UFC 136 Preview
The UFC has seen almost every title has been up for grabs in the past few weeks with a long streak of events. It started with UFC Rio where Anderson Silva successfully defended his Middleweight Title in front of his home crowd against Yushin Okami. After one free event the action really started with two events in a row both with title fights. Jon Jones was able to defend his Light Heavyweight belt against Quinton Rampage Jackson at UFC 135. The last week Dominick Cruz successfully defended his Bantamweight Title against Demetrious Johnson at UFC Live 6. So far there have been no new title holders as every champion has been able to defend their belt and stave off their challengers. This weekend at UFC 136 the UFC will look again to a title fight and see is the title will change hands or if it will remain in the same hands. Not only is there one title fight but the UFC 136 card has two title fights that both prove to be exciting. With 4 events in the span of two months the UFC will have shown 4 out of the 6 weight class championships in the UFC and will show the 5th at the end of October. This weekend we will see two very good title holders face two very good challengers that both hope to turn the trend around. First the main event will feature the Lightweight Title fight that we have already seen twice before. Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard will face off for the third time as they both look for redemption. The last time both of these fighters squared off it ended in the most unsatisfying way as they fought to a draw. By rule a draw means that the champion retains his belt and so Frankie Edgar walked out of the octagon with his belt intact. Meanwhile Gray Maynard walked out thinking that he should have won the fight and that he was screwed by the judges. Edgar believes this too as he believes he won the fight and should have a win on his record and not a draw. Immediately after the fight Dana White and Joe Silva made the rematch to the joy of both fighters and all of the fans. Maynard already has a win over Edgar in their first fight before Edgar became champion and is hoping to repeat that success. Maynard is a great wrestler who can get on top of almost anyone and grind them out to finish the fight. The last time he faced Edgar, however was one of the first times he met a fighter that could stuff his takedowns and not allow him to get on top. Although Maynard does love to wrestle he is more than just that as he proved in the last fight when he seemed to have Edgar knocked out at least four times in the first round, scoring a decisive 10-8 round that caused the draw. Meanwhile Frankie Edgar is an even more well-rounded fighter as he is good both on the ground and standing but not spectacular at either. Edgar does not have the power of Maynard standing but is still skilled at scoring with kicks and can finish a fight if he connects with the right shot. Edgar is also comfortable on the ground where he has won before. Both fighters are very balanced and there is no doubt that this has the potential to be the “Fight of the Night” as both men are not happy about their last fight. With the power in Maynard’s hands he is dangerous and he will learn from the last fight and not come out too fast at the start. Maynard went all out in the first round of the last fight trying to finish Edgar and punched himself out making him too tired to fight the rest of the rounds to his ability. Maynard will learn from this and have a more balanced attack that will not make him over tired in the five round fight. I believe that Maynard’s hands will be the difference again in this fight when he almost KO’d Edgar in round 1. I see Maynard winning the fight by KO in Round 3 of this fight as the title will change hands.
Before the Lightweight title there will be yet another title fight as the Featherweights will face off in the Co-Main event. Jose Aldo is considered by many as one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world and has dominated on his way to the WEC Featherweight title that turned into the UFC Featherweight Title. He will take on a fan favorite in Kenny Florian who has fought in four different weight classes since he made his debut on the Ultimate Fighter. These two will face off in at UFC 136 for the Featherweight Title as Florian enters his first featherweight title shot and Aldo will defend his belt for the second time. Aldo has been considered the best pound for pound fighter in the world but his biggest complement was when Anderson Silva said that if Aldo fought at 145 he would retire. Aldo has gotten this respect through his balanced attack where he can end the fight in any way. Aldo has a great standing game and has the knockout power to finish a fight at any moment. He is also very creative in his strikes that throw his opponents off. Aldo also has a killer ground game that won him three Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Championships and a World Jiu Jitsu Championship. In his first title defence Aldo took on Mark Hominick and dominated the fight for the first four rounds creating a welt on Hominick’s head that had the crowd gasping. His one bad round was the 5th when he was taken down and dominated with strikes from the top. Kenny Florian will need to study that tape if he hopes to be successful in his first title fight. Florian entered the UFC through TUF at Middleweight but has continued to cut weight to get lighter and lighter as he found that he was too small and not powerful enough for any of the other weight classes. In June Florian made his biggest cut yet going down to 145 lbs and he had to take on one of the best Featherweights in the weight class in Diego Nunes. Florian won that fight by a decision and as a reward got his first featherweight title fight against Aldo. Florian is also a well-rounded fighter but prefers to fight on the ground earning 10 of his 16 fights by submission. Aldo seems to be just too much for Florian but Florian has been known as a scrapper who can win fights he is not supposed to. Florian will put up a good fight against Aldo but the fan favorite will fall to the many skills of Jose Aldo. I see this fight finishing with Aldo knocking out Florian in Round four to retain the Featherweight belt.
Fight Card
Main Event:
Frankie “The Answer” Edgar vs. Gray “The Bully” Maynard [Lightweight Title] (PPV)
Co-Main Event:
Jose “Junior” Aldo vs. Kenny “Kenflo” Florian [Featherweight Title] (PPV)
Main Card:
Chael Sonnen vs. Brian “All-American” Stann (PPV)
Leonard “Bad Boy” Garcia vs. Nam Phan (PPV)
Melvin “The Young Assassin” Guillard vs. Joe “J-Lau” Lauzon (PPV)
Undercard:
Demian Maia vs. Jorge “The Sandman” Santiago (Sportsnet/Spike)
Anthony “Showtime” Pettis vs. Jeremy “Lil’ Heathen” Stephens (Sportsnet/Spike)
Joey “The Mexicutionar” Beltran vs. Stipe Miocic (Facebook)
Tiequan “The Wolf” Zhang vs. Darren “The Damage” Elkins (Facebook)
Aaron “A-Train” Simpson vs. Eric “Red” Schafer (Facebook)
Steve “Robot” Cantwell vs. Mike “The Master of Disaster” Massenzio (Facebook)
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