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By Anthony De Franco  February 15, 2010, at 3:27 am  Phil Davis is being treated differently than just about any prospect in the history of the UFC. His first fight was shown on PPV despite not being a terribly exciting contest. He was at the post-fight presser alongside names like Chael Sonnen, Randy Couture, and Matt Serra. He is being pushed to the moon very early in his bright career.
Another example of that is his next fight. Alexander Gustafsson is a prospect in his own right. He’s 9-0 and won his UFC debut against Jared Hamman by knocking him out in just 41 seconds.
Despite both of these guys being prospects, they will go at it at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi, according to MMAFrenzy.com:
Phil Davis, fresh off his successful UFC debut at UFC 109, is expected to return to action against Alexander Gustafsson on April 10 in Abu Dhabi, MMAFrenzy.com has confirmed with a source close Gustafsson.
This fight doesn’t make a ton of sense for the UFC. While I never, ever question Joe Silva, it seems to me that it is too early in both careers to be matching these guys up with one another. Unless they have an epic war, one of them is going to lose some luster off their stock. Why do that to two undefeated guys? There has got to be some veteran 205er out there who is not doing anything right now.
As for what the fight will look like, I believe that Davis has serious superstar written all over him. He has simply amazing wrestling, and used it in innovative ways in his last fight with Brian Stann. His standup looked sloppy, and he won’t have much time to really work on it, so expect the gameplan to be to take the swede down and do it quickly.
As for Gustafsson, he will want to stand with the all-American wrestler. He has seven T/KO victories to his credit, and doesn’t want to be on his back at any point.He does have some freestyle wrestling background, but I just can’t imagine it’s anywhere near the level of Davis’. Swedes are too busy playing hockey, and listening to Bjork to learn how to wrestle.
Expect Davis in tougher fight than Stann, but still kind of a walk.
By Anthony De Franco February 13, 2010, at 3:54 pm It’s the best striker in MMA versus the best grappler in MMA. Anderson Silva will step into the cage with Vitor Belfort in Abu Dhabi, replacing the injured Vitor Belfort.
From the horse’s mouth at UFC.com:
“It’s always tough when a top fighter like Vitor Belfort has to pull out of a big title fight, but we have found a high quality replacement,” said UFC President Dana White. “Top contender Chael Sonnen was not available due to injuries sustained in his fight with Nate Marquardt, so top six middleweight Demian Maia will step in to fight for the title. Maia is an Abu Dhabi grappling champion, a five-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world champion, and he is 12-1 in MMA and coming off a win over Dan Miller at UFC 109. Anderson Silva vs Demian Maia will be a matchup between MMA’s best striker and MMA’s best grappler.”
The difference? Maia’s standup remains well below average and Anderson Silva’s ground game is still above average. Silva will and should be a huge favorite in this fight, as Maia has much less of a chance of defeating Silva than Belfort did.
This does raise other questions about the middleweight division though. Will Vitor Belfort receive a title shot upon getting healthy or will he have to re-earn number one contender status. If he faces Chael Sonnen, there is no guarantee that he’d win. Most of Vitor’s losses are to guys who were able to put him on his back.
By Jason Comack February 12, 2010, at 3:48 pm Mike Chiapetta reported last night that Anderson Silva will still fight at UFC 112. And he will be fighting as a middleweight.
White gave no indication as to who Silva might face, but said the fight will be in the middleweight division, indicating that “the Spider” will indeed defend his belt. At last Saturday’s UFC 109, Chael Sonnen soundly defeated Nate Marquardt and was promised a title shot after Belfort and Silva squared off. Now, with Belfort out, Sonnen seems the most likely possibility, but no sure thing.
Now the question Zuffa is asking themselves is who.
Chael Sonnen: Already was the number one contender but he can’t spar until March 9th. Considering how bad his cut was it seems unlikely that he would rush back to training.
Damian Maia: Logical choice but his eyelid is cut badly. He’s been medically suspended till August.
