DO OR DIE! the law of the UFC

[David "the Warhound" Stone]

Wow a shitload of fights have been recently been confirmed and alot of them are just that Do or Die. lets start with UFC 88

Rich Franklin is returning to the 205 division for the first time since his first round TKO victory over Ken Shamrock. I think he will find the waters are a little different this time around. 205 is while i believe not the deepest as far as talent goes definatly the most Star studded with the best of the best being on the upper eschelon of the top five thats a tough nut to crack. His first opponent is Matt Hamill which is really an intereting matchup in my opinion. some could say that this is a warmup fight because Hamil is without a top ten victory yet or any extremely impressive wins. I gotta say though he poses a huge threat to Franklin. I dont think that Rich will be in his best condition recently returning to a bigger weightclass and i dont believe he has ever fought a wrestler of this calibur before. The closest i can think of are Okami, Shamrock and Tanner. None have the level that Hamil has being a former olympion. I'm still picking franklin to win because im unsure of hamil's submission defense but it wouldnt surprise me if Hamil stayed on top and rained punches for three rounds. Also i dont see Franklin knocking out Hamil his neck is too damn thick!!! One other thing before i move on, Franklin is moving up out of necisity rather than oppertunity like silva was. He really has two options A. he can become the ultimate gatekeeper stuck in limbo between silva and everyone else or B.) he can seek gold in a heavier weightclass. this should be a good switch if he can pull out an impressive W as well 205 is his more natural body weight and he will have all his speed and power to his advantage. I could see Franklin wearing 205 gold but it wont be easy at all.

Moving on, 88 as well two interesting bouts Henderson meets an unknown in Rousimar Palhares who has one W in the UFC submiting Ivan Salverrry who in my opinion has very good ground game. However i dobut his level is anywhere near the legendary Dan Henderson and should be a quick way to get back into the swing in the middleweight division. Karo Paryisian fights Yoshiyuki Yoshida who just destroyed Jon Kopenhaver with a Rear Naked Choke at 56 seconds of the first round. talk about a nice debut. Somethin interesting about Paryisian he claims that the Thiago Alves fight was ended too soon and he was never completely out, i call bullshit. However he says that he has seen the light and thanks god for making him realize he must train hard in order to win fights from this point forward. wow took ya long enough Karo, your one of the most talented fighters and it would be a shame to watch ya piss it away. moving on,

ufc 89, yes i know everyone is talking leben and bisping and they should its a great fight but thats not what i wanna talk about. even though UFC has not confirmed it Kieth Jardine has said he will be fighting Brandon Vera. Ok this is a huge motherfuckin fight for both guys. Vera comming off a lackluster performance over Reese Andy needs to step it up a notch and show that he still has what it takes to be a top contender anywhere in the UFC. Jardine got his face smacked around by silva getting KO'd 36 seconds of round one! if he would have won that fihg the would undoubtably be talkin title shot against griffin right now. but alas both men need this win to stay in the top ten in my opinion which one loses will be setback riddiuculusly!

Also 89 Thaigo Silva fights Lyoto Machida in what i call a fight of polar opposites. Machida is the perfectionist counter puncher who plays a chess game in his head counting how many shots it will take to knock you the fuck out or make you tap. Silva is by far the most reckless fighter in the 205 division and maybe the most reckless i have ever seen! he comes out guns ablazin swinging for the fences loookin for either a submission or a KO method doesnt matter. and it has worked he has four wins in the UFC and four finishes only one of whitch that went until the second round. I thought this would be an interesting matchup months ago when i heard about Machida getting the Ortiz fight, I was sitting in my couch thinking "ya know what would be crazy is if Thiago fought Lyoto, both Brazilians, both undefeated and both completly different in every other aspect" well here it is and i think its great. Silva may be less known but he is no pushover. He is the guy who exposed Houstan Alexander for the one demensional fighter he is in the first round. and he punishes everyone he meets. I dont think ya could ko him with a baseball bat. now on the other hand this style of his almost hands Machida an easy fight becaus it plays right into his safe counterpunching style. Look out for this one i dont know whos gonna win!

Unannounced date for 90 but it is the most significant welterweight battle besides GSP and Fitch thusfar. Diego Sanchez Fights Thiago Alves. HUGE FIGHT!!!! Both men cant wait to get thier first title shot and are riding the waves of victory. Alves has lost only twice in the UFC to both Jon Fitch and Spencer Fisher. Since both those losses he has turned into a wrecking machine! his last three fights against good compittion with a TKO win over Chris Lytle, TKO win over Karo Paryisian and a TKO win over UFC legend Matt Hughes. This kid is clicking on all cylinders and it is beautiful to watch. Diego has finally got some serious kickboxing skills beating an underrated luigi fiorvanti in the standup. TKOing him in the third round. For a guy who is considered a submission fighter does he ever submit guys? his two supposed submission wins in the UFC were ground and pound attacks where his opponents tapped out. Okay so lets break this fight down quick....Alves TKO easy. Dont get me wrong i love Diego he is one of my favorite guys but Alves is on a ROLL. Hughes has better takedowns than Diego and Alves stuffed half of the ones hughes had to offer. He is mean and has turned into a crazy finisher with five of his last six wins ending by Via TKO. Sanchez is still getting his standup together and i dont think that he has the strength to push Alves around in the clinch. but then again every time i underestimate Sanchez he pulls out a W. I thought he would lose to Nick Diaz, Wrong. Thought he would lose to Karo Paryisian, Wrong. thought he would lose to Joe Riggs, REALLY WRONG. So would i be surprised if Diego won, no. But i doubt that it will happen. Diego's standup is lightyears away from Alves and the pitbull has great takedown defense. Either way great fight.

ok talked about the do or die, recap: Franklin must beat Hamil, Henderson and Karo need big Ws at 88, Vera and Jardine setlle whos the real deal, Thiago Silva meets Lyoto Machida in the battle of opposites, and Diego tries to convince that he should knock on the door of GSP/Fitch before Alves.

