For as many good fights booked for the rest of the 2010 year as there are, there are also some fights on paper that may look interesting but will turn out into snoozefests and I’ll give you a preview here of five fights that I think may have some fan interest going in but not a lot of fan interest coming out.
1. King Mo Lawal vs. Rafael Feijao for the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Title on August 21st in Houston
King Mo and “boring” are not supposed to go together. Unfortunately, it takes two to tango to make a good fight and I don’t see much entertainment coming from Feijao on the 21st.
I used to joke a lot whenever I would hear Jeremy Lappen talk about Elite XC. Whenever someone asked him about the future, he’d always say “Feijao.” Whenever title contenders were discussed, it was always “Feijao.” Feijao this, Feijao that. It was like a name that would somehow be a miracle elixir to cure the ails of all. In truth, Feijao has talent but the question has always been about his heart and dedication in training. He trains with some of the best fighters in the world, but that doesn’t guarantee or translate into strong fight performances. I don’t expect anything great from him coming out of this Houston fight.
King Mo is an excellent prospect, an amusing talker, and a very smart man. His ability to adapt and pick up new techniques is wonderful. His fight coming up against Feijao is largely a wrestler vs. striker battle and even in the striking department, I would not sell Mo short with what he calls his “Cuban boxing.” Mo is a man who knows how to use striking to set up his bread and butter, which is take a guy down and gas the hell out of them. Ask Gegard Mousasi, a former worldbeater, just how it feels to have Mo take you down repeatedly and pound on you round after round.
In truth, I expect a horrible five-round snoozefest with one-sided domination by Mo in this fight. After it happens, I expect Mo will get a lot of heat for not finishing his opponent, but I hope it doesn’t happen. Mo’s not happy that people won’t rank him as a Top 10 Light Heavyweight in the world because of the way he destroys competition. It is kind of a curse, actually. I expect the same kind of lopsidedness against Feijao in Houston.
2. Kenny Florian vs. Gray Maynard at UFC 118 on August 28th in Boston, MA
I hope and pray that Kenny Florian is able to make this an exciting fight. I don’t have any issues with Kenny. However, his opponent is known for stretching fights out and really just grinding out wins. In fact, have you noticed that UFC is not even promoting this fight despite the fact that this is right in Florian’s home town? You’d think that he would get some love here and he’s not.
As for how the fight plays out, my biggest fear here is that we will see something similar to what Sean Sherk did to Kenny. Kenny had his elbows but he didn’t have the size or strength. I think the exact same thing could happen here and that would mean a tedious, plodding fight outcome.
3. Matt Wiman vs. Mac Danzig at UFC Fight Night 22
This is Mac Danzig’s mulligan for getting screwed by referee Yves Lavigne in their past fight for not really passing/tapping out. Hey, at least it’s one more pay day for Danzig before he gets cut from the UFC.
I think there will plenty of interest going into the fight but I don’t see it being competitive. Wiman’s simply better than the veteran Danzig and he should finish this fight in short fashion. Sure, there will be the promotional attempt by UFC to market the controversy and Danzig will convince everyone that he got screwed (he did), but the screwjob had nothing to do with the way he performed in that last fight. He got worked and I expect him to get worked again.
Matt Wiman will submit him and this time, the referee will get the stoppage right.
4. Michael Bisping vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama in October at UFC 120 in London, England at the O2 Arena
Michael Bisping the talker is obnoxious and entertaining. Too bad his fights can’t match his verbal performances.
Bisping seems so confident that he will beat Yoshihiro Akiyama that he is now talking smack about Chael Sonnen. Sonnen fired a warning shot to Bisping that he does not want to get into a battle with him — and I’d say Chael is right.
As for Bisping the fight, he beat Denis Kang and he beat Dan Miller, hardly worldbeaters. Kang just didn’t show up and Miller didn’t have the striking game to compete. And yet, when Randy Couture didn’t kiss Bisping’s ass on the MMA Live show that aired right after UFC 116, Bisping reportedly threw a hissy fit. He has a fragile ego to go along with his big mouth.
Akiyama is coming off of a very exciting loss to Chris Leben. Those two men just throw everything they had at each other and Leben pulled a submission out of nowhere to win. It was a great fight performance. I don’t expect the same kind of fireworks in his upcoming match against Bisping.
In his last fight against Dan Miller, Bisping showed the same old mistakes he always has made in the past. He circles in the wrong direction. He does just enough to win but not impressively. Against a real heavy striker, Bisping is tailor made to go down hard. Akiyama can punch hard, but I don’t see him taking advantage of Bisping’s weaknesses like Dan Henderson did.
My expectation of this fight is that Bisping will try to make it as boring as possible, circle around, get some take downs, and outpoint Akiyama. If Akiyama can keep it standing and get some nice judo throws in, it’ll be exciting, but so far we have not seen Akiyama be able to dictate the way his fights has gone in the UFC (as displayed in his fight against Alan Belcher).
5. Georges St. Pierre vs. Josh Koscheck this December in Las Vegas, Nevada
It will be the most anticipated fight in December. And, predictably, it will end up being the most lopsided main event this year in UFC… except for Chael Sonnen vs. Anderson Silva if Sonnen had not submitted towards the end of that fight.
Don’t get me wrong — it’s going to be a lot of fun watching St. Pierre and Koscheck jaw-jack with each other on The Ultimate Fighter. I’m looking forward to watching TUF this season with Nam Pham on the roster.
What I’m not looking forward to this Welterweight title fight.
St. Pierre fights the Greg Jackson way, which is to try to outpoint his opponents and take as little damage as possible. I largely expect it to play out like the first fight did but only with St. Pierre dominating the wrestling game more and showing off better boxing. I don’t think this fight will be entertaining (unless it stays a stand-up war and then Koscheck gets knocked out).
I respect Georges St. Pierre but my greatest fear in watching him fight is wondering if he will finish off an opponent. He tried to do it against Dan Hardy but simply couldn’t get the guy to submit, so I give him credit there. However, against Koscheck, I don’t see him in much danger of losing the fight and once he gets ahead on points early on, I expect him to coast to victory.
I want this to be an entertaining fight but I have great trepidation that it will actually turn out to be worthy of paying $55. I hope the undercard is stacked because it needs to be for people to trust paying to watch a show headlined by this fight.
