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GQ_jumper

UFC:79 Nemesis

By GQ_jumper, in The Bonfire

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GQ_jumper    4

GQ_jumper
I know JTVAL already started a thread on this but it's a bit dated and didn't have the poll attached to it so I'll kick this puppy off(didn't mean to steal ur thunder JT;)).

Chuck and Wanderlei finally stepping in the ring is basically the holy grail of MMA fights, a lot of people are talking about how this fight has lost it's luster becuase both of them are coming off of back to back losses. Well that is only true for those who aren't true MMA fans, real fans don't care if it's current champion vs current champion or not, we just want to see 2 world class fighters step in the ring and put down an exciting fight. So for me this is one of the biggest event of the yearB|B|B|

Chuck is coming off losses to Rampage and Jardine, the two losses are coming from completelly opposite ends of the spectrum, Rampage has Chuck's number in that he has accurate strikes and one punch knockout power. Chuck uses a counter-punching strategy which causes him to take a lot of strikes in the process and forces him to rely on his solid chin to stand their and slug it out until one of his big looping punches hits the mark. So his strategy is obviously ineffective against Rampage, you can't stand toe to toe with him and exchange, he forced Chuck to come in for a shot, Chuck through a sloppy body shot that made him lean forward and stick his chin out and Rampage threw one of the most beautiful counter strikes ever seen. Honestly I don't consider the loss against Rampage a knock against Chuck, there's always one person who has your number, for Chuck, it's Rampage.....Chuck has Tito's number(who BTW landed TONS of shots on Chuck in both their matches but Tito lacks the knockout power to end it), Tito has Ken's number, etc. etc.

The loss against Jardine was a different story, it wasn't that Jardine was the far superior fighter, I still think Chuck is a better fighter. That night however Keith walked into the octagon with a solid gameplan, don't walk into Chuck's counter-punches, slow him down with solid kicks, and don't get in lengthy exchanges. And here's the kicker that made that gameplan work, HE STUCK WITH IT!! He deviated from it a bit early on when he got knocked down, but he learned his lesson and used the distance, timing, and leg kicks to outscore Chuck.

Two bad losses, but it still doesn't take away from the fact that Chuck is a dominant striker.

Wanderlei, is also coming off of two losses, to Cro Cop and Henderson. In the loss to Cro Cop he had the cards stacked against him, he was the only non-heavyweight fighter to enter the Grand Prix where he was knocked out, the plays a huge part. And honestly he was standing his ground pretty damn well for a bit, Cro cop hit him with a solid kick that slowed him down but he stayed on his feet, not too many people can claim that against Cro Cop, it took a second kick to take Wanderlei's head off. Barely a month later he was back in the ring to defend his belt against Henderson(the Grand Prix was a non-title fight), Henderson is no slouch, a former Olympian he has one of the top wresting pedigree's in the sport of MMA, and carries with him more heart then most other fighters out there. He went 5 rounds with Rampage in a fight many thought he won. I don't consider a loss to Henderson a knock against anyone, especially when you look at how soon after a big knockout Wanderlei was in there again. Any doctor can tell you that after a knockout you need far more than a month for your body to recover to the point where you can take a solid shot, during that recovery period you are very vulnerable to being knocked out again. during those years as a champion Wandy was fighting up to 6 times a year, that's barely enough time to recover from one fight before starting your next training camp, so he had a lot of cards stacked against him. Had he been fully recoverd I definitely still would not count Dan Henderson out against him but I do think the fight would go a lot farther, if not to the judges. I have watched Wanderlei take countless shots from Rampage(the same shots that knocked out the Iceman in one blow), shake it off and come back to.....as Rampage would put it, "whoop dat ass!". Wanderlei definitely has the chin to go toe to toe with Chuck. However, this is his first fight in the octagon since 2000 IIRC, he is currently 0-2 in the UFC against Tito and Vitor(again, nothing to be ashamed of!), and he hasn't fought since February, being gone that long messes with a fighters head. In his favor he has been training with Randy, and no man can put a game plan together and put it in motion better than CPT America himself, not to mention Randy agrees that Wandy has Chuck's number, and he ain't usually wrong!

Statistically this fight COULD be considered evenly matched, both fighters have the tools to take it home, and both fighters NEED this win. Usually any time I play a fight out in my head I can see the winner, this time, I'm really having a hard time putting it together. I can see both men winning this thing in my head, but my gut is telling me Wanderlei, and my gut has only been wrong twice this year, I usually cheer for my favorite no matter what my gut says but I still know deep down his number is up.

Matt Hughes and GSP is going to be another good fight, yeah we all wanted to see him fight Serra, and as much as he has pushed his fans away with this season of TUF it doesn't change the fact that Hughes is the most dominant welterweight in the history of the sport for the most part and Serra would have been destroyed.

