Saturday night’s Ultimate Fighter Finale card in Las Vegas will kick off an 11-week period that will reshape the landscape of mixed martial arts in North America.
Questions will be answered. Records will be set. Careers will reach new heights and others may very well end.
The summer season will peak with UFC 100 on July 11 in Las Vegas will answer the question as to what exactly is the ceiling for mixed martial arts on pay-per-view. The main event between Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir itself has all the elements necessary to being the biggest drawing heavyweight match in North America. The UFC heavyweight and interim heavyweight titles will be unified in a rematch of one of the most memorable fights and talked about fights in company history.
But the show is augmented by the top two welterweights in the world, as Georges St. Pierre, defends the championship against Thiago Alves, who stylistically may be St. Pierre’s biggest challenge on the current scene.
The combination of the UFC 100 milestone and the main events will likely not only be the biggest pay-per-view event in company history, the biggest of any kind this year, and the largest non-boxing pay-per-view event in history.
But for all the hype Lesnar vs. Mir will receive, one could make a strong case that from a pure sports ranking standpoint, the biggest heavyweight fight ever on U.S. soil will take place three weeks later at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., on Affliction’s third pay-per-view show.
Consensus No. 1 ranked Fedor Emelianenko puts up his reputation as the most successful fighter in the history of the sport, against Josh Barnett. Emelianenko has been considered the top heavyweight since he beat Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira on March 16, 2003, in Yokohama, Japan to capture the PRIDE championship. In a sport where the rule of thumb is that longevity at the top is fleeting and anyone can win on a given day, Emelianenko has defied the odds. Barnett has been a top-ranked heavyweight since his UFC heavyweight title win over Randy Couture in 2002.
Regardless of which heavyweight fight is bigger, there is no argument that the Aug. 15 battle between Gina Carano and Cristiane “Cyborg†Santos will be the highest profile woman’s fight in the sport’s history. Carano, a ratings juggernaut, because of her looks and crowd-pleasing fighting style, has the potential to become the biggest mainstream star in the sport. But in Santos, she faces an exciting destruction machine that has mowed down all competition.
UFC: Clay Guida vs. Diego Sanchez, Las Vegas, June 20: Sanchez (22-2), the enigmatic winner of the first season of The Ultimate Fighter, then fighting as a middleweight, continues his run for a lightweight title shot against Guida (25-9). A former junior college national wrestling champion, Guida is easily the company’s most popular mid-level fighter. His constant aggression, unique charisma, great heart and chin (which he will need since Sanchez will have a significant edge in the stand-up game) endless stamina has led to Guida being in three of the greatest matches in recent years with Gilbert Melendez, Roger Huerta and Tyson Griffin. But he also lost all three.
UFC: Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir, Las Vegas, July 11: There was probably no fight in MMA history more hotly debated beforehand than the February 2, 2008, match between the two. Mir, a former UFC heavyweight champion on a comeback after a nearly career ending motorcycle wreck, beat former pro wrestling superstar Lesnar, making his UFC debut, in 90 seconds. But Lesnar dominated the entire fight until being caught in a leglock. Was it a rookie mistake of inexperience by Lesnar that the last 17 months of training has nixed, or a reality that Lesnar has an Achilles heel against submission fighters that he’ll never shake? Since that time, Lesnar (3-1) shut down his critics by beating Couture and becoming the UFC heavyweight champion. Mir’s win over Lesnar catapulted himself to a match with UFC interim heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, where in a huge upset, Mir (12-3) became the first fighter ever to finish the legendary Brazilian.
UFC: Georges St. Pierre vs. Thiago Alves, Las Vegas, July 11: Welterweight king St. Pierre (18-2), tied for the top spot in the Yahoo! Sports pound-for-pound rankings, has been unstoppable for two straight years in taking down and dominating three of the best wrestlers in the sport in Matt Hughes, Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch. Alves (16-3), looks to be his most difficult challenge because neither Hughes nor Koscheck could take Alves down, and his stand-up game is more explosive than the champion.
