UFC 99: The Comeback

[Marquis]

Main Card
Catchweight (195 lb) bout: Rich Franklin vs. Wanderlei Silva
Heavyweight bout: Cheick Kongo vs.Cain Velasquez
Welterweight bout: Mike Swick vs. Ben Saunders
Welterweight bout: Marcus Davis vs. Dan Hardy
Lightweight bout: Spencer Fisher vs. Caol Uno

Preliminary card
Lightweight bout: Terry Etim vs. Justin Buchholz
Lightweight bout: Dennis Siver vs. Dale Hartt
Welterweight bout: Paul Taylor vs. Peter Sobotta
Lightweight bout: Paul Kelly vs. Rolando Delgado
Heavyweight bout: Denis Stojnic vs. Stefan Struve
Welterweight bout: John Hathaway vs. Rick Story

Announced Matchup
Heavyweight bout: Mostapha Al-turk vs. Mirko Filipovic

Franklin Vs. Silva. Important match up, more so for Silva then Franklin. Silva has lost two out of his last three UFC bouts, and is coming off a career worrying KO from Rampage.

As much of a Wanderlei fan i am, i don't see him picking up the win here. Rich is a technical striker, who's precise and has good technique. Wanderlei on the other hand doesn't exactly have very good technique, and likes to throw looping punches and move forward towards the opponent. His chin has also been suspect as of late. I see Rich picking Wanderlei apart for most of the fight and eventually scoring the KO.

Cheick Kongo vs.Cain Velasquez. Winner of this match should be heavily considered for a title shot. Winner probably gets Carwin for contendership. I expect Cain to shoot for the takedown early in this match, and try to keep it grounded. Cain's standup has been coming along. As shown by his last fight, but its not on Kongo's level. If Kongo can avoid the takendown, which is no easy feat, i see him picking up the win via Decision or possibly scoring the TKO.

Mike Swick vs. Ben Saunders. This should be a great fuckin fight. Swick has been on a tear as of late, and is probably in line for a title shot if he picks up the win here. Saunders looked fuckin great in his last fight. He gave Brandon Wolff one of the most brutal beatdowns i have seen via Knees. This is a tough one to call, but I'm giving the edge to Swick here. Saunders has looked great as of late, but i don't think hes on Swick's level yet. Tough one, but i say Swick takes this one by KO.

Marcus Davis vs. Dan Hardy. I'm a fan of Davis's. He was well on his way to a title shot, till his loss to Swick. So a win here will definitely get him back on track. Lots of trash talking has been going between these two. So i expect this to be a heated stand up war since both like to stand and bang. I'm giving the edge to Davis here, since in my opinion he has the better stand up. I say Davis takes this one via KO.

Mostapha Al-turk vs. Mirko Filipovic. Hands down the match I'm looking most forward to on this night. I really know close to nothing about Al-Turk besides seeing him get destroyed by Kongo, but with a 6-4 record can't be much to see. Although Mirko hasn't looked like himself in recent bouts, I'm confident he can pick up the win here. As far as i can tell from training videos, hes been training in a cage. So I'm sure he will come prepared this time. Looking forward to seeing the CroCop UFC destruction run begin (I'm a biased fan)

 

[jmt225]

I, too, am a Wanderlei Silva fan, but I think he's going to lose. He's just not technical enough to win a stand-up battle against someone like Rich Franklin. Combine that with his chin becoming as weak as it has become since he got knocked out by Cro Cop... I don't see how Wanderlei last more than two rounds against someone like Rich Franklin. And I'm talking about the Rich Franklin from the Dan Henderson fight and before, not the Rich Franklin who's been training with perhaps the greatest striker in the entire World, Anderson Silva. So, with Spider's help... I see a first round KO.

But with a loss against Franklin, I think Silva would still to able to bounce back from it. I'd love to see him go up against Chris Leben, personally, as that would be a battle of epic proportions.

All I'll say about Mostapha Al-turk vs. Mirko Filipovic is that I'm predicting that Cro Cop comes in as prepared as he has ever been in his career, and that he'll kick some serious ass. And I really hope I turn out to be correct, because Cro Cop's career can not end on such a down note.

