Sean 'Muscle Shark' Sherk
Frankie 'The Answer' Edgar In the first televised bout of the evening Sean Sherk will look to continue his comeback trail when he takes on Frankie Edgar. Sean Sherk began fighting in MMA in June 1999 as a Welterweight, his first fight was a unanimous decision victory against Roscoe Ostyn and he went on to amass an 8-0 record before he was signed by the UFC to fight Tiki Ghosn at UFC 30. Sherk won his UFC debut in the 2nd round with a submission due to a dislocated shoulder. Even though he was victorious in his debut, it was another year before Sherk was invited back to the organization to face Jutaro Nakao at UFC 36. With his undefeated record still intact Sherk added another win to his record with a unanimous decision over the Japanese fighter. Still undefeated & with a record of 17-0-1 Sherk was then chosen to fight Matt Hughes for the UFC Welterweight Championship on April 25, 2003 at UFC 42. Sherk ended up losing the fight via unanimous decision after going the full five rounds with the champion, becoming the first fighter to go the distance with Hughes at that point in time.
After suffering the first loss of his career to Matt Hughes, Sherk was let go by the UFC and went to fight for some other promotions, during this time Sherk put together a 12 fight win streak before finally being invited back to the UFC in 2005 to take on upcoming welterweight title contender Georges St. Pierre at UFC 56. Sherk lost by TKO in the 2nd round, but was given another fight at UFC 59, where he defeated Nick Diaz via unanimous decision. After the fight Sherk stated his intention to drop down to the lightweight division and made his debut in his new weight class at UFC 64, where he defeated Kenny Florian via unanimous decision to win the vacant UFC Lightweight Championship. With this win, Sherk became the first UFC Lightweight Champion since Jens Pulver vacated the title back in 2002.
After successfully defending his title for the first time against Hermes Franca, the California State Athletic Commission announced that Sherk had tested positive for Nandrolone, a banned steroid, in a urine test the day prior to the fight. After testing positive Sherk was fined $2,500 and suspended from competing in California for one year. Sherk's suspension was reduced to six months after appealing his allegations on December 4, 2007, making him eligible to fight in early January 2008. Following the CSAC's decision, the UFC officially stripped Sherk of his Lightweight Championship. However Sherk had a chance to regain his title in May 2008 when he challenged the new Lightweight champion BJ Penn at UFC 84. Penn defeated Sherk by TKO after Sherk was unable to continue at the end of the third round. In his most recent bout Sherk fought Tyson Griffin at UFC 90, earning a unanimous decision victory in what turned out to be a very competitive fight that won ‘Fight of the Night’ honours.
Frankie Edgar made his MMA debut in October 2005 against Mark Getto, with only a few weeks of full MMA training behind him Edgar impressed with a TKO win in the very first round. He built a 5-0 record before making his UFC debut in 2007 at UFC 67 against fellow undefeated fighter Tyson Griffin. In a very closely contested battle Griffin caught Edgar in a kneebar at the end of the 3rd round, which looked to be very close to ending the fight but Edgar refused to tap and lasted out the remainder of the round to win by unanimous decision. Edgar followed up this win with a first-round TKO victory over Mark Bocek at UFC 73 and then defeated veteran fighter Spencer Fisher via unanimous decision at UFC 78. Unfortunately his unbeaten streak came to a sudden end at UFC Fight Night 13 against Gray Maynard who used his size and wrestling skill to overpower Edgar en route to a unanimous decision. In his most recent fight Edgar rebounded with another ‘Fight of the Night’ victory against Hermes Franca.
This fight definitely has all the makings of a potential fight of the night, both guys will be going all out from the first round & I don’t expect their pace to drop too much throughout the fight as they both possess excellent conditioning. Another thing that these guys have in common is that they are both outstanding wrestlers who have developed pretty good stand-up skills to improve their overall games. I can actually see this fight having a similar result to the Sherk/Griffin fight, as Sherk should be able to neutralize any potential takedown attempts by Edgar with his strength advantage while using his slightly better stand-up to out-point his opponent. Even though Edgar is an excellent fighter I think that Sherk’s experience will prove to be the difference in this fight as he takes a unanimous decision victory.
My Prediction: Sean Sherk via unanimous decision.
