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UFC 99 6/13 Lanxess Arena (Germany)
By Zach Arnold | June 13, 2009
Dark matches
- Welterweights (170 pounds): John Hathaway vs. Rick Story
- Heavyweights: Denis Stojnic vs. Stefan Struve
- Lightweights (155 pounds): Paul Kelly vs. Rolando Delgado
- Welterweights (170 pounds): Paul Taylor vs. Peter Sobotta
- Lightweights (155 pounds): Dennis Siver vs. Dale Hartt
- Lightweights (155 pounds): Terry Etim vs. Justin Buchholz
Main card
- Heavyweights: Mirko Cro Cop vs. Mostapha Al Turk
- Lightweights (155 pounds): Spencer Fisher vs. Kaoru Uno
- Welterweights (170 pounds): Marcus Davis vs. Dan Hardy
- Welterweights (170 pounds): Mike Swick vs. Ben Saunders
- Heavyweights: Cheick Kongo vs. Cain Velasquez
- Catch weight (195 pounds): Rich Franklin vs. Wanderlei Silva
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 57 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I’m really interested in Swick/Saunders.
Decent main card all around, but on paper that one is the most interesting to me.
Six fights scheduled on the main card? They must intend to really rush through this PPV.
Oh crap Davis is on the main card again. Someone remove this guy for me please?
Any PPV without a title fight should guarantee 6 fights. Of course, the one’s that don’t, we end up seeing 6 or 7 fights anyways.
This is my 2nd favorite UFC card of the year so far (on paper). The first one was the Sanchez/Stevenson fight. It seems like the European Shows lack a great main event, but are from top to bottom much more interesting then the US Cards.
The Cro Cop is a squash fight. The other 5 fights are all 50/50 fights in my mind. I could see anybody coming out the winner. And I think that’s what makes this card so good.
And nice old school naming of Caol Uno…. That brings me back to the old Shooto Days of Uno vs. Sato!
Oh oh,
Kimbo will be in trouble against Neslon.
They better keep those two investments separate for a few episodes IMO.
I’d give Kimbo a decent smidge of a chance against sims though.
I’m shocked that Nelson and his belly were allowed on TUF.
All the young Heavyweight Prospects are in the UFC except for Rothwell, Lashley, & Rogers.
Curious if they will use a German voice or continue using Bruce Buffer.
I think Uno-Fisher is going to be the show stealer. People are sleeping on that match up.
I can’t stand Kongo, so I hope Velasquez lives up to the hype and knocks him out.
Cro Cop had better deliver a highlight reel left high kick to justify this squash match.
I think Franklin’s size advantage will be too much for Wanerlei. If he shows the typical Wandy “push forward and throw looping punches” strategy, that will be a suicide mission against a guy with a 2 inch reach advantage with KO power.
He’s certainly not very telegenic in this age of UFC and TUF pop appeal.
Although maybe he embodies that “anyman” appeal.
I wonder what it would take to encourage Nelson to actually work on his body so that he can live up to his skills?
Buffer is definitely not going anywhere. I assume they’ll have a german language simulcast for the PPV.
Kimbo doesn’t stand a chance against Nelson. His ground game is too much.
See Dana, now that whole stand up bonus money idea doesn’t sound so bad, does it?
I don’t think Dana White cares if Kimbo is successful or not. If he is, they can promote him big time. If he isn’t, they can let him go, and then anybody else who gets ahold of him and tries to promote him like EliteXC, Dana can say: “He couldn’t even handle TUF.” It’s a win/win situation.
As for UFC 99…. I’m a big Uno fan, have been for a long time. Have even seen him fight live 3 times. He isn’t the best anymore, but always fun to watch him fight. I’m looking forward to that fight.
I think Dana White cares deeply if Kimbo is successful or not – he is a proven ratings draw, unlike most of the roster.
I think Roy Nelson takes the whole thing easily though.
“All the young Heavyweight Prospects are in the UFC except for Rothwell, Lashley, & Rogers.”
I guess you’ve never heard of Satoshi Ishii and Shane Del Rosario. I would take Rosario over Schaub, Schoonover and Slice any day of the week.
Has Ishii even had a fight yet? Typically to be a prospect, you need to actually have a fight for people to see what you are about first.
As for Shane, he is talented, but I don’t think anybody expects him to stay at Heavyweight once he steps up in competition. He is around 225 lbs, and is not cut, which means he is within 5 fights of being a LHW likely.
Also, I saw on the UG that you were saying guys like Brown & Faber should get percentage of the gates like Frank Shamrock. That idea makes no sense because:
1. Frank Shamrock gets that deal because the owner’s of the HP Pavilion have a stake in Strikeforce, making it easier to make such a deal. And Zuffa would be stupid to make similiar deals with organizations.
