UFC On Fox 4: Shogun vs Vera

[JWGunslinger]

UFC On Fox 4: Shogun vs Vera

Main Card
Maurício Rua vs Brandon Vera
Lyoto Machida vs Ryan Bader
Joe Lauzon vs Jamie Varner
Mike Swick vs DaMarques Johnson
Preliminary Card (Fuel TV)
Cole Miller vs Nam Phan
Phil Davis vs Wagner Prado
Josh Grispi vs Rani Yahya
Phil De Fries vs Oli Thompson
Manvel Gamburyan vs Michihiro Omigawa
John Moraga vs Ulysses Gomez

This card was alot more appealing before it got hit with several injuries, losing Brian Stann, Ben Rothwell, Pablo Garza,Chad Griggs, Rob Broughton and Terry Etim. However the replacement are good enough and the card overall will still be great.

UFC newcomers John Moraga and Ulysses Gomez will look to make their debuts here in the 125 division. Should be a decent scrap, both guys like to go for submissions but i'm guessing their ground skills cancel out and we get a fight that goes all over the place with Moraga coming out on top.

TUF 5 winner Manvel "The Anvil" Gamburyan will look to take out Japanese star Michihiro Omigawa here. Both are talented guys but I think Manny's strength will be too much for Omigawa and he'll either batter him en route to a decision or take a TKO.

Phil De Fries vs Oli Thompson better end early or we're in for a snooze fest, two big guys who aren't really dynamic. De Fries has good submission skills for a heavyweight and should be able to outclass Thompson everywhere for a decision or perhaps catch him in a submission.

Yahya vs Grispi is going to be the striker vs grappler kind of fight, Yahya is one of the most gifted BJJ specialists in the lighter weightclasses of the UFC. Grispi was on a roll last january but got whipped by Dustin Poirier and hasn't been the same since. I expect Yahya to pressure Grispi like he did against Mike Brown and take a dominant win. I'm putting my money on a Rear Naked Choke finish.

Phil Davis will look to get back in the win column after his first professional loss in a contender battle against Rashad Evans at UFC on Fox 2. He'll take on newcomer Wagner Prado, not too excited for this one but hopefully Davis can end it before the final bell so we don't sit through 15 minutes of blah. Davis by Dec

Cole Miller vs Nan Phan, this one is an easy FOTN candidate. Miller has been around for what feels like ages since his UFC debut after coming off TUF 5, he's shown over the years that he's got slick BJJ and can stand and bang if needed. Phan has gained alot of attention for doing the latter, he's put on great wars with Leonard Garcia and has become a fan favorite for his style. Miller has more tools to win here but if he gets foolish and plays into Nam's game he'll be in trouble. Miller via 3rd round triangle choke.

Starting off the main card we'll have Mike Swick making his long awaited return after a 2 year lay off due to numerous injuries, and he'll be coming back against TUF 9 runner up DaMarques Johnson. Before his injuries Swick was having some trouble putting together some wins(with two losses to Dan Hardy and Paulo Thiago). Johnson will look to recover from an embarrassing loss to John Maguire in Sweden, since coming off TUF he's had moments of extremely impressive performances like his wins over Clay Harvison and Mike Guymon but looked like he didn't even belong in the UFC against Amir Sodallah and Matt Riddle. Here unless Swick's bad luck continues and Johnson pulls another amazing performance out his ass it'll be outclassing from Swick for a nice KO finish.

Joe Lauzon has become one of the UFC's most well known upset machines, from his debut in the company against the first lightweight champion Jens Pulver where he knocked him out in just a minute and his halt of Melvin Guillard's impressive 5 fight win streak with a submission win. His opponent however is not unfamiliar to upsets, scoring one of the biggest of 2012 so far when he made his return to the UFC and stormed Edson Barboza for a first round KO, that's right it's Jamie Varner. I already had to watch Varner beat my boy Edson in person at UFC 146 and I'll be damned if I see him take out someone I like live again. Varner has the better TD's but Lauzon has the submission edge and both are competent on their feet, I'm going Lauzon but as much as I hate to admit it Varner has a good shot to score two upsets in a row. Lauzon via decision

In our second to last fight of the night we'll see former UFC Light heavyweight Champion Lyoto Machida take on TUF 8 winner Ryan Bader. This will be an interesting one, back when Machida was on his title run I would have said no way in hell does Bader win here but Lyoto has now shown gaps in his game and the losses he took to Shogun, Rampage and Jones were very telling. Bader has been a surprisingly successful young 205er and minus his two guillotine losses to Jon Jones and Tito Ortiz he's still one of the division's most promising guys. I think the losses humbled Bader more than anything and have made him better, whereas I think Machida was hurt more by his and takes away one of his biggest weapons, his mental edge. If Machida's smart and safe he wins a decision but if not he'll be dropping another back to back loss.

