 Franky's
Take On What's Next for UFC 79 Fighters
I am going to keep this short and not really break down the fights to
much. My goal here is to give my opinion on what the fighters from the
main card of UFC 79 should do next.
Melvin Guillard vs. Rich Clementi:
I was impressed with Clementi here. He took The Young Assassin down and
forced Guillard to tap-out. I was expecting more from Guillard's hands.
I think that Guillard should fight Roger Huerta next. I know this is
a step up in competition for Guillard which he doesn't deserve for losing,
but these two have unfinished business. In 2005, Guillard won a decision
over Huerta only to have it later overturned by the Comission due to being
"greased up." I think that this would be a very entertaining
fight as are most of Huerta's fights.
For Clementi, I would like to see him fight Manny Gamburyan. Gamburyan
won his fight on the UFC 79 undercard. This fight would help to move one
of these fighters up the LW ladder.
Lyoto Machida vs. Sokoudjou:
Another Pride fighter fails. Since Judo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu branch
from the same martial art, both have a lot of similarities. Such as a
GROUND GAME. Soko is a world-champion in Judo, but in this fight he displayed
no ground game. Maybe he is overworking his stand-up?
Machida is still undefeated in MMA. He is a cautious fighter, but he
wins. He holds 4 wins in the UFC and with that I think he deserves to
be in the top contention for a title. A good win would put him right at
the top. Who could give him that opportunity? Chuck Liddell. Karate vs.
Karate. This fight would benefit both fighters and it would be interesting
to see their styles match up.
Sokoudjou is, in my opinion, on a collision course with Houston Alexander.
Both fighters had 2 big KO wins in 2007 only to lose in their third attempt.
I think Soko wins this, but it may force him to use those Judo skills
that we know are there.
Eddie Sanchez vs. Soa Palelei:
As an MMA fan I hate saying this about any fight, but I have not been
this bored watching a fight since Gabriel Gonzaga fought Kevin Jordan.
At least in that fight Gonzaga had a reason why he did not perform where
neither Sanchez or Palelei did.
What next for them? I don't really care as long as it is on the undercard
of the event. I don't want to be forced to watch these guys fight anyone
until they are ready to bring it.
This fight did not disappoint the fans that have been waiting years to
see it. Both of these fighters threw down and ate a number of punches.
As it turned out, Liddell reach over the smaller Silva was the deciding
factor in this fight. I had this fight scored 29-28 Liddell, not 30-27.
As for Chuck Liddell, go check my pick for Machida. Wanderlei Silva is
now 1-3 in the UFC. He is small for a LHW standing at only 5'11'', but
has ruled out a drop to MW saying that "That’s way too much
weight for me to lose, I couldn’t do it." There are two fights
that the UFC could sell with Silva both of them involving rematches. The
first is a rematch with Tito Ortiz. Tito defeated Wanderlei at UFC 25
for the LHW (then called MW) title. After this loss, Wanderlei left the
UFC and made a name for himself in Japan. The other fight would be a fight
against Vitor Belfort who would be making a UFC comeback. Vitor has been
in talks with UFC brass to make such a comeback stating that he has moved
past his personal issues. Vitor holds a 44 second KO over Silva at UFC
Brazil.
One thing to note is that Chuck Liddell is now the sole owner of the
most UFC victories after this win and Hughes' loss. The record stands
at 16.
Georges St. Pierre vs. Matt Hughes:
What really to say about this fight except that Hughes got dominated.
Maybe even more so than their second fight. GSP seems to have his head
back on straight.
The next fighter that I would like to see both of these guys fight just
happens to be the same. Matt Serra. Obviously St. Pierre gets the first
shot and will attempt to get the WW title back. This fight looks like
it could happen in April in UFC's first show in Canada. I see GSP winning
this fight and setting Serra up for a showdown with Hughes.
There is bad blood between Hughes and Serra which can make this fight.
My concern is that Hughes has lost his fire. He is setting himself up
very nicely for life after the UFC. I am really disappointed because I
would love to see Hughes fight Josh Koscheck or Jon Fitch, but would that
be a good fight if Hughes' heart is no longer in it? |