Matt Hughes has owned that weight class, but I'm hearing rumors that he isn't in the same shape he used to push himself to before a fight, and there's some talk(coming from Matt himself) that he's abotu ready to step into the full-time coaching realm and spend more time with his family. He may very well be nearing the end of a very outstanding career, and when you don't have the heart anymore no amount of training will do it for you. Still though, I will never take anything away from Matt, he has proved the world wrong before.

GSP is the biggest thing to hit the Welterweight division in recent history, considered by most to be strictly a kickboxer he put that to shame when he put BJ on his back and kept him there, slipped a gogoplata that was completely locked in and popped BJ with a couple good ones before the bell rang. GSP has defeated a laundry list of all the top fighters in his division, including, Karo, Sherk, Heiron, and most recently Josh Koshcheck, who is nothing short of a wrestling phenom. He's 1-1 against Hughes, the first time he almost had a Kimura locked in but didn't quite have Matt's hips controlled enough and Matt reversed it to a straight armbar. The second time he kept the fight standing and picked apart Matt piece by piece until Matt was destroyed. His first title defense handed him his second loss by KO from Serra. A lot of people have been saying it and I agree, that was a fluke, Serra's career was in a stalemate, he was a long time mid-tier fighter in the UFC who wasn't progressing very far and he was given a title shot no one really believed he deserved. He cemented the fact that everyone has a punchers chance, no matter how bad, the rumors were confirmed a month later that GSP hadn't really trained for that fight very well in the months following the death of his father so we didn't see the same GSP we all know and love that day. That fight would be a GSP win 999 times out of 1000. Going against GSP is the fact that he took this fight on late notice, what does that do to him, forces him to cut weight in a short amount of time, I've seen what that does to people's cardio and it's not pretty. In GSP's favor he is the kind of person who keeps himself in near fight ready condition all the time so it's hard to say how this short notice will affect him.

I honestly can't say for sure who I think is going to win this one but if I had to bet I would put mine on GSP. He is the future of the sport and is actually still the top rated welterweight in the world in all the rankings, with Hughes in 2nd and Serra in either 3rd or 4th behind Kos depending on the list.

However it works out I'm looking forward to this UFC more than any other excpet maybe Tito Chuck 2 last year.

Oh and last but not least, to clear up some misinformation put out in the other thread about this UFC, Pride fighters are not being completely destroyed in the octagon, there are a handful, who have had successful UFC debuts.
History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower

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GQ_jumper    4

GQ_jumper
Something I forgot to add about the GSP/Hughes matchup, in their second fight Matt wasn't really trying to take the fight to the ground, he took a whole different approach to his gameplan. More than likely he's going to try and get GSP on the ground this time which could make it different than either of their first two matches. GSP is no easy character to take down and his takedown defense and ground skills have gotten even better since then. Either way I still think it' going to bea war.
History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower

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jtval    0

jtval

GSP and SILVA for me.

GSP mainly because he's still got the fire. I think Hughes give up the ghost. I just don't think he has the same desire anymore. but if we were on the see-saw It would be Hughes turn to win.

Their both amazing fighters but Hughes is a dick and we all love to see someone like that lose.
GSP always gives me chills during his post fight interviews with Joe Rogan (not the press interview).
St.Pierre has got so much class that even when he looses he is grateful to have been in the octagon.

Chuck /Silva...I dont know a lot about silva and that may both be on a downhill slope but Chuck just hasn't done anything to improve. I think he got lazy.
"why change the style that got you here?" was his response to how he trained for rampage.
My guess would be because there are HOURS of footage of chuck and I can train a monkey to fight against that.:D

With the way the 205 class has exploded chuck will eventually get taken down and elbow into obscurity.
there aren't many one trick ponies in the ufc anymore.

as for the rest of the card...I have no clue I didnt even look at it because I wont get to see the fight until after the new year.

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GQ_jumper    4

GQ_jumper
Chuck /Silva...I dont know a lot about silva and that may both be on a downhill slope but Chuck just hasn't done anything to improve. I think he got lazy.
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Wanderlei is definitely not on a downhill slope, he's just hitting his prime IMO. He's still a fucking caged animal!!

I think Chuck is gonna rock wanderlei with a looping right hook that's going to knock him down, and piss him off!! Wandy doesn't go down and tay down he recovers quick and gets really pissed off when someone knocks him down, that's about when Chuck's number is up!

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower

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GQ_jumper    4

GQ_jumper
I had also forgot that Melvin Guillard was fighting this saturday, that guy always puts on a good show, I like wtching that kid. It's going to be an awesome night of fights. Too bad I'm going to be to doped up on Codine from surgery to go out to the bar and watch it, I'll just have to stay in this time
History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower

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GQ_jumper    4

GQ_jumper
Looks like Chuck and Wanderlei want to go at it before it's time, they had one hell of a stare down at the weigh ins than while they were walking away Chuck threw the bird and Wandy and in return Wandy ran after him and had to be held back by his trainers. I didn't even see a hand shake between the two. Even in the press conference they were going back and forth about who was going to knock who out, it's gonna be one hell of a war.
History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower

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