Dan Miller
Chael Sonnen Dan Miller will be making his UFC main card debut on May 23rd when he takes on Team Quest fighter Chael Sonnen. Dan Miller began his MMA career in November 2005 against Tenyeh Dixon winning via triangle choke in the first round at Reality Fighting 10. He went 2-0 before suffering the first loss of his career, a split decision to Mike Massenzio. Dan rebounded from this loss by winning his next 6 fights which earned him a UFC contract in 2008. Miller fought Rob Kimmons in his UFC debut and submitted the Xtreme Couture fighter in the first round, after that victory he has since gone on to win his next 2 UFC fights and is now 11-1-1 overall and unbeaten since making his UFC debut.
Chael Sonnen made his MMA debut in March 2002 against Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller winning via decision after two five minute rounds at HFP 1: Rumble On The Reservation. Thus far Chael has compiled an overall record of 23-9-1, which includes a unanimous decision over the previously undefeated WEC Middleweight champion Paulo Filho at WEC 36. Prior to the fight, Paulo Filho did not make weight (weighing in almost seven pounds over 185 weight limit) thus taking away the chance for Sonnen to capture Filho’s WEC Middleweight title.
A lot of people started to take note of Sonnen after his victory over Filho and he was given the chance to show that this win was no fluke when he made his UFC debut against Demian Maia at UFC 95. Sonnen went into the fight looking to break the Brazilian’s undefeated record, but managed to last just 2 minutes 37 seconds before getting caught in a triangle and forced to tap out.
After losing his UFC debut there’s a lot of pressure on Sonnen to get the victory in this fight, he came in to the UFC as the uncrowned WEC champion and if he wants to get a shot at the UFC middleweight title then he will need to start putting together some impressive wins pretty soon. This could be a tough fight for Miller, who’s strongest assets are his submissions & wrestling skills, as I can see him struggling to get Chael to the ground. Even though Sonnen got taken down & submitted in his last fight, he was a 2x National Champion, NCAA All-American and if anything I think he was surprised by how good Maia’s throws were, this time I feel he will be much better prepared and he will look to use his wrestling skills to keep Miller standing where he can then use his superior striking to out-point or KO Miller. However if Chael makes a mistake then Miller definitely has the skills to make him pay for it and if the fight hits the ground then he is more than capable of getting the submission. At the end of the night however, with so much at stake for Sonnen I think that he will come away with the win and end Miller’s UFC undefeated streak.
My Prediction: Chael Sonnen via decision.
Drew 'The Massacre' McFedries
'The Professor X' Xavier Foupa-PokamThe man they call ‘Professor X’ will get his second chance in UFC on Saturday when he takes on aggressive striker Drew McFedries. Xavier Foupa-Pokam made his mixed martial arts debut in June 2002 against Nelson Monteiro winning in impressive fashion after the fight was stopped just 43 seconds due to KO via slam. Xavier’s career was very inconsistent over the next 5 years as he compiled a record of 8-7, after getting the seventh loss of his career, Xavier put together a 5 fight win streak which at the time was the longest win streak of his career. Unfortunately this streak ended when he stepped up his competition to another level when he took on Murilo ‘Ninja’ Rua (brother of ‘Shogun’ Rua) at Cage Rage 24, Xavier made it to the 2nd half of the 2nd round before getting caught in a rear naked choke & forced to tap out. After this loss Xavier came back with a vengeance winning all 7 of his following fights, this sudden improvement in form earned Xavier his shot at the big time when the UFC signed him to fight at UFC 97 against Denis Kang. Even though he lost his debut, Xavier took Kang the distance in their fight and prevented the hometown favourite from getting an impressive victory. Less than one week after Xavier's UFC debut, he accepted this fight against McFedries and has since claimed that fans will now get to see the true Xavier after his nervous debut performance.
Drew McFedries debuted in MMA back in 2001, losing his first fight by TKO in the 2nd round to fellow UFC fighter, Nate Quarry. Determined to get his new career back on track, Drew put together a 4 fight win streak before being invited to participate in UFC 65 against fellow striker Alessio Sakara, despite Sakara’s technical advantage with strikes, Drew’s aggressive style over-whelmed the Italian as he ended the fight late in the first round via TKO. During his next 6 fights in the UFC Drew has gone 2-4 with 3 out of the 4 losses coming by way of submission, an area where Drew has been trying to improve in recent fights.
