The UFC and WEC conglomeration have quite a few upcoming events. This is always a good thing for fans of MMA. However, despite my happiness in being able to watch fights nearly every weekend, I’m pretty disappointed by the card quality. Here is the coming line up:
UFC 105 – November 14
WEC 44 – November 18
UFC 106 – November 21
TUF 10 Finale – December 5
UFC 107 – December 12
WEC 45 – December 19
UFC 105
Main Bouts:
-Randy Couture (16-10) vs. Brandon Vera (14-3)
-Mike Swick (14-2) vs. Dan Hardy (22-6)
-Michael Bisping (17-2) vs. Denis Kang (32-11-1)
-James Wilks (6-2) vs. Matt Brown (9-7)
-Ross Pearson (9-3) vs. Aaron Riley (28-11-1)
Preliminary Bouts:
-Terry Etim (13-2) vs. Shannon Gugerty (12-3)
-Paul Taylor (10-4-1) vs. John Hathaway (11-0)
-Matt Riddle (3-0) vs. Nick Osipczak (4-0)
-Paul Kelly (9-1) vs. Dennis Siver (14-6)
-Alexander Gustafsson (8-0) vs. Jared Hamman (10-1)
-Andre Winner (9-3-1) vs. Roli Delgado (6-4-1)
What do we have here? The main event is questionable at best. Couture is always a draw (which the UFC needs badly for this card) up against Vera, who is very hot and cold. I have not spoken to anyone in the MMA community who has expressed any interest in this fight. The UFC appears to purely be cashing in on Couture’s name by putting him against a vanilla opponent to bolster an otherwise terrible card. Swick and Hardy has the potential to be interesting, but chances are it won’t be a barn burner. Kang and Bisping is the UFC’s way to place a “name” star in Kang against their home town hero of Bisping while offering Bisping the best possibility for success. Kang is a talented fighter, but he has a greater chance of defeating himself in any match than Bisping has of taking home a decision here. The UFC brass are allowing Bisping the greatest possibility of a victory, while taking into account that he really is not that great of a fighter.
The rest of the card features a bunch of tailored made matches showcasing a local homeboy up against a random opponent of questionable quality.
WEC 44
Main Bouts (on Versus):
-Mike Brown (22-4) vs. Jose Aldo (15-1)
-Leonard Garcia (13-4) vs. Manny Gamburyan (9-4)
-Rob McCullough (17-5) vs. Karen Darabedyan (8-1)
-Danny Castillo (8-1) vs. Shane Roller (6-2)
Preliminary Bouts:
-Alex Karalexis (10-4) vs Kamal Shalorus (4-0-1)
-L.C. Davis (14-2) vs. Diego Nunes (13-0)
-John Franchi (5-1) vs. Cub Swanson (13-3)
-Antonio Banuelos (16-5) vs Kenji Osawa (15-8-2)
-Ricardo Lamas (6-1) vs. James Krause (10-1)
-Frank Gomez (7-1) vs. Seth Dikun (7-3)
We all look to the WEC to save us in times of UFC inconsistency. While this card is nothing spectacular, it certainly offers some interesting fighters and match ups. There are not too many huge names in the WEC altogether so it’s nice to see a fighter’s determination make up their fan appreciation rather than hype.
Despite all this, Mike Brown versus Jose Aldo has the potential to be one of the most exciting match ups we’ve ever seen at 145. Brown is a solid tactician with KO power and overwhelming experience. Aldo on the other hand is the fighter of the hour with outstandingly impressive stand up performances in his past few fights. If Brown chooses to stand up and brawl it out with Aldo, we’re in for a night of fireworks.
UFC 106
Main Bouts:
-Forrest Griffin (16-6) vs. Tito Ortiz (15-6-1)
-Josh Koscheck (13-4) vs. Anthony Johnson (8-2)
-Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (17-3) vs. Luis Cane (10-1)
-Karo Parisyan (18-5) vs. Dustin Hazelett (12-4)
Preliminary Bouts:
-Amir Sadollah (1-1) vs. Phil Baroni (13-11)
-Ben Saunders (7-1-2) vs. Marcus Davis (16-5)
-Kendall Grove (10-6) vs. Jake Rosholt (6-1)
-George Sotiropoulos (12-2) vs. Jason Dent (28-9)
-Brock Larson (29-3) vs. Brian Foster (12-4)
-Paulo Thiago (11-1) vs. Jacob Volkmann (9-0)
This UFC is by far the most exciting of the upcoming UFC cards, but by the standards we have grown used to, it is still lacking in that extra bit of polish. The undercard has a few fighters that are going to be fun to watch, opponent notwithstanding. It will be interesting to see if Kendall Grove finally gets ejected from the UFC should he lose this fight, which is probable. Baroni returns, in what could be one of the most hilarious and/or sad match ups of the year.
Griffin and Ortiz is not particularly exciting, but it does mark Ortiz’s return, which is met by mixed reactions across the board. Koscheck and Johnson is probably the most interesting match up technically and will answer a lot of questions about just how good Johnson is, which is quite handy, considering the hype he is garnering these days. Little Nog’s debut against Cane will probably be the fight of the night. Cane has a bit of hype too, but Nog is tried and true and definitely a welcome addition to LHW in the UFC. This fight makes the card worthwhile in my opinion.
Further down the road I’ll take a look at the additional cards coming our way. However, Zuffa is making an auspicious start with the upcoming hotbed winter season in MMA. With nearly all champions riddled with injuries or other pestering issues, it will be interesting to see if the UFC can put together interesting, meaningful and exciting fights in lieu of their more recent tactics of basing events purely on name value alone.
MMATH 
Really enjoyed the post. The UFC title picture is pretty grim…a pretty thick stroke of nothing but bad luck.
With that being said, the UFC is definitely getting their contenders together. I can’t complain about fights like Maynard/Diaz, Swick/Hardy, Evans/Silva, Griffin/Ortiz and Velasquez/Nogueira.
Hopefully the champs get healthy enough to take on those victorious in these contender fights.