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UFC 93 card line-up for PPV (1/17 Dublin)
By Zach Arnold | January 5, 2009
- 205 pounds: Rich Franklin vs. Dan Henderson
- 205 pounds: Mark Coleman vs. Mauricio Shogun
- 185 pounds: Alan Belcher vs. Denis Kang
- 185 pounds: Jeremy Horn vs. Rousimar Palhares
- 170 pounds: Marcus Davis vs. Chris Lytle
- 170 pounds: Martin Kampmann vs. Alexandre Barros
- 205 pounds: Eric Schafer vs. Antonio Mendes
- 205 pounds: Tomasz Drwal vs. Ivan Serati
- 170 pounds: Tom Egan vs. John Hathaway
- 155 pounds: Dennis Siver vs. Nate Mohr
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 25 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Henderson by decision
Shogun by TKO, Rd 2
A sort of #1 contenderish battle, a couple mismatches with aging names, and lots of likely standup fights with b-level talent. Not the worst show, definitely not the best.
UFC 94 is the obvious purchase PPV of the month of January.
UFC 93 and Affliction… I could buy them or not…. Neither is great enought to guarantee my purchase.
This card should be offered at a discount.
Franklin, Henderson, and Rua are all headline calibre names, and Franklin vs Henderson should be a great fight.
It is interesting that it’s at 205, shows that UFC doesn’t intend to recycle either of them back into the middleweight championship battle again anytime soon.
The winner of Franklin/Henderson is supposedly headed for TUF 9 to fight Bisping at 185. I would say that means both are likely re-entering the 185lb picture.
Another guy who has gone from 205 to 185.
I could see them using that fight to justify a Bisping title shot, but I don’t think it would go the other way.
I’m sure UFC 93 will be entertaining, but since it’s in the same month as Penn vs. GSP II, there is no way I will be ordering it.
Huddle – I’m not trying to be argumentative, but seriously, even though the Affliction card may not be stacked top-to-bottom you HAVE to be at least a little excited (or curious) about Fedor vs. Arlovski.
Fedor is the undisputed #1 fighter on the planet, and Arlovski is ranked by many as the #2. This is as close to a REAL title fight the MMA world has seen in a long, long time.
That has to count for something…no?
I thoroughly enjoyed Mir/Nogueira and Couture/Lesnar, but come on – those fights simply established that two guys are on the verge of retirement, and two guys are better than we thought. It did not come close to determining the best in the world.
Silva moving back and forth to 205 himself sounds like great reasoning to create an interim title.
Interim title = non-Anderson Silva 185lb champ.
Fedor is (to my surprise) the number 1 fighter (all weights, all time), but Arlovski is no where near the top challenger even at that weight class.
It doesn’t help that it’s not a particularly “deep” division. My analysis shows that you’ve got Fedor, Nog, and well behind them Barnett, then Sylvia. Arlovski comes in somewhere around 10th to 20th, depending on how you count. He’s above Mir and the rest of the UFC heavyweights (aside from Nog, obviously), but he’s not the number one contender, or the number 2 contender, even inside Affliction.
I’m interested in the performances of Shogun and Kang. Hendo/Franklin is intriguing but would be moreso at 185.
Heavyweights generally don’t get me excited. Lesnar has, but that is because there is an element of freakshow in it. Even during Pride’s heyday, I never went ga-ga over Fedor, Nogueira, and Cro Cop.
Arlovski is a joke to be ranked at #2. He is Top 10, no doubt…. and very talented, but he is not Top 10. He has beaten two Top 20 guys in Nelson & Rothwell. Neither of those guys were Top 10 in my book. He should still be ranked below Sylvia, as Sylvia has only lost to guys ranked above him. So really, Arlovski is not even Top 5 at this point. Doesn’t mean he couldn’t beat higher ranked guys, but lets be realistic.
And outside the main event, the card has little interest to me. Joe Silva typically puts on competitive fights. I don’t care to see Chris Lytle, but it’s pretty easy to determine that will be a good fight. Can’t say the same thing about Lindland/Belfort, Horodecki/Lauzon, and Barnett/Yvel. Some good fighters on the card, just not fights I care to see.
Look at the first Affliction card. The first few fights stunk. Lots of great names on it, but the matchmaking wasn’t good. This card is even worse on paper.
I’m not touting UFC 93, as it is probably just as good on paper as Affliction. But neither should really be selling for $40 to $45.
Maybe I’m just a nut but I like this card.