With both of these fighters coming into this fight on losing streaks, the result of this bout really decide the fate of their UFC careers. Drew McFedries has a very aggressive style which has been hit & miss for him recently, even though his style is exciting to watch and pleases fans he will need to be more cautious if he ever wants to challenge the elite fighters in his division. With devastating power in both hands, Drew definitely has the tools to upset a lot of middleweights if he connects with his strikes, however when he gets taken down, the weaknesses in his game become apparent. Xavier Foupa-Papin also has good striking however his submission skills are also very good and as a result he is a lot more well-rounded. This means that he should be able to control where this fight takes place, he may want to test Drew’s stand-up in the opening stages of the bout, which could end up resulting in an early night for either fighter as one punch should be all it takes from either guy to KO the other. The best strategy for Xavier will be to go for the takedown as soon as possible and then work for the submission, which he should have a good chance at getting due to his superior ground skills. Drew’s best chance in this fight is to try & get Xavier to trade with him, if he can then land a clean shot then he may just have got himself another lifeline in the UFC. Either man can walk away from this fight with the win but I think we will see Professor X come away with his first UFC victory after taking Drew down and submitting him.
My Prediction: Xavier Foupa-Pokam via submission.
Matt Hughes
Matt 'The Terror' SerraMatt Hughes and Matt Serra will finally face off in their long awaited and much hyped grudge match in the co-main event of the evening. This fight has been a long time in the making with the beginning of the rivalry starting to heat up on The Ultimate Fighter and on May 23rd we’ll see an end to all the talking when these two meet in the Octagon. Matt Hughes made his debut in MMA in January 1998 against Erick Snyder, Hughes wasted no time at all in announcing his arrival in MMA, slamming Snyder just 15 seconds into the fight & forcing his opponent to submit almost immediately. Hughes continued to dominate all 3 of his next opponents, ending all 3 fights in the 1st round to take his record to 4-0. With Hughes’ confidence growing each time he stepped into the cage, his next result came as a reality check when his opponent Dennis Hallman put him in a guillotine choke just 18 seconds into the first round, forcing Matt to submit. This loss seemed to put the focus back into Hughes as he stacked up win after win improving his record to 22-1 before getting a re-match with Hallman at UFC 29. Even though Hughes was dominating every other opponent, Hallman seemed to have his number tapping Hughes out yet again just 20 seconds into the first round with an armbar. Immediately after his 2nd loss to Hallman, Matt suffered the first back-to-back losses of his career when he was KO’d by Jose Landi-Jons.
Determined to come back strong, Hughes won his next 7 fights to get another chance with the UFC, this time he would face Carlos Newton for the Welterweight title at UFC 34. The fight ended when Hughes was caught in a triangle choke by Carlos Newton, but somehow Matt was able to lift Carlos in the air and slam him to the mat, causing Newton to hit his head and lose consciousness just as Hughes was on the verge of blacking out himself from the choke. After the match Carlos stated that he felt the reason Hughes fell to the mat was because he was rendered unconscious from the triangle choke. This was confirmed when reviews of the tape showed Hughes telling his corner after the fight "I was out." Almost a year later Hughes defeated Newton in a re-match via TKO to put an end to the controversy surrounding their first encounter. Hughes went on to defend his title 5 times before finally losing it to BJ Penn via rear naked choke towards the end of the first round. He would later get another chance to win back his title after BJ vacated the belt, which opened the door for Georges St.Pierre vs. Hughes 1 with the championship at stake at UFC 50. GSP was the underdog coming into the fight but ended up taking the fight to the former champ and was actually winning the fight until he got caught in an armbar with 1 second to go in the first round.
After re-gaining his title, Hughes won his next 4 fights including victories over BJ Penn & the legendary Royce Gracie. At UFC 65 Hughes & GSP faced off for the second time, this time GSP made no mistake and stopped Hughes in the 2nd round with a flurry of punches and elbows to end the champion’s 2nd reign. Hughes won his next fight and found himself once again in line for a shot at the Welterweight championship when it was announced that he would take on newly crowned champ, Matt Serra, however the fight was put on hold when Serra sustained a herniated disc in his lower back and was out indefinitely. As a replacement GSP vs. Hughes 3 was signed to take place at UFC 79, this 3rd match between the 2 was perhaps the most one-sided as GSP avoided all of Hughes’ takedown attempts while using Matt’s own style of ground & pound against him before finally ending the fight in the 2nd round due to verbal submission.