2. Nobody has a clue whether or not the WEC is even making money at this time. So for people to say they should be increasing pay is comical. When you tale basic business knowledge about the costs of running a company, and then add that to what the IFL and EliteXC did….. And realize Zuffa is smarter…. I still doubt the WEC is making much if any money at this time.
“All the young Heavyweight Prospects are in the UFC except for Rothwell, Lashley, & Rogers.”
I just heard an interview with Rolles Gracie. He said that he’s planning on fighting a lot more MMA.
Has anyone seen him fight in an MMA fight? He’s big enough, that’s for sure.
Here is the interview, btw: http://tinyurl.com/RollesGracie
LOL at Torres & Faber getting a cut of the gate. The typical WEC event in Vegas barely cracks the $100,000 mark. The only time they bring in a decent gate is when they go to Sacramento.
Getting a couple percentage points of the gate receipts for a WEC event is pocket change and would have very little impact on those guys total compensation.
UFC 99 Countdown Show was good. Would have liked to see the Davis/Hardy stuff added. I watched the segment on UFC.com, and they both did a great job at hyping their fight.
At the very end, they had very short pieces of Cro Cop and Swick/Saunders. I think if Saunders wins, they are going to give him a big push. He has that “it” factor when it comes to personality. And he has a fun fighting style.
I’m really looking forward to this card. It’s not as top heavy as the next few UFC PPVs, but it’s solid top to bottom.
Card looks good – getting pretty excited for this one! My heart wants my boy Wandy to win, but I think his years of wild battles have taken their toll on his body and chin and Rich is just too big, too technical and too smart to get drawn into the wild shootout Wandy will need. That being said if he catches him with one of his heavy shots, he could create the type of scramble he’s looking for, but it’s doubtful.
And – uuggh…I hate Marcus Davis. He is not that good and has been constantly set up to look like he means something in the big picture. Inexplicably (well I guess the Euro draw) he seems to be their poster boy but he’s nothing more than a gatekeeper.
Not really a Marcus Davis fan, at all.
But I’m even less of a wolfslair fan, so…
Davis has been manufactured to a certain degree. With that said, he isn’t Top 10. He is definitely a very tough Top 20 guy who just doesn’t have what it takes to go any higher. Reminds me of Brock Larson. Both are great fighters, but they are missing something to bring them to that next level.
Whats the deal with UFC trying to make me install MS silverlight to see the gosh darn weigh ins!
I haven’t been able to easily see the weigh ins for at least a year because I like to keep my computer clean and running well by not not installing unnecessary junk.
Doesn’t every other video on the internet play just fine with standard issue codecs?!
Oh, my bad. Hardy isn’t wolfslair.
Whoda thunk their where 2 gyms in england?!
🙂
Still rooting for Davis by default though.
Wanderlei Silva might be my favorite fighter of all time…but having said that, the guy has been KOed WAY too many times, both in fights and in training. The head kick loss to CroCop was what sent his career spiraling downward, and some people just never fully recover from a shot like that. Franklin by TKO.
The EPIC hype surrounding Cain Velasquez will be put to the test this Saturday. He has the tools to beat Kongo in theory, but he’ll be sacrificing a lot of experience, and he’ll be in hostile territory. I call Kongo by decision.
The other fights all look great. Very, very nice looking card from top to bottom.
I like how the UFC is taking the time to make the cards better overall instead of just giving us a good main and decent co-main event. Very impressive.
Honestly, I’m still not sold on Kongo.
In fact I’d say he really isn’t that good.
Hopefully Cain gets past him, unfortunately even if he does it wont prove a heck of a lot IMO.
Kongo looked terrible against Herring, getting taken down and controlled – who is a shitty wrestler, albeit he is a saavy and tough fighter with tons of experience. I can only imagine what’s going to happen against him against a guy with the wrestling cred/skills of Cain.
But man, Cain has fed on more tomato cans than anyone in the HW division – that’s really the only “x-factor” in my book – the step up in skill levels from those opponents to Kongo (not saying he’s awesome by any means, that’s a whole other story).
“Davis has been manufactured to a certain degree. With that said, he isn’t Top 10. He is definitely a very tough Top 20 guy who just doesn’t have what it takes to go any higher. Reminds me of Brock Larson. Both are great fighters, but they are missing something to bring them to that next level.”
I guess the term “it is, what it is” is exactly the explanation for Davis.
They like him, he’s an exciting fighter who loves to trade, he wins most of his fights (against mid-level competition at best) and he’ll always be there to beef up a division or test if a guy has the good to swim in the deep end. Is he great/top-10? No. But he is what he is.
