Ricardo Almeida is set to take on Matt Hughes tonight, and this should be an interesting matchup, especially for Almeida as a win would certainly push him much closer to an eventual title shot. The MMA News will carry live coverage starting at 10 eastern for the pay-per-view portion and 7 for the earlier undercard bouts.
UFC hall of famer and two times UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes (44-7), isn’t concerned with being the oldest fighter taking part on this Saturday’s UFC 117 event in Oakland, California.
In a recent blog post from his personal website Matt-Hughes.com, Hughes talked about his preparations for his fight with Ricardo Almeida, and a recent interview with his hometown paper where he was asked his feelings on being the oldest fighter on the card.
Training was great for this fight. Had some tough workouts at my gym and also went out to Salt Lake City and got to train with Jeremy, his guys and Matt Pena. My three corners for this fight will be Robbie Lawler, Matt Pena and Jeremy Horn. I really feel that my cornermen are the best in the business.
Just did a little interview with my hometown paper, one of the questions was asking how I felt about being the oldest man on the card. I turned around and said that I appreciated him pointing that out to me and that I hadn’t even thought about it. To be honest, it doesn’t matter to me. I guess I’m just glad I’ve been able to have as long of a career as I have. So many other people out there who have fought in the UFC wouldn’t even think of fighting as long as I have. So I guess I look at it as a privilege.
I think Ricardo will be hungry for this fight, I’ve beaten two Gracies and a teammate and, back about ten years ago, I beat Ricardo himself in a grappling match in Abu Dhabi. So on one hand he’s got a lot of motivation and on the other he sees what I just listed and knows I’m a threat. I think he will come at me hard and try to get me down to the ground somehow. He wants to be on top of me, but I’m sure if he’s on the ground he’ll be happier than on his feet.
I don’t think my weight cut will be hard for this fight, as I’ve been doing good with my exercise and diet.
As far as storylines go, the UFC 117 bout between Ricardo Almeida and
Matt Hughes has plenty, and they all center on revenge.
Hughes defeated Almeida in a grappling match back in 2000. Ten years later, Hughes beat
Almeida's teacher, Renzo Gracie, at UFC 112 in April. Surely that must
get Almeida's blood boiling, right?
Ricardo Almeida, who meets Matt Hughes in UFC 117's co-main event, and Dennis Hallman, who meets Ben Saunders on the event's preliminary card, are guests on today's edition of MMAjunkie.com.
In addition to that Aug. 17 event, we'll discuss Fedor Emelianenko's legacy with The Sunday Junkie winner John Fosco.
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Former number one welterweight contender Jon Fitch is looking to move back into title contention this August 7, 2010 at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California, United States when he takes on high level welterweight fighter Thiago Alves in a long awaited rematch. While Fitch has won 12 of his 13 fights in the Octagon, he’s been less than thrilling at times for the fans, with his last 8 fights going by way of decision. His lone loss was to UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre. Still the highlight video’s well done.
Main Card
Middleweight Championship bout: Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen
Welterweight bout: Jon Fitch vs. Thiago Alves
Lightweight bout: Clay Guida vs. Rafael Dos Anjos
Welterweight bout: Matt Hughes vs. Ricardo Almeida
Heavyweight bout: Roy Nelson vs. Junior Dos Santos
Preliminary Card
Light Heavyweight bout: Thiago Silva vs. Tim Boetsch
Welterweight bout: Dustin Hazelett vs. Rick Story
Heavyweight bout: Stefan Struve vs. Christian Morecraft
Welterweight bout: Johny Hendricks vs. Charlie Brenneman
Welterweight bout: Ben Saunders vs. Dennis Hallman
Light Heavyweight bout: Rodney Wallace vs. Stanislav Nedkov
UFC 117: Silva vs. Sonnen is set to take place on August 7 and will feature UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva as he defends his title against number one contender Chael Sonnen. Also on the card is a long anticipated match between welterweights Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves as well as the return of Matt Hughes as he takes on Ricardo Almeida.