UFC: Dan Henderson vs. Michael Bisping, Las Vegas, July 11: A drama between the coach of Team U.S. and Team U.K. on the current season of The Ultimate Fighter. Bisping (17-1) would likely get a middleweight title shot with a win, which would be the biggest MMA event ever in the Liverpool, England’s native country. But Henderson (24-7), the only man to hold world championships in two weight classes at the same time, is the heavy favorite. The big question is age, as Henderson will be six weeks shy of his 39th birthday at fight time and gives up a decade on Bisping.
Affliction: Fedor Emelianenko vs. Josh Barnett, Anaheim, Calif., August 1: At least on paper, Barnett (24-5) looks to be Emelianenko’s biggest challenge since his win over Mirko Cro Cop four years ago. Barnett is good enough at all facets of the game that he shouldn’t be the latest in the line of victims of in-ring drive-bys from the 30-1 (1 no-contest) native of Stary Oskol, Russia, who is the other half of the No. 1 pound-for-pound debate. This as the last of the old-school heavyweight match-ups of the heyday of Japanese MMA, with Fedor as the long-time champion of PRIDE, and Barnett as the heavyweight King of Pancrase, a rival organization.
UFC: Anderson Silva vs Forrest Griffin, Philadelphia, August 8: Silva (24-4), the UFC middleweight champion, moves up in weight to try extending his all-time UFC winning streak record to 10, against the former light heavyweight champion. Griffin (16-5) can’t match Silva for speed or skill, but he is physically bigger and likely stronger. But what Griffin is expected to do, given his incredible fighting heart, is break Silva’s streak of two terrible main events, that have made UFC officials wary of headlining a show with “The Spider†against the wrong opponent.
UFC: B.J. Penn vs. Kenny Florian, Philadelphia, August 8: With six straight wins, Florian (11-3) has proven that looks are deceiving. Looking more like a college biology student than a fighter, Florian combines quick Muay Thai skills with high level jiu-jitsu, and has improved greatly since his first shot at the lightweight title three years ago. Penn (13-5-1), the champion, has to both physically and mentally rebound from his high-profile shellacking at the hands of St. Pierre on Jan. 31, the most devastating loss of his career.
WEC: Miguel Angel Torres vs. Brian Bowles, Las Vegas, August 9: Torres (37-1) defends the WEC bantamweight title and brings a 17 match winning streak to the summer’s biggest lower-weight-class fight against Bowles (7-0), who has finished every opponent to date. Torres, who fights an emotional crowd-pleasing style, had two of the most exciting fights of the past 13 months in wins over Yoshiro Maeda and Takeya Mizugaki.
Strikeforce: Gina Carano vs. Cristiane Santos, San Jose, Calif., August 15: This fight is almost a marketing dream, as the reaction at live arenas to Carano at ringside while watching Santos destroy opponents has been unlike anything ever seen in U.S. MMA history. Carano (7-0) and Santos (7-1) are both known for their Muay Thai skills and have always had exciting fast-paced fights. A key aspect of the fight is that both women are used to doing three 3:00 rounds, and this will be five 5:00 rounds to crown the first Strikeforce women’s champion. Going 9:00 vs. 25:00 is a completely different mentality, particularly in setting a fast pace both are used to. The woman who adapts best will have a huge advantage.
UFC: Randy Couture vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Portland, Ore., August 29: Two of the sport’s legends are both coming off devastating losses. Couture (16-9), who will be 46 at fight time, is clearly on borrowed time. Then again, he’s won his last four world championships on borrowed time. Nogueira (31-5-1) is 13 years younger, but fought on Dec. 27 like he was 13 years older. Whether years of beatings have finished him, or whether fighting after being hospitalized with a staph infection made him look like a walking zombie will be determined here. With an impressive win, either man could get a shot at the Lesnar vs. Mir winner, and in the case of Couture, that has potential to be one of the biggest pay-per-views in the sports history. A devastating loss would surely be the end of the either.
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