UFC 112 "Invincible" Preview

UFC 112 "Invincible" Preview

The UFC will continue it's global expansion this Saturday when it presents UFC 112 from Abu Dhabi. The main story of this show is two dominant champions, Anderson Silva and B.J. Penn, defending their titles and Matt Hughes fighting Renzo Gracie. The other two fights that fill out the PPV card are Terry Etim/Rafael dos Anjos and Kendall Grove/Mark Munoz. I'm pretty sure everybody is tuning in for Anderson, B.J. and Hughes/Gracie.

UFC Middleweight Championship: Anderson Silva (c) (25-4, 10-0 UFC) vs. Demian Maia (12-1, 6-1 UFC)

Anderson Silva has certainly not wowed anybody with his last two title fights (Thales Leites and Patrick Cote) but he was amazing in his last fight against Forrest Griffin. Despite posting a record of 6-1 inside the Octagon there is no question that Demian Maia backed his way into this title fight. Maia is one of the best submission fighters on the planet but his stand-up game was brutally exposed when he lost to Nate Marquardt in 21 seconds in UFC 102 and his wrestling is nowhere near the level of his jiu jitsu. Maia is only getting this title fight because Marquardt was manhandled by Chael Sonnen at UFC 109 and Vitor Belfort is on the shelf recovering from an injury. Realistically you have at least Belfort, Sonnen and Marquardt above Maia in the Middleweight division but timing is everything and that's why Maia has this opportunity. I think Anderson will be very calculative in this fight and not take any chances with Maia's great ground game. Because of that I think Anderson will take this fight in the 2nd round after a long feeling out process. Anderson is not in there with a guy like Forrest Griffin or James Irvin that's going to come out guns a blazing and I think Maia will still be gun shy from that Marquardt loss even though he rebounded with a decision victory over Dan Miller. I hope the blood thirsty Anderson Silva comes out and puts Maia away in the first two minutes but I think we will see a more calculative approach and hopefully it won't be a Thales Leites type fight. Silva is just too dominant on his feet for Maia to do anything with in this fight.

UFC Lightweight Championship: B.J. Penn (c) (15-5-1, 11-4-1 UFC) vs. Frankie Edgar (11-1, 6-1 UFC)

This is another example of a dominant champion taking on somebody who is not on the top of the heap of his division. We've seen this recently with the Anderson Silva/Demian Maia match-up as well as GSP/Dan Hardy. I think that's what makes the upcoming Brock Lesnar/Shane Carwin and Lyoto Machida/Shogun Rua fights so much more intriguing. B.J. Penn recently dispatched of the #2 guy in the division (Kenny Florian) and also decimated Diego Sanchez in short order. Edgar actually has a loss on his record to undefeated Gray Maynard, who I see as the #3 guy in this division right now behind Penn and KenFlo. But it appears that Maynard is not so eager to step in the ring with B.J. Penn and is either looking to obtain more experience before that fight or he's waiting on Penn to lose or switch divisions. So that leaves us with Frankie Edgar. Edgar's signature win was over former champion Sean Sherk. His last win was over Matt Veach, which usually doesn't land you a title fight. Frankie's only loss is by decision but I think B.J. will take him down and find a way to finish this fight by the end of the third round. It's a shame guys like Shinya Aoki, Eddie Alvarez, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Gilbert Melendez and Ben Henderson are not in the UFC. I would love to see those guys go after B.J. Penn one after the other and see if anybody could knock him off.

Matt Hughes (43-7, 17-4 UFC) vs. Renzo Gracie (13-6-1, 0-0 UFC)

Hughes was last in the octagon in May of 2009 and struggled to a decision victory over Matt Serra. Before that he posted back-to-back losses to GSP and Thiago Alves but those are 2 of the top 3 guys in the division and Hughes took the Alves fight despite Alves missing weight by a wide margin. The last I saw of Renzo Gracie was against Frank Shamrock and I don't really remember much of that fight. I did a quick google search so I could watch that fight again. There is a site called mmafightdump.com that has this fight but just to the right of the video is an ad that I could not resist telling you about. It was called "Guide to the Vagina"- Learn about the female anatomy in this exciting video tour! It's very distracting when you are trying to watch MMA. But I guess there are a lot of MMA fans who could use more information on the vagina. It should be noted that another sponsor of this site is advertising "cute latina girls fight". I need to get away from this site before I do something I will regret. Based on what I saw in that video (the Shamrock/Gracie one not the other one- get your mind out of the gutter!) I have no reason to believe that Renzo will be able to compete with Hughes. Hughes is country boy strong and I see him being able to defend the take down and being able to maintain a dominant position and I can't see Renzo winning the fight on the feet. If I was a betting man I would put money on Hughes to win by decision if not earlier.

Terry Etim (14-2, 5-2 UFC) vs. Rafael dos Anjos (13-4, 2-2 UFC)

Etim is on a 4-fight win streak but doesn't have any wins that really stand out. dos Anjos is on a 2-fight win streak and also doesn't have any big wins that stand out. The winner of this will be looking at a big step up in competition for their next fight. I'm not sure why this is on PPV other than it being a possible springboard for one of these guys to get more publicity. dos Anjos lost to Tyson Griffin and Jeremy Stephens when he stepped up in competition and since then has 2 decision victories over lesser opponents. Etim has finished 3 of his last 4 fights. Terry Etim is the favorite to win this fight and while I think this is a close one to call if I had to bet it would be on Etim due to his ability to finish.

Kendall Grove (11-6, 6-3 UFC) vs. Mark Muñoz (7-1, 2-1 UFC)

Grove has won 3 of his last 4 and had an impressive submission victory over Jake Rosholt at UFC 106. Munoz is still very young in this sport but was in WEC before he entered the octagon. Munoz was welcomed to the UFC by a Matt Hamill head kick but since has rallied to win two in a row. Munoz is considered the betting favorite in this fight and on first look I would pick him. But I'll go with Grove here. There is nothing that I really like about Grove over Munoz but I think he will be able to use his reach and striking to win this fight against a guy who is still finding his way in MMA.

As I went through the Main Card I realized that on paper this looks to be a ho-hum night of fights. The weird thing about the UFC is that the shows that look mediocre on paper sometimes end up being the most exciting shows. That's what's so exciting about MMA, every fighter is one good punch from a shocking victory. That being said, don't watch this because you may see an upset watch it to see two of the best pound for pound fighters in the world displaying their craft at the top of their games.