UFC 91: Sizing up the card’s potential accolades
By wookalarman on Nov 14, 2008
As we draw closer to UFC 91: Couture vs. Lesnar, it’s more than easy to remember what has been talked about the most widespread amongst casual and hardcore MMA fans. Without a question, the topic most mentioned has been whether or not Lesnar deserves this fight and cooperatively why this fight is deemed so huge for the UFC. Don’t worry, I’m not going to touch on that subject anymore.
Dropping off the radar and being “dumbed down” so to speak, are the rest of the main card bouts that precede the star-studded main event. Extremely surprising to me is the amount of negative criticism the card in its entirety has received. Comments I have heard on numerous occassions have been along the lines of the card “not being solid”, or “lacking”. The addition of the Hazelett/McCrory bout has changed many minds and all of a sudden the card doesn’t seem so lacking, does it?
Even before the addition of the aforementioned bout, I was still pretty content with this card. As the hype for the event has grown to astronomical proproportions in the recent weeks, I have been able to dissect the highlights for this card and finally make my predictions on whom will received the so coveted accolades of the night. So, that being said, who will be receiving one of those highly touted bonus checks from Zuffa? More after the jump.
Fight of the Night: Kenny Florian and Joe Stevenson
This fight presents a fantastic matchup for Florian and Stevenson. I don’t expect this to be an easy bout for either of these guys and I can see this going the distance. Both of these guys are Jiu Jitsu Black belts and good on their feet. I give the striking advantage to Florian and a slight edge to Stevenson on the ground strictly based on raw power and wrestling ability. Interestingly enough we will see the motivation of both of these guys tested; they have both said extensively that they want to further prove their “I finish fights” motto. I expect to see non-stop action, flip flopping stand-up and ground action, and the fight ultimately ending in the hands of the judges with the possibility of a stoppage late in the fight– Kenny Florian being the victor.
Knockout of the Night: Nate Quarry on Demian Maia
Despite Demian Maia having the status as arguably the best submission grappler in the middleweight division, I am still somewhat surprised to see him as such a heavy favorite in this fight. I personally expected the betting lines to reflect a more even matchup due to their opposite strengths: Quarry on the total stand-up advantage and Maia on the total ground advantage. However, Quarry’s unorthodox yet technical striking style could pose a problem for Maia. I don’t expect to see him being able to take Quarry down very easily and Quarry is much too smart to play Maia’s game and take him down. I expect to see Quarry keep his distance with leg kicks and technical striking leading eventually to a knockout punch.
Submission of the Night: Dustin Hazelett over Tamdan McCrory
I could go on forever about how much potential I think Hazelett has in the Welterweight division. He’s got some of the slickest Jiu Jitsu that I’ve seen in the division in quite some time. As Hazelett said himself, once you get to a certain level with Jiu Jitsu, it’s not so much about actually manuevers but applying the concepts learned through the experience. That is exactly what Hazelett did when he pulled off that highlight reel armbar over Josh Burkman in his last fight. No one and I mean no one saw that coming. While McCrory is awkwardly strong,scrappy, and is a very decent wrestler, he has shown a lack of submission defense in the past. Most notably, his submission loss to Akihiro Gono back at UFC78. I expect Hazelett to fully exploit McCrory’s weakness and end the fight with a textbook submission. Sorry guys, nothing fancy this time!
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Another interesting point to bring up about the Florian and Stevenson bout is the fact that Dana White stated in yesterday’s UFC91 Press Conference that the winner WILL get a title shot at Penn. I cringed when I heard that. This number one contender fight was made apparently because Florian did not beat Huerta in convincing enough fashion to get the immediate title shot. While I am able to grasp that concept, I am just not able to grasp the concept of Joe Stevenson getting in their with Penn again and being absolutely humiliated in the cage… again. I don’t think I’m alone on that one either. So please, KenFlo, chalk up a win in your column and give us a far more interesting title bout in the months to come.
Filed Under: Opinion • Predictions • Preview • UFC
Comments (5)
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Curious, Demian Maia has never been knockedout in a MMA competition, in fact, he never loss. And, maybe he does have great striking that’s not highly touted but just decides submit his opponents because the opportunity presents itself often.
However we do know that Quarry can be KO’ed, put to sleep from the right punch. His Rich Franklin induced sleep forever being a part of UFC quick KO highlight reels.
Maia has a martial arts background. What if his striking is strong enough to use it to set up a takedown for submission? Travis Lutter knew enough to be able to takedown both Franklin and Silva.
I doubted Demain Maia before and I won’t make that mistake again. He’s got a standup game that keeps him alive and a submission game that guarantees a win on the ground. Maia will take some abuse standing up, but when the fight goes to the ground, which I think it undoubtedly will at some point within the first couple minutes, Maia will control the fight. Just my prediction!
Vee,
You’re correct. Demian Maia has not lost in nine MMA bouts and therefore has also never been knocked out. We all know that. However, he really has never fought anyone with the power and technical striking ability of Quarry. And trust me, Maia is NOT a striker and he isn’t “hiding” it because the opportunity only comes to submit his opponents. With your logic, I guess that means that Chuck Liddell might be a Jiu Jitsu wizard, but just chooses to knock his opponents out because the “opportunity presents itself often”. Maia has shown improved striking in his past few fights and may have enough to get by, but all in all he is pretty lost when it comes to the striking game.
