The main card for UFC 121 has been announced and it’s a doozy.

Let’s take a look:
Date: Saturday, Oct. 23, 2010
Location: Honda Center in Anaheim, California

265 lbs.: Brock Lesnar vs. Cain Velasquez
205 lbs.: Matt Hamill vs. Tito Ortiz
265 lbs.: Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Brendan Schaub
170 lbs.: Martin Kampmann vs. Jake Shields
170 lbs.: Diego Sanchez vs. Paulo Thiago

Brock vs. Cain is huge. I was one of the first people on the Velasquez bandwagon when he arrived and it’s been a joy to watch him develop these last two and a half years. He started as a mammoth wrestler and has grown into a mammoth wrestler with serious ground ‘n pound and improving strikes. On the other hand, I love Brock too and want him to develop a great legacy in the sport – so I will officially be torn on this one. I probably wont know who I want until the bell sounds.

Tell you one thing, I like Velasquez’s chances. I think his boxing, though not as powerful, is more technical than Carwin’s. If he can stuff a takedown or two from Lesnar he can catch the champ with a punch and then probably learn from Shane’s mistake and meticulously work for a finish - instead of unloading wild punches and gassing… Wait, I mean, unloading wild punches and getting Lactic Acidosis. My mistake.

Of course, Brock is going to have twenty pounds on him so stuffing a takedown will be easier said than done – but we’ll see.

Tito vs. Hamill will mark the first time a TUF coach has fought one of his own fighters. I have no clue how this is going to go. Ortiz’s stand-up is probably more technical than Matt’s, but Matt’s is more powerful – ugliness notwithstanding. I don’t see Hamill wanting to take this to the ground and I don’t think Tito will get the big fella down – so I’d say we’re in for an entertaining 15-minute train wreck.

I realize Gabriel just got knocked on his ass by Junior two Saints, but I still think this may be too big a step up for Schaub. Still, Brendan has been knocking kids out and when your chin is as glass as Napao’s has been lately you always have to be cautious. A win for Schaub propels him to the next level and a win for Gabe gives him some momentum after a crushing defeat.

The UFC Welcome Committee President, Martin Kampmann, will introduce the company’s new prize-possession Jake Shields to the Octagon. I know it’s hard to bet against Jake after that dominating performance over Dan Henderson, but don’t sleep on Marty. If Shields doesn’t bring his ‘A’ game he’s walking out with the loser’s share.

Diego vs. Paulo will send one man back to relevancy and one man into deep, deep trouble. Personally, I think Paulo has been overrated from the start and Sanchez will show some new life now that he’s back with Greg Jackson – but we’ll have to wait and see.

Overall, this looks great on paper. The queso dip and wings will be flowing at my place come the 23rd of October.

Stay lucky.
Ken

I put in some long hours for The Man yesterday so I never got around to publishing this – so here’s a rare Saturday post from Intelligently Defending.

Props to MMAjunkie and MMAmania where I found all of these stories.

1) UFC to induct two new members at UFC 100 Fan Expo

The most illegitimate Hall of Fame in professional sports will be adding two members in July.

Here are my early wagering lines on who is getting the nod:

- Evan Tanner — 1-1

- Charles “Mask” Lewis — 3-1

- Chuck Liddell — 6-1, I don’t think he goes in until his retirement is official

- Matt Hughes – 10-1, Not sure he doesn’t have another fight in him pending what happens with Serra

- John McCarthy – 30-1, I’m pretty sure he’s currently on Dana’s bad side which means we wont be seeing him in there anytime soon.

- Don Frye – 100-1, I love the old dog, but I don’t see him ever getting in.

- Fred Ettish – 5,000-1

- Tito Ortiz – 1,000,000-1

2) Shaq is training MMA

Apparently, the big fella is training MMA:

I don’t have anything to say about this, but figured it would give me the opportunity to post my all-time favorite Shaq video:

For the record, the 2002 Western Conference Finals was one of the most bad ass playoff series ever.

3) UFC releases a bunch of fighters

A number of UFC fighters were given pink slips over the past week, let’s go through them one-by-one:

- David Loiseau – not very surprising given how soundly he was defeated by Ed Herman.  He just never took his game to the next level – the Franklin fight can be pinpointed as start of his downward spiral.  It’s hard to recover from such an epic ass whooping.

