UFC 144: Edgar vs. Henderson - Feb. 26th

canucksfreak19

canucksfreak19

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This is probably the deepest card the UFC is going to put together all year. It does seem odd that they have loaded up this card. This is almost certainly a futile effort as they're not going to gain a real foothold in the Japanese market, I'm hearing that this PPV is expected to do around 200,000 buys. Seems pointless to have made this the card to stack.

With that said I am really geeked for Saturday because four hours and seven fights is just awesome. I hope Showtime wins and gets a summer title shot against the winner of Frankie and Bendo.


Main Bouts (on Pay-Per-View):
Frankie Edgar (14-1-1; #1 Lightweight) vs. Benson Henderson (15-2; #4 Lightweight)
Quinton Jackson (32-9; #5 Light Heavyweight) vs. Ryan Bader (13-2)
Mark Hunt (7-7) vs. Cheick Kongo (17-6-2)
Yoshihiro Akiyama (13-4) vs. Jake Shields (26-6-1; #8 Welterweight)
Yushin Okami (26-6; #3 Middleweight) vs. Tim Boetsch (14-4)
Hatsu Hioki (25-4-2) vs. Bart Palaszewski (36-14)
Anthony Pettis (14-2; #9 Lightweight) vs. Joe Lauzon (21-6)

Preliminary Bouts (on FX):
Takanori Gomi (32-8) vs. Eiji Mitsuoka (18-7-2)
Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto (18-5) vs. Vaughan Lee (11-7-1)
Riki Fukuda (17-5) vs. Steve Cantwell (7-5)
Takeya Mizugaki (15-6-2) vs. Chris Cariaso (12-3)

Preliminary Bout (on Facebook):
Tiequan Zhang (15-2) vs. Issei Tamura (6-2)
 
The Okami/Boetsch fight interests me a LOT here. I think people are underestimating Boetsch at middleweight. He's not the most interesting guy in the division, but he's gone from being a big light heavyweight to a MASSIVE middleweight. He made Kendall Grove and Nick Ring look like children fighting an adult the way they were basically bouncing off him.

Okami's a big dude himself yes, but I don't think he's going to roll over Boetsch as much as people have said he will. It's the most interesting of the least interesting fights on the card. I have a feeling it's not going to be fight of the year material (or FotN for that matter) but it will be great to see what Boetsch is capable of doing against top tier competition at middleweight since it was apparent from the Phil Davis fight that he wouldn't be a guy that could stack up to the top light heavyweights.
 
It will be interesting to see if Boetsch can get his wrestling going. I don't think he'll be able to. I don't think that Boetsch's wrestling is on par with Mark Munoz and Okami was able to defend him very well. I think that the time in the past that Okami has spent at Team Quest with Chael really has helped him out. And I suspect that he will be taking down Boetsch and working a top control game.
 
Just want to get this in now. My pick for the most boring fight on the card is easily Shields/Akiyama. The weigh-ins are happening what amounts to Saturday afternoon, and are fighting late Sunday morning. Jake Shields doesn't wow with his pace when he has the full day and a bit to rehydrate. And this is Akiyama's first fight at 170. This fight could get ugly, fast.

Also looking forward to hearing Goldberg and Rogan try to explain away what is likely to be a huge chorus of boos that are put upon Akiyama. They always seem to talk about how beloved he is in Japan. He is actually one of the biggest heels in all of MMA in Japan.
 
Only Rampage missed weight.

UFC Lightweight Championship
Frankie Edgar (154) vs. Ben Henderson (154)

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (*211) vs. Ryan Bader (205)
Cheick Kongo (229) vs. Mark Hunt (264)
Jake Shields (170) vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama (169)
Yushin Okami (185) vs. Tim Boetsch (186)
Hatsu Hioki (145) vs. Bart Palaszewski (146)
Anthony Pettis (155) vs. Joe Lauzon (156)
Takanori Gomi (155) vs. Eiji Mitsuoka (154)
Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto (136) vs. Vaughan Lee (135)
Riki Fukuda (185) vs. Steve Cantwell (185)
Takeya Mizugaki (135) vs. Chris Cariaso (136)
Tiequan Zhang (146) vs. Issei Tamura (145)
 
None of my friends wanted to get together or go out. But I am still ordering the PPV, this is not a fight card that I want to watch on my computer, that's for sure.
 
canucksfreak19 said:
None of my friends wanted to get together or go out. But I am still ordering the PPV, this is not a fight card that I want to watch on my computer, that's for sure.
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I hear ya. I was going to order it as well but we have a Vegas trip coming up so I gotta save some cash.

This card is exciting to say the least. When I first laid eyes on it I could not wait for this day to come.

Beauty KO on Tiequan Zhang on the facebook was a great way to start the night.
 
crowncarrier said:
I hear ya. I was going to order it as well but we have a Vegas trip coming up so I gotta save some cash.

This card is exciting to say the least. When I first laid eyes on it I could not wait for this day to come.

Beauty KO on Tiequan Zhang on the facebook was a great way to start the night.
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That was a really nice KO, here we go. This is going to be a fun night of fights.
 
That was a fun fight, Fukuda looked really good. And Steve Cantwell has made UFC history becoming the first fighter to ever lose 5 consecutive fights inside of the UFC. He's got to be cut now.
 
What a waste of talent Kid is, he's done. Go back and smoke and drink and what not because as a fighter you're done. He's a textbook example of what not to do as fighter. Pathetic performance.
 
crowncarrier said:
Wow.......that was deadly. Lots of good Ko's tonight.
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Yeah, been a very entertaining fight card thus far. Living up to the expectations; however, there are some fights to come that could labor a bit. I don't even really care what happens the rest of the fight card though. My favorite fighter just won in spectacular fashion. I'm happy.
 
canucksfreak19 said:
Yeah, been a very entertaining fight card thus far. Living up to the expectations; however, there are some fights to come that could labor a bit. I don't even really care what happens the rest of the fight card though. My favorite fighter just won in spectacular fashion. I'm happy.
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I just gotta say I love being right. When the UFC started to add new weight classes I mentioned on a thread here that with that they will have to increase the number of fights on the main card........so happy I still have 5 more fights to watch.

Now with that being said they will have to increas the amount of events aswell. I say the more the merrier.

Thank you Dana White
 
crowncarrier said:
I just gotta say I love being right. When the UFC started to add new weight classes I mentioned on a thread here that with that they will have to increase the number of fights on the main card........so happy I still have 5 more fights to watch.

Now with that being said they will have to increas the amount of events aswell. I say the more the merrier.

Thank you Dana White
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I'm with you, but this card has been an issue for many on the East coast because a lot of bars have chosen not to get the card because they close at 1:00 A.M. when the card is set to go until. I don't see them doing this very often at all. It just doesn't make sense financially for them. But like you I wouldn't object.
 

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