For another year, fc will follow Super Bowl or vice versa, depending on bad weather trends in Newark, New Jersey. Midnight Saturday to Sunday 02-02-2012
Two title fights will bring champions in the Bantamweight and Featherweight categories. The current champions and friends, Renan Barao and Jose Aldo, will give the opportunity to Urijah Faber and Ricardo Lamas respectively, to claim their title. Before we see the battles of the champions, the ufc prepared for us, another 10 battles, from almost all categories, to cover all the fans. Whether some people like the battle of short, fast, technically excellent fighters, or the battle of giants with strong fists, no one will be left complaining.
The "main games" that are shown in pay per view in America, in Greece will be shown by the live streaming of the channel UFC_GREECE on dailymotion.com:
07: 00am. 135 lbs .: Renato Barao vs. UFC Bantamweight Champion Urijah Faber
06: 30am. 145 lbs .: UFC Featherweight champion Jose Aldo vs. Ricardo Lamas
06: 00am. 265 lbs .: Alistair Overeem vs. Frank Mir
05: 30am. 125 lbs .: Ali Bagautinov John Lineker
05: 00am. 155 lbs .: Abel Trujillo Jamie Varner
The 4 "qualifiers" broadcast by Fox sports logically for us will continue to be shown by UFC Fight Pass:
04: 30am. 155 lbs .: John Makdessi Alan Patrick
04: 00am. 125 lbs .: Chris Cariaso Danny Martinez
03: 30am. 185 lbs .: Nick Catone vs. Tom Watson
03: 00am. 155 lbs .: Al Iaquinta vs. Kevin Lee
and 3 "qualifying" matches, which open the yard, we will definitely watch, from UFC Fight Pass (which is free until March) in excellent quality:
02: 30am. 185 lbs .: Andy Enz vs. Clint Hester
02: 00am. 155 lbs .: Rashid Magomed vs. Tony Martin
01: 30am. 170 lbs .: Neil Magny Gasan Umalatov
Let's look at them in detail ...
Renan Barao vs. Urijah Faber
This is their second encounter. In first Renan Barao won by a decision of the judges. We will now see two improved fighters at all levels.
Barao has since lost his mma debut in April 2005. Since then in the next 9 years he has 31 wins and only 10 of them came by decision of the judges. Faber has always been excellent in submission. But now with her an improved team of Ludwig he has grown more in the upright battle.
Expect an ambiguous fight but because Faber will be more aggressive in the standing battle, I think Barao in some crazy reaction, will do a magic spinning back kick back flip back twist upside down scissors and win by knockout.
JOSE ALDO IN RICARDO LAMAS
The biggest favorite of these games is Aldo. In my eyes, however, it is not worth such a small performance. Lamas is a worthy opponent in both standing battle and on the ground. He is even better at wrestling. Unfortunately for him, Aldo has a very good takedown defense. After the 4th round, however, Aldo gets tired and instead of attacks, he wanders in the cage and attacks. If at that point Lamas manages to crush Aldo and fight him, he can even make the big surprise and become a champion!
ALISTAIR OVEREEM VS. FRANK MIR
One of the most anticipated fights in UFC 169 is the heavyweight bout between Alistair "The Reem" Overeem and Frank Mir. Once upon a time there were both very big names in the field of mma, if this battle had taken place 5 years earlier it would have been terribly watched and interesting because they were both champions. But now they seem to be just trying to stay in the spotlight. They have 3 consecutive defeats each other because the heavyweight division is the shallowest of talents and athletes, they do not risk being left out of the ufc, even if they lose catastrophically.
Overeem used to be a champion in the K-1 kick boxing tournament (what Zambidis is fighting for). He then turned it into mma where he became champion in the Japanese DREAM and PRIDE tournaments and in America he became famous when he won the strikeforce title. He has the strongest knees on the planet, which stem from exhausting May Thai training but as the laps go by you run out very quickly and he easily falls under punches and kicks.
Mir was a UFC champion and has faced very good fighters. He is excellent in submissions but lately he also seems to be unable to withstand the wood and coil from the first blow.
Unfortunately or fortunately both will do the so-called TRT treatment that wonders to failed athletes. So you might see them withstand more than one round.
