UFC 148 Preview : Chael Sonnen vs. Anderson Silva 2

By: Daniel Kendrick

In the week where we celebrate our nation’s independence with firework displays, the week culminates with a UFC card loaded with fireworks leading up to the explosive main event between the pound for pound king, UFC middleweight champion Anderson “the Spider” Silva & Chael Sonnen. Nearly 2 years after what is highly regarded as the greatest comeback in UFC history at UFC 117, Silva once again defends his middleweight crown against the always colorful & verbally controversial Chael Sonnen. Before the much anticipated rematch, we’ll be treated to the most stacked card of 2012 thus far, so make sure you’ve got the burgers done, the beer on ice, & have your seat reserved b/c you don’t wanna miss any fight on this loaded card of throwdowns.

 First up on the main card is the sanshou specialist & former Strikeforce MW champion Cung Le (24-2, 19 KO’s) vs. Patrick “the Predator” Cote (24-7, 8 KO’s). Looking to rebound from his debut loss against Wanderlei Silva, Le was originally slated to face Rich Franklin, but with Vitor Belfort pulling out of his fight with “The Axe Murderer” @ UFC 147 due to a training injury, Franklin filled the void against Wanderlei and left the spot open on this weekend’s card for matchmaker Joe Silva to fill.In what should be a fight far from lacking standup action, former Middleweight Title contender and Montreal Quebec’s Patrick Cote fillst the open spot left by Franklin to pit his renowned kickboxing style and heavy hands against the tricky sanshou style of the San Jose, CA native.”

 

The action only gets better with the second fight of the main billing with the tripleshot of this rivalry. Coming to you for the 3rd installment of the series is UFC legend Tito Ortiz (17-10-1, 8 KO’s) vs. Forrest Griffin (18-7, 3 KO’s). This rubbermatch between 2 former light heavyweight champions is not only the continuation of 2 meetings that many believe could’ve gone either way on each occassion, but is the ‘Swan Song’ for the “Huntington Beach Bad Boy.” Closing out his legendary career, which includes the LHW record of 5 title defenses, seems fitting that he do it in closing out a trilogy rivalry in a career largley comprised of rematches & rivalries. Starting his vindication at UFC 19 where he finished off Guy Metzger to avenge his first loss and began his most heated rivalry with Lion’s Den head honcho, Ken Shamrock. From there the veritable list of “who’s who” rivals have included former champions Chuck Liddell, Rashad Evans, & his foe this Saturday night in Griffin. A more suiting finish couldn’t be asked for in going out by wrapping up a knockdown, drag out series against debatably MMA’s most blood & guts warrior and also the perfect appetizer for what lies ahead in the main event.

Action rivalries are always fun, but bad blood always adds some spice to the ingredients & this main event is OVERLOADED with both. You might wanna schedule a babysitter to come pick up the kids because if the excitement of this one is gonna have you jumping & yelling out of your seat like I do, then your rugrats won’t get a wink of sleep. Watch out! Here comes the most anticipated rematch in UFC history: UFC Middleweight Champion & pound-for-pound kingpin Anderson “The Spider” Silva (29-4, 18 KO’s) vs. Chael Sonnen (27-11-1, 7 KO’s). Hell-to-the-YEAH, fight fans! After all the back and forth jawing, stipulation throwing, and injury guaranteeing, it’s finally come back around & is going down! Culminating the loaded card with nearly 2 years of seething disdain, wrestling ace and the ever controversial showman, Chael Sonnen looks to repeat what he did at UFC 117 back in August of 2010, this time without the dramatic turn of events that caused him to slip into a constricting triangle choke & tap with a little over a minute remaining in the fight after dominating literally the entire fight. Since then, Sonnen has racked up one-sided wins over Michael Bisping and Brian Stann en route to recieving the rematch against his hated adversary.

