Chael Sonnen, UFC 117: Now This Is How You Sell A Fight

Even though I fully expect Silva to riverdance on Sonnen’s face by the end of the 2nd round, I would love to see Chael pull out the upset. At least the rest of the main card is going to be stacked and interesting.

Roy “Big Country” Nelson vs Junior “Cigano” Dos Santos is going to be great to watch. Roy’s ground game is incredibly underrated and JDS is one of the best stand-up fighters in the game. I’m really excited for Saturday.

Have you seen the video of Roger Huerta kicking some dudes ass on 6th Street who sucker punched a girl?

http://www.tmz.com/2010/08/04/ufc-president-dana-white-roger-huerta-street-fight-parking-lot-brawl-video-statement/

Well, he must o’ thought that is quite a joke
And it got a lot of laughs from lots of folk,
It seems I had to fight my whole life through.
Some gal would giggle and I’d get red
And some guy’d laugh and I’d bust his head,
I tell ya, life ain’t easy for a boy named Chael.

I think it’s going to backfire horribly. I wouldn’t go out of my way to piss of Silva.

I learned a long time ago to be careful about betting on fights, but I’d bet a month’s pay that Silva kills this clown.

Sonnen’s all hat, no cattle. Silva is going to destroy him.

Maybe Sonnen will break out a flying heel hook. Otherwise, I am not sure motivating Silva is a good idea.

Boxing has become so boring, I enjoy these pre-fight charades immensely.

Some tough talk from Chael (is he the first jewish MMA fighter?) but those words taste a little different when flat on your back gargling blood because a Brazilian knee just relocated your cheek bone.

The old Anderson Silva instilled a fear in his opponents that we haven’t seen lately. They backpedaled around the ring, almost fetal in anticipation of where the death blow might come from. Elbow? Knee? Fist? Intense stare?

None of the recent oddities have me convinced that he couldn’t just destroy anybody who stepped in the ring against him if properly motivated, which Chael just provided.

What cemented my doubts about this cocky greco roman Oregonian, was his status as a part time realtor and his lingering Senate aspirations. Bad combo.

Silva erases all doubts by round 2.

If Silva’s ridiculous actions start a trend, then he will ruin my second favorite sport. His clowning is a mockery to the men that train 3x a day to fight and put on a good show for the fans. F#^& that dude. As improbable as it is, I’m praying Chael uses superior wrestling to eek out a decision.

Unenlightened non-MMA follower here.

What does the 117 stand for?

Kriess -
 
Great description of Roy Nelson. He looks like such a slob, but he’s incredibly skilled. And his jiu jitsu is first rate. If he gets Junior on the ground in dominant position, Junior is done. Junior should do work standing up though.
 
ded -
 
Hadn’t seen it. Glad to see that piece of shit get his.
 
Ghost -
 
Nicely done.
 
Rocket -
 
This is the 117th installment of the UFC. There have been 116 events. That’s part of the beauty of the sport. They’re able to do ten high quality cards a year.

Quick follow-up on the Huerta video ded posted: Here’s a short video of Huerta training in Thailand. For those who like to fight train, it’s a pretty cool segment.

http://www.sherdog.com/videos/recent/Huerta-Training-in-Thailand-2292

(Can’t seem to get the link to set up right, so you might have to cut and paste.)

" As improbable as it is, I’m praying Chael uses superior wrestling to eek out a decision."

Sonnen is going down in the 1st round. The faster he loses, the less time Silva has to punish him so wrestling Silva would be a good strategy from that perspective. Brazilians, especially Silva, have way too many holds that immediately terminate fights. Best not to wrestle Silva.

Taunting is a strategy that fighters who are out of gas use to disguise the fact that they are too tired to press the attack. It is also used by fighters who would prefer to counter attack.

Really stupid for Huerta to pick a fight and knock out that guy. He’s opened himself up to a civil suit. What if the guy had hit his head on the pavement and goes into a coma or even dies. Provoking a street fight is a great way to profoundly fuck up your life. Even if you are in the right, witnesses can lie and claim you started the fight. Once you are being questioned by detectives at the police station, you quickly regret the whole fiasco.

I have a feeling that the guy that is clearly shown hitting a woman from behind in that video is not going to be headed to the police station anytime soon to identify himself and press charges against Mr. Huerta. Especially when most of the Huerta fight is either extremely fuzzy or completely off camera.

Also this is a very good example of why you should never start shit with a guy half your size because you think your a bad ass. If dude happens to be an MMA fighter you might end up with a face full of foot and pavement.

