When Matt Serra went down with a herniated back, forcing him to withdraw from the main event fight against Matt Hughes, the UFC lost out on months of division-freezing hype, and with the ensuing respect-off that emerged from Hughes and Serra’s replacement, Georges St. Pierre, the UFC again found itself with as unfitting an event title as there’s been since the Knockout card, which featured a grand total of zero of the titular finishes. Fortunately, with the infusion of GSP in Serra’s place, the UFC stumbled upon an even stronger card, with three closing fights which can only draw the ire of the most avid UFC-bashers.
Matt Hughes (43-5) vs. George St. Pierre (14-2) – UFC Interim Welterweight Title Fight
While many fans were excited to see the clash between Hughes and current Champion Serra, it’s hard to find fault in the pairing of the division’s two most recent former-champions in what will prove to be the decisive rubber match. Serra has made it clear that he isn’t overly thrilled with the infusion of an interim title into the log-jammed division, but ultimately the division is too stocked with talent to allow its title-fight dearth to continue, with the belt having gone undefended since Serra won it in April. In the end, Serra will get his shot at the winner when his injuries have healed, and if he is to be believed, the Long Islander will find himself in the uncomfortable position of cheering for a man he’s devoted the prior calender year almost exclusively to calling a dick, in order to allow their showdown to come to pass.
As for the men stepping into the cage Saturday, the fight offers a shot at vindication for both. Hughes is the most dominant welterweight in UFC history, if not the most dominant fighter at any class for the organization. After tearing through all comers, and rarely looking in danger, Hughes appeared on the verge of losing his belt to B.J. Penn, before it was realized that Penn had merely doubled his gas tank, allowing him to go two dominant rounds before reverting to a punching bag. Hughes followed that with a loss to GSP, who he had previously defeated by armbar to hand “Rush” his only defeat to date, and a lackluster decision against Chris Lytle. With the decisive match against GSP before him, and a shot at revenge on his biggest public detractor to follow, Hughes has the opportunity to retire where he’s been most comfortable in his career — on top.
GSP is a borderline freak-of-nature of an athlete, who made a name for himself as much for his spectacular performance in his fights as for his hilariously close-to-correct attempts at the English language after them. After avenging his prior loss to Hughes to claim the title, many expected a long reign for the Canadian scrapper, until the diminutive grappler Serra left him on wobblier legs than a freshman at a frat party en-route to forcing the champ to tap to strikes. While GSP dominated Josh Koscheck in his return, the critics likely won’t be entirely off his back until he avenges the Serra defeat, and the first step in that is putting his stamp on one of the UFC’s best trilogies.
Hughes backers, and One Ounce has heard rumors they are to be found out there, can’t be encouraged by the apparently useless attempts at takedowns in the duo’s last meeting, and while he is sure to have worked to narrow the vast striking disparity between the two, GSP is simply too much for the former Great One. Hughes is tough, and a genuine legend of the sport, but GSP takes it by KO in the second.
Chuck Liddell (20-5) vs. Wanderlei Silva (31-7-1) – Light Heavyweight
In a match-up that’s been desired throughout the MMA community for ages, and one that’s roughly one-year past its prime, the coming together of former Pride monster Silva and UFC champion Liddell sees the fans finally getting the answer on which organization goliath was the superior one. While some luster is lost with neither being the kings of their respective castles today, the bout is still liable to spawn roughly 400 “PRIDE PWN’S” or “UFC > PRIDE” threads on MMA forums the world over within minutes of its conclusion, lack of existence of one of those organizations be damned. This isn’t the first attempt at bringing the two together, however Quintin “Rampage” Jackson was rude enough to put a stop to those plans, before again taking a hit at the match-up’s potential when he saw to removing Liddell of that pesky belt he kept having to lug around.
Following his title defense loss to Rampage, Liddell responded with an uninspiring effort in a decision loss to Keith Jardine, who had himself suffered a brutal knock out in his prior fight at the hands of an unknown. The loss left Liddell’s future in doubt, and appeared to be the final nail in the Liddell-Silva coffin, leading to a thoroughly enjoyable shot of a decidedly depressed looking Silva in the stands, standing before a decidedly un-depressed looking “Mayhem” Miller.
For his part, Silva comes into the fight off of two devastating knockouts from men outside his division. While the KO at the hands of Cro Cop (well… feet of Cro Cop) may not have been wholly unexpected, the loss to Dan Henderson would have been absolutely shocking had it not come during the up-is-down world that was 2007 MMA.
Silva has spent the past months training at X-Treme Couture, leading to hopes he will not take his standard formula of pushing the pace at all times into the fight. Ultimately however, in a year where nearly every future plan the UFC has attempted to set up has been smashed, the appeal of Silva-Rampage III seems doomed to fail. Expect Silva to still be Silva making for an exciting fight until Liddell inevitably connects for the Round 2 KO.
Lyoto Machida (11-0) vs. Rameau Sokoudjou (4-1) – Light Heavyweight
The UFC comes forward with a true clash of styles with the pairing of Machida and Sokoudjou. Sokoudjou has rocketed to international prominence following two stunningly fast knockouts of Ricardo Arona and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira which helped everyone forget about that embarrassing little “knocked out by Glover Teixeira” thing. Machida conversely has made a name for himself by winning decisions which, while dominant, are far from anything the everyday fan would consider “entertaining.”
Following a decision in his debut, the African Assassin has fought less than six total minutes in the remainder of his career, and he’s yet to have his gas tank tested in a major show. While Machida’s fights may border on anesthetic, it’s hard to argue against his effectiveness. He has been dominant in his three UFC fights, and he is the only man to defeat former Middleweight Champion Rich Franklin in a fight (though there have been those two attempted murder incidents involving Anderson Silva.) Sokoudjou will attempt to come out firing as he is apt to do, but Machida is more than capable of withstanding it to earn yet another decision victory, and potentially a title shot.
Rich Clementi (37-12-1) vs. Melvin Guillard (39-7-3)
Clementi has been active and outstanding in his bouts outside of the Octagon, however his excursion into the big show has amounted to an uninspiring 2-3 record. Guillard on the other hand learned the hard way that big words don’t actually allow you to breath with a bicep wrapped around your neck like a big fleshy tie. He also managed to earn himself a special spot among the ranks of the year’s many drug offenders when he tested positive not for marijuana or steroids, but instead for a little bit of the ol’ nose candy.
Bad Blood exists between the two over the most genuine of sleights — the online variety. Place good money down on the broadcast attempting rather vigorously to play up the rivalry, but it best be done quickly before Guillard scores the KO in the first round.
Soa Palelei (8-1) vs. Eddie Sanchez (9-1) – Heavyweight
Finally, we come to the fight everybody is really clamoring about. Sanchez made his UFC debut filling the role of head-kick fodder for Cro Cop and displayed an excellent ability to circle endlessly while trying to stay as far as possible from his opponent. He bounced back from the defeat with a TKO against Colin Robinson. Palelei took a three year sabbatical following his submission loss to Mu Bae Choi at Pride 28. He returned to action in October, registering a five-second KO against MMA new-comer Shaun Vanof.
While Palelei could likely take Sanchez standing, look for him to exploit a dubious Sanchez ground game to earn the round one submission victory for Soa.
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