Cheick Kongo vs. Cain Velasquez can go either way, but I'm predicting Kongo winning via Knockout in the 3rd Round. I think Velasquez will dominate the 1st Round with his wrestling, and perhaps even the 2nd... but he'll eventually gas and I see Kongo taking full advantage of it. But you never know, maybe Velasquez's gas tank stays full the entire fight and he grinds out a decision? Or maybe Velasquez will be stubborn and stand-up with Kongo, thus getting his head kicked in? Or maybe Kongo has tremendous take down defense and is able to keep the fight on its feet the whole fight, and he'll be the one to grind out a decision? Who really knows with this one? Both these guys are just too fucking talented.

Mike Swick vs. Ben Saunders is going to be a fucking war! If Saunders comes out and takes that clinch like he did in his last fight, then I see him winning this rather easily. But if not? Then I see Swick taking it by knockout, or by decision after a full on classic. But like Kongo/Velasquez... I really don't have a prediction for this one. So I'll just sit back and enjoy it.

And both Marcus Davis vs. Dan Hardy and Spencer Fisher vs. Caol Uno should be exciting as hell. Even though Hardy is a great fighter, there's something about him that rubs me the wrong way, so I'll pick Marcus Davis to take it since I dig his personality and fighting style, though I’ll still admit that this is another fight that can go either way since they're both have tremendous stand-up and knockout power. And Fisher vs. Uno... I have no idea. I just know it's going to be a great, great fight. Both these guys are awesome.

 

[WrestlingAuthority90]

Wanderlei/Franklin is the fight I'm most looking forward to. I predict a Rich Franklin win here. For some reason I dont have much faith in Wanderlei anymore. Rich's great technical striking should be enough to knock the weak chinned Silva out. I predict it'll be a great fight though. Kongo/Cain should be pretty entertaining too. I'm hoping for a big Cheik knockout there. And lastly I'm guessing that Mirko Crocop finally gets a win inside the UFC cage. Hopefully Crocop puts together a good run and we can see some potential dream matchups against guys like Brock Lesnar and Randy Couture. Overall it's an ok card. I'll be ordering it (but I order every UFC ppv)

 

[jmt225]

And lastly I'm guessing that Mirko Crocop finally gets a win inside the UFC cage.

Actually, Mirko has a victory in the UFC. Back at UFC 67, he defeated Eddie Sanchez in his UFC debut. But in your defense, it was really forgettable. Sanchez isn't anything special and that fight was pretty boring, with a lame finish.

But yeah… it’s time for Cro Cop to rebound from his losses against Gonzaga and Kongo, though both losses were bullshit. Gonzaga was a fluke/one trick pony, and Kongo not only kept hitting Cro Cop in the balls throughout the fight, but also no one knew at the time just how good Kongo was, so Mirko losing to someone like that shouldn't diminish his career at all, if you ask me. There’s no shame to losing to someone like Kongo.

But man do I feel sorry for Cro Cop's nuts. First the Kongo fight, and then what Alistair Overeem did to them.... ughh, it's hard to even think about going through that type of pain.

 

[Final Form Snyper.]

I thought instead of making another thread, I'd just just this thread to post the results. (Spoiler ofcourse just incase anyone wants to watch it)



















UFC 99 QUICK RESULTS:
Main Card Fights
Rich Franklin defeats Wanderlei Silva via Unanimous Decision - I saw this happening a mile away, Rich was great at picking Silva at range anytime he wanted, Wanderlei's game plan was to use Rich's kicks for an easy takendown and look to ground and pound like against Jardine. Rich stayed composed but was hit with some heavy shots and was on the wobly foot from time to time.... Rich after round 1 suspected he broke Silva's nose after a precise left hand planted a cut across the bridge. Great fight all in all, worth the money for that fight alone.

Cain Velasquez defeats Chiek Kongo via Unanimous Decision - I thought that Cheick could have upset Cain but I was wrong, early stage of round 1 Cheick lands a straight right and buckles Cain, Cain goes to come back up and another hit from Cheick made Velasques count his teeth, after that he took Cheick down and Kongo ate alot of hammer fists and punches before bell sounds. Rounds 2 & 3 more of the same and Cain scores the Unanimous decision. Cheick everytime he was on the feet had the advantage but just let Cain take him down at will and tire him out.

