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YOUR REACTION: UFC 116 – 7/3 MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas: Who is the #1 Heavyweight in MMA?
By Zach Arnold | July 3, 2010
Dark matches
- Heavyweights: Jon Madsen vs. Karlos Vemola
- Welterweights: Daniel Roberts vs. Forrest Petz
- Middleweights: Gerald Harris vs. Dave Branch
- Middleweights: Kendall Grove vs. Goran Reljic
Spike TV matches
- Light Heavyweights: Seth Petruzelli vs. Ricardo Romero
- Heavyweights: Brendan Schaub vs. Chris Tuchscherer
Main PPV card
- Lightweights: George Sotiropoulos vs. Kurt Pellegrino
- Light Heavyweights: Krzysztof Soszynski vs. Stephan Bonnar
- Welterweights: Chris Lytle vs. Matt Brown
- Middleweights: Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Chris Leben
- UFC Heavyweight Title match: Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 41 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Great main event. Not so great undercard.
Lesnar & Leben will win.
Grove in Dark Matches is nothing but an abuse.
> George Sotiropoulos vs. Kurt Pellegrino
Stastistically, hypothetically, logically, academically, Sotiropoulos should win this one.
However,
George Sotiropoulos -210
Kurt Pellegrino +160
Odds are unreasonably close. What does it imply here?
Bullshit scoring system in Nevada??????
People don’t buy that Sotiropolous is the goods, that’s what it means.
Undercard is crap. I agree that Leben wins. Maybe Akiyama will drop after this. Soszynski/Bonnar on a PPV card is embarassing. Lytle/Brown will be a couple guys swinging for the fences, and I take Brown as he’s taken less beatings.
Overall though, if you only see the main event, you’ll be fine.
> People don’t buy that Sotiropolous is the goods, that’s what it means.
I bet the starting odds were even closer, so that’s not the case.
http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2010/6/29/1543782/bloodyelbow-coms-ufc-116-lesnar-vs
Aussie is heavily favored by the MMA fans. The odds just don’t make sense to me.
That list of odds shows otherwise. They were much further apart to start with. Pellegrino’s chunky ass has moved from +250 to +160. That’s pretty substantial. I guess this is off the used car commercial?
Akiyama at 170 would put a beating on gsp.
Apart from the Lesnar vs Carwin fight this event is really bad.
Maybe Pellegrino and Sotiropoulus can be for #1 contender, but i think they both are jumping better competition. Same case of Dan Hardy and his chance to the tittle.
This is the most boxing-like card the UFC has ever put together. Bob Arum would be proud.
I’m not even bothering to watch this one. The card sucks and I’ll be able to download the main event that night when I get home in minutes.
Ummm, I’ve never seen it laid out all naked like that before.
Its a bit of a minger isn’t it.
I’d rather not have to argue how this is more PPV worthy than last Saturday.
Wanderlei getting hurt really put an exclamation point on just how weak this card is.
I’m bummed about Wanderlei.
Q: “Who is the #1 Heavyweight in MMA?”
A: Werdum
45 Huddle,
What are you going to say if Lesnar loses? Can I treat Lesnar the same way that you do Fedor?
Easy Glenn Close.
I probably won’t bother to read MMA stuff for awhile, so predictions:
-Lesnar probably wins. He’s the better wrestler on paper and the better athlete. One thing that probably won’t be terribly rusty is his double leg. Everything else might be. Lesnar’s also been 3 rounds and Carwin never outside the first – How does Carwin react in deep water? When in doubt, expect the wheels to fall off. If Lesnar loses by KO, kimura, or decision, its because the layoff stalled his development.
-Leben by KO. He’s a huge guy at 185, he hits really hard, and Akiyama’s takedowns against big guys like that aren’t fantastic. He gets shuttled back to DREAM or Sengoku or whatever is left of Japanese MMA after DREAM 15.
-Matt Brown has taken fewer beatings than Lytle so I guess he wins. FOTN award winner, probably some wild shit I can’t stand anymore.
-Sotiropoulous has been built pretty well. I thought the Stevenson fight was too much all at once to jump into, but I was proven wrong. This is a fight at about that level again and on paper he wins. Pellegrino has no advantage in the fight. Would suck if he won in that we’re devoid a prospect, but whatever.
-Tushycuchcuchcuher will probably lay on Schaub. I can’t believe that guy still has a contract. I can’t believe he got one after YAMMA.
