Great night of fights!On the undercard, I thought Gabriel Gonzaga looked awesome. Really happy to see him getting back to his BJJ skills. Hopefully, we'll see him step up against some of the top competition in the heavyweight division. The knockout from Barboza was one for the highlight reel. That was vicious and I loved it!
The heel hook from Palhares was executed beautifully. I'd like to see Palhares get bumped up into a tougher level of competion and see if he can hang with some of the top-10 guys. It's tough to classify him as a top 10 fighter at middleweight, but with his body size and those leg locks, he's got a chance at catching anyone of the top guys on any given night.
The Vitor Belfort win was huge! After seeing Anthony Johnson direspect the entire sport by coming in so far overweight, I think the entire world was rooting for Vitor. I had predicted a Belfort win, but thought for sure that it would be with the hands.
Big UFC fight card this Saturday night in Rio. After watching the last one from Brazil, I think we can count on two things:
1. The Brazilian fighters will be fired up
2. The fans will be even more fired up
Even casual fans had to love the energy from the crowd during the last UFC event in Brazil. Here are my predictions:
1. Aldo by decision over Mendes. I think Aldo's striking skills will be too much to ask. Mendes is a great wrestler, but he's going to struggle with Aldo.
2. Belfort by TKO over Johnson in the 2nd. Belfort is going to come out fast and want to put a show on for the hometown crowd. I like Johnson, but it's not going to be his night.
3. Palhares by submission over Massenzio in the 2nd. I think Massenzio will put up a better fight than some are expecting, but Palhares ground game is way too strong for Massenzio.
While most of the UFC events this year have been fantastic, I can't seem to get excited about this one. Other than the headline fight (which is marginally a headline fight IMHO), nothing really excites me... what about you? Which fight(s) are you looking forward to?
I can't believe these characters can't get together and figure out how to make this fight a reality. With the latest reports saying that the primary issue is drug testing, it's ridiculous that this fight is going to fall apart.
With this many egos and especially with Floyd being involved, we all should have known that this had the potential to unravel at any minute. But, this fight is what boxing needs. Boxing has really fallen to the background, especially with the emergence of MMA and this fight really could have helped put it back on the average sports fan's radar. These are the two biggest names out there and both of them are still pretty much in the prime of their career.
But, this is exactly what is wrong with boxing.... it is far too difficult to get the big fighters together for big fights. Sure, the MMA world has some of the same problems with Fedor (and now Hendo) signing with Strikeforce, but by and large, the UFC has the promotion side of this figured out. They have done a fantastic job of signing the right fighters and making fights happen that people actually care about. The approach in boxing promotion is all wrong and we've seen way too many fights not happen.
