UFC 162: 'Silva vs Weidman'

[wandshogun09]

About four weeks until this one.

 

 

PPV MAIN CARD

Anderson Silva vs Chris Weidman - UFC Middleweight Title

Frankie Edgar vs Charles Oliveira

Roger Gracie vs Tim Kennedy

Dennis Siver vs Cub Swanson

Mark Munoz vs Tim Boetsch

 

FX PRELIMS

Chris Leben vs Andrew Craig

Norman Parke vs Kazuki Tokudome

Edson Barboza vs Rafaello Oliveira

Gabriel Gonzaga vs Dave Herman

 

FACEBOOK PRELIMS

Seth Baczynski vs Brian Melancon

Mike Pierce vs David Mitchell

 

Silva vs Weidman is a very interesting fight. Weidman might not have the star power of some of Anderson's past opponents but what he has is a style that, on paper, could give Anderson more trouble than anyone else in the division. A big strong wrestler, with a dangerous BJJ game and good striking.

 

Anderson's never been troubled by strikers in his career, the opponents who have had the most success against him have been grapplers. Submission artists like Chonan and Takase submitted Anderson in Pride, and even since then, the fights he's had the most trouble in, or at least not looked great were against grapplers. Lutter, Henderson, Leites, Maia, the first Sonnen fight. Anderson won these fights but it does kind of lead you to think that grappling is the way to go. It seems striking with him is pretty much suicide.

 

Matt Serra predicts his pupil will do just fine;

 

[Egg Shen]

Im on holiday when this happens devastated.

[Guy Bifkin]

Thanks for the preview. Confirmed now that King of the Octagon, Guy Bifkin, will be at ringside for this one.

[wandshogun09]

I'm jealous as fuck but have a good time Bifkin. Of course there's never any guarantees how fights will turn out but I'd be surprised if the main event and the three featherweight main card fights don't deliver. Frankie Edgar is great and Korean Zombie appears to be incapable of having bad fights.

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

Edgar vs. Oliveira is the co-main? I get that Edgar has a name, but that has to be a first that a fighter on a three fight losing streak is in the co-main event of a PPV. They better not be feeding Oliveira to Edgar in a high profile match just to fast track Edgar to another title shot. The Zombie vs. Lamas fight should get the high billing and no. 1 contender status.Anyway, awesome card. If Edgar looks overly dull in beating Oliveira, the other featherweights could easily make the statement too. Siver, Swanson, Zombie and Lamas have all looked like fucking buzzsaws recently. I'm worried about Zombie's rust though, especially since he's the guy I want to see get the top spot. Zombie vs. Aldo or Zombie vs. Pettis could be absolute masterpieces.The main event is a funny one. Weidman has looked like a killer so far but many, many times, dominant fighters are made to look like white belts against Anderson. I'm going to have to side with history and say that Weidman panics when he can't get it to the ground, Spider with the early TKO stoppage.

[wandshogun09]

I'd guess the Zombie vs Lamas winner would be most likely to get the next shot. As well as Edgar fought in defeat (there are arguments to be made that he won all three fights, especially the second Henderson fight) the fact is he's 0-3 in his last 3. Even Dana would have a hard time selling him as #1 contender again anytime soon. I think Edgar is now in Faber territory. As liked as he is and as good as he is, he's in a position where he's going to have to work his way back up and string some impressive wins together, like Faber has his last few fights.The others, Swanson can make a good case for the shot. If he beats Siver that's five wins on the trot. The only thing that might go against him is if Aldo is still champ, considering how Aldo vs Swanson 1 went...he'd deserve another crack though.Siver could make a case too, although slightly less strongly. He'd be riding a three fight streak if he beats Swanson. Although he's yet to finish an opponent at 145.That all leads me to believe the Zombie vs Lamas winner will be front of the line. Edgar just had his crack at Aldo, Oliveira has been too inconsistent, Siver probably needs to win more impressively, Swanson has a strong argument but has the previous Aldo raping maybe going against him as long as Aldo sits atop the 145 division. With Zombie and Lamas, either way you have a fresh fight with either Aldo or Pettis. And they'd have both earned it on merit too. Lamas has been wrecking shop and Zombie, before the layoff, was on one of the most spectacular three fight runs ever - making history with the first ever twister submission in MMA history, then knocking out Mark Hominick in 7 seconds, then beating Dustin Poirier in FOTY classic. The layoff has cooled Zombie's jets a bit sadly, but if he turns in another thriller here and wins the UFC would be mad to not give him his title shot.

[jimufctna24]

Agree with the above.They may wait to see who wins out of Pettis and Aldo, if Zombie gets past Lamas it may be a foregone conclusion as there is great worth in doing a title fight with Zombie in Japan or China. They may do Pettis vs Edgar, if Edgar won 3 fights and Pettis won and stayed Champion, heck if both lose that fight could be made unless Pettis moves up to 155lbs. Siver/Swanson winner or Lamas I think will be next for a title shot Zombie is not option.Lots of ifs and buts with the 145lbs picture, plenty of options is not a bad thing.