-Grove/Reijic is a tossup but someone probably gets KOed.
Rest of the fights belong on an XFC card or something.
I don’t see Werdom or Fedor on this card so there won’t be a decision on who the #1 heavyweight in mms is. To think otherwise is to be a sheep to UFC’s marketing.
The truth eh…
More like the troll.
LOL at Werdum being #1. If that’s the case then what is JDS? Would he be the all time greatest and have to retire at that point or what?
If Werdum is #1 is Bigfoot Sila #1-a since he got jobbed on the decision that got Wedum the Fedor fight?
When Keith Jardine beat Chuck Liddell, did you think Liddell should have been ranked below Houston Alexander?
When Frank Edgar beat B.J. Penn, did you think Penn belonged under Gray Maynard?
When Anderson Silva beat Rich Franklin, did you think Franklin should have been slotted under Ryo Chonan?
Maybe you did. But I don’t think those are popular opinions, even amongst those insisting that Fedor should now be ranked below Junior Dos Santos.
You can copy and paste this and add in your picks:
Jon Madsen vs. Karlos Vemola:
Daniel Roberts vs. Forrest Petz:
Gerald Harris vs. Dave Branch:
Kendall Grove vs. Goran Reljic:
Seth Petruzelli vs. Ricardo Romero:
Brendan Schaub vs. Chris Tuchscherer:
George Sotiropoulos vs. Kurt Pellegrino:
Krzysztof Soszynski vs. Stephan Bonnar:
Chris Lytle vs. Matt Brown:
Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Chris Leben:
Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin:
Sotiropoulos over Pelligrino by submission. It will be FOTN, but will lose the bonus money to the king of the dumb sluggers, Chris Lytle. Because Bad Kickboxing > Good Grappling.
Soszynski over Bonnar by TKO. And if they don’t cut Bonnar who has done absolutely nothing of value since 2005 then he must have compromising pictures of Lorenzo or something. There is no excuse to keep him just because he had the TUF 1 fight. He’s never going to improve and if he went to Strikeforce it would mean absolutely nothing because nobody cares about Bonnar but Dana.
Lytle over Brown by decision. I hope Brown fights smart and immediately takes him down, but both are talking about working to get the FOTN bonus since neither get paid jackshit so that means a crappy kickboxing exhibition the drunks in the crowd mark out for and those who respect true skill will just be depressed by.
Akiyama over Leben by decision. Even putting to the side that Chris Leben is fighting on really short notice, this has “getting outclassed” written all over it. I will give Leben a puncher’s chance, since he does have KO power and could catch Akiyama. But I don’t think Akiyama is dumb enough to stand up long, he’ll just immediately look for takedowns and Leben is not a good grappler.
Lesnar over Carwin by TKO If you think Lesnar is going to stand with Carwin for more than 8 seconds you are nuts. And look at the size difference between the two: there is nothing Carwin can do to stop Lesnar’s takedowns whether he has a year’s worth of ring rust or not. And he hasn’t shown anything on the crowd, so I can’t see him doing a Mir style shock submission or anything. He’ll just get taken down and ground n pounded until the referee stops it.
UFC Heavyweight Championship: Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin – Lesnar, TKO, R2
Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Chris Leben – Akiyama, SUB, R2
Chris Lytle vs. Matt Brown – Brown, DEC
Krzysztof Soszynski vs. Stephan Bonnar – Soszynski, DEC
George Sotiropoulos vs. Kurt Pellegrino – Sotiropoulos, SUB, R3
Brendan Schaub vs. Chris Tuchscherer – Schaub, TKO, R1
Ricardo Romero vs. Seth Petruzelli – Romero, DEC
Kendall Grove vs. Goran Relji? – Relji?, TKO, R2
Gerald Harris vs. Dave Branch – Harris, DEC
Daniel Roberts vs. Forrest Petz – Petz, DEC
Karlos Vemola vs. Jon Madsen – Vemola, TKO, R2
Brock will win by TKO in the first or second.
don’t care enough about the rest of the card to make a prediction.
Main card picks:
Lesnar, TKO round 3-4
Leben, TKO round 3
Lytle, UD
Sos, UD
Pellegrino, UD
I’m 50/50 on the Lesnar fight, I switch who I think will win every couple of hours, but I took the favorable odds for Carwin. I think Akiyama gets the better of Leben, but Leben KO’s him late once they get tired. I know Sotiropoulos is the new internet darling, but I think Pellegrino is criminally under-rated and takes a close hard fought decision. More of a hunch than anything definite advantage I can point out.