I’m not 100% sold on Kongo either, and he looks pretty one-dimensional at the moment. But either way, his stand-up IS dangerous (and his ground and pound looked pretty tight last time out).
You can’t deny that. But can Kongo stuff some takedowns for once? Can he keep winning with just his striking?
And Cain is VERY promising, but largely untested. How will he deal with a very strong, very experienced fighter, with the crowd solidly against him?
So there are a lot of unanswered questions here, which is what makes it a good fight, IMO.
Steve,
The WEC has done 500k in Florida and just under that in San Diego.
Vegas is actually the lowest drawing place for the WEC.
I’m convinced by Shane Carwin at this point, but Cain … he needs legitimate wins.
This crowd ain’t rowdy like the US crowds. Goldberg is claiming a sellout, but I wonder…..
Meh, now there’s another fighter that I have absolutely no interest in. Why would anyone consent to fight Marcus Davis?
Swick has the right attitude. I’m not sure that he’s actually ready, but I think that the UFC braintrust is a lot more likely to give title shots to guys who ask for it than those who don’t.
There’s a strong correlation between guys acting like they’re ready, and saying that they’re ready, and then actually being given shots at titles, and contender fights against upper echelon guys.
Well, that wasn’t much, but that’s a win, maybe? Is there an association that can overturn this? Why didn’t Al Turk say something?
1. Davis vs. Hardy – Good fight. Hardy has a lot of power in his strikes, but he still almost lost that fight. I think David would have won if he didn’t go for that dumb foot lock.
2. Uno vs. Fischer – I scored the 2nd and 3rd rounds for Caol Uno. With that said, it wasn’t a horrible decision. And despite being a huge Uno fan, I really don’t mind the decision. Mostly because of he can’t beat Fischer convingingly, does it really matter who wins that close fight? Both guys have shown their limitations.
3. Swick vs. Saunders – One thing Swick has done as a Welterweight way too much is that clinch against the fence. It makes for very boring fights. I don’t think he has enough power to really contend with the best of the Welterweight Division. And I don’t mean punching power. I mean power in general. Still, he and Kampmann are the two next guys who need to be pushed towards title shots.
4. Cro Cop vs. Al Turk – Cro Cop looks different. He obviously gained some weight. His nose also looked different (I could be making this stuff up in my head). I agree with Cro Cop that the eye poke didn’t matter much, it was obvious he was going to win. I thought the ref did a horrible job. First he didn’t notice the eye poke. And then he let Al Turk take some punches he shouldn’t have. I think for Cro Cop to be competitive for his “last run”, he needs to lose about 10 pounds. He is best at the lighter weight.
Uno’s loss could potentially set him up for that bizarre nightmare/fantasy rematch with Jens Pulver that I mentioned in the WEC thread though.
Both are coming off some losses now.
Kongo doesn’t look good on the ground, but at least he doesn’t look scared like he used to.
Congratulations for Cain for developing an entirely new kind of boring: Pound and Pray.
Kongo lacks any competent grappling. I mean some of the things he does in there would make high school wrestling and BJJ McDojo Guys cringe. Not to mention his horrible strategy when he could have let go multiple occassions but instead tried to grapple.
As for Cain Velasquez, the guy has a huge head and a great chin. He was getting tagged by punches because he was coming straight in. I’m not saying he will ever be a top level striker, but the reasons he was getting knocked down today could easily be corrected before his next fight.
Plus, he is showing what most guys with 5 fights do…. He is still very raw.
I am typing this as Silva is getting vaseline on his face. Franklin’s wife is in the background and she looked as Silva and was looking WORRIED!! Sorry Mrs. Franklin, that guy is going to KO your husband!!
Good Decision on Franklin vs. Silva. Franklin won that fight. It was very exciting.
Good stuff!
Another card that performs better than it looked on paper!
A little surprised by the Germans booing the lulls almost as fast as the frat boys though?!
I guess people are the same all over.
🙂
I want to see that again, I want to see it at 205.
I wonder how many US military personnel were at this show in the cheap seats.
I don’t think there are any bases in Cologne (which in itself would make it a questionable place to hold an event), but those guys love this stuff.
Next UFC in Germany: Frankfurt.
wanderlei silva is done and is becoming the Autro Gatti of MMA.
He is has been a shot fighter for a long while now.
It’s a shame to see it, but I feel that kobashi is correct about Wanderlei Silva
If the UFC goes back to Germany, its gonna be Hamburg, not Frankfurt. Just an FYI. It definitely wasn’t a sellout: they moved folks down from the upper deck because it was totally abandoned. Back as little as 30 days or so ago, they were still selling seats up there for 45 Euros or so. They just didn’t move.