The “talking the talk and walking the walk” Sonnen did in the first outing and the unbelievable table turning Silva pulled off at the end has caused Sonnen to really turn up the heat in the kitchen this time around. Not only has he insulted Silva everytime there’s a camera on him or microphone que’d up, ala Muhammed Ali, but his WWE-esque bad mouthing has extended to include insinuations regarding Silva’s wife & laying verbal waste to Brazil along with it’s citizens. Among his rantings was a stipulation for Silva to leave the middleweight division were he to lose and that Sonnen totally give up his career with the UFC, itself, if he were to come up on the short end of the stick in Saturday night’s fight. A bold gesture considering that not only is Silva the champion, but that he’s 100% healthy this time around (Silva claimed to have a rib injury going into their last meeting), he’s highly likely to not succumb to the same gameplan that Chael implemented the first time, and also that little thing which is Silva’s universally recognized top pound-for-pound ranking. Talk about stacking the odds. However, if Chael can pull off the same high pressure, takedown & top position dominance that he did in the first fight, it’s very conceivable that he can pull off the upset & have his vindication along with his day in the sun. Remember when he did likewise to Paulo Filho in the WEC?

If what Silva said was indeed true, and he went into UFC 117 with a training injury (and it’s certainly conceivable considering how flat he looked in comparison to the majority of his previous fights), then Sonnen could very well end up as a casualty on Silva’s long list of vicitim’s…..again. In the possibility that Silva is able to stuff Sonnen’s takedown attempts and the fight stays primarily standing, it’s extraordinarily likely, percentage speaking, that it’ll go very badly for Sonnen. No fighter in the UFC, past or present, has a higher accuracy striking percentage than Silva does and where he’s been able to connect with a high frequency, there lies another KO statistic. Let’s also remember that the submission possibilities are also possible and could, in fact, be highly probable taking into account that Silva is a Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt and Sonnen’s biggest “chink in the armor” has been his submission defense as shown in his fights with Paulo Filho, Damian Maia, & of course, Anderson Silva. There are a few other variables to consider, but let’s just let it simmer for now until it finally boils over in Saturday night’s red hot main event.

Bringing up the rear in the undercard of the jacked card this Saturday night is the welterweight debut of submission wizard Damian Maia taking on the judo artist, Dong Hyun Kim, former featherweight title challenger Chad Mendes facing Cody McKenzie, and bantamweights Ivan Menjivar vs. Mike Easton.

Not to be forgotten on the free prelims on FX are lightweights “The Young Assassin” Melvin Guillard vs. Fabricio Camoes, lightweights Gleison Tibau vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov, middleweights Constantinos Philippou vs. Riki Fukuda, lightweights John Alessio vs. Shane Roller, and continuing the lightweight trend, rounding out the prelims are Rafaello Oliveira vs. Yoislandy Izquierdo.

Main Card
Anderson “The Spider” Silva (29-4-0) vs. Chael Sonnen (28-11-1)
Forrest Griffin (18-7-0) vs. “The People’s Champ” Tito Ortiz (17-10-1)
Cung Le (7-2) vs. Patrick “The Predator” Cote (18-7-0)

Undercard
“Stun Gun” Dong Hyun Kim (15-1-1) vs. Damian Maia (15-4-0)
Chad “Money” Mendes (11-1-0) vs. Cody McKenzie (13-2-0)
Ivan Menjivar (24-8) vs. Mike “The Hulk” Easton (12-1-0)

Prelims

“The Young Assassin” Melvin Guillard (46-11-3) vs. Fabricio Camoes (13-6-1)
Gleison Tibau (34-7) vs. Khalib “The Eagle” Nurmagomedov
Constantinos “Costa” Philippou (10-2-0) vs. Riki Fukuda (18-5)
John “The Natural” Alessio (34-15-0) vs. Shane Roller (10-6)
Rafaello “Tractor” Oliveira (14-5-0) vs. Yoislandy “Cuba” Izquierdo (6-1-0)

Showings
UFC 148 is available for Pay-per-View purchase on AT&T U-verse, Bresnan, Bright House Networks, Broadstripe, Buckeye Cablesystem, Charter, Comcast, COX Communications, DIRECTV, Dish Network, IO, Insight, Mediacom, Suddenlink, Time Warner, & Verizon’s FIOS. The 4 free prelims will be televised on FX or by ‘liking’ the UFC page on Facebook.

Online
YouTube
YouTube HD
UFC.tv
Ustream
Download Apps
Android Market
Roku
XBox Live

Saturday July 7th 7pm/10pm PTET

 

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