I’m watching everything though and even a bad ufc card is nearly always better then anything else.
“Fedor is the undisputed #1 fighter on the planet, and Arlovski is ranked by many as the #2. This is as close to a REAL title fight the MMA world has seen in a long, long time.”
You consider 9 days to be a long, long time?
45,
While I can understand your thought process behind Sylvia maintaining his lofty status ahead of the man that he’s got a 2-1 record over in Arlovski, I don’t agree with it.
There does after all,I believe,come a point when one must take a “what have you done for me lately?” approach to the ratings & adjust them accordingly.
While his two consecutive victories over AA in 2006 do have merit, one has to factor in Sylvia’s recent 1-3 skid. With increasingly decisive losses to Couture,Nog & Fedor.
While also taking into account AA’s recent activity with quality wins over the then unbeaten O’Brien, then Werdum, Rothwell & Nelson.
Things that I believe should place him firmly above Sylvia in the current ratings.
Peace.
This is why Arlovski should still be ranked below Sylvia:
1. Couture, Nogueira, & Fedor were all past champions who Sylvia lost to.
2. Arlovski hasn’t beaten anybody to move over Sylvia.
One of the following situations could have moved Arlovski above Sylvia:
1. Sylvia lost to a lesser opponent.
2. Arlovski beat a higher ranked opponent. Or at least somebody who was in the Top 10.
Until one of those things happen, Arlovski should be ranked below Sylvia. Or at least until those fights are 3 years old.
As a COMPARISON….. Imagine putting Nogueira above Fedor because Fedor hadn’t beaten anybody for a 2 years while Nogueira had beaten a few people. Until Nogueira beat Fedor (who was the only person ranked higher), he would have always been ranked #2 until Fedor had a REALLY long streak of fighting nobodies.
I don’t understand the negativity. Both UFC Jan cards and the Affliction card look great to me.
REAL WORLD TITLE FIGHTS BY ZUFFA:
1. Rashad Evans vs. Forrest Griffin
2. Forrest Griffin vs. Quinton Jackson
3. Anderson Silva vs. Dan Henderson
4. Anderson Silva vs. Patrick Cote
5. GSP vs. Matt Serra
6. GSP vs. JOn Fitch
7. BJ Penn vs. Sean Sherk
8. Urijah Faber vs. Jens Pulver
9. Urijah Faber vs. Mike Brown
10. Miguel Torres vs. Yoshiro Maeda
11. Miguel Torres vs. Manny Tapia
12. Miguel Torres vs. Chase Beebe
By my calculation, Zuffa put on one REAL WORLD TITLE FIGHT per month (on average) in 2008.
UFC 93 doesn’t look very good at all.
Will spend money on Affliction and BJ vs GSP.
45, how are you defining “real world title fight”?
I’m not seeing a lot of #1s vs #2s on that chart. I’m seeing plenty of #1s fighting in title fights though, which ought to be good enough, IMHO. Fedor fighting anyone is a “real world title fight,” presuming that there’s a belt at stake.
The way I see it, there are only two fights left to determine the real #1 fighter in the world (in 2009, anyway…a lot can change in a year): Arlovski vs. Fedor, and Barnett vs. Fedor.
Nogueira never came close in three chances, Sylvia got decimated, and even if you opened up the competition to ALL of the UFC, I don’t think Lesnar or Mir even deserve a shot.
The Couture/Fedor “Dream Match” was only a dream because of Randy’s popularity – but I think we all know that it would have been a one-sided affair.
If someone deserves a shot at Fedor, or could even provide him competition outside of Arlovski or Barnett, I’d like to know who they are.
And 45, I was referring to the #1 vs. #2 for the Heavyweight title, but some of those examples you cited were indeed ‘real’ title fight…
…Silva vs. Cote not being one of them.
Barnett vs Fedor is the only interesting matchup at the top of the HW division. The other interesting fights are in the lower ranks, where the future #1 will eventually come from.
I think this card is awesome. A couple years ago, Fedor vs Arlovski & Hendo vs Franklin were fights everyone wanted to see, and now we get to see them both in the same month. I’ll be watching this card on the internet (no bars that I know of will be showing it live at noon PST.) I bought tix to Affliction, will get tix for WEC, and will watch GSP/BJ @ the bar. Great few weeks for MMA.
Arlovski is a joke to be ranked at #2. He is Top 10, no doubt…. and very talented, but he is not Top 10.
Ummmmmm….