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UFC 108 (1/2 Las Vegas)
By Zach Arnold | January 2, 2010
Venue: MGM Grand Garden Arena
Dark matches
- Lightweights (155 pounds): Rafaello Oliveira vs. John Gunderson
- Welterweights (170 pounds): Mike Pyle vs. Jake Ellenberger
- Middleweights (185 pounds): Mark Munoz vs. Ryan Jensen
- Lightweights (155 pounds): Cole Miller vs. Dan Lauzon
- Welterweights (170 pounds): Martin Kampmann vs. Jacob Volkmann
Main card
- Heavyweights: Junior Dos Santos vs. Gilbert Yvel
- Lightweights (155 pounds): Jim Miller vs. Duane Ludwig
- Lightweights (155 pounds): Joe Lauzon vs. Sam Stout
- Welterweights (170 pounds): Dustin Hazelett vs. Paul Daley*
- Light Heavyweights (205 pounds): Rashad Evans vs. Thiago Silva
* Daley failed to make the weight limit and the bout will happen at a catch weight.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 26 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I guess Cole Miller better win. He could be getting close to the cut line.
not really hyped for this show. No way will be staying up to the early hours to catch it live.
There is literally not a single fight I give a crap about on here. That said I’m sure heyll be a couple good finishes worth catching online. This is the first UFC I have said I’m not going to even bother trying to watch in a long time.
Junior Dos Santos vs. Gilbert Yvel could be FOTN. If Yvel wins will he get any respect from the 45’ers of the world?
My guess is no.
The problem with the main event is that it’s essentially a battle between two guys who got annihilated by Machida. The winner gets what…killed again in a rematch? Not a compelling story.
If the fix wasn’t in and Shogun had rightfully been awarded the LHW title, this fight would have had meaning: it would have created a legitimate #1 contender and a fresh match-up for the strap.
Not ordering this PPV. Still 50/50 on UFC 109. The next few after that are absolutely stellar on paper.
“Junior Dos Santos vs. Gilbert Yvel could be FOTN. If Yvel wins will he get any respect from the 45?ers of the world?”
I think this is one of those fights that can only hurt Junior Dos Santos. It will not help him and it certainly won’t help Gilbert Yvel. We all know what Yvel’s limitations are. He has no ground game. After around 50 fights, that is never going to change.
Beating a top UFC heavyweight “certainly won’t help Gilbert Yvel”?
I’m not sure I’m following this logic.
It’s like fighting Chuck Liddell, Frank Shamrock, Cung Le, or even Randy Couture as of today….
There is so little up side to those fights. If you win, you were expected to win because the fighters are past their prime. If you lose, you look like a scrub.
If I was Dos Santos, I would have turned the fight down.
That logic applies to maybe .05% of MMA fans.
To 99%+ of people, it IS an accomplishment beating Couture, Liddell, Le, etc.
If someone decisively beats one of these guys it means more endorsements, TV and PPV fights, and respect from the majority of fight fans. There is a massive up-side to these fight.
Of course I would not lump Yvel in with these names since he’s virtually unknown to most American MMA fans.
You really think Shogun Rua deserved a title shot after beating Chuck Liddell? Absolutely not. And Couture doesn’t even deserve to be in the title conversation for the rest of his career…. yet if he beat Vera impressively, he would have gotten one. That would have been worse then Rua getting a shot.
So are you telling me that if Gary Goodridge or Kazuyuji Fujita won on New Years, that it would make them bigger factors in the division? Nope. All it would do is prolong their career so they can take more beatings… Much like Pedro Rizzo beat Jeff Monson twice has prolonged his career into constantly state of brain damage.
I’ve got a sneaky feeling this could be a pretty good show. I’m a long time Yvel fan (No, I don’t know why either) so I hope he wins but I’m not holding my breath.
I’m also looking forward to the main event, interested to see what kind of reaction Rashad gets after Fanhouse described something akin to Beatles like fanfare for him when he arrived earlier in the week. Or did I imagine that?
Volkmann should be ashamed.
