UFC 77 Hostile Territory

I know plenty of people are interested but as no one has posted about this I will, here are the fights listed for the night.

Rich Franklin Vs. Anderson Silva
Tim Sylvia Vs. Brandon Vera
Alvin Robinson Vs. Jorge Gurgel
Eric Schafer Vs. Stephan Bonnar
Alan Belcher Vs. Kalib Starnes

The below fight might not be aired

Jason MacDonald Vs. Yushin Okami - really disppointed about this not be aired
Demian Maia Vs. Ryan Jensen
Josh Burkman Vs. Forrest Petz
Matt Grice Vs. Jason Black

Here are my thoughts on the fights with fighters that I know

Okami/mcdonald
Okami with his strength will destroy Macdonald. Macdonald is a good fighter but he struggled with someone strong like Franklin and will be very similar imo.

Schafer/Bonnar
Bonnar is fairly well rounded and should win, Schafer is good at Jujitsu but seemed very one dimensional against Bisping and only wanted to take him down with no stand up game. If Schafer has improved his stand up game then I reckon he will have a stronger chance.

Robinson/Gurgel
I don't know too much about Robinson but I wouldn't be surprised if this fight was to be used as a stepping stone for Gurgel. I think Gurgel is a pretty good fighter and the UFC want to get him a few wins before facing same tough opponents.

Sylvia/Vera
I want Vera to win as I like his style and attitude. It is hard to say as they can both knock people out. Sylvia is trying to lose weight so that Vera does not have a speed advantage. I beleive that Vera will do it with good speed and he is meant to be pretty good on the ground from what I hear.

Franklin/Silva
Franklin is one of my favourite fighters but Silva is a favourite of mine know as well due to his thaiboxing and makes fights exciting even though they are short. It is tough to say who will win, if Franklin has practised his clinch is chances will increase a lot. I saw that in training Silva likes to make sure that all techniques he throw labd abd this means Franklin better make sure he is a hard to target to hit as Silva can throw some nasty blows. I beleive Franklin will try to take it to the ground before the end of the first round (if the fight lasts that long) and near the beginning of the second. Who ever wins or loses I will be happy and sad but I beleive Silva will win but I like the thouht of Franklin winning and having a third and final match between the 2.

So what is everyones oppinion then?

 

I've only really got an oppinion on the two big matches:

Vera-Sylvia: Vera's got KO power, but he's kind of a small heavyweight. Big Tim's got a reach advantage. I can't say for sure that Sylvia will win the standup, but I think he's got a better chance. Vera's supposed to be excellent on the ground, but I haven't seen any strong takedowns out of him, so I don't think he'll be able to get the fight to the ground if he was being punished in the standup. I'd actually prefer to see Vera win, but what I'm looking at tells me the better odds are with Sylvia.

Sylvia, KO, R2

Silva-Franklin: I like Rich. I really do. But Silva's a better striker at a distance and in the clinch, and is very good at fighting off of his back. Franklin's only advantage seems to be in takedowns, and maybe a top game. He's also proven he can go the distance, while Silva hasn't... or hasn't NEEDED to. Franklin's a smart guy, and in great shape. It's possible he could pull a Couture and keep the fight exactly in that one area where Silva's not that good: from a dominant top possition. However, I've never seen anyone take such a lopsided beating and win a rematch.

Silva, TKO, R4

 

I agree also, I really want Franklin to win, but Silva striking is just too good, but I give him TKO in R2 or 3

 

My prediction.
Anderson Silva to win - TKO strikes (round 3 or 4)

My girlfriend's prediction:
Rich Franklin to win - "because he's gorgeous and hunky, Anderson is skinny".

Women, go figure.

 

HAHAHAHAHAHA

 

And the results are...

