UFC OWGP Fantasy

Off Topic
1

So Pride had theirs and we loved it. But what if UFC had one, and true to American excesses, made it completely out of control? Well, i didn’t feel like doing homework, so here is my best crack at it.

I started by making known to myself that I want the 5 champions (Sherk, GSP, Silva, Liddell, Sylvia) to have first round byes. Then I seeded them according to how I believed they might perform in an open weight situation:

  1. Chuck Liddell, LHW
  2. Georges St. Pierre, WW
  3. Tim Sylvia, HW
  4. Anderson Silva, MW
  5. Sean Sherk, LW

I wanted a 16 man tournament with the byes, meaning that 11 men had to advance from the first round. Thus, I selected and seeded 22 more fighters from all weight classes:

  1. Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic’, HW
  2. Andrei Arlovski, HW
  3. Randy Couture, HW
  4. Rich Franklin, MW
  5. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, LHW
  6. Mike Swick, MW
  7. Tito Ortiz, LHW
  8. Brandon Vera, HW
  9. Jeff Monson, HW
  10. Matt Hughes, WW
  11. Rashad Evans, LHW
  12. Michael Bisping, LHW
  13. BJ Penn, WW
  14. Jason McDonald, MW
  15. Matt Serra, WW
  16. Diego Sanchez, WW
  17. Melvin Guillard, LW
  18. Jon Fitch, WW
  19. Jens Pulver, LW
  20. Keith Jardine, LHW
  21. Kenny Florian, LW
  22. Cheick Kongo, HW

I then constructed the bracket in the style of the NCAA basketball tournaments, with odd and even higher seeds opposite each other in the brackets and high seeds facing lowest seeds available. First round matches were as follows, with certain match winners thus already set to face champions holding byes:

Alternate bout: David Loiseau vs. Joe Riggs

16 Rashad Evans vs. 17 Keith Jardine
-Winner faces 1 Chuck Liddell

12 Tito Ortiz vs. 21 Diego Sanchez
-Winner faces 5 Sean Sherk

14 Jeff Monson vs. 19 Jason MacDonald
-Winner faces 3 Tim Sylvia

7 Andrei Arlovski vs. 26 Kenny Florian
-Winner faces Rampage/Fitch winner

10 Quentin Jackson vs. Jon Fitch
-Winner faces Arlovski/Florian winner

8 Randy Couture vs. 25 Keith Jardine
-Winner faces Frankin/Pulver winner

9 Rich Franklin vs. 24 Jens Pulver
-Winner faces Couture/Jardine winner

13 Brandon Vera vs. 20 Matt Serra
-Winner faces 4 Anderson Silva
(Vera vs. Silva = your $60 worth)

6 Mirko Filipovic’ vs. 27 Cheick Kongo
-Winner faces Swick/Guillard winner

11 Mike Swick vs. 22 Melvin Guillard
-Winner faces Filipovic’/Kongo winner

(I really didn’t plan this one)
15 Matt Hughes vs. 18 BJ Penn
-Winner faces 2 Georges St. Pierre

If higher seeds all win first round:

Liddell vs. Evans (talked about)
Sherk vs. Ortiz (!)
Monson vs. Sylvia (sorry)
Arlovski vs. Rampage (!!)
Couture vs. Franklin (!)
Vera vs. Silva (!!!)
Cro Cop vs. Swick (sorry Swick)
Hughes vs. GSP II

Possible quarterfinal matchups of interest:
Liddell vs. Sherk (ouch)
-OR-
Sherk vs. Evans
-OR-
Liddell vs. Ortiz III
-OR-
Evans vs. Ortiz

Sylvia-Arlovski IV
-OR-
Sylvia vs. Rampage
-OR-
Arlovski vs. Monson (poor Monson)
-OR-
Rampage vs. Monson (?!)

Couture vs. Silva (!!!)
-OR-
Franklin vs. Silva II
-OR-
Pulver vs. Silva (??)

Cro Cop vs. GSP (!!!)
No other possibilities even come close to comparing, except possibly Penn.

I have no idea who would win it all, but we could expect absolutely freakish shit in the semis like Couture vs. GSP (provided GSP could actually stand up with Cro Cop and counter punch to a decision…I can be a GSP mark if I want, jerks) or Liddell vs. Arlovski. If that happened, and i believe it would, we would see an UNREAL 190-catchweight GSP eke out a decision over Randy Couture, and Liddell would find himself swinging for the fences against Arlovski between sprawls–but not hitting one flush, losing a majority decision on the strength of lots of leg kicks and maybe 1 or 2 takedowns. Leaving GSP vs. Arlovski for the 2008 UFC Open Weight Grand Prix…wherein I think GSP finally succumbs to the 50 pound disadvantage when faced with an opponent of near-equal quickness and well-rounded skills (and luckily for AA, no chin worries from a welterweight).

So, what do you guys think of my overactive imagination? Anyone who feels like making a graphical bracket representation, please do. I’m sure there are some fighter selections or seeds that you guys take serious exception to. Well, I just hope it starts a discussion.

2

Well, as I’m sure you know it would never happen. There are weight classes for a reason, and having LW and WW against HW is laughable. NSAC would explode. And Mirko would probably slaughter the entire field save for Tim and AA who stand a shot.

3

Yeah, I may have made the bracket too large, because some of the smaller fighters in there would just get housed. I really think Hughes, Penn, GSP, Silva, and to a lesser extent Diego, McDonald, Swick, and Franklin, could handle themselves in an open weight setting. It was probably not a good idea to include Sherk, Fitch, Serra, Guillard, and definitely not Jens Pulver.

4

Cro Cop. Man is a beast.
UFC champ before years end.

5

[quote]pimpinthebox wrote:
Cro Cop. Man is a beast.
UFC champ before years end.[/quote]

I agree-I like Cro Cop. I’d like to see him as champ. I’m psyched to see Randy vs Sylvia at 68. I hope Randy kicks his ass.

GSP is awesome, too.