Written by: D. Wash
Effects of Brock Lesnar’s Illness
Earlier this week, it was revealed that Brock Lesnar won’t be able to defend his title on UFC 106, which will happen November 26th, due to illness. The heavyweight champ has been sick for over three weeks and it has greatly affected his ability to train. Dana White has allowed the heavyweight title match between Lesnar and Shane Carwin to be delayed until UFC 108 on January 2nd. Shane Carwin was disappointed about this, and it is understandable as it delays his payday. Unfortunately for Carwin, it would be hard to say that UFC should force Lesnar to fight on UFC 106, so Carwin must be patient for now.
UFC 108 now looks like the card of the century, featuring so many household names that heads will be spinning. Not only will the Lesnar-Carwin fight be on the card, but also Anderson Silva’s middleweight title defense against Vitor Belfort and Rashad Evans’s Light Heavyweight bout against Thiago Silva. That is enough to make any fight fan’s dream card, but with other big names like Gabriel Gonzaga, Tyson Griffin, Junior dos Santos, and Martin Kampmann on the card, the card looks incredible. If you’re tight on cash and only willing to pay to see a few fight cards, then this is one of the ones that you should see, as there will be no shortage of amazing fights.
UFC 106 on the other hand appears to be a hastily put together card. The main event is now a rematch between Forrest Griffin and Tito Ortiz, not a bad fight, but not one that many would like to see as a main event. Griffin hasn’t had a fight since his embarrassing loss to Anderson Silva and this fight also marks the return of Tito Ortiz to the octagon. After the main event, the UFC created a last minute co main event fight between Anthony “Rumble” Johnson and Josh Koscheck. Johnson just recently fought at UFC 104, which may lead some to believe that this short notice fight may cause him to show signs of fatigue. Koscheck is no weak opponent and should give the top tier welterweight prospect quite a challenge. TUF 7 fighter and fan favorite Amir Sadollah will fight against “the New York Badass” Phil Baroni in Baroni’s return to the UFC and Karo Parisyan will also be featured on the main card. It may be entertaining just because of the nature of the fighters competing, but no one can be sure until that night.
Machida-Shogun 2
Its no secret that quite a few people found the pro Machida decision at UFC 104 disappointing. Machida couldn’t be heard post fight due to all of the boos from the crowd. Shogun was praised as a hero. Even UFC president Dana White openly stated that he thought that Shogun won the fight. People were convinced that there was a pro Machida bias among the judges. Some people went so far to say that the fight was fixed. Before any rumors of a fix could gain a head of steam though, Dana White convinced both fighter’s camps to come to an agreement. They all agreed that it would be the quickest way to put this controversy behind them and regain the trust of the fans. The solution? Instant Rematch.
At the press conference, Dana stated that though the fight was close and entertaining, both fighters made the mistake of letting the fight go to the scorecards. With the rematch, you can almost guarantee that it won’t happen again. Both fighters will almost assuredly be much more aggressive and head into the fight looking not just to outpoint the other, but looking for a knockout. Just because Shogun was the winner by fan consensus in the first fight, don’t expect him to be able to charge against Machida and dominate him in this rematch. Shogun has a history of being an impulsive striker and can sometimes get over aggressive, leaving himself open. Machida isn’t used to pressing the action. He is a counter striker by nature, and so far it has worked well for him. It’ll be interesting to see him step out of his element.
Something else that may change the look of the rematch is the ground game. Both Rua and Machida are BJJ black belts, which probably caused them to try to keep it standing in the first fight. In the second, you can look for Machida to attempt to take it down to the ground try to submit Shogun. Rua has shown some weaknesses in the ground game, as he was submitted by choke twice in his career. It would be very interesting to see them roll and see who can establish ground dominance or whether the black belts will cancel each other out and the two will simply reach a stalemate on the ground.
However the fight changes, it will change. Will the rematch be better than the first? Easily. Both fighters will be looking to impress the crowd and will want to show that the last fight was merely a bad fight for them. They will also be pressured by Dana white to end it so that they can avoid yet another controversial decision. So Shogun fans don’t worry. He’ll get another shot at the belt soon. Shogun-Machida 2 should be everything that the first fight was supposed to be.
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