WHEW! that was a good run let me know what you guys think about the topics and please dont say im an idiot just disagree and give me the reasons.

[Gesias "JZ" Calvancanti]

Whoo man, put a lot of effort into that one, but I read the whole thing, great read. I think Hamill is a bad style match up for Rich Franklin in my honest opinion. I love Rich, he's a great fighter, but Hamill is just a horrible match up for him. I would've loved to see Franklin vs. Bisping at UFC 89. But Leben vs. Bisping should be one of the most exciting fights in quite a while. The reason I think Hamill is a horrible match up for Rich is that Hamill is a fantastic wrestler, takes Tito Ortiz down at will in practice. He is a lot bigger than Rich and probably alot stronger than him. I think there are a lot of problems Hamill brings to the match up. He has the ability to take Rich Franklin down whenever he probably wants. So I'm sure Rich being the smart man he is, is training extensively on his guard and submissions, he probably realizes at least a couple times during the fight he will be there. Rich's stand up is far better than Matt, Matt though has a jab that even though its not thrown with great technique but it still manages to throw his opponents off balance. It threw Bisping off balance the whole fight basically. Rich should have the advantage standing though. Great matchup, interesting fights. I'm going to pick Hamill by decision by mainly controlling Rich for a majority of the fight.

Ok, Vera vs. Jardine like you said, huge fight for both guys. Definitely an interesting scrap. The question is going to be whether or not Vera can make 205 without draining himself again. I think Vera can win this fight, but he's going to have to fight smart. He's going to have to fight this fight the same way he fought Frank Mir and Justin Eilers. He's got to bring the action to Jardine and not let Jardine get off at all. I think Vera's got great enough striking to not let Jardine land a significant shot. Great fight, but I'm pick Vera by decision in what will be a totally different showing from him than what we saw against Reese Andy.

Ok Alves vs. Sanchez, I was very excited when I first heard of this fight. I agree and disagree about some stuff you said about this fight. Yes Alves did stop Hughes takedowns, but I think that Diego is alot more explosive than Matt Hughes and he definitely can explode for a double leg, he may not always get it, but I can see him being able to take Thiago down at least once in the fight. Diego did take Jon Fitch down and Jon Fitch was able to take Thaigo Alves down at will. Thiago should have the clear advantage on the feet, he can definitely use his low kicks to set up some combinations to put Diego out, but Diego has shown in his fights that he has a great chin. Can Alves finish Diego? Yes I think he can, he's got a different striking style than say Josh Koscheck who's more of a puncher. If Thiago can thrawrt Diego's takedown attempts and batter Diego on the feet during the process. He should win by a late round TKO or a decision. I'm picking Alves, he has all the momentum in his corner like what you said.

Ok, now onto the more UFC 88 fights. Henderson vs. Palhares is one of the more interesting match ups of the night. Palhares has the skill set to be able to defeat Dan Henderson, certainly if he's able to take Dan Henderson down. Palhares is a huge 185 pounder, Dan Henderson is extremely strong though. Dan has the clear striking advantage and the power advantage. He is definitely the much better wrestler than Palhares and should at least be able to neutralize Palhares' attempts at body lock takedowns. But...what makes this matchup interesting is lets say Rousimar is able to take Dan down. That is Rousimar's chance at catching Henderson in a submission, something he's extremly good at doing. It will be interesting, I say Henderson by 2nd round KO.

Ok, one more fight that you were talking about, that was Parisyan vs. Yoshida. Karo is an awesome fighter, the best performance I've seen out of Karo is the Josh Burkman fight. That fight you could tell Karo was in great shape. Karo, like BJ Penn (when he was younger) takes advantage of his natural talent and believes that he can get away with not training that much for a fight. He's with a great camp, Xtreme Couture. I could tell he was more out of shape for the Chonan fight and he was in the same condition for the Thiago Alves fight. Karo needs to know that he needs to train as hard as he can. He's one of the top Welterweight Contenders in the world right now and if he trains as hard as lets say Forrest Griffin. That can be a guy that's definitely in the future for GSP. Karo's always wanted that title shot and he needs to work his way back up and not get careless like last time. But he's facing a good fighter though in Yoshiyuki Yoshida. Yoshida really impressed me with his fight with Jon Koppenhaver. He has great submissions, he showed a nice anaconda choke (not rear naked choke lol) in that fight. Its a stern test for Yoshida and a stern test for Karo. This should not be an easy fight for Karo at all. Karo should be the better Judoka. But Yoshida has a great shot with his submissions. Its interesting. Great read Stone.

[David "the Warhound" Stone]

now THATS WHAT IM TALKIN ABOUT! good counters and an excellent article yourself. it seems we agree on most points and on the ones we dont i understand your point of view and cant disagree too strongly.

[Gesias "JZ" Calvancanti]

Jul 24, 2008 21:54:59 GMT -5 David "the Warhound" Stone said:

now THATS WHAT IM TALKIN ABOUT! good counters and an excellent article yourself. it seems we agree on most points and on the ones we dont i understand your point of view and cant disagree too strongly.

Thanks man, I always love when people put predictions and how they feel about the matchup in an article they write, keep up the good work man