HMMMM….
I’m obviously in the minority here, but I am looking forward to this line up.
As i always say, I’ll save both my praise & criticism for after I’ve actually watched the fight card.
Two fights in, so far so good.
Sotiropoulos vs. Pellegrino ~ Good back and forth fight, I think a rematch will happen at some point.
Soszynski vs. Bonnar ~ It’s good to see Bonnar get a win, he’s lost so much recently that you forget he won his first three UFC fights after TUF.
Great fight between Akiyama and Leben. Was pulling hardcore for Akiyama, but major props to Leben for showing up and pulling it out BIG time.
My security word is “armlock” Is that how Lesnar won? With an arm triangle choke? Carwin was never as good as thought he was. Brock, for now, can be the number one heavyweight in the world.
Ugh. That was a pathetic showing. I guess it’s a HW thing, but both guys looked like they belonged on a regional show.
Another lackluster UFC event. I am done giving Dana my money for these lame duck cards. It didn’t take Zuffa long to become just like a boxing promoter by selling a card with only one fight that people want to see.
God I just love UFC haters we just saw an epic true HW fight and a great show overall and here they come in mass talking about how lame it was what a joke.
That was incredible I still can’t believe I just saw that, the Fedor fanboys must be in tears now we saw a real cyborg in action.
Kudos to the UFC not only did this show live up to the hype it surpassed it Leben/Akiyama was the slugfest it was made out to be. And we just saw Brock shut all the haters up with a come from behind epic win, no to mention that Carwin was also made a star in a loss. Now more than ever you can bet that Dana will have that big smile on his face after this one.
EJ,
I did not see the fight, so I did not trash it. I said that Lesnar could have the number one ranking. And I stand by the claim that Carwin was not as good as we thought he was and that he did not have the gas tank to go three rounds, let alone all five. Lesnar said this himself in the interview after the fight.
So tell me exactly where I am wrong?
I wasn’t talking about you I was talking to the guys that posted after you.
I also hope that you said the same thing about Rogers who basically was made to be a huge threat and feather in Fedor’s cap after 1 win over a fading AA.
There is no comparison between Brett Rogers and Brock Lesnar.
Epic? Carwin gassed and Lesnar took advantage. How is that epic? And what does Fedor have to do with anything? You are just as bad as the Fedor fanboys. And this show did NOT exceed expectations. It was an okay fight card, decent even. And Lesnar did not show much new tonight that would “shut up the haters”. I like Lesnar, he is a hell of a beast, but let’s get real here. He looked absolutely AWFUL in the first round. Tough son of a bitch, but he showed NOTHING that would show that he improved much. And Carwin proved he is the one-dimensional slugger that many surmised he is. He hits hard as hell, but he is 35 and has awful cardio. He ain’t gonna be a top fighter for long.
Every other board i’ve gone on since the show ended has praised the show except for here and Sherdog if that doesn’t tell you something I don’t know what does.
This fight was Epic we finally saw Brock put in trouble by a one dimensional guy who would have stopped anyother HW not named Lesnar. We also saw Brock pull off a very impressive sub to end the fight, this fight and card surpassed all the hype to say so is just weak on all counts.
Haters will be Haters all the time. They see a fight Card be extremely picky and pick at all the crap from it. They see no good because that wouldn’t be productive.
Brock Lesnar did a good job, Gerald Harris did a great job and Chris Leben did an awesome job.
Still like 117 better.
Everyone praised it? Bloody Elbow trashed it pretty good. Did I say it was a bad fight card? Nope. I said it was merely decent. Slightly above average. The Leben/Akiyama fight was good, best fight on the card. Much better than the Carwin/Lesnar fight. Hardly the worst UFC card ever (that goes to UFC 33).
Nicholai;
I love that little quip on “haters” of yours. Cute. Sorry I didn’t love the card as much as you. Really, I apologize. I love that you assume that I hated the fight card because I am not going to jizz all over myself over Brock’s “performance”. Where in ANY of my posts did I nitpick this card besides the main event?
An addendum to my last post. About Bloody Elbow, it was only Jonathan Snowden who trashed the fight. The others at BE praised the fight. Those other articles weren’t up when I wrote my last post.
Remember the name:Glenn Trowbridge terrible judge.