I’m still not ordering this PPV because I can’t imagine paying for a card that has both Duane Ludwig and Sam Stout on the main card…
With that said… The prelims were really fun to watch. Joe Silva has a true eye for fighting as he knows how to make good fights.
Well, there’s the first doubled-up fight.
I do wish they wouldn’t do that. Prelims live = good idea; showing prelims twice = bad idea.
Wait,
155 is the deepest division in UFC?
When did that happen? Why wasn’t I told about this?
The prelim shows are not being done properly. It feels so rushed, like they are trying to cramp as many fights in as possible. The pacing is off.
They should start off with a fight… Go to about 5 minutes of PPV hype… Then back to the next live fight. Then another 5 minutes of PPV hype. And after all of that, if they have time for 1 more fight, they should show it.
They should keep the prelim show to a maxim of 3 fights… That way they don’t have to duplicate for the PPV.
I agree, repeating a fight feels very cheesy. I’m not watching this PPV, but the previous ones they did that, I thought it came off poorly.
God, I really hate crowds sometimes.
Since when was Yvel a “huge star” in PRIDE? He never amounted to much when he was there other than getting kicked in the nuts by Wandy and gouging a bunch of people in the eyes.
The talking heads in the UFC sounded like a bunch of forum posters going ga-ga over him…Yvel had a “puncher’s chance” at best, but was a total strawman opponent for JdS. The mofo got starched by Roman Zentzov…My only inkling was they were building him (Yvel) up to help hype the win over him, but no right minded person was really thinking Yvel was taking this were they? I agree with 45 that it was a total no-win for JdS to take that fight, but I guess they were doing their best to make the most of it.
Thiago Silva’s cardio came back to haunt him badly here, maybe he’ll finally address that issue? Rashad is going to get massacred by Rampage – worst top control I’ve seen in some time and he can be touched.
McLovin’ fought just about the dumbest gameplan he could have; Sam Stout looked good but has hands of soapstone; and Mark was 110% right about Bang Ludwig (I think that was the problem people had with Yvel going into tonight).
Even the biggest UFC nuthuggers admit that Lightweight is the one division they don’t have most of the top fighters in. But they do have the #1 Lightweight by a landslide so I guess they can overcompensate with a straight face. But really, it’s just BJ Penn and a bunch of wrestlers he can easily handle.
I realize they can’t come out and say “Gilbert Yvel is a mediocre kickboxer who would get murdered in K-1 and the only reason anybody cares about him is because he tried to blind one of the most beloved fighters in MMA” but their hyperbole was hilarious. Especially since the PRIDE show is coming up people are going to see, unless all they show is the Gary Goodridge fight, how mediocre he is. As if they didn’t learn last night.
Bang is done for, but we knew that already. It’s funny, they keep talking about how unimportant internet fans are but then they put guys like Ludwig and Yvel that only internet fans know. And if you don’t know who they are why are you going to care they got beaten so easily? To the fans that don’t know that meant nothing since Rogan has no credibility (the 98,000th “K-1 LEVEL STRIKER~!” did him in.) There were 80 TUF fighters to give the spot who aren’t washed up like those two if we’re so unimportant. Passing the torch fights are great when it involves a Chuck Liddell or Randy Couture that the fans respect, but I’d be shocked if over 5% of UFC fans know who Ludwig or Yvel are.
Daley looked good but you have to wonder how missing weight affects him politically since depending on his mood that’s the kind of thing Dana tends to get pissed about. But then again, they do need fresh bodies to toss at GSP so he’ll probably let it slide and give him Koscheck or Fitch for the next #1 contender slot. GSP would destroy him easily.
The main event went as expected: Rashad uses grappling which Silva had none of. It wasn’t exciting to watch but he did what he had to do. I’m torn on who wins between Rampage and Evans. Normally I’d say Rampage but he’s been out so long and who knows where his head is at so I’m leaning towards Rashad in somewhat of an upset.
I shouldn’t sound all negative though. UFC came out with an entertaining show to make up for the much maligned card – even if it did lack starpower.