John Lineker vs. Ali Bagautinov
Remember this guy: Ali Bagautinov he had given us money at ufc 167. Now they put him in a better opponent than the last time and they serve him to us in a worse odds. Although I believe he will win I can not say for sure. Lineker has lost just once in his last 19 games. Usually in the weighing he is measured above the limit with the result that people do not trust him. When you go over the limit, it either means that you have a problem in your training-preparation and you did not manage to remove the unnecessary thickness, or that you deceitfully wanted to keep more muscle mass. So we will see them again after weighing .... Indeed, once again weighed overweight. After the weighing, however, he had the opportunity to lose the extra pound in one hour and from what I read on the tweeter, he succeeded, but he was exhausted! In his previous races he did not care much about the extra weight. He remained overweight, simply giving 50% of the match winnings to the losing opponent. But now he had to show professionalism, because the winner of this fight will fight for the title. Overweight fighters, however, are not allowed to fight for the title.
Abel Trujillo vs. Jamie Varner
Statistically here Varner is the best wrestler because Trujillo has a very poor takedown defense. Nurmagomedov put him down more than 20 times last year. The good thing about Trujillo though is that every time you put him down, he has the power to get up and from battle to battle you improve significantly. In the uprising battle, Verner is technically the most accurate with his attacks, that is, logically we will see him hit Trujillo more times. Trujillo, however, does not need many punches because he throws them very hard trying to knock out the opponent. If the match goes to the judges, Varner will have a higher hit score, but I give Trujillo the same chances to win by knockout.
Alan Patrick in John Makdess
Patric in his first fight went undefeated and faced another undefeated fighter, who was knocked out by the first round, but that opponent seemed along the way that it was not something extraordinary because he lost again and was eliminated by the ufc. Now Patrik is facing a very experienced and excellent striker who has three consecutive wins in the ufc, Makdessi. Makdessi is definitely better in the standing battle but Patrick's long arms and mobility will make it difficult for him to find a target. An ambiguous fight but I lean more on the young, undefeated, talented and dynamic Patrick.
Chris Cariaso in Danny Martinez
Cariaso is a very technical striker with great endurance. His very poor takedown defense let him fall several times with his back to the ground. Martinez is a wrestler with strong punches and logically, like the others before him, he will put Cariaso on the ground. In the uprising, however, he is not very good. Everything will depend on the damage that Martinez will do to Cariaso on the ground. If the damage is small, because our judges have recently become accustomed to favoring the strikers, the victory will be gained, from the points of the upright battle, by the experienced Cariaso.
Nick Catone in Tom Watson
Catone is the best wrestler in this match and has faced better fighters. In uprising, however, he is not good, to be precise, he is very bad. He is used to fighting opponents to beat them awkwardly, unskillfully and inelegantly on the ground. In a recent interview, however, he said he wanted to show us how much he had improved in the uprising. This carries many risks, because Watson has very heavy punches and great endurance. As a race it does not say much because none of them has prospects for great success in the future.
Al Iaquinta in Kevin Lee
Iaquinta may be the best wrestler of this fight. Surely he is the most experienced. But it has a very one-dimensional attack on the upright battle. You rarely move cyclically and do not come out of angles. He is perhaps the best rival that could have a new and inexperienced fighter like Lee, who looks impressive in the videos.
Andy Enz at Clint Hester
Fighters of The Ultimate Fighter 17 (tv show) both. The ens, although it seems undefeated, lost and was excluded early from the show. That defeat does not count as professional. He likes to fight but he is also good at standing battles. Hester was my favorite on the show but lost to a wrestler. There he seemed to have a weakness in wrestling. In his last fights, he won relatively easily and seemed even more improved in the standing battle. But his opponents were not wrestlers. I do not know if the holes he had in the takedown defense were closed or remain open.
Rashid Magomed in Tony Martin
I hate ufc right now! I hate it because I love this fight! These two fighters look so good that if guided and trained properly, they will be able to become worthy title contenders. If I have to categorize them, Martin is the wrestler and Magomedov is the (quite experienced) striker. But it is unfair because it seems that they are already complete fighters, with many weapons. Let the best whoever wins win. I'm just interested in watching the match.
Gasan Umalatov in Neil Magny
Magny in his last fight looked very relaxed in the 3rd round and counterattacked. Umalatov seems stronger than Magny, but slower and makes many mistakes. If Magny keeps Umalatov at bay with his long arms and escapes his ungrateful fight, in the 3rd round he will be able to make the surprise, because Umalatov almost throughout his career, fought in fights that lasted only two rounds . So logically it will be uncomfortably weakened.