[EXPAND="Spoilers"]Anderson Silva def. Rich Franklin by TKO (Strikes) at 1:07, R2
Tim Sylvia def. Brandon Vera by Unanimous Decision, R3
Alvin Robinson def. Jorge Gurgel by Unanimous Decision, R3
Stephan Bonnar def. Eric Schafer by TKO (Strikes) at 2:47, R2
Alan Belcher def. Kalib Starnes by TKO (Doctor Stoppage) at 1:39, R2
Yushin Okami def. Jason MacDonald by Unanimous Decision, R3
Demian Maia def. Ryan Jensen by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 2:40, R1
Josh Burkman def. Forrest Petz by Split Decision, R3
Matt Grice def. Jason Black by Split Decision, R3

No major surprises there, really. I was expecting Silva to drop Franklin again, but for Franklin to give a better account of himself than last time, which he did and, much as I like Vera, I thought Sylvia would just be too big and range-y for him, grinding out a dull decision, though I was kinda hoping Vera would've been able to chop him down. Maybe the ring rust was a factor[/EXPAND]

If people can use the spoiler tags until tomorrow morning, that'd be great since the event doesn't air in the UK until tonight

 

[EXPAND="Spoiler"]I was rooting for Franklin, despite the fact I didn't think he'd win. I saw opportunities FOR a win, but after the punch at the end of R1 I knew it was over. As for Silva, I've never seen a guy win cleanly and look like he regreted it so much. Almost like he felt bad for winning. Great show of class by both guys, though.[/EXPAND]

 

It's aired in the U.K. now. Anderson Silva dominated Rich again, he seems to be in a leage of his own, in the middle weights. Tim Silvia gave us a boring fight, where he showed 0 skill and just used his size to stop Verra doing anything, he probally could of finished it with strikes but hes so lazy hed rather stand still for 15 minutes. I hope they give him Kongo like he wanted, so he can beat him to death (hopefully).

 

Nice. Try the spoiler tag next time big boy.

 

It just finished like I said in my post. Its been shown everywhere it will be shown.

 

LoL whoops my bad dude.

 

Poor Tim Sylvia....all he wants is to be loved. I don't blame him at all for that boring fight. He tried his best to push the pace, but Vera's gameplan seemed to entail trying to hug him to death. I have never seen a fighter try to cling onto his opponent to such a degree! Jeez, I was hoping Tim was gonna knock him out cold for that.

Gurgel....he tried...man that whole fight was an amazing display of Jiu-Jitsu in the cage

I can't bring myself to care about Stephan Bonnar....I have always hated him and Forrest just because everyone hails that sloppy slugfest of a fight they had as apparently a shining moment in MMA history.

Aaron Belcher has found a new fan in me. He lit up Starnes with some beautiful kicks and elbows. Beautiful Muay Thai. Props to Starnes for displaying some skills of his own, and for fighting with such a gash on his head! ouch

Anderson Silva...man not even sure what to say. He is a freaking God amongst us mortals. AMAZING.

PS: Anderson did the Rashad dance!!! +10 points!

 

LOL! I noticed that too. I loved the beautiful spinning back kick and the spinning backfist that Silva did to Franklin.

 

I agree with what everyone's saying.

Silva just seems to get better and better, it's a delight to watch someone with such well rounded skills, plus boundless energy and heart.

I don't remember seeing Alan Belcher before but I was really impressed by his Muay Thai. It's so refreshing to see something new added into the mix!

Also it was great to see all the fighters showing a lot of class and mutual respect.

 

Well the show was alright nothing amazing imo.

Belcher/starnes
Belcher is a pretty good stand up fighter but starnes stand up game is ok and his take downs where useless.

Robinson/Gurgel
Gurgel is great at Jujitsu but he threw hardly any punches when on top in the first round which was silly. Robinson knows how to play the mma games while gurgel needs to learn a few things.

Bonner/Schafer
I knew Bonner would win, schafer is too one dimensional and is not able to handle the strikes too well

Vera/Sylvia
Borefest, sylvia played it safe and kept him by the cage for most of the fight. When they were not against the cage I couldn't understand why vera was hardly throwing any stikes until after with a possible broken hand. Also Vera's footwork was not great as he could have avoided getting stuck on the cage on a few occasions.

