thompson
Brian Bowles vs. George Roop
Estevan Payan vs. Jeremy Stephens
Main event has Cain vs Silva. I think Cain has improved drastically since his original demolishing of Silva in their first meeting. He has gotten more confident in his striking and well be looking to tag Silva, get in and out, and use his superior cardio and footwork. He does not want to get into a slugfest with Silva (ala Overeem). Silva meanwhile has improved as well, but moreso in that the Heavyweight division is actually taking him seriously now. His win over Overeem shows us what happens when you take a massive man for granted.
Co-main event pits Junior Dos Santos vs Mark Hunt. Hunt is a great story for MMA. First UFC fight when his lifetime W-L record was 5-7. He lost to Sean McCorkle in his UFC debut. UFC wanted to buy him out previously, but Hunt said he wanted to honor his previous contract with other organization. Hunt all of a sudden rifles off five wins in a row, all in spectacular fashion, and now he's one win away from a title shot! Junior Dos Santos meanwhile has been hungry to get his shot back from Cain, even talking about a rematch when interviewed after the loss. There's no doubt something was off that night for JDS, and even if it was overconfidence, he's definitely the type of fighter to not make that mistake again. Stylistic wise, this has all the makings for a boxing clinic in JDS favor. Obviously his biggest weapon is his jab and mixing up, without getting into a brawl. Brawling is what Hunt does best. In his last fight vs Struve, you wanted Stefan to use his long reach and patter the jab while avoiding Hunts leaping overhand left. Struve didn't do that, and got a broken jaw for it. Here JDS is too smart for that, patters him, keeps Hunt at range, uses his footwork to get out of sticky situations (back against the cage), and cruises to a three-round unanimous decision.
Te Huna vs Glover is interesting. Te Huna, much like Hunt, has an iron chin - and that pits him vs Glover's amazing power. However, you look at his last fight vs Rampage and you wonder where he was. Yes, he did enough to garner the unanimous decision, but it was hardly impressive from a fighter who's considered a top-three contender to Jon Jones at the weight class (I'd say Te Huna and Gustaffson are up there too). Though if Glover can regain that image of a bruiser, Dana White will no-doubt put him up for a title-elimination fight vs Gustaffson.
Couple of other interesting fights on this card that I like... Gray Maynard coming out of retirement on a little notice to fight TJ Grant. Maynard used to being the larger fighter at the weight-class, but Grant coming down from welterweight has looked phenomenal in his last four fights versus pretty good competition.
I'm a big fan of Donald Cerrone and since his last fight, has been kept out of the discussion of the top in his class, but his fight vs a crafty vet should be a good fight. Potential FOTN candidate here.
Interested in seeing how Bermudez keeps up his impressive run; and really interested in the Stephen Thompson/Nah'Shon Burrell fight.
:thumbs:
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