Yoshiro Akiyama: Sexy-Yama has been out of action for a while and is available. He’s a force of personality in Japan, not America. His record, 13-1, is worthy of Silva and he’s ranked in or around the top 10 by most MMA sites. The question is will American fans buy it? Will Ed Soraes approve?
Yushin Okami and Alan Belcher: Both are in the same boat. Middleweights in the top 10-15 range, that are coming off a loss. Okami got whooped by Sonnen while Belcher lost a close fight to Akiyama. Not sure the UFC or Ed Soraes are eager to see either of these guys in a title fight.
If Anderson is fighting at Middleweight Akiyama seems to be the only fight that makes sense.
By Anthony De Franco February 11, 2010, at 6:27 pm Vitor Belfort appears to be injured and is off of the UFC 112 card in Abu Dhabi, according to Kevin Iole’s twitter:
Vitor Belfort is injured (shoulder) and off #UFC 112 title fight with Anderson Silva. Confirmed by @danawhite More details to come.
Normally, having the challenger in a championship fight miss the card would be a disaster. However, UFC 112 is so stacked that there is another championship fight on the card that can slide right into the main event slot. The question becomes what to do with Silva. Does Chael Sonnen jump ahead of Belfort and get his title shot? That might be a little bit difficult considering that he is suspended until March 9th. That would give him approximately 30 days to train rather than the full six weeks.
The other option is to match Silva up with a light heavyweight at UFC 112. While it’s possible, I just don’t see who you could possibly throw him in there against. Our very own Joe Silva, Jason Comack came up with a few possibility. Thiago Silva could possibly get in there, as could Luiz Cane. Both would be cases of muay thai/BJJ top-15 light heavies that are both coming off losses.
There are some other middleweight options, but I don’t think that Alan Belcher or Sexy-yama is jumping ahead of Sonnen or Vitor for title shots.
Hopefully, we’ll get word on what the plans for Silva are soon.
By Anthony De Franco February 9, 2010, at 7:17 am I always like to highlight well done videos and pictures from across the web. People are a lot funnier than the realize most of the time.
Here is another one from the Bloody Elbow community, from a guy who refers to himself as LBO.
Come on, that’s funny.
By Anthony De Franco February 8, 2010, at 9:23 am It’s good to be Randy Couture. Not only is he still more of a man than I will ever be at age 46, but he is the top earner on the card for UFC 109. The Natural continues a trend of guaranteed money for the top guys in the UFC, as he made 250,000 with no win bonus.
Seeing Matt Serra at the top of this list is a lot more surprising to me. His 150,000 payday seems like a lot of money for a guy who would have been in danger of being cut had he lost that fight.
Here is the complete list from MMA Junkie:
Randy Couture: $250,000 (no win bonus)
def. Mark Coleman: $60,000
Chael Sonnen: $64,000 (includes $32,000 win bonus)
def. Nate Marquardt: $45,000
Paulo Thiago: $30,000 ($15,000 win bonus)
def. Mike Swick: $43,000
Demian Maia: $62,000 ($31,000 win bonus)
def. Dan Miller: $15,000
Matt Serra: $150,000 ($75,000 win bonus)
def. Frank Trigg: $30,000
Mac Danzig: $40,000 ($20,000 win bonus)
def. Justin Buchholz: $8,000
Melvin Guillard: $28,000 ($14,000 win bonus)
def. Ronys Torres: $4,000
Rob Emerson: $24,000 ($12,000 win bonus)
def. Phillipe Nover: $10,000
Phil Davis: $10,000 ($5,000 win bonus)
def. Brian Stann: $17,000
Chris Tuchscherer: $20,000 ($10,000 win bonus)
def. Tim Hague: $7000
Joey Beltran: $12,000 ($6,000 win bonus)
def. Rolles Gracie: $15,000
Attendance: 10,687
Gate: $2.27 Million
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