In his most recent fight Hughes took on Thiago Alves at UFC 85, he ended up losing the fight after receiving a flying knee from Alves in the 2nd round which dropped him to the ground with his own left knee pinned behind his hips. After this loss Hughes stated that he had at least ‘one last fight’ left in him against Matt Serra.
Matt Serra debuted back in 1999 submitting Graham Lewis in the first round. He fought sparingly over the next 3 years putting together a 3-0 record before getting his UFC debut against Shonie Carter at UFC 31. Shonie’s unorthodox style gave Serra problems throughout the fight and when Shonie threw a spinning backfist in the 3rd round he KO’d ‘The Terra’ for the first time in his career. Serra came back from the loss to record 2 victories in his next 2 fights before taking on ‘The Prodigy’ BJ Penn at UFC 39, Serra took Penn to the judges’ scorecards but lost via unanimous decision. His next opportunity to fight in the octagon came at UFC 41 against Din Thomas, once again Matt went the full 3 rounds with his opponent but lost by split decision.
After suffering back-to-back losses for the first time in his career, Serra would take almost a year before stepping back into the cage. After this short break, Serra came back to win his next 2 fights before losing the 4th fight of his career against Karo Parisyan. It was after this fight that Serra was invited to become a participant in The Ultimate Fighter 4: The Comeback. During the competition, Serra defeated Pete Spratt and avenged his KO loss to Shonie Carter to reach the finals. At the season finale Serra defeated Chris Lytle by majority decision to become the Ultimate Fighter 4 Welterweight Tournament Champion. His win earned him a guaranteed title shot against Georges St. Pierre for the UFC Welterweight Championship which took place at UFC 69. Serra entered the fight as a massive underdog and shocked the world when he KO’d the champion just over 3 minutes into the first round. In his first title defence Serra was scheduled to face Matt Hughes but was forced to withdraw from the fight with a herniated disc in his lower back. When Serra had fully recovered he was signed to fight GSP in a re-match at UFC 83, this time GSP dominated the action as he picked Serra apart & took him down at will before ending the fight in the second round via TKO.
This fight has been building for a long time and with each man harboring real resentment toward each other; it should make for a very interesting fight. Matt Hughes has said numerous times in the build-up to this fight that he will be going back to the style that he is most known for, which is using his wrestling to slam his opponents to ground before controlling them and using his ground & pound. If Hughes does what he says then he will need to be extremely careful on the ground especially early in the fight when Serra will be able to hold on to his submission attempts a lot easier than he would in the later rounds. Even though Hughes has said that he will go back to his old style, I still have a feeling that he may be tempted to test his striking out early on in the fight. We’ve seen Hughes do this a lot in recent fights and he would love the opportunity to KO Serra. This could lead to him playing straight into Serra’s gameplan though as Serra has more power in his strikes than Hughes and with the confidence he got from dropping GSP he will be more than happy to stand and trade with Hughes. This is a tough fight to call, if Hughes can keep his composure, get Serra down and keep him there then I can see him either getting a decision or even a TKO, however if he gets cocky and tries to stand up then I think Serra will take the TKO. This fight really does depend on which Matt Hughes shows up and with this very likely being his last fight I can see him pulling out all the stops to go out on top.
My Prediction: Matt Hughes via TKO.
Rashad 'Suga' Evans
Lyoto 'The Dragon' Machida In the main event of the evening we will see two fighters at the top of their games collide when they both put their unbeaten records on the line for the UFC light heavyweight championship. Rashad Evans made his MMA debut in April 2004 securing an anaconda choke on Dennis Reed in the first round to successfully begin his career. He then went on to win his following 4 fights before getting a chance to compete on The Ultimate Fighter 2 as a heavyweight. He was considered the underdog in each of his fights, but made it to the finals by defeating Tom Murphy, Mike Whitehead, and Keith Jardine. In the final Evans defeated Brad Imes by split decision to win a three-year, six-figure contract with the UFC. After the show Evans joined Greg Jackson's Submission Fighting camp and continues to fight out of that camp today.
After his success on the show Evans dropped down to the light-heavyweight division and took on Sam Hoger at Ultimate Fight Night 4 defeating Hoger via split decision. Evans continued his winning streak improving his record to 10-0 before getting the biggest fight of his career to date against former light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz. The fight ended in a draw as all three judges scored the bout 28-28. Ortiz had won two out of three rounds on all scorecards, but was deducted a point for holding the cage to defend against a takedown by Evans. After the Ortiz fight, Evans took on Michael Bisping in another close fight and ended up giving the Englishman his first ever loss at UFC 78.
