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UFC 10/24 Staples Center (Los Angeles)
By Zach Arnold | October 24, 2009
Event reports: Observer | OC Register | USA Today | Sherdog | MMA Torch | Bloody Elbow | Yahoo Sports | MMA Junkie
Dark matches
Heavyweights: Stefan Struve vs. Chase Gormley
Light Heavyweights: Kyle Kingsbury vs. Razak Al-Hassan
Light Heavyweights: Ryan Bader vs. Eric Schafer
Middleweights: Jorge Rivera vs. Rob Kimmons
Middleweights: Yushin Okami vs. Chael Sonnen
Heavyweights: Antoni Hardonk vs. Pat Barry
Main card
Welterweights: Anthony “Rumble” Johnson vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida
Lightweights: Joe “Daddy” Stevenson vs. Spencer Fisher
Lightweights: Gleison Tibau vs. Josh Neer
Heavyweights: Cain Velasquez vs. Ben Rothwell
UFC Light Heavyweight Championship: Lyoto Machida vs. Mauricio Shogun
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 148 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Johnson def. Yoshida, R1 KO
Stevenson def. Fisher, R3 submission
Tibau def. Neer, R3 U.Decision
Velasquez def. Rothwell, R3 U.Decision
Machida def. Shogun, R2 KO
I love Shogun, but a post-surgery Rua fighting in the cage with UFC’s limited rule set…I don’t like his chances.
Aside from A.Silva, I don’t like anyone’s chances of taking Machida’s title.
If the Dodgers series goes to 7 games, game 7 will be the same night @ Dodger Stadium which is about 10 miles away.
Apart from Tibau/Neer I don’t see a single competitive fight on the main card. Not one. All the other fights are bad matchups for one of the participants.
I also want to go on record and say the line for Barry/Hardonk defies explanation. Feast or famine on that for me, and I have the absolute expectation I’ll be eating Filet Mignon after.
I’m in total agreement with Ultimo’s picks, except Stevenson-Fisher will go to decision where Joe wins 30-27 UD.
Yeah, it’s not a competitive card, but there are some fights that will be fun to watch. The show stealer could be Fisher-Stevenson, even though Stevenson will win it since he’s far above Fisher’s class it should be a fun 3 rounder like most Fisher fights. And while Machida winning is a forgone conclusion I am very interested to see what Shogun’s gameplan is going to be. If he gasses out quick I’ll laugh.
How many times will Dana White’s twitter feed be mentioned on this show?
This is another weird card. It is good but it’s not. Nothing too interesting. There is potential, but it is highly unlikely that we will see an upset.
“I’m in total agreement with Ultimo’s picks, except Stevenson-Fisher will go to decision where Joe wins 30-27 UD.”
I actually write hat first and then changed it to a submission…I think I’m back on board with a decision. I think with Stevenson’s power he might be able to lock in a guillotine late, but it’s more likely he’ll just dominate for an easy 30-27 from all the judges (except Cecil Peoples, who might call it a 43-12 for Fisher).
I can’t see 2009 Shogun beating 2009 Machida. This fight will show us a lot about Shogun even if he loses, though. I’m very interested in seeing his game plan too.
I’ve got Shogun winning. I think it will be a very interesting clash of styles.
Alan, what site do you use?
I don’t know, in MMA you can never say never. With 5 main card fights there is a strong possibility of one of them ending in an upset. If I had to guess which one has the strongest chance for an upset, I’ll say if Johnson can’t keep the fight standing he could be subbed by Yoshida. We’ll see how he can defend Judo throws. He probably won’t be taken down since he’s so much larger than Yoshida, but it’s the strongest upset candidate of everything.
According to MMA Junkie….
UFC 104 will have a 1 hour free show on SPikeTV, just like UFC 103 did. The two fights live will be…
Ryan Bader vs. Eric Schafer and Pat Barry vs. Antonio Hardonk.
Is this going to become the norm? If so, no complaints from me.
I put down on Hardonk at -120. He should be well above that: He’s got a purple belt, he’s far bigger than Berry, and Berry’s strength (kickboxing)is going to be nullified. The argument guess is that Berry was in a K-1 tournament once and lost in the second round. Big whoop. Hardonk trains with the better guys in a country where MT is serious business. He’s gonna wreck Berry and send him into fights with the Dave Hermans of the world.
Nice. So not only is Yushin Okami vs. Chael Sonnen not considered by the UFC to be among the top five fights on that line-up, but it’s not even considered by the UFC to be among the top seven fights on that line-up. I don’t understand why they don’t just have Okami’s fights in the middle of the night at the TUF Training Center with no cameras present…
I don’t understand the hardon for Okami. Sonnen is likely the best fighter he’s faced at 185 in the UFC. Maybe he can win before we discuss further? Honestly, I doubt he will.