If Maia wins this fight, it’ll be by submission. It’ll be interesting to see how much his takedown skills have improved and how strong Quarry’s takedown defense is. Bottom line, if it goes to the ground, Maia wins.
You’re also correct, Quarry got knocked out by Rich Franklin. Franklin happens to be one of the top middleweights in the sport and is a powerful striker. But I just don’t see how this fits into your argument. He got knocked out by Franklin indeed but Maia doesn’t have, as Josh would say, “a snowball’s chance in hell” of knocking out Quarry. He lacks the striking aptitude to do so. Could it happen? Yes, it could. But the chances of it happening are just as likely as Tim Sylvia submitting Fedor Emelianenko with a triangle choke.
And yes, Maia has a martial arts background and is a Jiu Jitsu world champion. We also know this. If he uses what little striking skill he has to setup a takedown, that doesn’t mean he’s a strong striker. It just means he knows another way to setup a good takedown. Furthermore, what does Travis Lutter have to do with Demian Maia? Maia is not Lutter AND is not fighting Franklin and Silva, so you can’t compare Lutter’s ability to takedown Franklin and Silva to Maia’s ability to potentially take down Quarry.
When you predict a fight, you take what you know about the fighters and what you’ve seen out of them in the past and apply it to the situation. You can’t predict fights based entirely on a speculatory “what if”.If you’re going to disagree with a prediction, that’s all fine and good. But at least give concrete reasons to back up your choice and not all this nonsensical “what if?” garbage. And I say all this in the nicest way possible! {insert smiley face here}
We know Quarry can and has been put to sleep.
What we don’t know is how tough Maia is. We don’t know if he has a Dan Henderson-tough chin, or Nogueira type durability.
While many (not all) are predicting Quarry via TKO, I think its safe to say that they’re ignoring Maia’s striking ability altogether. Perfect example: Rashad Evans only chance for victory against former LHW champ Chuck Liddell was to utilize his wrestling. Why? Because that the official accepted talking point for Rashad Evans, totally ignoring the WILD-CRAZY possibility that he MIGHT, attempt to clinch Chuck, pull guard and submit with a kimura or bait him and for a fight ending KO. But the chances of that happening is like ______ I think you get the point there. I’m sure the new Evans-talking point is that he’s a great or powerful striker, which I don’t buy.
Is there evidence that Maia’s striking is not good? I don’t know, I haven’t seen it in his recent fights and the one pre-UFC fight I saw online. So just because his boxing, kick-boxing, muay thai is not highly lauded by Rogan, Goldberg or the nascent MMA cognoscenti does not mean that it does not exist. So with that said, I think it is safe to say that his striking just may be good enough to pull guard and attempt to finish the fight via submission without sustaining any risk of damage. I’m not saying that Maia can or will KO Quarry. But what if Quarry proves to be durable like Antonio Margarito??
Maybe this is all nonsensical basura based purely on speculative “what if” scenarios, but I’m just saying. A TKO prediction for Quarry, totally ignores Maia’s unknown abilities, besides who knows what this guy has been recently learning or practicing in the gym, maybe a well placed fight ending KO strike of his own.
BTW, Chuck has been hiding his kickboxing and great wrestling abilities. Babalu got caught with a head kick. Tito and Randy realized I can’t take this guy down at all!!
Its not that I don’t agree with the prediction, but I don’t think there’s enough evidence to support a TKO/KO victory for Quarry because there’s a lot that we don’t know about Maia.
Why compare Lutter’s matches to Maia? Lutter is a black belt in jui-jitsu who fought the UFC top middle weights. I’m assuming Maia’s take-down ability has to be somewhat good considering his record and world-class jui-jitsu status. Then again that may be way off base, but I see similarities.
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Of course I prefer on the ground, but I really don’t care. It’s a fight, I don’t have like a fight plan to go and just put him on the ground. I really, really don’t care. I go there and will start to fight and when I feel it’s good to go to the ground, then I go. But now I’m much more confident in my standup game, so I’m not going to be thinking, “I need to put this guy down, I need to put this guy down.” I just go, fight and see what’s going to happen. If it goes to the ground, even better. – Demian Maia (Source: MMAMANIA.COM)
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Not that I’m right . .. but like I said, we do not know enough about Maia’s striking to say it is not good enough. There’s not enough information concerning his striking. I’m not really gloating or trying to say that I was right all along, it’s just a matter of overlooking something we don’t know too much about.
Round 1 (Source: Sherdog)
Maia lands a left, right combination and shoots a single . . . It sets up the rear-naked choke beautifully, as Quarry taps quickly once the hold is sunk. Impressive win from Demian Maia. The official time is 2:13 of the first.
Damn, I love this sport . . . I’m really waiting to read all the “experts” or nascent MMA pundits explain how Randy was unable to defeat Brock “WWE” Lesnar. Well, for the record, he’s the 4th MMA competitor to win the title with less than 10 fights under his belt. As the record shows, Randy is one of the four.