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Round One: Up Four Rounds, Down In The Fifth
For months now, UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva had to sit back and endure the never ending trash talking of Chael Sonnen. Then, for twenty straight minutes of his title defense, Anderson Silva had to endure the ruthless ground and pound of Chael Sonnen. Then, with just a few minutes left in his title reign, Anderson Silva locked on a triangle choke from out of nowhere to force a tap out from his loudmouth opponent. In the end, Anderson Silva got the fans back on his side and the UFC may have found another big star in Chael Sonnen.
Next Round For Anderson Silva: Vitor Belfort
Next Round For Chael Sonnen: A battle with Nate Marquardt, Rousimar Palhares and Yushin Okami for a title opportunity.
Round Two: The Next Top Contender In The UFC Welterweight Title Is…
In the long anticipated rematch, Jon Fitch tossed around an overweight Thiago Alves to earn another opportunity at UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre. Despite a few errors from the wrestler, Jon Fitch proved as dominant as ever by handily controlling Thiago Alves on the ground. The only issue in front of Jon Fitch is Josh Koscheck, as both are teammates and in the past said they would never fight each other, which can happen if Josh Koscheck defeats Georges St. Pierre in a few months. As for Thiago Alves, he returns after a year long layoff and enters the fight overweight, which could signal that its time to change weight classes.
Next Round For Jon Fitch: Georges St. Pierre
Next Round For Thiago Alves: Moving up to the UFC Middleweight Division.
Round Three: The Next Top Contender In The UFC Heavyweight Division Is…
Junior Dos Santos, who pounded the portly Roy Nelson on route to a unanimous decision victory in the pay-per-views opening encounter. Junior Dos Santos now must wait for Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez to complete their forthcoming battle before he can go for the gold. Junior Dos Santos has now won six straight fights in the UFC and now, with a seventh straight victory, has an opportunity to become the UFC Heavyweight Champion. Roy Nelson, despite showing incredible heart fighting Junior Dos Santos, now must go back to the drawing board.
Next Round For Junior Dos Santos: Brock Lesnar
Next Round For Roy Nelson: Frank Mir, Shane Carwin or Cheick Kongo
Round Four: That Country Boy’s Not Done Yet
Many people in the MMA world, myself included, counted Matt Hughes out before the fight with Ricardo Almeida began. Matt Hughes, in less than a round, not only dropped Ricardo Almeida with a violent left hook and then put him to sleep with what appeared to be an anaconda choke. Matt Hughes, now with three straight UFC victories, is potentially back in the title hunt in the UFC Welterweight Division. Ricardo Almeida, now after dropping from the UFC Middleweight Division to the UFC Welterweight Division will have a lot of rebuilding to do.
Next Round For Matt Hughes: Dan Hardy, Ben Saunders or Dennis Hallman
Next Round For Ricardo Almeida: James Wilks, Rick Story or Dustin Hazelett
Round Five: USA 3 - Brazil 2
One of the least talked about storylines of UFC 117 was that all five of the pay-per-view fights featured an odd theme, “USA vs. Brazil.†In this series, American fighters Clay Guida, Jon Fitch and Matt Hughes were victorious, while Brazilian fighters Junior Dos Santos and Anderson Silva were victorious. While Americans Roy Nelson and Chael Sonnen suffered defeats, then Ricardo Almeida, Thiago Alves and Rafael Dos Anjos suffered defeats on the Brazilian side. The UFC had done something similar to this once before, entitled “UFC 58: USA vs. Canadaâ€, which the USA won.
Next Round For Clay Guida: The Mac Danzig/Matt Wiman winner or Jim Miller
Next Round For Rafael Dos Anjos: Matt Veach, Mark Bocek or Duane Ludwig
You can contact David Tees at bigtees360@yahoo.com
