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UFC 92 (12/27 Las Vegas) fight card line-up
By Zach Arnold | December 2, 2008
Undercard
- Heavyweights: Dan Evensen vs. Pat Barry
- Welterweights: Ryo Chonan vs. Brad Blackburn
- Light Heavyweights: Matt Hamill vs. Reese Andy
- Heavyweights: Antoni Hardonk vs. Mark Burch
- Middleweights: Yushin Okami vs. Dean Lister
Main card
- Heavyweight: Cheick Kongo vs. Mustapha Al-Turk
- Light Heavyweight: Wanderlei Silva vs. Quinton Jackson
- Middleweights: CB Dollaway vs. Mike Massenzio
- Heavyweights: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Frank Mir
- Light Heavyweights (title match): Forrest Griffin vs. Rashad Evans
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 20 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Okami vs. Lister being a prelim is shameful, as is the fact that Okami vs. Lister is likely a “loser leaves town” match according to the Wrestling Observer (ie, the loser is likely to be released by Zuffa).
It is especially shameful for Okami vs. Lister to be a prelim given that Dollaway vs. Massenzio is on the main card and Kongo vs. Al-Turk is on the main card.
Odd booking:
Having Cheick Kongo vs. Mustapha Al-Turk makes absolutely no sense.
Last month Gabriel Gonzaga fought a jobber, and killed him (as expected).
Why not book Gonzaga vs. Kongo instead, and actually make a contender out of the winner? The UFC is in desperate need of top-tier heavyweights, and a decisive win by one of these guys could have given one of them a boost.
What credibility will Kongo get from KOing Al-Turk???
I don’t get the booking of Kongo/Al-Turk either, and I’m a bit afraid that Al-Turk is going to pull off a Marrero by grinding Kongo to a decision.
Cheik Kongo makes perfect sense. You build al Turk as the toughest guy in England and hope Kongo murders him. This should be the start of a monster push for Kongo. Build him to be Brock’s first contender if he can get past Nog or Mir. Kongo should fight again against Gonzaga on the undercard of Brock vs Nog/Mir.
Right now UFC needs to build up monsters who can’t wrestle to feed to Brock. He has the potential to be the biggest star in the history of the sport if promoted right.
Ivan. If everyone who cared to see lister vs okami bought the fight on UFC.com Zuffa would be luck to make $1000 on it. That fight has the potential to suck miserably and bring the show to a halt. If it doesn’t I’m sure we will see it at some point of the broadcast. Also dolloway is a potential star of course you put him on the show.
In that case, so much for any semblance of it being about showing the fans the best fighting the best.
If Cheik Kongo gets anywhere near the title belt in the next year, I quit.
Given that the champion in the weight class is going to be someone with a good ground game (Lesnar, Nogueira, or Mir), a fight against Kongo would be an easy fight because they would just have to take it to the ground and they would win easily. Given that, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Kongo get a title shot in late 2009 if he doesn’t lose in the meantime.
The fight will be on the DVD, which will be $15, and will sell to a significantly larger potential audience than the PPV.
Actually I kind of wonder about the UFC DVD sales numbers. They show up in the top lists, but those things are always kind of fuzzy on how many units have been sold.
I love Yushin Okami, and I personally don’t want to see that fight. Mainly because Lister fighting makes me want to barf. His striking is abysmal and his takedowns non-existent. Tell me when someone has made a thirty second HL of Yushin smacking him around.
Oh I don’t doubt it won’t happen in the least, just total BS, PRIDE-stlye can feeding if they do.
No way that guy deserves a shot over Carwin, Velasquez or Gonzaga. There’s no way all those guys will get a shot in before the end of 2009.
Maybe if they just keep cutting all the troublesome guys like Werdum, and they run some eliminators to take a few of these other guys out of the running, we can see Kongo get his long deserved shot!
Why would Carwin or Velasquez deserve title shots? They’re both neophytes to the MMA game. Cain literally only has four fights (yes I know, Brock Lesnar bla bla but he didn’t deserve one either bla bla). He needs to get seriously tested and step up the competition before getting a shot. Same with Carwin. I haven’t seen Carwin fight someone who wasn’t a total cupcake.
Ivan
If it were about tv best fighting the best Couture wouldn’t have had a who at Sylvia. It is a business about making the maximum number of dollars. Cain and Velasquez will be slowly built as Mothra and Mecha-Godzilla to challenge Brock Godzilla in 2010. In the meantime if he wins the next fight he’ll get Kongo and/or Gonzaga at the end of 2009.
Even if one buys into the argument that Dean Lister is boring, therefore he doesn’t deserve to be on the main card no matter how good his record is… was the UFC forced at gunpoint to book Lister as Okami’s opponent? No, they weren’t.
What the hell has Kongo done to deserve a title shot. He’s an experienced fighter, who’s mediocre at best.
I think Carwin and Velasquez stand a good chance of beating Lesnar and ergo certainly deserve a title shot.
But Ivan, if they didn’t book Lister against Okami then they wouldn’t be guaranteed to be able to fire one of them after the show, which is the whole point of booking the match. Really it will serve Dana right if they have the most boring fight ever and kill the crowd for the rest of the night.
Ivan, I have inside information that Lister actually broke into Joe Silva’s office, flopped onto his back in the doorway, and screamed that he was going to pull Silva into his guard and submit him should he attempt to leave without booking a fight for him against Okami. Silva had no choice.
Carwin has fought only cans and should be unranked in the Top 25. Until he beats one of those 25 fighters, he stays at the bottom of the pile.
As for Velasquez, his only noteworthy victory is over O’Brien. And even that only matters because O’Brien defeated Herring, who beat Kongo, who beat CroCop.
It’s still an impressive win. O’brien is a talented young fighter and a good wrestler, and Velasquez just absolutely murdered him.
I kind of agree about Carwin, but Velasquez is very legit
I’m surprised Patrick Barry’s UFC debut is flying under the radar of most. He should be a good pickup for the HW division.