UFC 108 Match-Ups

Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

Spike Card
Welterweight: Martin Kampmann vs. Jacob Volkmann
Lightweight: Cole Miller vs. Dan Lauzon

Preliminary Card
Light Heavyweight: Vladimir Matyushenko vs. Steve Cantwell
Middleweight: Mark Munoz vs. Ryan Jensen
Welterweight: Mike Pyle vs. Jake Ellenberger
Lightweigh: Rafaello Oliveira vs. John Gunderson

Main Card
Heavyweight: Junior dos Santos vs. Gilbert Yvel
Lightweight: Jim Miller vs. Duane Ludwig
Lightweight: Joe Lauzon vs. Sam Stout
Welterweight: Dustin Hazelett vs. Paul Daley
Light Heavyweight: Rashad Evans vs. Thiago Silva

Time to place your bets, ladies and gentlemen.

2

Am I an asshole by saying that for once I don’t want to see anything but the main event (Evans/Silva) on this card?. Lauzon-Stout could be interesting, but I doubt it. I think it’s going to be hard to top UFC 106 and 107. Those were both great fucking cards.

3

THe whole main card is sick, Yvel is in the UFC, and Hazelett Daley is really interesting, someone is getting submitted or KO’d.

4

Spike Card
Martin Kampmann - interesting match-up. volkman looks pretty slick on the ground, but he doesn’t seem to have the strength or quickness to turn that into a run.

Cole Miller

Preliminary Card
Vladimir Matyushenko - If he fights a smart fight and uses his wrestling.

Main Card
Gilbert Yvel - tough pick.
Jim Miller
Joe Lauzon - This one is going to the ground
Dustin Hazelett - going to the ground
Rashad Evans

5

well, two guy that i love to watch are on this card…

Cole Miller, because he schooled that dipshit Junie Browning, and then yelled at him afterwards, and made him his bitch.

Steve Cantwell, because he broke Al Hasaan’s arm (who apparently has said that he doesn’t beleive in tapping…which is fine, as long as he believs in rehab and surgery, i guess).

i think there are some good undercard mathces, but i couldn’t care less about the main fight. cards like this bug me, because the fights i wanna see are rarely on the PPV…

6

Man, not a lot of talk about this card is there?

I thought Dos Santos looked real good. He’s reeled off 4 straight pretty solid wins. I just like the way he fights, he probably needs two (maybe even 3) wins before he gets a title shot, but in my mind, he’s the next legit heavyweight champ- assuming Brock is done. Obviously, his grappling needs to be tested more but from all accounts he is solid there. He certainly has dangerous power in his hands and I think he is good enough defensively to handle the bigtime strikers in the heavyweight division.

I can’t stand watching the lay-and-pray style, but I have to credit Rashad for superior execution of his gameplan. He clearly frustrated a (IMO) more talented fighter and showed some heart in taking a pretty big shot and staying on his feet. I’m not sure if he can beat Rampage who I think is a better version of Silva. Rampage is strong enough that I don’t think Rashad will be able to completely smother him and I can’t see Rampage allowing Rashad to recover if he drops him with a punch. On the other hand, Rashad seems like one of the smartest guys in MMA and has shown the willingness to stick to his gameplan in order to win a fight.

Silva really disappointed me. I’ve always seen him as a very aggressive fighter who looked to get the stoppages. I guess he was gassed at the end but I was shocked that he was unable to finish the fight. He looked like an idiot with all that taunting bullshit.

For such a hyped up wrestler, Volkman doesn’t seem to have an overpowering MMA ground game. I really thought he was going to be something, but losing to a non-contender like Kampmann (who did look good in this fight though) doesn’t bode well for him.

I like Munoz. I think he’s got real potential. He got caught against Hamil but I think he can be a solid 2nd-tier guy. He definitely appeared to be the more physical fighter against Jensen.

Ellenberger looked good, Stout looked good, Hazlett had a retarded game plan and Daley’s striking is really looking legit. I think he’s developing into a legit contender.

7

[quote]jtrinsey wrote:
Man, not a lot of talk about this card is there?[/quote]
Even one of the fighters commented on that in his post-fight interview (Cole maybe?) What do oyu expect without a big main event though.

