Sak Out With Broken Rib, Mark Hunt Set To Fight Silva.

At least that's the word on the street. Apparently, Silva requested a heavyweight.

Thoughts?

 

it's not just the buzz in the ug forums. it's official apparently.

if it remains on the feet, mark will knock silva out. hunt has one of the toughest skulls in the biz.

if it goes to the ground, silva's going to triangle hunt like there's no tomorrow. that or go and knee his noggin until it splits open. or do that stomp thing that he likes doing.

all in all it's a great fight.

sad news about my man sak though.

 

well he isnt going to knock Hunt out thats for sure, so I guess this will be his second win by way of submission? (he only has one other by sub if I recall...)

I dont know, seems a bit convenient to me that saku hurt himself right before a fight that EVERYONE KNEW he would lose. maybe he came to his senses and wanted to save himself without losing face.

 

DSE hasn't made an official announcement, but the sources seem solid.

Tough fight for Silva.

 

don't be like that. my man saku has never ever turned away from a fight.

no announcement on the dse site? hmmm... i just bet US$100 on silva. that bookie isn't selling it to me straight. dang these unnamed inferior forums!

 

maybe he did break a rib, im not his trainer so I cant say and yeah saku is the last person I would expect to do that. but if I found myself going into a fight against someone who has only gotten BETTER since the last time they absolutely mauled me, not to mention the other two ass whuppings he took,I might take a second to think whether its a great idea or not.

And good lord, the people on sherdog are so deluded its insane. I was banned after the k-1 fiasco (wasnt even told what for and it was a permanent ban...) so I cant say anything there, but the level of ignorance... some of them actually think wandy could knock out Hunt. Mirko Cro Cops roundhouse, the single MOST POWERFUL strike there is in mma/k-1, couldnt knock him out. and that was a picture perfect roundhouse, any mortal man would have been in the hospital after that, shin right on the neck, hunt was leaning into it. and all it did was drop hunt to one knee. he then went on to win the fight in most peoples opinion, were it not for that kick he would win on points.

silva is a wild striker. Hunt is possibly the most powerful puncher in MMA, and hes a weight division above. if wandy tries to keep it standing he is going down. he wont get away with those loopy hooks against Hunt, who has a nasty uppercut counter for that sort of thing. and look at the trouble yoshida had submitting him... if wandy wins this (and he SHOULD since Hunt is so much of a relative newb) its going to be by decision, maybe sub if he can gas Hunt out.

oh and haha at the people calling him fat. obviously these people have never been to samoa. he would class as "solid" by their standards

 

hahaha! hard to get news sources in the mma world.

saku will fight anyone. he isn't a reasonable man. he's there for the game.

i agree that hunt could kill silva but i like the spread. too good to pass up. silva has about 50% chance to beating him and with hunt a 3 to 1 favorite, i'll take my chances.

this will be a good fight if it happens.

 

Not for nothing but,

Thats why he fights for Pride. He wasn't in top shape the last two times he faught Silva. I don't think another would matter all that much. It's gotta be something real big.

 

Guys,

this is possibly the real thing... talking to my mates from training, who have been talking to Hunt's BJJ coach, they have said that Pride have offered him the fight against Silva. The only thing is, Silva has not signed yet as he doesn't like the weight difference (~30kgs), but it looks like he will.

However, Hunt has not been training for a fight like Silva has.. just keeping active.

I don't see Silva winning this standing up, so he's gonna have to take Hunt down and sub him, or win a decision I feel.. if it stays standing, Hunt will KO him IMO.

 

It's confirmed that Sak is out. If the match with Hunt goes ahead, it will be a dangerous fight for Silva; he's got a skull like a rock and he's deceptively quick, certainly much faster than his physique would have you believe. Though Silva rarely shows it, he's very slick on the ground - I feel that's where he's going to have to win it.

From MMAWeekly.com:

A very somber Kazushi Sakuraba addressed the media this weekend in Japan, upset that he will not be able to fight in Pride's New Years Eve extravaganza against Wanderlei Silva.