JdS did what he had to do and avoided getting spoiled by Yvel – dude has serious power.
Daley is exciting, play the ahole card perfectly and will prob make for some decent GSP fodder.
Sick subs by Miller and Kampmann. I think they’ll keep Volkmamm around for one more chance since he is willing to be exciting.
Rahad looked really good for two rounds mixing his striking and wrestling (finally using it again), but his top control and ability to keep Silva down was frighteningly bad. Too bad so many people were complaining Evans was “boring” and “scared to fight”…I guess we’ll need see more “boxing” from him to keep the pleebs happy.
God I think I was typing with my eyes closed there…
To Mark,
I would say the UFC has perhaps all the top fighters at 155. I didn’t think that was in dispute anymore except by the anime Japanophiles.
Great show I thought, I enjoyed it thoroughly. Bummed that Gilbert got beat, but he looked friggin awful. Fight Night for The Hurricane…..or Gilbert vs Kimbo? lol.
Thiago Silva has got some work to do to get back in a main event I think. Rashad’s performance makes me less hyped for Rashad-Machida II. I’d rather see Shogun-Rashad at the moment.
Daley’s TKO was sweet. How long is Gomi gonna stick around for? If “Sengoku Gomi” shows up, he’ll be out before he gets a chance for his likeness to be available as downloadable content (360 only).
You aren’t being reasonable Rollo. Aoki, Alvarez, Kawajiri, Hansen, JZ Calvan and Melendez would all be solid additions to the UFC roster. If recent signing Gomi gets his act together too, he’ll be competitive as well.
The top 10 UFC guys (not in any particular order): BJ, Florian, Maynard, Edgar, Sanchez, Sherk, Griffin, Stevenson, Diaz, Guida. You really think all these guys can’t be beat by non-UFC guys? lol.
Hansen is very beatable. He has some good wins, but he also has some really bad loses on his record as well. Cavalcante was looking good in HERO’S… And then better talent came his way and he hasn’t exactly looked good. So I wouldn’t exactly put them on the list of top guys.
Aoki, Alvarez, Kawajiri, and Melendez are the best 4 outside of the UFC.
Alvarez, Kawajiri, and Melendez would all get beat by Gray Maynard. I would still favor Florian, Edgar, Griffin, Stevenson, and Sanchez against them all.
If you have to look at the 10 best guys in the division, it would go something like this:
1) BJ Penn
2) Shinya Aoki
The Rest (in no order): Kenny Florian, Diego Sanchez, Gray Maynard, Frank Edgar, Gilbert Melendez, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Eddie Alvarez, & Sherk.
But I do find it funny. No fighter has come from Japan recently and set the UFC on fire. They all are having mild success at best (overall). Why people feel that the Lightweights in Japan would or could make the division much better is beyond me. The proof just isn’t there.
Think about this…. There is no UFC or WEC fighter that is as one dimensional as Shinya Aoki. Lesnar is the closest to that, but he still has a strong chin and can punch for being a wrestler.
Shinya Aoki is KO prone and has really crappy stand-up. And yet he has been able to dominate the Japanese Lightweight MMA scene with basically really great submission wrestling.
There is a reason you don’t see that in American MMA…. Because the talent level is too high.
Sounds like most of what was expected to happen did, lots of carnage unfolded, and the masses cheered. Also, its nothing I probably ever need to see. But I’m sure those who convinced themselves that Gilbert Yvel as a factor were on the edge of their seats. Hope you got your $45 worth, dudes and dudettes.
“Rashad looked really good for two rounds mixing his striking and wrestling (finally using it again), but his top control and ability to keep Silva down was frighteningly bad. ”
Agreed whole-heartedly on the first part (Kos, Sherk, etc should take notes), shrug on the second. We don’t know how good Thiago is on the ground. We know he’s a BB, and supposedly a rather good one, but on the few occasions when his fights have gone to the ground it’s been in his favor, and he tends to end pretty quickly after that. For all we know he could be as hard to hold down as Chuck Liddell.