[quote]
I thought Dos Santos looked real good. He’s reeled off 4 straight pretty solid wins. I just like the way he fights, he probably needs two (maybe even 3) wins before he gets a title shot, but in my mind, he’s the next legit heavyweight champ- assuming Brock is done. Obviously, his grappling needs to be tested more but from all accounts he is solid there. He certainly has dangerous power in his hands and I think he is good enough defensively to handle the bigtime strikers in the heavyweight division. [/quote]

I quickly becoming a big fan of Dos Santos. Somehow I never noticed what camp he was with before.

I saw this almost completely opposite of you, with the exception of Rashad implementing his gameplan perfectly for two rounds.

I had picked Rashad to win, but I was expecting counterpuncher Rashad, not wrestler Rashad, apparently so was Silva’s camp.

Rashad did a great job of eliminating Silva’s striking game and neutralizing his BJJ for the first 2 rounds. I can only guess that he tried to preserve the win in round 3.

As for Silva’s taughting in the 3rd, at first I’ll admit I laughed, but then it worked and Silva had a chance to put Rashad away. I wonder what round 4 would have been like?

I think Silva at least secured himself a few high profile fights with the 3rd round comeback performance. Dana likes highlight reels!

I thought this was fight of the night, but it may be due to lower expectations.

I’m not much of a boxing fan, but I thought Stout’s technique was WAY above almost all MMA fighters, as far as tight, quick, efficient and accurate striking.

Agreed. Looking forward to seeing more of Daley.

8

[quote]Ruggerlife wrote:
… Somehow I never noticed what camp he was with before.
[/quote]

Dos Santos trains at Blackhouse with Nogueira,A.Silva,Jacare,etc.

9

If Daley is killing dudes in the UFC how good is Jake Shields? I’m tired of hearing he gets lucky or he’s not good enough to compete with the top fighters, I personally think he’d take a guy like Fitch.
I think Stout looked way better than he really is, Lauzon looked like the walking dead, an injury like that is serious.
How did Rashad neutralize Silva’s bjj, he got to his feet whenever he wanted and I don’t recall any submission attempts on Silva’s part.

10

[quote]drewh wrote:
I don’t recall any submission attempts on Silva’s part.
[/quote]

Which…would mean that his JJ was pretty much neutralized. Wouldn’t it? :wink:

11

[quote]Ruggerlife wrote:
I had picked Rashad to win, but I was expecting counterpuncher Rashad, not wrestler Rashad, apparently so was Silva’s camp.[/quote]

Good point. I was expecting a lay-and-pray and figured that’s what Silva would expect, but judging by the frustrated faces he was making on the ground, I think Silva was expecting Rashad to stand with him.

[quote]
Rashad did a great job of eliminating Silva’s striking game and neutralizing his BJJ for the first 2 rounds. I can only guess that he tried to preserve the win in round 3.[/quote]

That is very possible, but, from a striking standpoint, it just looked like Silva was really tentative to me. I guess he was afraid of the takedowns but I expected him to try to suck Rashad into a standup brawl but Silva never threw enough punches to make that happen.

As far as the ground game goes, I will admit that I don’t have a great eye for all the nuances as I am still learning. To me, it looked like Rashad did a great job of smothering him and working position (got side control twice and worked into mount once) but did nothing with it. Fightmetric has Rashad only throwing 5 strikes on the ground. Silva only threw 9 strikes. For a fight that spent so much time on the ground, neither fighter seemed interested in landing any strikes on the ground.

[quote]
As for Silva’s taughting in the 3rd, at first I’ll admit I laughed, but then it worked and Silva had a chance to put Rashad away. I wonder what round 4 would have been like?[/quote]

Well, the strategy gave him the opportunity, but he had a golden opportunity to finish the fight and couldn’t do it. I have no problem with talking shit… if you can follow through. One knockdown doesn’t win you a fight.

[quote]
I think Silva at least secured himself a few high profile fights with the 3rd round comeback performance. Dana likes highlight reels![/quote]

That is true. I don’t think anybody is really taking him seriously as a contender, but there’s plenty of 2nd-tier guys in LHW that have the name to draw a co-headliner fight. As long as he doesn’t get KTFO his next fight, he should have at least 2 or 3 more shots to win a big fight.

12

No I mean it looked like he was intent getting back to his feet not trying to grapple with Rashad. How can something be neutralized if you don’t attempt it?

