MMA Preview: UFC on Fox Sports 1
by Dr. Octagon, J.D.
It’s Friday night and I’m trying to DVR UFC on Fox tomorrow, but I’m already confused.
Fox Sports 1 is supposed to be on channel 583 for Verizon, replacing Speed (which was pretty useless now that they don’t have F-1), but Speed is still there and the guide is still showing the Speed schedule. I know this is supposed to be the grand opening for the new network, but you’d think that they’d at least have the weigh-ins or something on FS1, or they’d switch the channel over before the last possible moment so those of us that plan to spend the day drinking tomorrow won’t have to worry about missing the fights.
If you don’t mind getting the fights in non-HD with Spanish commentary, you can DVR them on Fox Deportes right now or maybe just try recording everything that’s on Speed from 7pm EDT on tomorrow. So that’s a mess. Another silly thing, if you look at the guide information for Fox Deportes, the first event is called UFC on Fox FS1. The second one is called UFC on Fox FS1-2 (and third, which I’m assuming is erroneous, is UFC on Fox FS2-2). Even the magical elves that refresh the DVR information are confused. I think the shows going to just be called UFC Fight Night once the DVR is updated.
Anyhow, this is a stacked card, even though you’re going to have to find the new channel tomorrow (hopefully they’ll switch it over at midnight, but who knows). This cable card is so stacked, it almost makes up for the terrible UFC 163 Pay Per View that I foolishly paid for, which even Joe Rogan couldn’t even be bothered to show up for. The UFC has so many events these days, it’s rare to see a card with this much depth, even though it lacks a title fight. Not only is the card stacked with great fights, all the match-ups are really great, and I could reasonably see the underdog winning in nearly every fight. [[MORE]]Some assorted thoughts on the fights after the jump:
This is the UFC’s first event in Boston in a really long time. But rather than being grateful that UFC boss Dana White is putting on one of the best cards in a long time in their city, some two-bit politician named Steven Murphy, who is most likely in the pocket of the Culinary Union, was putting up a fuss about only allowing people over the age of 18 to go to the event, while creating additional hoops for the UFC to jump through.
An interesting sidenote: one of the fighters from tomorrow night, John “Doomsday” Howard, used to spar with Tamerlin Sarnaev, one of the infamous Boston Marathon Bombers (the dead one). Howard apparently broke his nose, so he should be a crowd favorite.
Alistair Overeem’s testosterone is at “dangerously low levels” according to MMAfighting. There is a danger he may get his ass kicked again now that he’s not juiced to the gills. It remains to be seen whether Overeem will end up the Alex Rodriguez of MMA, unable to compete at his previously amazing level now that he doesn’t have an unnatural advantage.
When I watched the weigh-in, I found it weird that headliner Mauricio “Shogun” Rua’s highlight reel doesn’t show him knocking the stuffing out of a recumbent Lyoto Machida. They showed a lot of clips of Rua fighting Gustaffson, so much so that you would have thought he won that fight.
It’s not like Shogun is hurting for highlight-reel finishes, but I guess the UFC don’t want to show him knocking out Machida when they’re half=heartedly positioning the latter for a title shot. They probably also don’t want to sicken the sport’s newer fans by showing some of Rua’s more brutal soccer kicks in Pride. Lolz. Remember when that used to be legal? That would not fly on the Fox Sports Network.
The main event tomorrow night is Mauricio Shogun Rua vs. Chael Sonnen. Chael is coming off two losses to Anderson Silva and Jon Jones at middleweight and light heavyweight respectively. He’s fighting Rua at light heavyweight, but plans to go back to middleweight now that Silva has been defeated.
Rua has not looked good since he lost the light heavyweight strap to Jon Jones. He’s been battling knee problems and also has cardio issues. The fact this fight scheduled for five rounds is in Chael’s favor. Rua has better striking and better submissions than Chael, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Chael wearing Shogun down for five rounds.
For this fight, Rua is working with Hall of Fame boxing trainer Freddie Roach. The last MMA fighter I’m aware of that Freddie Roach trained was Andrei Arlovski, who didn’t show much improvement under Roach’s tutelage. Hopefully Mauricio will try to mix up combinations, rather than just looking for the overhand right the whole fight. This is a great matchup and should be an exciting fight.
Alistair Overeem vs. Travis Browne: Overeem went from a middling light heavyweight circa 2006 (he lost to Rua at light heavyweight if you can imagine the two men at the same size), before transforming into 265-pound behemoth, all while fighting almost exclusively in jurisdictions without drug testing. He was on quite a winning streak, having not lost since 2007, before getting stopped by the plodding but powerful Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva. Travis Browne has also only lost to Silva, which was attributed to an injury. It will be interesting to see how Overeem fares.
Urijah Faber vs. Yuri Alcantara: I swear Urijah Faber’s chin is about 50% cleftier on weigh-in days. He really drops a lot of weight. Yuri’s a good fighter and also a big weight cutter, having fought as heavy as welterweight. Yuri holds a notable win over top featherweight contender Ricardo Lamas in 2010 as a featherweight (10 lbs heavier for those of you keeping score at home.)
This should be a great fight between two top bantamweights. The cliche about Faber is that he only loses when he fights the best, and only loses in title fights (including a Gladiator Challenge loss to Tyson Griffin in 2005). The expectation is that Faber will be too much for Alcantara, but Alcantara may give Faber trouble.
Matt Brown vs. Mike Pyle: Both fighters are on a win streak later in their careers. Both guys can do damage on the feet, but Pyle is probably slicker on the ground. Brown has looked spectacular lately, just coming forward and flattening his last three opponents. He trains with the Cuban boxing and wrestling teams. This is my pick for fight of the night.
Uriah Hall vs. John “Doomsday” Howard: Doomsday should be getting a rousing reception, as he’s from Boston and has been in the news for saying he beat the Boston Bomber’s ass in the ring. Hall is famous for an array of brilliant finishes in the Ultimate Fighter House. No joke, he probably had the most impressive run on the show ever.
Hall then followed it up with a flat performance, where it looked like he went out trying to lose the fight. He didn’t have a great fight plan the last time around, but he left Tiger Schulman’s (which I had always assumed was a gym for children) and I think I heard he’s done some work with Chael. Hopefully he got some good coaching, and will have a better strategy this time around. Doomsday is a dangerous striker and has been crushing tomato cans for the last few years. If Hall can’t get through this fight, he’s not going to have much of a future in the UFC.
Joe Lauzon vs. Michael Johnson: Joe Lauzon is an ultimate fighter alum and a a computer programmer turned fighter with a cartoonish Boston accent. He also runs a gym in the area and also holds the record for most fight bonuses in UFC history. This should be a fun one. Michael Johnson has not impressed me. It seems like they’re setting up the local favorite with a favorable matchup to kick off the main card.
So that’s it for the main card. The undercard all the way down through the Facebook prelims has a ton of good fights. Nice way to kick off the new channel, even if the folks at Fox have flubbed the execution so far.