UFC 116 is gone and done, and it’s time to look ahead to UFC 117: Silva vs. Sonnen which will feature current middleweight champion Anderson Silva defending his title against Chael Sonnen. Sonnen has been hyping the fight by criticizing almost every aspect of Silva’s character, fighting ability and in ring antics, and many are expecting the champion to answer back in the ring. While Silva is not one to trash talk much, he did address Sonnen’s words during a recent interview with Tatame. The champ seems quite cool about the whole situation, though he did send out a less than subtle reminder to Sonnen and fans:
I’m cool… I’m not anxious about his statements, I don’t worry about those things. He is promoting this fight the way he cans. He’s a great athlete, he’s having a chance to fight for the belt, so let’s go. When you get there, everything changes. Inside that cage the speech changes, everything change. The last one who spoke too much didn’t like the outcome, but it’s normal. People have their mouth and their right to say whatever they feel like.
It’ll be interesting to see if Silva pushes the pace after all the negative words he received from media, fans, and even UFC president Dan White concerning the antics he displayed when fighting Demian Maia at UFC 112. UFC 117: Silva vs. Sonnen takes place on August 7, 2010 at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California.
Here’s the card as it stands:
Middleweight Championship bout: Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen
Welterweight bout: Jon Fitch vs. Thiago Alves
Lightweight bout: Clay Guida vs. Rafael Dos Anjos
Welterweight bout: Matt Hughes vs. Ricardo Almeida
Heavyweight bout: Roy Nelson vs. Junior Dos Santos
Preliminary Card
Light Heavyweight bout: Thiago Silva vs. Tim Boetsch
Welterweight bout: Dustin Hazelett vs. Rick Story
Heavyweight bout: Stefan Struve vs. Christian Morecraft
Welterweight bout: Johny Hendricks vs. Charlie Brenneman
Welterweight bout: Ben Saunders vs. Dennis Hallman
Light Heavyweight bout: Rodney Wallace vs. Stanislav Nedkov
Shane Carwin vs. Brock Lesnar is the sort of heavyweight title fight that the UFC has always dreamed of. Lesnar is well on his way towards establishing himself as the most dominant heavyweight in the sport and Carwin is an up and coming fighter with an immaculate record.
Carwin has faced twelve opponents in his career to date and all twelve have been finished via stoppage in the very first round. Lesnar has lost only once, by submission to Frank Mir in his UFC debut, and he subsequently avenged that loss, unifying the heavyweight division in the process.
The barren days in which fighters the caliber of Tim Sylvia and Jeff Monson competing for the UFC heavyweight title are long gone. The division has long since taken its rightful place as the most marketable weight class the organization has and UFC 116 will be the culmination of years of effort on the behalf of the UFC matchmakers in acquiring the best heavyweight talent in the world.
Three outstanding fighters have emerged from the much improved UFC heavyweight division, Shane Carwin, Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez. The UFC is now in the enviable position of being able to put on at least two massive heavyweight fights, the first will come at UFC 116, the second when the winner emerges to face Velasquez.
Heavyweight fights traditionally carry more prestige than those in any other weight class, a fact which will definitely not be lost on the UFC. The fight between Carwin and Lesnar has been described by UFC President Dana White as ‘the biggest in UFC history’ and is likely to do more than a million pay per view buys.
For all the hype, there will only be two men in the Octagon at the UFC 116 main event. One of them, Lesnar, is absolutely enormous, and his sheer bulk has half of the heavyweight division starting to thinking serious thoughts about cutting down to 205 lbs
Carwin is not much smaller and possesses more power in his right hand then arguably any other fighter in UFC history. Lesnar has excellent wrestling credentials and will be looking to follow the blueprint for success which has seen him stop Randy Couture and Frank Mir in his last two Octagon appearances. Lesnar’s game plan will undoubtedly be to get Carwin on the floor with his 265 lbs + frame on top of him and ground and pound his way towards unifying the UFC heavyweight title.
Carwin, who holds an interim version of the UFC heavyweight title, will be looking to land a big right hand and finish the fight early. Lesnar is still a relative newcomer to the sport of MMA and his striking is still not exactly crisp. Randy Couture was able to pick Tim Sylvia apart with punches in their title fight he was nothing like as effective with his hands against Lesnar and this will give the Lesnar camp confidence that their man can stay out of harm’s way against the hard hitting Carwin.
It is easy to forget that there are four other fights on the main card, which is not a bad thing as they are all fairly forgettable match ups. An injury to Wanderlei Silva denied fans the chance to see the always interesting Brazilian in action against Japanese fighter Yoshihiro Akiyama.