Franklin/Silva
Franklin is a hell of a fighter and can beat pretty much all middleweights out there but sadly Silva is in a league of his own. Silva's striking is just amazing probably the best in all of mma at the moment. I can't think of anyone that will beat Silva, maybe if Machida moved to the the middlewieght then he might have a chance. Franklin could move to the light heavyweight division and see how that goes. Silva is going to dominate the middleweight division for a few years like chuck did.

 

I was just going to say i have no seen this then i hit a non-spoiler post.

I'll watch it then come back to this thread.

 

Undercards were good fights, not much to say, tbh.

The Sylvia/Verra fight was so underwhelming I don't know where to begin. And I haven't decided whose fault it is. Tim came across as a fat schlub whose sole strategy seemed to be to squash Vera with the cage and his substantial gut, while Vera needs his head examined. What was up with the commentary at the end? "I'm still here bitches"?!? Yeah, whatever. Although from what I heard Vera and Irvin weren't agreeing on a strategy

*sigh* Damn, Franklin lost again. I like him. I really do. Class, brains, and a great fighter. But Silva owned him. Again. My buds and I were actually surprised there was even a round two; Franklin got rocked right at the end of round one. On the plus side, Silva has a lot of class and may very well take the place of Couture as the "humble champion".

 

I think it was a night of could-have-beens.

If Starnes had spent some time on wrestling (takedowns & top control), he might have stood a chance with his much-improved standup. Props to Belcher, he's got a versatility on the feet that's fun to watch.

If Gurgel had thrown some ground strikes in R1, at the very least he could have softened Robinson up. Instead he basically played a sport JJ game, and tried to "score points" by taking mount instead of doing what Robinson did and throw punches at every opportunity on the ground.

If Schafer... well, he probably did all he could to finish that choke. Props to Bonnar for his sub defense, but it was close there for a bit.

If Vera hadn't hurt his hand, we might have seen a better standup fight. But I don't really think so, he scored a bit with kicks but seemed content to stay in the clinch. Maybe if he'd tried to take the fight to the ground, or done something once it got there, we wouldn't be complaining about the fight so much. As one guy on Sherdog said (paraphrasing), "I didn't count on the fact that neither man showed up to fight".

Rich... what can I say. Like Domino, I really like the guy. I don't like to see him get destroyed. You know, he was tagging Silva when they were in the center of the Octagon. Maybe things would have gone differently if he'd tried to stay in the center, maybe counterpunched a bit. The second the fight ended up against the cage, it was only a matter of time. Silva is downright frightening on the feet. A little like seeing a cheatah in slow motion. It's elegant, beautiful, but you know it's going to end very badly for his victim.

On another note, what's up with all the elbows thrown that night? Both Belcher and the :58 seconds worth of action in the Sylvia-Vera fight had guys throwin' 'bows on the feet. That was awesome. Hope it starts a trend.

 

Silva is a man amongst boys right now. He is so polished and efficient as a fighter, very little wasted energy and every strike counts. No wasted effort with him.

It's really a beautiful thing to watch him, none of this garbage of just punching for the sake of it and flailing away like most of these guys. He is definitely the exception rather than the rule.

 

Tim Sylvia needs to lose his next 4 fights so he can retire from MMA, and then I will never have to watch him push some dude up against the cage for 15 minutes. In the middle of the bout when Vera tried to unload some big kicks on him he just started clinching. What the hell, man? If I wanted to see 2 dudes hugging for 15 minutes I would .. well, I don't know what I'd do, but I cerntainly woudln't go watch the UFC.

Also, Anderson Silva is my hero. Way to lay down that ass whuppin'. He even landed a jumping back kick. Amazing! That fight is one for the ages. Hell yeah, hostile territory. Any place with 5 feet of Anderson Silva is hostile territory.