According to Pride's website and local papers in Japan, the injury was a break to one of his ribs. Specifically, it was the 7th rib from the top on his left side. And from the pictures in the newspaper of the fracture, and it was OBVIOUSLY broken - not like ahairline fracture or anything. It was bad enough that they were worried that if he fought in that condition and, for example, took some strong strikes in that area, that the bone would puncture one of his internal organs. Hence, the bout being called off. Saku wasn't pleased with having to call off the fight, as you can imagine, since he is so competitive, and the newspapers said he had tears in his eyes during the press conference. The doctors told him that it'd take a "month of rest" (no training) to
heal, and several months for him to be in condition to
compete again.

Pride's website did not specify when exactly the injury occurred. It did say though that his absence at the fight card
announcement press conference held on the 11/30 was not
due to his having "overslept," the story that was fed to
the press at the time. If you'll remember, there was
another press conference held on 12/9, at which time he
said that the real reason for missing the previous press
conference was that he had a sprain in the lumbar area of
his back, and that he thought he'd still be ready for 12/31.

The reason it took so long to get the truth out into the
open was Saku's determination to make the fight happen.
The first MRI's of the injury were taken on 12/5, at which
time the rib was discovered to be broken. He was hoping
that it would be healed up enough by the time of his
re-check with the doctors on 12/14 and that he would be able to go through with the fight. But alas, the rib had shifted, making it even more dangerous to fight. By this time he could only go 5 minutes on an aerobike before it started
hurting him. He was still determined to go through with
it, but a combined effort by Sakakibara and Takada
convinced him to give up this time. They basically told
him that there are other shows coming up in February, and the the middleweight GP in April, and that he would have chances then. (One of the newspapers stated that, given the timeframe explained above for his returnto action, a February comeback is at best iffy, so realistically we're probably looking at a GP fight for hisnext match.)

One of the more interesting portions of the write-up on
the PRIDE site was what was written concerning Saku's
replacement. They're going to have Silva fight, but they
claim that the opponent hasn't been determined yet.
Takada put up the challenge "to any fighter who thinks
he's the one [to beat Silva]" to come out of the woodworks
and fight him. Apparently, they're hoping for some
Japanese fighter to step up to the plate (although this is
not explicitly stated in the article), but they've doubtlessly got someone in mind in case nobody else applies for a year-end thrashing.

The rumors are flying fast and furious on who his opponent might be. The common names over the past 24 hours include Igor Vovchanchin, and Mark Hunt. Hunt would be a good name, just for the fact that the TV ratings were very high between Yoshida and Hunt when they fought.

 

I'm really looking forward to this fight; even more so than i was with the original matchup of Sakuraba vs Silva.

Sakuraba has always said it's his dream to beat Silva before he retires, im sure he hasn't made up these reports of him hurting his back Though the thought of it has crossed my mind many times )

 

ok i take it back, i was only speculating anyway

but you're right I would rather see this fight because it could go either way. we all know what the result of another saku vs silva fight would be.

 

Is Sak insured for his injuries? Cos damn that guy is always breaking something or hurt something. They should just cryo-freeze him and lock him up safely till his next match

 

Definatly it makes you wonder why DSE didn't think of the value of a Silva vs Hunt fight before they matched Sakuraba to Silva

Who better to fight Silva than the guy who got up after taking a Dim Mak from Cro cop

 

If Silva and Hunt fight -

Silva in 1st round by TKO. Reasons are simple:

Silva has been training - Hunt hasn't

In their last fights - Silva destroyed Jackson worse than he did the first time. Hunt fought Bobish and both were gassed 2 minutes into the match.

Hunt likes to bang. Silva does too, but for this fight he will pick and choose his attacks. Watch for him to work on Hunt's lead leg.

Remember, Silva doesn't have to knock him out - just got to make him bleed.

 

Win, lose or draw; Lets not forget that Hunt hasn't been training to fight in the NYE Shockwave event.

Silva has been training hard to fight Sakuraba, whilst Hunt has (if, or when it is an official announcement) taken the fight on only a very few days notice!

 

thats a good point, but Hunt has superb natural ability as a fighter. if anyone can take a fight on short notice and win its Hunt.

 

I agree with you, i just feel it's important for people to understand that this will be one of Hunt's toughest fights since fighting Jerome Le Banner; and to take it on only a few days notice, deserves some recognition.

 

according to rampage, silva is a bleeder too. the weight difference is too big. if wandy gets nailed once clean, it's bye bye birdie for him.

then again, wandy does have a ground game.

 

Apparently, Mark Hunt has been working hard on his ground skills since his debut fight against Yoshida; so it should be quite interesting.