Akiyama was less than convincing in his UFC debut against Alan Belcher and will be expecting an emphatic victory against Silva’s replacement, Chris Leben. He has been quite vocal about the fact that he feels Leben is an inferior opponent but would be well advised not to underestimate Leben who is a veteran of 15 previous UFC appearances.
Akiyama was extremely fortunate to get the benefit of the judge’s doubt against Belcher and will need to put his money where his mouth is with an impressive performance in his fight with TUF veteran Leben.
Chris Lytle and Matt Brown first met in 2007 outside of the UFC with Lytle winning with a rear naked choke. Lytle’s last four fights have either won fight of the night or submission of the night honors with Lytle emerging victorious from all of them except for a debatable split decision loss to Marcus Davis.
Brown is coming off a submission loss to Ricardo Almeida and will likely feel like he is fighting for his UFC future while the UFC must be hoping that Lytle can continue his recent habit of getting involved in exciting, fan friendly fights.
Stephan Bonnar is another man who has played his part in some of the most entertaining match ups in the recent history of the UFC. He will be facing Krzysztof Soszynski for the second time this year after the unsatisfactory ending to their first meeting.
The first fight was awarded to Soszynski as Bonnar was unable to continue due to a cut which replays showed was caused by an accidental head butt. A fourth consecutive loss for Bonnar would cast serious doubt over his UFC future and he will be looking to get his career back on track with a win against the ‘Polish Experiment’.
George Sotiropoulos has gone from strength to strength since competing on TUF 6 and is undefeated in the UFC with five wins out of five. After a slow start to his UFC career Kurt Pellegrino is now riding a four fight win streak and the winner of this contest will propel themselves to somewhere approaching the top of the lightweight division.
All eyes will be on Lesnar and Carwin though and most fight fans will view any entertainment to be found away from the main event a something of a bonus. The UFC would have you believe that Lesnar is already the greatest heavyweight MMA fighter there is but for me he is still two wins away from proving them right.
The first of those wins will need to come against Carwin at UFC 116 but Lesnar will need to keep his wits about him if he is to avoid being on the wrong end of an eighth consecutive knock out for Carwin.
Matt Brown is set to take on Chris “Lights Out” Lytle at UFC 116 on July 3 and the fight has MMA fans salivating for what should be an exciting bout. The first fight between the two took place outside the UFC with Lytle getting the submission victory via guillotine choke but Brown had only two weeks to prepare for the bout. This time both fighters have had a full camp and Brown will be hungry for a win after lossing to Ricardo Almeida at UFC 111. Lytle has rattled off two victories in a row, his latest coming at UFC 110 against Brian Foster. Brown isn’t looking for Fight of the Night honors though, he’s looking for the KO of the Night(quote via UFC.com):
“This time I have a full training camp, so I’ll be prepared for whatever comes,” he says. “And I can see where people are coming from with the fight of the night stuff. There’s no question that if I was looking at it from the outside that I would say it’s got Fight of the Night written all over it. But I plan on it being Knockout of the Night—I don’t see it being Fight of the Night at all. I’m going to knock him out. I don’t think either of us is going to be happy with this fight going to a decision. We’re coming, we’re out for blood. We’re coming to hurt each other.”
Matt Hughes doesn't see why Ricardo Almeida wants revenge, but he's not in a position to second-guess
matchups.
Hughes, who was recently inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame, on Tuesday
told MMAjunkie.com that his upcoming fight with the
"Big Dog" was put together after Hughes' most recent victory over
Almeida's longtime teacher, Renzo Gracie, at UFC 112.
"[Almeida] asked for the matchup right after I beat Renzo," Hughes said.
"He's wanting to get some payback, which is whatever. Whatever he wants
to fight for, I don't care."
As far as storylines go, the UFC 117 bout between Ricardo Almeida and
Ricardo Almeida, who meets Matt Hughes in UFC 117's co-main event, and Dennis Hallman, who meets Ben Saunders on the event's preliminary card, are guests on today's edition of MMAjunkie.com.
Matt Hughes doesn't see why Ricardo Almeida wants revenge, but he's not in a position to second-guess