Saturday’s UFC 147 card is the finale to the organization’s most recent Ultimate Fighter season. The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil featured the featherweight and middleweight weight classes with a cast that was comprised all of fighters from the host country. However, this event has been plagued by injuries and controversy, from the early leaking of season winners in the Brazilian press, to the injury of Vitor Belfort, to the moving of the much-anticipated Middleweight Championship rematch between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen from the card. But controversy and fight-shifting aside, this event is set to go down in the Jornalista Felipe Drumond Stadium from Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and there are still interesting fights to be seen.
After a hand injury to Vitor Belfort forced him from the bout, Wanderlei Silva was left without an opponent. No longer would he be squaring off with the man who, in his seventh professional bout, stopped him in just 44 seconds. Their heated rivalry was the basis for the recent season of TUF: Brazil, and the Belfort injury gave Silva the opportunity to take shots at him. But without many viable middleweights available to step in and take this bout, the UFC called on the consummate company man, Rich Franklin, to step into a catchweight bout at 195 pounds.
Franklin-Silva is a rematch of their 2009 fight, in which Franklin took a unanimous decision victory. Since that time Silva has remained adamant that he won that bout, regardless of what the judges’ cards stated. Looking at the two combatants, it’s understandable that Franklin will go into this bout as the favorite. If you look at their first bout, you can see that Franklin outclassed Silva in multiple ways. While both Franklin and Silva landed a low rate of strikes — 40 percent for Franklin as compared to 35 percent for Silva — Franklin outworked him throughout the whole fight.
Three years later, both athletes are even closer to the end of their careers. Franklin hasn’t been active in the cage for more than a year, while Silva is coming off a knockout victory over Cung Le at UFC 139. Look for this bout to mirror the first confrontation, or even end with a knockout, as Silva has shown that he is at the point in the career where his chin cannot stand up to the pressure that it once did. Franklin’s put down legends before — just look at Chuck Liddell — and the same can very well happen here.
A heavyweight tilt features Fabricio Werdum and Mike Russow in a fight that may result in the winner lining up as the next title contender after Cain Velasquez.
Werdum looked outstanding when he dispatched Roy Nelson at UFC 143. His standup looked very fluid and he was active during the whole fifteen minutes. At the same time, you can never discount his grappling abilities, which rank among the best in the sport.
Russow is riding an 11-fight winning streak which includes a 4-0 run in the Octagon. He’s has earned a reputation as a wrestler with solid submission abilities, as 8 of his 15 wins have come by tap out. However, as we saw against Todd Duffee, Russow can pull out a knockout victory when the opening presents itself.
This is an important bout in the heavyweight division, because beyond Velasquez, the weight class is wide open when it comes to determining who who will face the champion if Alistair Overeem is unavailable. Werdum’s recent run makes him a viable and bankable candidate. Russow, on the other hand, hasn’t faced top talent, but this is the type of bout that is needed to push him into the upper echelon of the division.
The TUF: Brazil middleweight final matchup will feature Cezar Ferreira against Sergio Moraes. Moraes is actually replacing Daniel Sarafian, who earned the spot in the final, but was pulled off the card due to injury. Both fighters are relatively young, as neither has reached the age of 30, and only have a combined 13 fights between them. However, both have been competing in the sport for more than five years. Ferreira and Moraes are also black belts in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, so it will be interesting to see if their grappling abilities cancel each other out, and if this bout turns into a standup contest, as we often see happen with high level wrestlers.
The TUF: Brazil featherweight final also features two black belts in BJJ, as Godofredo Castro and Rony Mariano Bezerra will square off for the 145 contract. Castro has been competing in MMA for nearly 10 years, and has a perfect record at 8-0, with six of those victories coming by tap out. Bezerra is equally-seasoned at coaxing the tapout, as 7 of his 10 victories have come by submission. As with the other final, it will be interesting to see where this fight is contested, and how it is received by fans, as grappling affairs tend not to delight mainstream MMA fans.
While this event doesn’t feature the big names that fill other UFC cards, UFC 147 will give North American fight fans the opportunity to become accustomed to some fresh faces in the sport from the land that often credited as the birthplace of mixed martial arts.