UFC must have liked the results of the first live pre-show.
I like it.
The MMA super-purists of the internet (they’re not Danaites, they’re Eddie Goldmanites) point to Okami’s treatment as proof the UFC is an illegitimate competition.
I think it’s BS that the guy has a great record and can’t even get on the main card of most shows, but I’m not going to hold candlelight vigils about it either, since he really does put the viewers to sleep. But if he wins Dana really needs to just get it over with and give him his title shot on a Euro show. I realize if he wins it will be by the lay n pray to end all lay n pray, but he did promise him a shot at UFC 90 and he is still unbeaten since then so it’s only fair.
I’d rather see Rivera vs Kimmons. That’s going to be a barn burner.
Alan I’m wig you 100% on your analysis. But what site are you using to lay your action? The site I have for football is lousy on MMA.
How come nobody is talking about how lackluster this card is? This card kinda sucks. I’m not happy with it as it’ll get whatever numbers and we’ll hear how Machida isn’t a draw, the same way we hear how Anderson Silva isn’t a draw and so on, while their supporting card is nothing.
Without the UFC…. Okami becomes another Antonio McKee. A guy who has talent but nobody wants to touch because he is so boring! That isn’t a praise to the UFC. It us obvious try don’t want Okami but can’t let him go either if he continues to win.
Personally I don’t think McKee can beat the best of the division but the fact that none of the Big 4 have touched him sad from a sports perspective.
The UFC needs to either sh!t or get off the pot with Okami. Either give him a legit #1 contender fight or release him. It’s not like anybody is going to pick him up anyways.
Lastly, all of this talk about him not having big enough wins is not Okami’s fault. That is the UFC’s fault. He is going to his 9th (I think) UFC fight. If the UFC can’t give him fights that attempt to justify a potential title shot, then they are just screwing with him.
“How come nobody is talking about how lackluster this card is? This card kinda sucks.”
I agree. I live 2 hours away and have gone to 10+ UFCs but this one isn’t interesting enough for me to spend the money and drive up to. The only really interesting matchup is the main event, and Shogun is a pretty heavy underdog.
There are some decent undercard matchups like Yoshida/Johnson & Fisher/Stevenson, but all the divisions are kind of getting uninteresting to me because there is no clear cut ranking system or pathway to the title. Seems like guys just kind of get caught in purgatory unless they’re TUF dudes or overly popular.
None of the upcoming UFC cards are impressive — they continually underwhelm. When people ask me why I liked Pride, it was easy — show them a card and get excited! — for some reason I always felt compelled to watch — with UFC I feel like its more of a negative experience sitting through their commercials and sickening self promotion — on PPV. Its easy to do this when no one is directly challenging your company.
I usually enjoy 50% of a UFC production — get rid of the bad play calling and commercials — and maybe add some of the online graphics to the broadcast for once? — its ok to try to improve the product and add diversity — we all know you’ve got the bankroll to do it — so mix it up a bit will ya?
I still don’t know what the big deal is with Okami…I can’t recall a similar consistantly boring fighter getting a title shot in recent UFC history, so why should he be treated any differently?
The fact is the UFC, an American promotion, has no use for a champion that no only speaks no English, but puts the fans to sleep with his performances.
Noone is doubting the guys skills or ability to win fights, but this is a business, so unless he pulls a Machida and starts knocking people out, IMO he is exactly where he deserves to be in the UFC pecking order.
Because this isn’t even on the top 20 “bad UFC cards” list. It is true the fights seem one-sided, but in MMA you can never rule out the upset. They’ve done far worse match ups than these. And plus it really doesn’t matter to them, this is just an afterthought compared to the November PPV.
You can’t compare the two. The only thing similar is that both leave fans unconvinced that they’re going to lose anytime soon.
Anderson Silva, in addition to being a foreign fighter, is stuck in the division with the least stars. He has had to be a non-English speaking fighter against Leites, Cote and Marquardt, those fights are tough sells even if he had Brock Lesnar’s starpower because the fans don’t care about any of those guys. So if you take a champion nobody thinks can be beaten and put him against a fighter nobody cares about, of course it won’t sell.
Machida on the other hand speaks pretty good English and will have fights against Evans, Ortiz, Griffin or even Couture and Liddell if things get really bad. He’ll always do close to twice the numbers Silva does. UFC 104 will do 350-400K and will be the lowest he does for a while.