Anyhow, enough of that crap. The show was decent, but no real surprises and we really don’t know anything coming out that we didn’t know coming in. Then again, just because we didn’t learn anything valuable doesn’t mean there weren’t good fights. Davis/Hardy was frustrating but certainly watchable, and Silva/Franklin was entertaining given Silva’s willingness to stay in there and really give it a good run. I didn’t think he had it left in him, honestly. However, I have the feeling that like Faber/Pulver I, that’s probably Silva’s last gasp.
I started to listen to Beatdown After The Bell, and it was so bad I just turned it off. They were spending over 20 minutes complaining about how more rounds being 10-10 draws and how most of the UFC fights should be 25 minutes. It would be like ESPN Commentators after a World Series game just ripping apart the rules and how long the game is instead of talking about the athletes themselves. Not to mention that their ideas would almost ruin the sport:
1. UFC Fighters would have records like 2-3-5.
2. 5-Round Fights would mean potentially only 3 fights per PPV.
3. For the once in a while fight that we wish was 5-Rounds, there is always Fischer/Uno or Velasquez/Kongo which I don’t think anybody wanted to see go longer. Not to mention fighters would have much shorter careers.
Anyways, I think the UFC has to be happy with the results of this show. They can push Franklin as a threat at 205. Hardy is now officially their #2 guy in England and if Bisping beats Henderson, I wouldn’t be shocked to see Bisping/Silva & Hardy/Swick co-main event a show in Manchester.
And all these prospects they have been pushing have beaten the veterans. There is nothing worse then to see a new crop of prospects all lose to the veterans and make the division stale. They now have Lesnar, Velasquez, Carwin, & Dos Santos as the new crop of young talent. Not to mention Chris T & Mike Russow coming in soon, and likely 3 to 5 propsects coming out of the TUF show. Dare I say their Heavyweight Division might be over 20 fighters deep by the end of the year? Shocking!!
I’d rather have fights like Franklin/Henderson and Franklin/Silva be 5 rounders instead of getting a random prelim bout tacked on or, in this case, any of the other fights that appeared on this card. Same thing with Guida/Sanchez. Gimme 5 rounds of that instead of friggen’ Burns/Lytle. Yuck.
If they go to Hamburg, it will be just as bad or worse than this one financially, IMHO :/
If you want to give the impression of excitement over there, you’re going to need full houses, and you aren’t going to get it anywhere in the northern part of that country.
I wish they would have announced the judges’ scores for fights other than just the Hardy-Davis fight. Normally we could still get the scores from the athletic commission, but in this case, the show was not sanctioned by an actual athletic commission, so who knows if the judges’ scores will be released.
If you want to give the impression of excitement over there, you’re going to need full houses, and you aren’t going to get it anywhere in the northern part of that country.
There’s nowhere really to do the event in Frankfurt. They’d be as well off running it in Oberhausen, since there’s a bigger arena there.
@Fluyid & Alan:
They were claiming that the show was sold out (i’ve just started watching the german telecast, as i’m typing this, and they did too), which would be about 12 000 with this type of set-up, but i’d say it was about 10 000.
And no, if the UFC comes back (and i’d say they will) they will most definetely come back to Cologne. It’s the only location that really makes any sense, as it’s in the middle of the country, with the best transportation and nearest to the benelux countries. Frankfurt would be okay, cause there they’d be able to pull a lot of american servicemen, but it’d be much more expensive for foreigners to travel there, as none of the “discount airlines” such as RyanAir use Frankfurt International. You’d have to use one of the big airlines, such as Air France or Lufthansa, and their prices are much, much higher. As for Hamburg – won’t happen. Ever. Hamburg’s just too far off the grid (same goes for Berlin. The Poles would come, but that’s it). The only other possible location would be the Westfalenhalle in Dortmund (90km from Cologne). Still central, still very good infrastructure and near airports, but not quite as good as Cologne.
As for the show itself, i thought it was okay. Not good, but definetely not bad, i’ve seen worse. The crowd was also quite good, and very mixed, with the biggest contingents of foreigners from the Netherlands and France. There were also many Croats, but i’m not sure, if they actually came over from Croatia, or if they were living in Germany. They were babbling all the time in croatian, so i couldn’t tell. There were not that many Brits (at least i didn’t see that many), but they were their usual, nice british selfs. Meaning they were drunk and loud 😉
I would’ve expected to see at least a few fisticuffs outside the arena after the show was over, but surprisingly there weren’t.
Note to UFC: thanks for doing an “european feed” for your shows – but we may use “Kilos”, but not feet and inches, so having CroCop at 105 Kilos and 6’2″ doesn’t really make any sense.
The Hamburg thing wasn’t something I invented or came up with based on what was around for arenas, BTW. That was a pretty serious rumor being passed around a few weeks ago about a winter show.