UFC 77 - hostile territory

[presto]

MAIN CARD
Champion Anderson Silva vs. Rich Franklin (for middleweight title)
Tim Sylvia vs. Brandon Vera
Stephan Bonnar vs. Eric Schafer
Alan Belcher vs. Kalib Starnes

PRELIMINARY CARD
Jason MacDonald vs. Yushin Okami
Josh Burkman vs. Forrest Petz
Jorge Gurgel vs. Alvin Robinson
Ryan Jensen vs. Demian Maia
Jason Black vs. Matt Grice

[presto]

MAIN CARD

Anderson Silva (-220) vs. Rich Franklin (+180) 
The main event sees rich franklin take on anderson silva with franklin looking to get his belt back from the man who utterly demolished him in there previous title fight. However that is no easy task, silva has been on a roll in the UFC taking out all who oppose him.

Silva is a well rounded fighter, with his strength deffinately being in the stand up, especially in the clinch. he has shown a good ground game, yet i feel that this is a weeker aspect of his game when he is on his back - despite taking out travis luter when he was on his back with a triangle choke / elbows.

Franklin also has a good stand up and heavy hands, he also has good wrestling skills. If franklin is going to win this fight then he cannot go toe to toe with silva, dispite his heavy hand's he just cannot afford to stand with him. Franklins best chance i would have thaught would be to get silva on his back and apply a bit of GnP.

This is going to be a great fight, but not one i am particulary keen to bet much on, i do feel that anderson silva has the edge in the fight. However the odd's on silva are very short - i can't help but think that the first fight between the pair has shortened the odd's a little too much. This makes the odd's on franklin look the value choice. So i won't be betting here.

Tim Sylvia (+150) vs. Brandon Vera (-180)
A big bout for the heavyweight division here and will go some way in deciding the next HW champ. Two very contrasting fighters here, a 6'8" tim sylvia who weighs in right at the top of the 265lbs division who actually needs to cut to make the weight. and brandon vera a much smaller HW who could easily make the 205lbs LHW division.

Vera has looked good in the UFC in a quick rise to the top before contractual issues put a stop to that and he hasn't fought in almost a year. He is great in the standup and quick too, but there has also been the question of how would he compete with a tougher opposition.

Sylvia was shocked when he lost his belt to randy coture, not just because of the upset, but the fact that randy (former 205lbs er) dominated him, he looked the better in the stand up and controled him in the wrestling / ground fight. Silva did drop the 'injury excuse' after the fight - something that i and many other fans found very annoying if not disrespectfull to randy coture. yet it does seem a valid injury in which he needed surgery to his back. Tim may not be the most loved HW yet nobody can deny his pedegree here. He is a big puncher who has shown glimpses of of ground adaptability - most noticably against jeff monson.

As for the fight it's a very intriguing one, i beleive Sylvia will be much leaner for this fight and will hold the strength advantage in the stand up. It will be interesing to see how the quick vera deals with this - as both are stand up fighters. Vera may land more kicks / punches with his muay-thai but a sylvia punch carries the more power and he can cope with getting hit (hard).

Theres also the 'ring rust' for vera and sylvias injury to consider - nearly a year out of the ring is a long time for the young vera. Sylvia should also be a lot better than his fight against randy aswell. One of the main reasons that randy dominated silva was his wrestling abilities, which i don't think vera has.

I think this fight will be a lot closer than the odd's sugguest in this stand up fight of contrasting styles. As i reckon it's pretty 50/50 the odd's on Tim Sylvia look attractive.

VERDICT - Tim Sylvia


Stephan Bonnar (-345) vs. Eric Schafer (+275) 
Well rounded fighter bonnar takes on the submission specialist schafer.
Eric Schafer is a tough fighter with great submissions, however he is seeriously lacking in the standup. Bonner is much more well rounded, good in the stand up and should have enough on the ground to avoid a submission.

Bonnar will look to keep the fight standing where he holds a big stand up advantage, Schafers only chance in this fight will be in the submissions, something that won't be easy to get. So i am pretty confident with picking Bonnar to win this fight.

VERDICT - Stephan Bonnar


Alan Belcher (-110) vs. Kalib Starnes (-120)
Stand up fighter Belcher vs ground specialist Starnes in a classic clash of styles will be on display in this fight.
Belcher will have great difficulty keeping this fight standing whilst landing some big shots. Starnes is a tricky opposition, hard to hit and hard to keep standing. He has a good ground game and always improving.

