UFC 117: The Winners & Losers
By Scott Heritage
The biggest revelation to come out of UFC 117 was that Anderson Silva’s grip on the middleweight title is not quite as tight as everyone thought. Chael Sonnen succeeded in dominating Silva for four and a half rounds before the champion locked in a fight ending triangle choke with only minutes remaining. More worryingly for Silva fans though is that he wasn’t even particularly dominant in the short portions of the fight that took place on the feet, and was rocked several times by Sonnen before being taken down.
The biggest question regarding both Silva and Sonnen right now is whether the UFC will want to set them up for an instant rematch or whether Vitor Belfort gets the next shot at the middleweight title. Aside from what the fans might want or whether Belfort has earned the shot though, there are other issues that the UFC are probably also considering. The most important of which is what the eventual pay per view numbers for 117 will be. Early reports have figures hovering around 1 million buys, which if confirmed will become the highest selling Anderson Silva pay per view in UFC history.
Although Silva is the champion though, it was probably Sonnen’s non stop trash talking leading up to the fight that lead to a lot of the buys, and the typically quiet Silva has not proven himself to be a huge draw in the past. Probably largely due to his seeming indifference in both certain fights and most interviews. Silva vs. Belfort would probably sell a decent amount, but given that both main event fighters will be Brazilian, and neither are particularly talkative, that figure would almost certainly be a lot less than one million.
Silva vs. Sonnen II though could potentially be the biggest selling UFC event not containing Brock Lesnar, and although the Dana White headed company aren’t often keen on instant rubber matches, the best time could be right now, before the fan perception of either Silva or Sonnen changes.
In what turned out to be a frankly unimpressive showing from both fighters, Jon Fitch controlled an overweight and sluggish looking Thiago Alves for three rounds en route to yet another unanimous decision. Having failed to make weight, Alves, despite being the favorite before the weight problems were revealed, looked far from his best. Fitch was as consistent as ever, but will never become a fan or promoter favorite so long as he sticks to his effective yet less than thrilling grinding fight style.
At the post event press conference, Fitch was asked several times what he thought about potentially having to fight Josh Koscheck in the future. Given that Kos challenges welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre next and Fitch’s win puts him in line after that. As per usual though Fitch didn’t seem comfortable talking about the issue, and instead did his best to avoid the question altogether, insisting that he was concentrating only on his upcoming wedding for the next few weeks and nothing else.
Dana White also mentioned during the conference that he wanted to see Alves at middleweight in the future given that he has now failed to make the welterweight limit several times. He didn’t go so far as saying that he would force Alves to make the jump, but he strongly implied that this was more or less the case. Who Alves will pop up against next then is anyone’s guess for now, and chances are he will want a fairly easy opponent for his middleweight debut. Not having the size advantage he had at welterweight though it will be interesting to see whether Alves can handle some of the wrestlers the middleweight division is packed with.
Former welterweight champion Matt Hughes proved all his critics wrong once again as he quickly and fairly easily overcame younger challenger Ricardo Almeida. In his last outing Hughes looked tentative with his wrestling, and instead used some awkward looking kickboxing to bring down Renzo Gracie. Against Gracie student Almeida though he looked sharp and his hands looked better than they have done in a long time. He also becomes the first man to ever submit Almeida, which as a Gracie student isn’t something that many will ever be able to say they have done.
Hughes has said already that he intends to take the rest of the year off, and that his next fight will be in the spring. The most obvious and perhaps overdue fight for Hughes next will be against Dennis Hallman, who was also on the card against Ben Saunders. Hallman has beaten Hughes twice, and appears to be back in decent form following his win over big favorite Saunders. The biggest upside of this potential bout of course being that Hughes would get the chance to avenge one of the few losses he has yet to.
Rounding out the main card, fast rising heavyweight prospect Junior Dos Santos put the tough chin of Roy Nelson through the wringer with a consummate three round beating. Despite the rash of early stoppages on his ledger to date, the Brazilian proved to be more than up to task of going a hard three rounds. Nelson also proved a lot of his critics wrong firstly by lasting the duration and secondly by proving once again that his portly physique isn’t holding him back.
Next for Dos Santos is unclear at this point, although matching him up with someone like Shane Carwin makes a lot of sense. Carwin not only has the striking to match the Brazilian, but the power to put him to sleep at any time, and would force Dos Santos to employ a more cautious game plan than he usually does. Secondly Beating Carwin would give Dos Santos real grounds to call himself the number one contender to Brock Lesnar’s throne after Cain Velasquez challenges him.
Nelson from here probably moves on to performing gatekeeper duties, separating the true contenders from the chasing pack. At his age and with his experience he isn’t likely to change his style or get much better, and as proven by past performances he isn’t quite as good as the very best heavyweights in the division. A lot of which is probably down to his relatively diminutive size.