Kafka -
 
Brazilian jiu-jitsu and submission defense is pretty well dispersed across all nationalities now. Silva is a stand-up guy and Sonnen would be well-advised to take him down at his first opportunity. Sonnen was an All-American wrestler at Oregon and he has a solid submission defense.
 
roach -
 
I endorse your message.

My number 1 rule in life is: never fight a man with collie flower ear.

That’s pretty much my only rule.

Collie flower?

http://ih0.redbubble.net/work.1655693.5.flat,550×550,075,f.collie-flowers-happy-spring.jpg

Kafka-

Agree with Scip on this one. Its not like the early days of UFC when it was Royce Gracie against brawlers. This truly is a sport where the mixing of all martial arts are apparent in each fighter. Of course each fighter has their strengths and weaknesses. Lesnar’s wrestling, Coture’s wrestling, Mir’s BJJ, Rashad’s boxing (and wrestling to an extent) are the backbone of their repertoire. For Sonnen to not take the fight to the ground and try and stand up with Silva will be disastrous for him. Silva’s bread and butter are his counter punches and kicks. That’s the beauty of Muy Thai.

For Sonnen to have ANY advantage, he needs to get Silva on the mat. If I were him, I would pull clinch, then pull down into a closed guard and work Silva from the back. All of this trash talk is smart by Sonnen, as it may get under Silva, and make him too aggressive when he’s on top. One errant throw and Silva is locked in a triangle/arm bar and he’s fucked. Ask Fedor.

Scipio-

 I agree that Roy is skilled in BJJ, but his real game is grappling, and not necessarily looking for the submission, but in fact wearing the opponent down into the later rounds. You should check out the youtube video of him and Frank Mir going at it at a grappling-only tournament. Frank has his way with Roy, but is gassed too early. Of course this was about 5 or 6 years ago before Frank had his black belt in BJJ and also when Roy was in great shape. The MMA world has changed since then, whereas now Frank Mir is by far the best HW at BJJ (save possibly Noguiera). Here’s the link to the vid. Its a good watch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dj5xMeXybs

There is an internet rumor floating around that the guy’s ass who Huerta kicked on 6th Street was Rashad Bobino. I’m not believing, but people are running around saying it right now.

Ded-

Naw…the guy Huerta KTFO was a big guy. Prolly not Bobino. But if it was, at least Rashad made contact with something he intended to hit this time.

There’s only one legitimate place I’ve found streaming the UFC fight. The rest have been scams :-/ You can see it over here though: http://www.freesillyvideos.com They make you do a little survey but after that the stream is live, and you can download the replay as soon as it’s up :)

Brazilian jujitsu skills are not evenly distributed, there are a few guys who have exceptional skills and many, many more who are lesser skilled. Brazilian jujitsu trumps wrestling. Brazilian fighters tend to be more skilled at Brazilian jujitsu than non Brazilians. Certainly Silva is way more skilled at Brazilian jujitsu than Sonnen. Americans are catching up but they haven’t entirely closed the gap. I saw Sonnen fight a Brazilian guy and he was doing fine stand up but he just had to take him to the ground and wrassle him (and he promptly got his ass beat on a tricky little hold).

Sonnen’s best chance is to be conservative, make the fight last as long as possible and try to tire Silva out. When he does take Silva down to wrestle him, he needs to be very conservative and focus on fatiguing Silva and not presenting any opportunities to Silva. That is, practice defensive wrestling where his goal is not to achieve dominant position but just force Silva to work and then get out of there before Silva puts a bout ending hold on him. There is some question about how intensely Silva has been training recently so maybe Sonnen has a chance if somehow he can get it to the 3rd round.

Getting involved unnecessarily in a street fight is not the percentage play, it is a sucker play. You put yourself at financial, legal and health risk for zero gain. It is one thing to protect somebody who is getting beat up but this lady was already knocked out and the key thing was to get her medical attention. Huerta was not protecting the lady, he was dispensing justice, which is neither his job nor his right. Professional fighters should not be picking fights with non professional fighters, I would not be surprised that an MMA fighter using MMA skills in a fight he starts can be charged not only with assault but also battery.

The case against starting a fight to avenge somebody you don’t even know:

• you may end up in the slammer or even the big house,
• it may be a huge legal hassle in your life in civil court
• it may cost you a lot of money
• you initiate a sequence that has potentially disastrous consequences beyond your control, * you may end up getting hurt (even stabbed or shot)

Balanced against that is the case FOR starting a fight with somebody you don’t know to avenge somebody you don’t even know (what is that case, exactly?).

Fight of the year, imo. Sonnen blew me away with his takedown offense. Of course I knew his Achilles heel was submission defense, and thats what eventually was his undoing. That was one hell of a stacked card for 117. Loved every fight.

Amazing fight card. One of the best UFC’s of all time.

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