Evans’ next fight took place almost a year later against Chuck Liddell, with a shot at the Light Heavyweight title at stake this would be Rashad’s biggest challenge thus far in his career. After a fairly even first round in which Evans stood & traded with ‘The Iceman’ he flashed a jab and then landed an overhand right just as Liddell was throwing an uppercut half way through the second round. The punch caught Liddell flush on the chin and KO’d him instantly. This impressive victory put Rashad in line to fight the champion, Forrest Griffin at UFC 92. Forrest controlled most of the beginning stages of the fight, however in the 3rd round; Evans caught a low kick and countered with a straight right hand that dropped Griffin. Rashad then followed Griffin to the ground finished the fight with his ground and pound to become the new UFC Light Heavyweight Champion.
Lyoto Machida had his first MMA fight in May 2003, defeating Kengo Watanabe via unanimous decision at NJPW: Ultimate Crush. He fought fellow UFC competitor Stephan Bonnar in his second fight, defeating The Ultimate Fighter finalist via TKO due to a cut. In only his 3rd professional MMA fight, Lyoto took on the 12-0 UFC veteran Rich Franklin and defeated the future Middleweight champion in the 2nd rounds with strikes. Machida continued his undefeated streak, putting together an 8-0 professional record before getting a chance to showcase his skills at UFC 67 against Sam Hoger. Machida defeated Hoger via unanimous decision and won his next 2 UFC fights before facing the highly touted Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou at UFC 79; Sokoudjou was making his UFC debut and had gathered a lot of attention after stopping both Ricardo Arona & Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in PRIDE. It was during this fight that Lyoto earned the first stoppage of his UFC career, securing an arm triangle choke in the second round and submitting ‘The African Assassin.’
This win earned Machida a shot at Tito Ortiz at UFC 84; Machida frustrated Ortiz in the opening round by countering Ortiz’s strikes while defending the former champion's takedown attempts. In the final seconds of the third round, Machida landed a flying knee to the body of Ortiz and knocked him down. As Machida moved in to finish the fight, Ortiz almost locked in a triangle choke but Machida managed to escape and win a unanimous decision, with all three judges scoring the bout 30-27. Machida’s next fight took place at UFC 94 against fellow unbeaten Brazilian Thiago Silva; Machida controlled the first round scoring various takedowns & trips before managing to KO Thiago in the final second of the first round to earn himself a shot at Rashad’s title.
This fight will be a very interesting clash of styles and I can almost see the fight unfolding as a sort of chess match with both fighters carefully considering their options before they make a move. Rashad has shown considerable improvement in his game each and every time we’ve seen him in the octagon and as a result he is now one of the most well rounded fighters in the light heavyweight division. His natural physical gifts have played a big part in this but another important factor in his success is the game plans that his trainer Greg Jackson has helped him come up with for each of his fights. It will be interesting to see exactly what strategy they have come up with for this fight, as thus far in his career Lyoto has shown very few weaknesses and is more than prepared to wait for his opponents to make mistakes before committing to his attacks. Will Rashad be prepared to try and wait for Lyoto to move first or will he try to use his explosiveness to hit Lyoto before he has a chance to counter? With Machida’s excellent takedown defence I can’t see Rashad wasting any energy trying to take him down, at least not in the early rounds, I think instead he’ll use a similar strategy to the one used in his Liddell fight. He’ll look to use a lot of lateral movement while throwing his jab & quick combinations to try to catch the elusive Brazilian. With the success that Machida has achieved with his south-paw stance & variety of Shotokan Karate techniques I can’t see him changing his style up too much for this fight, he’ll look to use his excellent timing to try to counter Rashad’s strikes and may even go for some takedowns to surprise the champion and give him something else to thing about rather than just his strikes. I think the early rounds of this fight will involve a lot of feeling out between the two fighters with not a lot of action happening as they try to gauge each other’s stand-up. In rounds 3-4 I can see Rashad maybe getting a bit frustrated by Machida’s elusiveness and he’ll start to go in with his combinations a little more aggressively, leaving holes in his defence which Machida will exploit and catch the champion after he throws a combination to put him out for the KO.
My Prediction: Lyoto Machida via KO.