And in our main event of the evening former Light Heavyweight Mauricio "Shogun" Rua will take on Brandon "The Truth" Vera. In my opinion Brandon Vera doesn't deserve to be on the main card let alone in the main event but on a positive note he's an entertaining fighter and this fight is one i'm very much looking forward to.
Shogun had a crazy 2011, he came into the year as the 205lbs Champion and then would drop it in a brutal beating administered by phenom Jon Jones, then would bounce back with a knockout over Forrest Griffin and rounded out his year with one of the best fights of all time against Dan Henderson. Although he came up short in his last fight he showed alot of what makes him so good, even though he comes in injured and beaten up often he's got a warriors heart and beautiful striking.
Vera once said he would become the first man to hold both the UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight championship, we he hasn't done either but one thing he does do is put on exciting fights. Although in his last 4 fights he's 1-2-1 and the no contest was a very one sided loss, before that he had picked up wins over the like of Justin Eilers, Krzysztof Soszyński, Fabiano Scherner, and Mike Whitehead. Although Shogun is on another level of striking Vera is competent enough to give him a good battle but I see a late 1st round KO for Shogun in a very exciting exchange.


So that's the breakdown of UFC on Fox 4, what're your thoughts and predictions on it?

 

[Infinity]

This card has been awesome so far. I was literally about to say that Machida/Bader is boring so far, but he literally just dropped Bader out of nowhere. That was an awesome finish.

Mike Swick vs DaMarques Johnson was really good with a great finish for the fan favorite, Swick. Lauzon vs Varner was awesome. Great effin' finish as well by J-Lau on this one. He's so slick with his submissions, but I love it when a guy throws elbows while cinching in a triangle choke.

Machida now has to see who wins the main event & he's gotta hope that the winner doesn't win impressively. Dana White said whoever had the more convincing win would get the title shot @ the winner of Jones/Hendo. I wonder if this puts more pressure on Shogun or Vera to finish the fight with a bang as opposed to just trying to secure the victory.

 

[JWGunslinger]

This was such an amazing card, I consider myself privileged to have been there for it.
The entire card was great, the only fight that was boring on occasion was De Fries-Thompson but eventually it got good and a fun finish. Well done by De Fries.

Moraga had a great upset debut against Ulysses Gomez, good fight and a crazy KO. The amount of shots he got in between rocking him and when Gomez hit the canvas was a beautiful thing to watch.

Manny Gamburyan and Omigawa gave us an early option for FOTN with their, Manny got hurt, Michihiro got hurt and it just went back and forth. Aside from the 3 head kicks in a row from the anvil, the late takedowns were the biggest moments towards the end. You could see he had nothing left in the tanks but used his huge heart to gut those out and take the win, awesome performance by both guys.

Cole Miller and Nam Phan gave us a great one two, it was frustrating to watch as a Miller fan and I wanted him to take it down but no such luck. He had no answer for the slick combos that Phan was throwing and I give Nam major props for those. Miller belongs at 155, get his ass back up there.

Loved Yahya's sub, I knew if it went down he'd end it and he made it look very easy. Sad to see Grispi fall so far but very happy with Rani, such an amazing sub artist.

Prado vs Davis sucked, nobody's fault but it looked like Wagner was gonna give Phil a run for his money and I can't wait for the rematch.

What can I say about Swick that hasn't already been said? The guy is such a warrior, he hung in during the rough parts of round one against a very game Damarques, I love how that guy goes for the kill in every fight, mad respect for him. But Swick proved to be the better man with that SICK KO, welcome back Mike, we definitely remember you.

Joe Lauzon, I have never loved this man more than I do right now. He and Varner had an amazing back and forth that's my vote for Fight Of The Year, and after surviving some scary shit from Jamie he got that sub and tapped the cocky ass prick. Most fight bonuses in history for J-Lau and very deserved, one of the most entertaining guys in the UFC, the fact that even at this elite level all his wins are finishes really speaks to who he is as a fighter and one of the best thinkers inside the cage.

Machida outclassed Bader. Yep, next title shot.

Shogun and Vera had an awesome fight, I counted Vera out and he changed everyone in there from Shogun fans to Vera fans. Massively impressed with him and take back my negative comments about him.

All in all it was an amazing night, perfect fight card. Also got to meet two of my very favorite fighters in Josh Barnett and Brian Stann, pictures will be in the GSD soon.