UFC 156 Preview
The trend in the past few years for the UFC has been for fans and analysts to put together super fights that see the best fighters crossover weight classes to fight for titles. This week the UFC will get their first fight to do this, although not quite the super fight many had been hoping for. In the past few years many divisions have been cleaned out by dominant champions who have left nobody to challenge them. The Welterweight and Middleweight divisions are two of the most publicized of the divisions with Georges St. Pierre and Anderson Silva regularly put in the conversation of super fight. There is one division that doesn’t get the same attention though mainly because it is still young. The Featherweight division was created in 2011 with the first champion named from the WEC. Jose Aldo would get the honour of being the first champion in the UFC featherweight division and before he stepped foot in the octagon gained a reputation. Anderson Silva would call him the best pound for pound fighter in the UFC and he would follow that up with three straight title defences. With such a young division the challengers are fewer meaning that he had essentially begun to clean out the division. So with the division lacking any true top contender that could challenge Aldo the UFC would look to a different weight class to find the next challenger to the title. The challenger would be former Lightweight champion Frankie Edgar as “The Answer” would move down in weight class to try to earn another title. Edgar was a great lightweight who would beat one of the most dominant champions in BJ Penn to earn the UFC lightweight title. Edgar would move on to defend his title twice while also fighting to a draw against Gray Maynard. He would lose the title to Benson Henderson after two fights. Now Edgar moves to a smaller weight class where his smaller frame may work out to benefit him. He will become one of the bigger featherweights in the division and he hopes to give Jose Aldo his first loss in the UFC. Both fighters will face off in what the UFC is building as a super fight on the eve of the Super Bowl. It is not necessarily the super fight they are promising as it is still champion vs. challenger rather than another champion. Still it is a fight that matches two of the best fighters in the UFC against each other for a title in what should be a great fight. It will match a big fighter against a smaller fighter but in this fight it may not come down to strength. Both fighters are similar although Aldo is a great BJJ practitioner and Edgar has a base in wrestling. The debate will be whether or not the fight will go to the ground as they fight strength against strength or will they stand up with one fighter believing his standup game is better than the other. There will be one big difference between the two though as Aldo is used to imposing his will against fighters while Edgar has been known to fight his best while in a corner. The difference in this fight could be if Edgar can get on Aldo fast as everyone will see if Aldo can fight while backed into a corner. Edgar will never give up in this fight as he has shown time and time again that even while hurt he can pull it out. If Aldo is not ready to fight like that he may be in trouble depending on how the fight plays out at the start. In the end Aldo does seem to be a great fighter and one of the next legendary champions in the UFC. He will win this fight against Edgar who will be able to win a few rounds and push Aldo more than he has been pushed. Aldo will prove that he has that never die attitude and will come back in the fight to win in a unanimous decision and keep his featherweight title.
The rest of the main card reads like a main event on any other night as the pay per view is stacked with great fights. To start the pay per view will be a Flyweight matchup that may just determine the next title contender. Coming off of a loss to Demetrious Johnson for the title Joseph Benavidesz will be looking to get a rematch when he takes on the former #1 flyweight in Ian McCall. The winner of this fight may be the next top contender to take on Demetrious Johnson for the title after Johnson defended his title last week at UFC on Fox 6. After that fight will be a matchup of two veteran middleweights looking to get back on track. Jon Fitch is trying to win his second fight in a row while Maia is looking to string together his third straight win. Both fighters are trying to get back in the title conversation and a win here will put them that much closer. In one of the biggest matchups of the night the return of the Reem will be in full focus as Allistair Overeem takes on Antonio Silva. Overeem was only steps away from a heavyweight title fight until a positive test for PEDs derailed his chance. Now he returns for the first time to take on Antonio Silva with the winner taking a big step towards the title. In the co-main event slot the former light heavyweight champion will return to take on a legendary brother. Rashad Evans returns to the octagon for the first time since he lost a title shot against Jon Jones in April 2012 and he will be taking on Antonio Rogerio Nogeuira, the younger of the legendary Nogueira’s. Both fighters will face off looking to start one last run at the title if they can win this fight. The UFC 156 fight card is a great one and there is no doubt that it will break the monotony of recent pay per view performances with at least one if not all of these fights providing fireworks.
Fight Card
Main Event:
Jose “Junior” Aldo vs. Frankie “The Answer” Edgar [Featherweight Title] (PPV)
Main Card:
“Suga” Rashad Evans vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (PPV)
Allistair “The Reem” Overeem vs. Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva (PPV)
Jon Fitch vs. Demian Maia (PPV)
Joseph Benavidez vs. Ian “Uncle Creepy” McCall (PPV)
Undercard:
Gleison Tibau vs. Evan Dunham (Sportsnet/FX)
Tyron “The Chosen One” Woodley vs. Jay “The Thoroughbred” Hieron (Sportsnet/FX)
Jacob “Christmas” Volkmann vs. Bobby “King” Green (Sportsnet/FX)
Yves Edwards vs. Isaac Vallie-Flagg (Sportsnet/FX)
Chico “The King” Camus vs. Dustin “The Diamond” Kimura (Facebook)
Edwin “El Feroz” Figueroa vs. Francisco “Cisco” Rivera (Facebook)
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