“its a business” … oh sorry I thought it was a sport.
“its a business” … oh sorry I thought it was a sport.
Some prefer it to be because it makes fantasy booking lousy fights more palatable in that case.
The problem with Okami for me is this: Dude is hyped and has a high rating and hasn’t beaten anyone substantial. Everyone says he has never been given a shot; he was with Rich Franklin. Came up short. Since then he’s gotten solid money to take on an array of fairly easy opponents and build up a huge win-loss record. Sonnen, meanwhile, is somewhere in the top 10 and provides a big opportunity for Okami to grab a win over a notable foe; someone we can recognize the skill level of and adjust accordingly.
As is, he is below Marqhardt and Henderson in any sane ranking of the division. If anyone should be pissed about not getting a fight with Anderson, its those two. They’d both beat Belfort tomorrow.
I remember watching Pride 26 on PPV. The American Main Event was Coleman vs. Frye 2. I believe it was the first PPV Comcast had for Pride. They had these absolutely stupid skits in between the fights with Rutten (I forgot who was with him). I think it’s hard to take the telecasts seriously with that garbage. So for people to say Pride was better is interesting.
Heck, the American telecast was so bad most of the time that I prefered the Japanese version…. And I don’t understand Japanese!!
UFC sent out an email for advance ticket sales of the TUF 10 finale. Looks like Jones vs. Hamill is the main event. I believe this is the start of the push for Jones as a title challenger….
Well, its a test for him, that’s for sure. Hamill has beaten the same quality of guys Jones has and generally in more impressive fashion. If Jones comes out a big betting favorite, I’m going with the deaf dude. I think trashtalk and crazy kicks will only get you so far before you need talent to kick in and keep you around.
Yeah they did some dumb skits, but I’d rather see those than the Saw 6 infomercial we’ll be getting Saturday or a interview with Jason Statham. And when they say PRIDE was better they’re not talking about the telecast they’re talking about the fights. We’re comparing PRIDE against what UFC was ’99-’06 and UFC definitely came up short in the world class feel back then.
PRIDE 26 was a really good show, but the main event was switched out because Wanderlei vs. Rampage II was supposed to headline it but Silva was injured in training. But still, the same month was UFC 43 with Tank Abbott vs. Kimo in the semi-main event. While Liddell-Couture was better than Coleman-Frye as a main event, the PRIDE 26 card was far superior. And they were going to run Ken Shamrock vs. Ian Freeman originally, which would have been awful.
How did you see the Japanese versions in 2003? Torrents weren’t widespread and YouTube was 2 years away. Anata usotsuki.
VHS
Combination of websites and my local mall was had a little stand selling bootleg wrestling tapes, including Pride events. This was before the Pride DVD’s hit the US Market.
Ah, the good ole days….
Websites okay. But a mall allowed a bootlegger to operate on their property? I find that hard to believe. And the demand for international wrestling is so tiny they couldn’t afford mall rent. Hell, most of them couldn’t afford flea market booths.
And you have no complaints about intermissions? Or the fact that the US shows stopped the skits entirely by 2004 and just did interviews/video packages?
[…] a success — enough of one for the network to continue doing it for future UFC PPVs, including the October 24th event at the Staples Center headlined by Machida vs. […]
Mark,
I found it hard to believe as well. I was skeptical when I saw it in the mall. They also sold some T-Shirts. After a few years, I think I read online that it did in fact end up getting shut down for selling illegal tapes. Somebody ratted on them. I guess some malls don’t do good checks on what is being sold on the carts in the middle….. As long as they are getting their money….
This was around 2000….. I bought the Pride Grand Prix 2000 Finals from them. The Japanese unedited version was much better then the American Version. Without any edits, the event felt even bigger. I’m a guy who enjoys the extended editions of Lord of the Rings. Something being long doesn’t bother me, as long as it is something I want to watch. The production on a few of those shows was awesome. Some of the smaller events (like Pride 9), didn’t feel like big events.
As for the Pride telecasts…. There was a brief time period when they did end those skits. But I have never been a fan of Quadros or Mauro. So each telecast was hard to listen to. Frank Trigg near the end was even worse as his ego constantly gets in the way of his good speaking skills.
So you prefer Mike Goldberg as an announcer? Really?
Mark, I don’t think you live in a city with a large Japanese population. I have almost every PRIDE and K1 broadcast from 2002-2007 on bootleg VHS. They were $3 each. Every Japanese neighborhood has a video store where you can rent or buy any tv show from Japan.
Mike Goldberg is tollerable. Mauro and Quadros are not. I don’t think there are many good announcers in MMA. Heck, even Gus Johnson stinks at Boxing and MMA. Combat sports are very hard to announce properly.