Mike Swick defeats Ben Saunders via TKO (Strikes) R2 - Started slow with boos loudly echoing through the fans, Swich with a trip take-down and Saunders holding onto Swick for all the time on the ground with Swick unable to do anything abit of unfriendly banter between the two and they were on the feet trading feet and punches towards the end of Round 1, Round 2 starts and Mike turns the heat up and starts coming hard at Ben, Swick hits Saunders with a hard right and smells blood, hitting Ben against the fence as Ben was trying to recover and move away, one punch to the ear and Saunders goes down.... acouple of punches to a half conscious Ben and the ref stops it. Saunders wasn't ready for someone like Swich yet, that was evident the first takedown.


Mirko Filipovic defeats Mustapha Al-Turk via TKO (Strikes) R1 - Al Turk tried to over load on evey punch and kick he threw, Mirko was having none of that and worked some good hands and threw off any attempt Al-Turk tried of taking him down, Cop showed some good take-down defense. just after the 3 min mark and Mirko dominating Al-turk an accidental eye poke from Cro Cop had Turk in deep trouble undetected from the ref, Mirko went in for the kill.

Spencer Fisher defeats Caol Uno via unanimous decision - Boring, boring, boring.... I mean I like to watch MMA you know transitions, technical stand up and all that but damn these to should never be in the same cage/fight because they completely negated each other.... after three rounds and a late 30 second surge from Uno in the last half minute Spencer walks away with the decision and worst fight of the night.

Dan Hardy defeats Marcus Davis via split decision - Dan had a plan to piss off Marcus as much as he could before the fight to throw him off, which was exactly what happened. Marcus came in stiff and tight trying to make an example of him, Hardy wasn't having any of this.... they worked off the fence, on the ground and it just overtime showed Davis's emotions got the better of him. A nasty cut developed on the nose of Davis after a major elbow midway through the fight. Davis never looked to have Dan in trouble. Great showing of Dan Hardy, who after the decision and the fight paid his respects to Davis.

Prelim Fights
Terry Etim defeats Justin Buccholz via submission (D’arce choke) R2
Denis Siver defeats Dale Hartt via submission (rear-naked choke) R1
Paul Taylor defeats Peter Sobotta via unanimous decision
Paul Kelly defeats Roli Delgado via unanimous decision
Stefan Struve defeats Denis Stojnic via submission (rear naked choke) 2:37 R2
John Hathaway defeats Rick Story via unanimous decision They don't air these on Australian PPV Channels.

 

[jmt225]

It was a good show overall.

Rich Franklin vs. Wandy was a great, exciting fight. I just wished it was a 5 rounder so we could've gotten a clear winner. But, for a 3 round fight, the judging was fair, in my opinion. Rich Frankin deserved the victory, especially considering he got absolutely robbed in his last fight. But yeah... overall, great fight like I said and I'm glad it went down the way it did. I wanted Rich to win, but I also didn't want to see Wandy get knocked out again. So, win-win in both of those cases.

Fuck Dan Hardy. Hopefully the rematch gets signed very soon and we can see Marcus Davis kick his ass.

Mike Swick was VERY impressive. This guy is becoming P4P one of the best strikers in MMA. Two or three more wins, he's going to be in line for a Title shot.

Cain Velasquez was also VERY impressive. I mean, Jesus... I knew this kid was good, but not that good. He fucking dominated Kongo the entire fucking fight. I still can't believe it. However, he still needs to develop the rest of his game. There were about five different times in that fight he could've finished Kongo off, but just didn't have the ground skills to do so. He can't rely on wrestling and Gound ‘N Pound forever. But I'm sure he'll develop the rest of his game eventually, and when he does... that's going to be a hard, hard man to defeat.

And the Cro Cop eye poke was unfortunate, but he would've won anyway, so to me... it was no big deal. Just wish Cro Cop could've gotten a legitimate knockout. But yeah... hopefully him signing with DREAM isn't true and we see him back in the Octagon in a couple of months.