As for the fight - i just think that Starnes has the ability to take belcher to the ground, whilst avoiding the big punches of belcher, The odd's look close but i make starnes a bigger favourite than the odd's sugguest.

VERDICT - Kalib Starnes

[presto]

PRELIMINARY CARD - selections in bold

Jason MacDonald vs. Yushin Okami
Josh Burkman vs. Forrest Petz
Jorge Gurgel vs. Alvin Robinson
Ryan Jensen vs. Demian Maia
Jason Black vs. Matt Grice

[presto]

-Alan Belcher def. Kalib Starnes via TKO (cut stoppage) at 1:39 of Round 2.
- Belcher looked good on his feet with great standup, Starnes just couldn't take him down. in round 1 belcher opened up a huge gash, the likes i havn't seen since a one night stand with a girl called Lisa. The doctor looked at it at the end of the first round and allowed the fight to continue. The fight was stopped in the 2nd due to the cut, Starnes wanted the fight to continue and was seriously pissed with his corner who seemed to question his 'fighting spirit', starnes responded 'the doc could see my f#####g skull'. an impressive win for Belcher. 

-Stephan Bonnar def. Eric Schafer via TKO (strikes) at 2:47 of Round 2.
- Former sparing partners squared off with schafer getting bonnars back in the first round and taking control. the 2nd round saw bonnar take the fight with impressive GnP against an opponent who showed vunerability to the pressure.

-Alvin Robinson def. Jorge Gurgel via Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-27, 29-27) after 3 Rounds.
- classic ji-jitsu in this fight, Gurgel dominated the first without inflicting too much damage, but showing total control. the 2nd and 3rd robinson showed dominance on the ground and inflicted decent Gnp for a convincing points win.

-Tim Sylvia def. Brandon Vera via Unanimous Decision (29-27, 29-28, 29-28) after 3 Rounds.
- Not a great fight, and not the punch out i expected. Sylvia controlled the first holding vera against the cage. A moment of contreversy at the end as Vera landed an (big) illegal knee to the head of Sylvia who clearly had a knee on the mat, he got a warning but no point deduction, a fight finally broke out in the remaining 13 seconds.
2nd round was also pretty boring with most of the 'action' being pressing against the cage, vera got tim to the mat late on, but did nothing other than a few knees to the body.
3rd round was a little better with Sylvia throwing a few more punches worrying Vera.
A deserved win For Tim Sylvia but he won't have made any fans from his performance, Vera also revealed that he broke his hand in the first.

-Anderson Silva (c) def. Rich Franklin via TKO (knee) at 1:07 of Round 2 to retain the Middleweight title.
- A great fight, Anderson Silva was pretty dominant though Franklin did get him to his back and put up a better performance than his first fight. Silva showed flashes of brilliance with a spinning side kick landing well and a spinning back fist. Some croud pleasing 'samba dance / prince naz' ducking and diving defence thrown in aswell. Ath the end of the first Franklin was in trouble from some big hits from Silva but was saved by the bell.
2nd round and Silva went in for the kill, with lethal mu-thai ending the fight with punches and knees, Franklin was in serious trouble when Silva ended with a devistating knee to the chin and Franklin was out.


-Matt Grice def. Jason Black via Split Decision (29-28 Grice, 29-28 Black, 29-28 Grice) after 3 Rounds.
-Josh Burkman def. Forrest Petz via Split Decision (29-28 Burkman, 29-28 Petz, 29-28 Burkman) after 3 Rounds.
-Demian Maia def. Ryan Jensen via Submission (rear naked choke) at 2:40 of Round 1.
-Yushin Okami def. Jason MacDonald via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) after 3 Rounds.

[presto]

MAIN CARD
Champion Anderson Silva vs. Rich Franklin 
Tim Sylvia vs. Brandon Vera
Stephan Bonnar vs. Eric Schafer
Alan Belcher vs. Kalib Starnes

PRELIMINARY CARD
Jason MacDonald vs. Yushin Okami
Josh Burkman vs. Forrest Petz
Jorge Gurgel vs. Alvin Robinson
Ryan Jensen vs. Demian Maia
Jason Black vs. Matt Grice

[presto]

W5-L3 on the night for another profitable set of results.