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UFC 108 Preview by Young Penfold

Posted by Young Penfold | Big Mango Bar, Blog, Posts, Reader Submissions | Posted on January 2nd, 2010

The latest UFC card comes along this Saturday night from Las Vegas. This isn’t the most ‘stellar’ card of the year, but the list of injuries and replacements that the UFC have endured, is significantly longer than longmint of longmint.com fames money-maker, from gooch to the japseye, and back again.

Fights such as Brock Lesnar v. Shane Carwin, Anderson Silva v. Vitor Belfort, Nogueira v. Valasquez, Cantwell v. Matyushenko were all planned, but scrapped, and the likes of Gabriel Gonzaga, Carlos Condit and Sean Sherk (amongst others) have also cried off due to injury.

Although this card lacks typical ‘star-power’ I predict this card will be a ‘sleeper’ and provide some good action.

‘Sugar’ Rahsad Evans vs. Thiago Silva

I have to admit I have a bit of a man-crush on Thiago Silva. His tattoos are ace, he wears the best shorts in MMA (The TapOut Brazil shorts) his post-fight celebration (the cut throat) is the coolest around, and his wife is a slutty Brazilian babe with plastic titties.

Silva has a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and has a great nack of knocking people the fuck out, with Keith Jardine, Houston Alexander, Antonio Mendes and Thomas Drwal all getting seperated from their states of consciousness thanks to the Brazilian.

Rashad Evans is the former UFC Light Heavyweight champion, and this is his first fight back after losing the belt to Lyoto Machida. Evans has great wrestling, and has some highlight reel KOs over Sean Salmon, Chuck Liddell and Forrest Griffin.

As much as it pains me, I’m gonna have to pick against my boy Thiago here. There’s been heavy rumours flying around the internet that Thiago was gonna pull out of this fight due to injury, however the UFC offered him a substantial under the table bonus to fight on, saving the main event of a card that has been ravaged by dropouts.

With this in mind, plus Rashad’s superior wrestling and cardio, I think Rashad will take this.

Both fighters suffered their first career loses in spectacular fashion to Lyoto Machida, and what is quite common, is when a fighter loses so brutally for the first time, they become gun-shy and second guess themselves. (using Wanderlei Silva, CroCop, Rich Franklin, Brandon Vera, Chuck Liddell and co as examples)

Thiago bounced back and brutalised Jardine in his first fight back, however this is Rashad’s first fight back, so will be interesting to see how it goes down. Also if Rashad loses, it takes a lot of steam out of his imminent match with Rampage Jackson

As much as I want Thiago to get the KO, I can see Rashad outpointing here

Rashad by decision

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Paul ‘Semtex’ Daley vs. Dustin Hazelett

Essentially, this is a great striker/shit grappler, taking on a great grappler/shit striker matchup.

‘Semtex’ is a predominant stand-up fighter who fights out of the Rough House camp, who also house welterweight #1 contender Dan Hardy. Daley has very heavy hands, and splits his training camps between UK, and Holland, where he spars and trains with K-1 level strikers. Most of Daley’s losses come by submission. His ground game is wank.

Dustin Hazelett is a jiu-jitsu ace, and has some pretty spectacular submission wins in his 5-2 UFC career. In his last 2 UFC appearances against Josh Burkman & Tamdan McRory he picked up 2 submission of the night bonuses, plus a fight of the night bonus to boot. His striking is wank.

I think Daley will have worked enough of his takedown defence to avoid being taken to the mat. I think Dustins jiu-jitsu is better than Daleys striking, BUT hes has to get him on the deck, and all fights start on the feet

I cant see this being a walkover, but Semtex keeps this standing, and Hazelett goes for a nap

Paul Daley by TKO

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Junior ‘Cigano’ Dos Santos vs Gilbert Yvel

This is the fight im most looking forward to on this card. Dos Santos and Yvel are 2 very heavy handed strikers, and I cant see any way this fight doesn’t end without 1 of these guys getting their face rearranged.

I’ve said for a while Dos Santos is the most dangerous prospect in the UFC heavyweight division. For me, hes the best striker at heavyweight, and his jiu-jitsu is taken care by Damien Maia and some guy called Noguiera, so when the fight goes to the mat, hes more than capable of snapping limbs

I hate the expression ‘bad-boy of MMA’ but Yvel fits the bill. Hes been disqualified 4 times in the past. Thats dedication to the cause. Hes been DQ’d for raking his opponents eyes, biting them, and my personal favourite, for chinning a referee, then giving him a few courtesy kicks while down. His pro record is 36-13, but when you consider, 4 of those losses were DQ’s, and the rest are mainly decisions or submissions, it shows how tough a guy he is.

The only way I see this going to the ground, is if Dos Santos eats a few punches in the exchanges, and decides he doesnt want a brawl, and takes things south. Otherwise, this is another W for Dos Santos.

Dos Santos by TKO in the 2nd

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I really cant be arsed to write up any more fights, as I’ve spent the last 10days stuck in England, spending the majority of my time in-and-out of hospital, with some form of life threatening eye infection, plus a lot of the undercard fights, although promising to be entertaining, hold little interest for me, so this is your lot for this UFC

Look for Joe Lauzon, Mark Munoz, Jim Miller, Jacob Volkmann and Cole Miller also to pick up wins in the nights other festivities.