« Project of the Day | Home | Brazil: GuaraFight 2 »
UFC 57 card line-up
By Zach Arnold | January 11, 2006
The promotion has posted their card line-up on their home page. MMA Opinion has some thoughts on the card and UFC’s matchmaking.
The UFC 58 card is on 3/4 from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas with Rich Franklin vs. David “The Crow” Loiseau and Georges St. Pierre vs. BJ Penn. I stumbled into this link, which claims that UFC 59 will take place in Anaheim, California. Anyone have information about UFC running in California?
In other US MMA news, Greg Kalikas of Pro Karate Weekly (and SportstalkCleveland.com) sent me an e-mail to announce that there will be a show (the Gladiators Fighting Series) at Gray’s Armory in downtown Cleveland, Ohio on February 18th. Duke Roufus and Mark Coleman will make special guest announcer appearances at the event. After the Cleveland show, they will have a show in Milwaukee on February 24th. Card line-up for the 2/18 Cleveland show:
- 155 pounds – Jason Dent vs. Clint Zeedyk
- 250 pounds – Josh Hendricks vs. Rick “The Madman” McChristian
- 205 pounds – Allan Weickert vs. Matt Hershberger (Hammer House)
- 145 pounds – Luke Spencer vs. Arman Loktev (Team Strong Style)
- 155 pounds – Jason “Steeltown” Taylor vs. Tommy Ridenbaugh (Hammer House)
- 205 pounds – John Soeder (Team Strong Style) vs. Chris Larkin
- 185 pounds – Richy Karst (Hammer House) vs. Brandon Lee
- 170 pounds – Mike Russo vs. Chad Truckovich
- 155 pounds – Torrance “The Tyrant” Taylor vs. TBA
Topics: MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 7 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
http://mmaopinion.blogspot.com/2006/01/fight-opinion.html
Thanks Zach. I didn’t think anyone was reading my blog.
Personally, I think the UFC 57 card is pretty solid from top to bottom. The only fight that seems odd, booking wise (at least to me), is Frank Mir vs. Marcio Cruz. I question the logic of the booking for two reasons:
1) Marcio Cruz has only had one Pro MMA fight thus far, and he is already fighting the former UFC Heavyweight Champion (and defacto #1 contender of this rather weak UFC Heavyweight division). This is shades of Pawel Nastula vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Aleksander Emelianenko booking, in my opinion. Why toss a guy with some potential as being a future undefeated star towards an opponent who has a very, very good chance of destroying him. Yes, Mir will be out for almost 17 months entering this fight (and therefore will be a bit ring rusty), but short of Cruz exploiting Mir’s damaged leg and managing to get a good heel hook or ankle lock, I don’t see Cruz winning the fight (I highly doubt he’ll KO/TKO Mir standing and imagine he’ll use sweeps and submissions if it goes to the mat).
2) Why put your only real Heavyweight division superfight (Arlovski vs. Mir) in jeopardy by having Mir take on a guy who, while he may be inexperienced in the MMA ring, has a very good amount of grappling experience and could potentially reinjure Mir’s bad leg or even beat him with a good submission? Personally, I think Mir has very few chances of losing, but considering his leg could suddenly give out on him like in Andrei Arlovski-Justin Eilers at UFC 53 and cause him to lose or keep him out for good (or for a very long time again), I think distancing the only real money fight at HW with another fight is a very, very risky move on Zuffa’s part.
I must say, though, UFC 58’s two announced fights alone seem to outshine pretty much all the fights on UFC 57’s card. Of course, I tend to agree with the opinion that Couture-Liddell III will be a much, much bigger PPV drawing card main event than Franklin-Louiseau or Penn-St. Pierre, and so should be the main event of UFC 57. I just wish they had placed one of those fights onto UFC 57 to really show it as a Superbowl-level card rather than just a card being held on Superbowl weekend. If you are going to inflate prices for both tickets and PPV buys, you should be willing to open up the purse strings a bit more and make it really memorable.
Now that I thought about it, Marcio Cruz has a decent chance of catching Frank Mir with a submission or even a good shot as the fight goes on, assuming Mir hasn’t improved his gas tank since the previous fights we’ve seen him in. The longer a fight goes for Mir, the more open he has general become. Also, if Mir overcommits to a submission or strike like he did in the Ian Freeman fight at UFC 38, he opens himself up a good bit for a dangerous counter or even a potential beating (though I seriously doubt Cruz has the heavy hands of Freeman to do the type of damage he did).
Personally I figured this would be an easier fight for Mir atleast in terms of his physical well being. Grappling is far more methodical than striking or wrestling. Therefore you can be rusty and not have all your senses together but still manage to survive. Also unless theres a freak accident, which could happen no matter who he’s put in with, if he gets caught he’ll tap before any serious injury.
I do think this was an odd choice, especially considering they could have just thrown Justin Eilers in there to do the job as he has so often before. I guess the issue with Eilers if Mir loses it’s much more damaging. If you get beat by an unknown UFC can play the guy up as some sensation, where as if somebody who has a record of losses comes in and beats you it comes off as that guy just being weak.
Either way I’m excited about Mir’s return. Also Team Strong Style is now my favorite Team name. Damn now I wanna put together a Team King Road’s style.
I am so excited about UFC 58, and really amn’t about 57. It could have really used one of the two fights announced for 58 especially if the rumoured Matt Hughes vs. Karo Pariysin fight takes place at 58 as well.
Diaz and Riggs could be very interesting,Both need a win real bad.GSP will give
Penn all he can handle in my opinion,mouth watering fight really.
I dont think the Mir Vs Cruz fight is a bad choice at all. Mir has good striking with formidable skills on the ground. Cruz is all out amazing on the ground with less than great skills standing.. Cruz is the underdog in the fight and i think he has a good chance to beat Mir if it goes to the ground. Mir isnt going to want to continue to stand as the time goes on, and Cruz will be looking for the back..
honestly i see cruz winning this fight. He will be looking to get to the back and if he does the fight will over. If not alot of time will be spent with Mir in Cruz’s guard.. Where cruz is most deadly.
Mirs only chance to win this, is to beat him standing up, or punish him with short shots from inside Cruz’s guard.