13

[quote]jtrinsey wrote:

For such a hyped up wrestler, Volkman doesn’t seem to have an overpowering MMA ground game. I really thought he was going to be something, but losing to a non-contender like Kampmann (who did look good in this fight though) doesn’t bode well for him.

I like Munoz. I think he’s got real potential. He got caught against Hamil but I think he can be a solid 2nd-tier guy. He definitely appeared to be the more physical fighter against Jensen.

[/quote]

well, Kampmann’s beat some top guys…i agree he’s not a true contender, but prolly a top 10% guy.

Munoz is a freakin’ animal at 185…he was strong at 205. now…jesus.

14

[quote]drewh wrote:
If Daley is killing dudes in the UFC how good is Jake Shields? I’m tired of hearing he gets lucky or he’s not good enough to compete with the top fighters, I personally think he’d take a guy like Fitch.

[/quote]

well, i never thought Fitch was that great of a MMA fighter…more of a good wreslter that’s in great shape who doesn’t take any risks. come to think of it, he bores the crap out of me…

i’ve only seen Shields fight once (against Mayhem Miller), but thought he was fighting only to not lose. but again, it was only one fight, so it’s pretty hard to judge him off that…

15

I don’t know Munoz previous fight at 185 was a split decision but training at blackhouse can only make him better. And Jacare couldn’t even submit Miller, they said during that fight that people that Miller trains with say he is impossible to submit.

16

Got to the bar late and missed the Dos Santos fight, but I apparently don’t see the same things ya’ll see. He beat an either disinterested CroCop or a paid-off CroCop and no one else of note. As soon as he fights better comp he’ll get murdered. Evans looked gun shy. I think the ko he took from Machida has made him a little skittish. That was not the fight I was expecting. I like Silva a lot and hope the loss doesn’t demote him down the ranks. Paul Daley has serious hands. It was a pretty good card, but had a tough act to follow after 107.

17

[quote]drewh wrote:
I don’t know Munoz previous fight at 185 was a split decision but training at blackhouse can only make him better. And Jacare couldn’t even submit Miller, they said during that fight that people that Miller trains with say he is impossible to submit.[/quote]

huh? i’ve never heard that…if Jacare can’t get him, then that’s pretty damn impressive.

18

[quote]drewh wrote:
No I mean it looked like he was intent getting back to his feet not trying to grapple with Rashad. How can something be neutralized if you don’t attempt it?[/quote]

Well, in a combative context neutralizing something usually means that it becomes a non factor, or you prevent your opponent from being able to use it effectively. Since Rashad was able to take Thiago down (pretty much at will) and several times gained a superior position it didn’t allow Thiago to utilize his BJJ effectively. Therefore it was neutralized.

Now, your argument that Thiago in fact simply chose not to use it might be true. But if you purposely choose not to utilize a skill set, then you are essentially neutralizing that skill set yourself. He did use his wrestling (which I suppose you could argue is part of BJJ) well in getting back up to his feet though.

19

[quote]cycobushmaster wrote:

[quote]drewh wrote:
If Daley is killing dudes in the UFC how good is Jake Shields? I’m tired of hearing he gets lucky or he’s not good enough to compete with the top fighters, I personally think he’d take a guy like Fitch.

[/quote]

well, i never thought Fitch was that great of a MMA fighter…more of a good wreslter that’s in great shape who doesn’t take any risks. come to think of it, he bores the crap out of me…
[/quote]

And an iron will/chin. He’s a grinder and pretty much just out works and out hearts everyone he fights (except GSP). It’s definitely not the most exciting style, but it definitely works for him.

I think Shields could possibly submit him if he could get it to the ground. But Fitch would murder him on the feet, and has pretty good TD defense and counter wrestling. So I’m not sure that I’d agree that Shields would beat him in an MMA fight (in a submission grappling competition yeah). It would be an interesting fight nonetheless.

20

[quote]jtrinsey wrote:
For such a hyped up wrestler, Volkman doesn’t seem to have an overpowering MMA ground game. I really thought he was going to be something, but losing to a non-contender like Kampmann (who did look good in this fight though) doesn’t bode well for him.
[/quote]

Volkman looked like a fish out of water on his feet. I honestly can’t understand why so many wrestlers suddenly think that they’re boxers/kickboxers when they step into the Octagon. Especially if they’re as obviously unskilled at it as Volkman. Think about it, he didn’t really use his wrestling at all in that fight, so it’s pretty tough to say anything about his MMA ground game.