[The Natural]

Looking forward to this show mainly to see if Anderson Silva extends all those amazing UFC records he holds. Must win fight for Frankie Edgar, he's 0-3 but the second of those three losses was a win. Terrible decision. Really wanting The Korean Zombie to beat Lamas, he has to get the next UFC Featherweight Championship shot if he defeats him.

[lambyUK]

Looking forward to this show mainly to see if Anderson Silva extends all those amazing UFC records he holds. Must win fight for Frankie Edgar, he's 0-3 but the second of those three losses was a win. Terrible decision. Really wanting The Korean Zombie to beat Lamas, he has to get the next UFC Featherweight Championship shot if he defeats him.

To be fair, there's a big argument he won all 3!

[Egg Shen]

yeh he's 0-3 but there's absolutely no way this is a 'must win' fight for him...of course it is to stay relevant at the top but Frankie's 0-3 is a pretty unique case.

[The Natural]

Looking forward to this show mainly to see if Anderson Silva extends all those amazing UFC records he holds. Must win fight for Frankie Edgar, he's 0-3 but the second of those three losses was a win. Terrible decision. Really wanting The Korean Zombie to beat Lamas, he has to get the next UFC Featherweight Championship shot if he defeats him.

To be fair, there's a big argument he won all 3!

I meant to make that point in my original post but forgot to. I can see the argument for all three, the second Henderson fight was the clearest one.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah, the Aldo and Bendo 1 fights were really close. Live I actually had Edgar nicking the Aldo fight, I gave him the last 3 rounds I think, but I might have it differently now. I agreed with the decision in the first Bendo fight, although I wouldn't argue with someone scoring for Frankie. So those two could have gone either wayBendo 2 though, was a robbery in my eyes. Probably the worst decision last year, unless I'm forgetting something. I had Frankie taking 4 rounds as I recall.

[The Natural]

Yeah, the Aldo and Bendo 1 fights were really close. Live I actually had Edgar nicking the Aldo fight, I gave him the last 3 rounds I think, but I might have it differently now. I agreed with the decision in the first Bendo fight, although I wouldn't argue with someone scoring for Frankie. So those two could have gone either wayBendo 2 though, was a robbery in my eyes. Probably the worst decision last year, unless I'm forgetting something. I had Frankie taking 4 rounds as I recall.

I scored Edgar-Bendo 1 to Henderson by 3-2 or 4-1. The second fight they had, like you I scored for Edgar 4-1. A robbery which had massive consequences. Bendo has defend the title twice now in fights most people scored for his opponent and Edgar's in a division he wasn't wanting to drop in for a while going 0-3 when he should have regained the UFC Lightweight Championship. I feel it's one of the worst decisions in the history of the UFC. I agree that Edgar nicked the Aldo fight but that was a close one which could have gone either way.

[lambyUK]

Yeah, the Aldo and Bendo 1 fights were really close. Live I actually had Edgar nicking the Aldo fight, I gave him the last 3 rounds I think, but I might have it differently now. I agreed with the decision in the first Bendo fight, although I wouldn't argue with someone scoring for Frankie. So those two could have gone either wayBendo 2 though, was a robbery in my eyes. Probably the worst decision last year, unless I'm forgetting something. I had Frankie taking 4 rounds as I recall.

I scored Edgar-Bendo 1 to Henderson by 3-2 or 4-1. The second fight they had, like you I scored for Edgar 4-1. A robbery which had massive consequences. Bendo has defend the title twice now in fights most people scored for his opponent and Edgar's in a division he wasn't wanting to drop in for a while going 0-3 when he should have regained the UFC Lightweight Championship. I feel it's one of the worst decisions in the history of the UFC. I agree that Edgar nicked the Aldo fight but that was a close one which could have gone either way.

Yep, that decision has had massive consequences. Annoying every fight Bendo has had from and including the first fight against Edgar I've given to his opponent, aside from Nate Diaz. Edgar should be the light heavyweight champion right now. However, on the flip side, Edgar was fighting big guys receiving serious damage and for his health sake should be fighting against smaller guys his own size. So maybe it's for the best?

[wandshogun09]

Yeah, the Aldo and Bendo 1 fights defo weren't robberies. If you can make solid cases for a decision to go both ways, it's not a robbery and not a decision you can really bitch about.For example, and this is probably going against the grain, I actually have Hector Lombard 3-0 in the UFC. I felt he won the Boetsch fight despite a bad performance. The Okami fight, I thought he did enough to take two of the rounds, although most probably disagree. That's the thing though, although I had Lombard winning those fights, they aren't bad decisions you can moan about. Lombard wasn't aggressive enough at key points in both fights and left it too close. I can see why they were scored for Boetsch and Okami. Edgar vs Bendo 2 though, I can't see an argument for Benson winning that fight, and that's what makes it a robbery.