“Every Japanese neighborhood has a video store where you can rent or buy any tv show from Japan.”
Not the same place that I bought the Pride VHS tapes, but I also had a place like that near me back when I was in high school. The woman ended up moving to Florida and I’m not sure if they still sell tapes anymore. They would get them from their home country, make bunch of copies from the original in their basement (no joke), and then sell them with bootleg covers.
No, I don’t. But he specifically said “mall”. Malls aren’t going to tolerate someone selling VHS dubs, that’s swap meet stuff. Nor would there be enough of a demand for puro and lucha stuff to afford very expensive mall real estate. Even booths are pricey which is why only cell phone booths seem to last a long time.
I don’t doubt that a store could sell it and not get caught, but malls are stricter. But even RF Video used to get their mall booths shutdown and they were selling a bunch of stuff they had rights to (indies including ECW) but Rob Feinstein said in an interview the Japanese boots always got them shutdown.
You’ve never been in a comic book store in a mall, have you Mark?
“So not only is Yushin Okami vs. Chael Sonnen not considered by the UFC to be among the top five fights on that line-up, but it’s not even considered by the UFC to be among the top seven fights on that line-up”
I’m pretty sure SpikeTV gets to pick their poison for these prelim shows, and
Spike wants no part of Okami.
They are giving Yushin the same cold shoulder that they gave Nate Marquardt following his staring contest with Ivan Salaverry at UFN 1. Spike used their muscle to keep him off the televised portion of both Tito-Shammy 3 and UFN 8. Both times, the UFC had to scrub him from the main card at Spike’s behest.
Nate got out of the doghouse by turning in a number of wildly entertaining performances. Yushin needs to do the same.
No. I’m not that big of a geek.
And yet, here you are, posting comments to a blog. Amazing how that works.
Everyone’s a geek for something.
http://www.heavy.com/post/ufc-104-predictions-contest-952/
Post picks-win prize….
Wow… Other than the main event and I guess Cain vs Rothwell this card is complete, utter crap.
I’ll trade the undercard at Strikeforce’s CBS show for this… At least Curran is on their undercard.
Mark,
You’ve obviously never been to Pacific Mall in Toronto, or any of the other Asian malls across north T.O. These aren’t flea markets, but legit malls. ANd they are just crawling w/ pirated dvds, games, etc.
I love the Pacific Mall. Got my modded PS2 there years ago, with copies of King of Coliseum (Red and Green).
Totally legit mall, FILLED with pirated movies, games, and who knows what else.
Right downtown TO on Spadina you can visit Dragon Mall…same thing. 8 movies for $20. Not much MMA or puro, though…but you can find the latest Anime or Tony Jaa movie.
Machida by KO, round 2
Shogun is gonna leave a space and Machida is going to take it!
Okami vs Sonnen = decision
Gleison Tibau vs. Josh Neer= split decision
Lyoto Machida vs Shogun Ruas= Latin Fusion.
Since so many people are looking past this card already….
Jon Fitch vs. Ricardo Almeida. Almeida injured his knee. Now Fitch is off the UFC 106 card. Instead….
Jon Fitch vs. Thiago Alves 2…. I like this fight a lot. If Fitch wins, he should get a title shot. The loser no matter what should be moving up to Middleweight. I suggested this should be done a little while ago. Nice to see it happening. Besides, Fitch/Almeida had the potential to be really boring.
I assume either Davis/Saunders or Baroni/Sadollah will be added to the main card.
To keep this UFC 104 relevent…. I think after looking at this card…. It is obvious that it is missing one more good fight for the main card. 3 of the main card fights feel meaningless. That’s too much.
“I’m a guy who enjoys the extended editions of Lord of the Rings.”
Never would’ve guessed.
I’m looking forward to this one. The fights look competitive, and I think AJ and Velasquez have potential to develop into great fighters. I personally love watching top prospects develop.
Everyone is acting like Machida is this unstoppable juggernaut of the division, but he’s only beaten a top 5 fighter in Rashad, and a top 10 T. Silva. I want to see how he handles himself against the best of the division before I anoint him as the 2nd coming of Anderson Silva. I’m really curious to see if he actually can dominate Shogun as easily as everyone seems to think he will.
With the addition of Alves vs Fitch, UFC 107 just became a contender for card of the year. Penn/Sanchez, Alves/Fitch, Mir/Kongo, Florian/Guida, and Buentello/Duffee.
I’m quite nervous and paranoid about this title fight for sure.
I want to believe, but sometimes anything happens in this game.