- Ryo Chonan – the Japanses vet never impressed in his UFC fights.  It’s back to Japan where he can probably still make a nice pay day.

- David Bielkheden – he was pretty highly touted when he came into the UFC, but never lived up to the hype.

- Jason MacDonald – I’m very upset about this one.  Jason was always an exciting fighter and most of his losses were to top competition.  He just needs a few wins outside the UFC and then they will be happy to bring him back I imagine.

- Jason Day – defeating Alan Belcher was the only thing of note he accomplished inside the Octagon.

- Vinny Magalhaes – one of the best BJJ players around, but he cant take a punch to save his life and seems to lack heart.  He’s still very new to the game though so we could see him again if he is able to put some wins together.

- Antonio Mendes – I liked his fight with Thiago Silva – that’s really all I got to say.

That’s it – see everyone Monday.

-Ken
http://www.IntelligentlyDefending.com

We’ve had some comments over here at Intelligently Defending – so let’s check them out:

1) Flowjobs had the following to say about the Sylvia/Mercer promo video I posted last week:

That Sylvia/Mercer video looks like one of the shitty video’s on Funny or Die only it was shot and produced by a 6 year old. I’m not sure what the best part is, the graphics or the frame and sheets that are the “gym” that its shot in. Awesome.

Yea, the gym is hysterical. Why couldn’t they just go to an actual gym?

If I were to rank my top 3 favorite parts of the video, they would be:

III) Mercer going to town on the heavy bag. It reminds me of when Homer became a boxer on the Simpsons and, after one punch, Moe goes “ok, so punching isn’t your thing – but that’s ok because you’re not that kind of fighter.”

II) Ray and Timmy talking trash towards the end. I’m pretty sure Mercer says “this martial arts think he can come in here and beat me at my own sport”.

I) The tagline at the end: “Watch Saturday, June 13th as two legends of fighting face each other in a fierce battle for the ages.” I understand they weren’t in a position to be honest and say “watch a 48-year-old has been boxer face one of the world’s most notoriously boring mixed-martial artists” – but come on, how did they come up with “a fierce battle for the ages”?

2) Rommel wrote in after my views on UFC Undisputed:

I’m definitely going to try out the UFC Undisputed demo on the PS3 tonight. I agree, the sport is too complex for all the concepts to be gathered in the game, but I’m hoping it’s still good. I’ve been waiting for a MMA game for quite some time.

Wii Sports rock! My Wii arrives today!

I actually read a column on the UFC Undisputed demo by Juniper Roth at FiveOuncesOfPain.com and he gave it a glowing review. So maybe I’ll be proven wrong.

However, one thing I didn’t like was the list of fighters in the game. How are you going to have Matt Arroyo and Kyle Bradley in the welterweight division, but NOT have my main man Dustin Hazelett?

Honestly, I will be shocked if McLovin doesn’t find his way into the game.

3) In response to my worst UFC main event posts, Scoozna wrote:

lol…I would have put Arlovski / Werdum as honorable mention. I had a friend who used to say “I’d rather stick pins in my eyes”.

Had that fight been a main event, it would have definitely received a spot on my list. However, it was kept off since Gonzaga vs. CroCop was the actual main event of UFC 70.

You’re right though, that bout was terrible. You know you’re watching a bad fight when the most exciting move is an open-palmed bitchslap.

4) Also, on the worst main events post, Ryan said:

Good list. Don’t forget ken shamrock vs. tito II, early stoppage. Also, outside of the UFC, Renzo Gracie vs. Frank Shamrock.

I’ve actually never seen Gracie vs. Shamrock. By all reports, it was horrendous.

As for Ken vs. Tito II, since it wasn’t the main event I couldn’t include it on the list. You’re right though, terrible fight that shouldn’t have even happened in the first place.

I’ll tell you one thing though; the Ken vs. Tito trilogy offers some quality comedy. I think my favorite part was at III when, after dishing out another beatdown, Ortiz flipped Shammy a double-bird and then realized Ken was making a peace offering. In an instant, Tito decided to pretend to be a nice guy and accept said peace offering by giving Ken a hug. What a crock.

Keep the comments coming everyone!

-Ken
http://www.IntelligentlyDefending.com