The event is this Saturday. A lot of the people, mostly on Sherdog.com, are posting about how weak the card is. The lack of big-name fighters and a title fight leaves them wanting more. I have to disagree. This fight card is badass!
UFC will be introducing a couple of Japanese veterans brought over from PrideFC; Akihiro Gono and Ryo Chonan. These guys may not be well-known in the US but in Japan they’ve made a name for themselves. Gono’s skill and experience (Over 35 fights) will make it a dangerous fight for any opponent in his division. Chonan was one of Japan’s up and coming prospect. He was the last person to defeat Anderson Silva (excluding DQ fight with Okami). Chonan is fighting Karo Parysian, a Judo practioner, that have been in some wars and beaten top level fighters. If Chonan wins, it’ll quickly put him in title contention.
Marcus “Maximus” Aurelio is also a new addition to UFC. He is a very dangerous fighter in the lightweight division. One of his biggest wins came from choking out Takanori Gomi with an arm triangle.
One of the fights I’m excited about is the Frank Edgar v. Spencer Fisher. Edgar was an unknown that was brought into the UFC to be defeated by up-and-coming and seemingly indestructable Tyson Griffin, but Edgar surprised everyone with his lightning quick hands and solid wrestling and pulled out a huge upset win. Spencer Fisher is a no-nonsense brawler that is looking to hurt you. These two’s fighting style will showcase an awesome stand-up war.
Houston Alexander is a riding on this huge wave of hype-ness. His wins over Jardine and Sakara has put him in the spotlight. With a 2-0 record in UFC and all coming by KO has made him popular with the casual fans. I’m still not sold on the Alexander bandwagon. But if he can pull a win against Thiago Silva then I will definitely consider him to be legit. Thiago Silva, is no joke, whatsoever. He’s well-rounded and he can submit you or out-strike you on your feet. Alexander relies on his freakish strength to win fights and it’s going to be interesting to see how Silva will try to nullify it.
The main event is neither a huge name draw or a title fight, but instead it’s two TUF winners from different seasons. Michael Bisping and Rashad Evans. Both are undefeated in their career. Bisping is coming off a contraversial win and Evans is coming off a draw from the Tito Ortiz fight. The winner of this fight will likely be setup for a title-shot soon. Bisping is well rounded and loves to strike; throwing punches, kicks, and knees from all angles. His ground game is solid. Matt Hamil wasn’t able to control him on the ground and I doubt Evan’s would be able either. Evans is a solid wrestler and uses it skillfully to control his opponent, but in Evans’s last few fights he showed his strong standup skills by KO-ing Salmon with a gut wrenching kick to the head, and putting Lambert to sleep with some vicious pounding. This match-up could be a big slugfest or a technical wrestling match, but in the end only one will walk out still undefeated, unless its some gay-ass draw.