TUF, UFC 77, and Dana vs. Tito

Check out an article I wrote for Sprawl-n-Brawl.com here about how TUF is good for the Sport. Adam Morgan has been kind enough to let me write for his site as he focuses some of his efforts for 5 Oz of Pain with Sam Caplan while Sam focuses his efforts on working as the head editor of ProElite.com! I am still looking for writers for MMA Opinion so please email me or visit the Contact page.

It looks like the card for UFC 77 is set to go and although there should be some exciting matchups, I don’t see a fun middleweight title fight – at least not for Rich Franklin. You can say that Anderson Silva is over-rated, but I don’t see anyone beating this guy unless they find a way to exploit his game plan because Silva always seems to have an answer to whatever you throw at him. Hopefully we don’t see a repeat of Franklin prematurely crumpling to the ground again for the sake of an exciting fight.

Other notable fights include everyone’s least favorite Maine-iac, Tim Sylvia, as he faces Brandon Vera. I’m not a big fan of big Tim and his big head so I am hoping that Vera keeps Sylvia on his losing streak. Josh Burkman, coming off a tough decision loss to Karo “I will judo throw you on your face” Parisyan, is facing Forrest Petz. Please do not confuse him with Forrest Griffin; a larger and funnier looking fighter – in a good way, of course.

Personally I am excited to see how Stephan Bonnar makes out in his upcoming UFC fight against Eric Shafer after winning his prior fight against Mike Nickels in UFC 73 and his fight with the Nevada State Athletic Commission after they found that he was juicing it up in ’06. Bonnar is one of the guys who helped the UFC maintain their heavy television presence on Spike TV during the first Ultimate Fighter series and can be appreciated for his humorous weigh-in antics.

As for the dreaded UFC 78, it looks like Tito Ortiz is making Dana White look like a fool as he may not be fighting Rashad Evans to avenge their boring draw during UFC’s “Stacked” card back in July. UK fighter Michael Bisping may be coming in to square off in a fight that many are just slight interested in. Bisping came off a decision win against Matt Hamill that many felt should have gone the other way. It didn’t help when he went off during the post-fight press conference and acted a bit inapropriately for someone who won a decision victory with the help of Cecil Peoples. Ouch. I don’t really think the UFC should sign Ortiz back as he has become a pretty boring one-dimensional fighter – ground and pound was fun in 2002.

So now that UFC 78 has a real fight as the headline, it just may be worth going to…or not. The undercard is still sketchy for a UFC production so I may just stay home and watch it for free with some friends instead. If I decide to go, I can watch Houston Alexander pound somebody to near death and I would like to see Parisyan as well. Either way, it’s still a fight night and maybe a few exciting things will happen in NJ. At least UFC 77 is coming up soon.