UFC 89 Bisping vs Leben FREE on SpikeTV OCTOBER 18, 2008 IN ENGLAND Venue: The National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, England This weekend we have a UFC that doesn’t have a single must see fight, but I do believe there are some very intriguing fights worth watching Let’s look a little bit at this weekends free fights on Spike TV. First up the undercard; 170 Lbs: Dan 'The Outlaw' Hardy (19-6) vs Akihiro Gono (28-12) 265 Lbs: Shane Carwin (9-0) vs Neil Wane (4-0) 170 Lbs: Jess 'The Joker' Liaudin (12-10) vs David 'The Lion' Bielkheden (12-6) 155 Lbs: Sam 'Hands of Stone' Stout (13-4) vs Terry Etim (10-2) 155 Lbs: Per Eklund (12-3) vs. Samy Schiavo (10-5) 155 Lbs: David Baron (14-2) vs Jim Miller (11-1) I am disappointed that neither the Hardy.Gono, nor the Carwin/Wane fights are on the main card. Carwin is a beast and a future star at HW. He’s 9-0 with almost all of his fights ending via TKO in the 1st round. Several times now when there has been extra time after the main event, Carwin’s fights have been aired. I’m hoping this is true again. Hardy is a recent signee and a promising fighter, Gono is an ex-Pride star who has only lost to the best of the best, Shogun Rua, Dan Henderson and Dennis Kang, in the past 4 years. He’s a character and the UFC can always use good fighters with charisma. He’s coming off an injury but I think he’ll do well and become a feature at 185. The David Baron/Jim Miller fight is noteworthy as both are recent additions who have a good fight resume and could be future main card fighters. The rest of the fighters are, IMO, career under card fighters who can put on good fights, but are there because they are inconsistent or were never that good. The Main Card: 185 Lbs: Micheal 'The Count' Bisping (16-1 ) vs Chris 'The Crippler' Leben (18-4 ) 205 Lbs: Keith 'The Dean of Mean' Jardine (13-4) vs Brandon 'The Truth' Vera (9-2) 170 Lbs: Paul Kelly (7-0) vs Marcus 'The Irish Hand Grenade' Davis (14-4) 205 Lbs: Rameau Thierry 'The African Assassin' Sokoudjou (5-2) vs Luiz 'Banha' Cane (8-1) 170 Lbs: Chris 'Lights Out' Lytle (25-16-5) vs Paul Taylor (9-3-1) Chris Lytle vs Paul Taylor Chris Lytle is the ultimate Gate Keeper. Not good enough to beat the top 10-15 guys, although he can win sometimes, too damn tough and puts on too good of a show to let go. Paul Taylor is 1-2 in the UFC and needs a win to stay in the UFC. He’s not been given an easy opponent to do that in Lytle who should take care of business. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou vs Luiz 'Banha' Cane Rameau Sokoudjou is a puzzling fighter who has looked brilliant in his 2 big wins over Little Nog and Ricardo Arona, but as with most fighters was puzzled and frustrated when facing Machida. He did bounce back to get a spectacular looking victory over a disappointing Nakamura who never seemed comfortable in the UFC octagon and is now back in Japan. Banha has looked very impressive in all of his outings, losing only via DQ for an illegal knee to the head of a downed James Irwin who had a knee on the mat when the blow was delivered. But Sokoudjou is a very strong fighter and can muscle anyone at 205 around and if he closes the distance and uses the famed Team Quest dirty boxing techniques, he will make it a very long night for Cane. This could be a very explosive fight and possibly the fight of the night. Paul Kelly vs Marcus Davis The UFC loves to have Davis fight in the UK and apparently Davis loves to fight there. I have not idea what the UK fans think of a guy with the name Irish Hand Grenade who is not actually from Ireland though. Paul Kelly is a perfect 7-0 and fights out of Mike Bisping’s camp, the Wolfslair Academy. Kelly looked impressive in his first UFC fight, but hasn’t faced the competition Davis has. With Rampage and other top notch MMA fighters coming to train at the Wolfslair though, Kelly will only get better. On paper is seems like Davis is the obvious choice, but Kelly is aggressive and a tough scrapper, he can make this a long night for Davis and either fighter is more than capable of landing the shot that ends the fight. Keith Jardine vs Brandon Vera Jardine is the model of inconsistency. He beats Forrest Griffin rather soundly, he loses to in under a minute to Houston Alexander. He frustrates and outstrikes The Iceman himself, Chuck Liddell, he gets steamrolled in under a minute by a back to form Wanderlai Silva. Notice how both his losses have come in under a minute? Vera has been aggressive in his fights before with 5 of his 9 victories coming I the 1st round and none going to decision.. until his last fight. Ever since Vera was beaten for the first time in his fight with Tim Sylvia, Vera has been more cautious and tentative. A cautious and tentative Vera will be picked apart by the unorthodox Jardine. If Vera has adjusted to the weight drop to 205, he should come out aggressive and capable of winning the fight. Jardine will have a good game plan as he trains at Jackson’s Submission Fighting camp and Greg Jackson is one of the best at coming up with a solid game plan for his fighters. Micheal Bisping vs Chris Leben This is the main event. Bisping is a big draw for the UFC in the UK and has looked very good with his drop to 185. He’s more explosive and energetic. He’s finished both his fights in the first round, whereas at 205 he had to work much harder to win his fight. Leben is a tough banger and recent photo’s have shown he’s in great shape and should be ready for this fight. Leben has great punching power, but Bisping has been clocked by bigger guys and survived. Leben is a gamer and who has had some disappointing losses but I’m thinking his recent run in with the law and recent sobriety can only point to an improved Leben. This will be a stand up war and the winner of this fight should be in line for a title shot. I don’t expect this fight to last more than one round though as both fighters are very aggressive. Looking at the main card, it looks to be a night of stand up with loads of banging. I can see a lot of these fights ending early unless fighters become tentative. I can only see that for one or two fights though. For the main event, both are very tough fighters so I expect there to be lots of action and it could go the distance only due to how tough they really are.
Pretty excited for this card. I read somewhere this is being called "caged kickboxing". I wouldn't expect to see a lot of ground work. I'm hoping for Jardine and Leben too pull out victories.
Welcome to the site and thanks for posting! This should be a good card. At least I hope it is. I won't get to see the UFC 90 card because of a wedding--that is, unless I can get everyone drunk by 10 and bail out to a sports bar in my tux. We'll see on that one. Gono's entrance is going to be epic. He has supposedly been planning it for weeks. Who needs training?
but Gono is on the freaking undercard!!! I want to see DJ Ozma's entrance dammit!! lol every time i think of gono I think of is masuki bance entrance during the Pride MW grand prix
If Gono's entrance is epic, I'm sure mmatko.com will show it. (My apologies if posting that link is illegal).
IDK how they get away with it but they post full fight vids after events. Sometimes it's not in english, but still idk how they get away with it.
probably because the haven't been caught or the UFC hasn't found a way to go after internet sites showing their content yet. p.s make sure to visit this thread and take a shot at picking the fights http://sportstwo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=125934
FYI, I plan on creating a thread for live discussion while the fights are on tonight if anyone wants to join in
