UFC 138: Leben vs. Mu

[D. S. Veteran]

UFC is on a roll of good shows but I'm guessing UFC 138 will be the odd one out. Hardly promoted and being sandwiched between two monster cards without a relevant main event, it's not looking good on paper but one can hope that it will deliver. UFC doesn't even have a teaser for it. This event should have probably been scrapped after UFC on FOX was announced. Here's the card, absolutely loaded with local (UK) talent.

Preliminary card (Facebook)

Chris Cariaso vs. Vaughan Lee - Lee's UFC debut after racking up a 3 fight win streak with some UK promotions. Both guys will probably be undercard stapples for years to come (unless they get cut).

Chris Cope vs. Che Mills - Cope's stint on TUF didn't last very long but he fought in the Finale and got picked up by the UFC. Surprised he didn't drop to LW. In front of him is Che Mills, a total unknown whose only claim to relevancy comes from the fact that he KO'ed Marius ?aromskis twice. Meh.

Rob Broughton vs. Philip De Fries - The Bear gets to fight again not even two months after his terrible fight against Travis Browne (the UFC probably didn't cut him because they had this card coming up). He faces Philip De Fries, a 7?0-0 (1 NC) HW who is a BJJ ace and has only faced a guy with a winning record on his most recent fight in Ultimate Warrior Challenge. This should be a terrible gassfest.

Michihiro Omigawa vs. Jason Young - Omigawa is rapidly aproaching an overall losing record and needs a win badly to be kept around. His last loss was controversial so he gets his chance against Young, an 8-4 FW who lost his UFC debut to Dustin Poirier. His only "notable" win is over Abdul Mohamed.

John Maguire vs. Justin Edwards - Maguire is the UCMMA WW champion (despite his record consisting of mostly losing fighters) and he gets to debut in the UFC against TUF washout Justin Edwards. Can't hardly wait.

Main card

Cyrille Diabat? vs. Anthony Perosh - Two bottom rung LHW go at it. Diabat? will probably use his enormous reach advantage to put a beating on Perosh, one of the last guys to lose to Mirko. If Perosh comes in with a gameplan, this may turn into an good fight.

Terry Etim vs. Eddie Faaloloto - Faaloloto lost to Michael Johnson, a wrestler who can't keep people down. I hope Etim beats him and he gets his walking papers from the UFC. He couldn't cut it in the WEC and he can't cut it in the UFC.

Thiago Alves vs. Papy Abedi - Now we finally get to the interesting fights. On one side, he requires no introduction, Thiago Alves. He's on a 1-3 slide since losing to GSP at UFC 100 with his sole win being John Howard who was cut from the UFC after losing to Matt Brown of all people. He's an agressive striker no doubt but it's pretty clear that since losing to GSP he can't handle wrestlers, which is weird because before that fight he beat Josh Koscheck, Matt Hughes and non-retarded Karo Parisyan. Facing him will be Abedi, a swedish-congolese fighter with an 8-0 against nobodies but whose pshysical gifts put him as a very interesting prospect for the WW division. I hope he can wrestle because if he can't, he's probably getting (T)KO'ed or beaten down for a decision victory.

Brad Pickett vs. Renan Bar?o - Pickett is a pretty good BW no doubt. He holds wins over Demetrious Johnson and Ivan Menjivar with his last loss coming at the hands of Scott Jorgensen. All of those guys are in the Top 20 for the BW class. But facing him across the ring is Renan Bar?o, the owner of one of the most impressive MMA records around, 26-1 with the only loss being his first fight in 2005. Here's the thing: Bar?o hasn't beaten anyone special in his fighting career. Most of his record was built in brazilian promotions with only 3 fights being under the Zuffa banner. But he has shown throughout his career that he is well rounded (with a healthy dose of KO wins mixed in with submission wins and decisions) and he trains with Jos? Aldo at Nova Uni?o. With the BW division starving for contenders, I think this fight on the main card can kickstart any of these fighters aspirations for a (very far in the future) title shot against Dominick Cruz, instead of the inevitable rematches against Faber that await him.

Chris Leben vs. Mark Mu?oz - One could think that this fight has MW title implications. I doesn't. This fight is for entertainment purposes only. We already know what Leben does, he comes in and dukes it out. He, much like Bisping, has no business facing Anderson Silva anytime soon (or late). Mu?oz is building a nice win streak, is ranked #5 at MW but he hasn't fought any other top tier MW fighters (and Leben isn't one). His path to the title would probably have to be beating Leben, beating winner of Miller vs Bisping and beating Okami or Belfort. IF they don't throw him to the wolves against Sonnen. As for the fight, it could go either way. Leben has been very unreliable, losing against guys he should be hands down and winning surprisingly. It should be a fun fight nonetheless.

[dippednbutter]

I'm thinking the lack of promotion may due to it's airing on SpikeTV. The UFC site is not even putting Spike up there as how we are to view it in the US. I had to dig through tvguide and assume it was going to be aired on Spike so I wouldn't miss a free card :(

[D. S. Veteran]

Thiago Alves missed weight yet again. He really should take some care since he's 1-3 in his last 4 and could very well be cut if he loses.

[D. S. Veteran]

No doubt in my mind that this card delivered. Despite looking average on paper, it ended up having a lot of finishes and exciting fights. Comments in bold.

Prelims
Chris Cariaso vs. Vaughan Lee - Didn't watch.
Chris Cope vs. Che Mills - Cope wasn't anything special on TUF but still got picked up. The thing is that he chose to keep fighting at WW instead of dropping a weight class like almost all the fighters that the UFC picks up (the other guy picked up from TUF 13 that didn't drop a weight class also lost on this card). He was no match for Mills. It was over in less than a minute: 2 brutal knees and Cope was done for. Goddard almost stopped the fight after the first but wisely let the fight go on. He could have chosen to do the same after the 2nd knee but Cope was already on wobbly legs and ended up faceplanting due to a punch, good stoppage there. Goddard was on his game troughout this card. Mills picked up a well deserved KOTN bonus and starts his UFC career with a bang. Seems like his wins over Marius ?aromskis were well deserved. Cope will probably get another fight (which he must win if he doesn't want to get cut) maybe against Justin Edwards (who lost as a WW on this card). Mills should get another bottom tier WW in his next fight, I don't know, maybe Josh Neer or even John Maguire (who won against Edwards on this card)? So many choices.
Rob Broughton vs. Philip De Fries - Didn't watch.
Michihiro Omigawa vs. Jason Young - Didn't watch but Omigawa picked up a much needed win.
John Maguire vs. Justin Edwards - This ended up being quite a competitive fight. Edwards stalled on TUF due to a medical suspension after getting KTFO by an Tony Fergusson upkick. He, like Cope, chose to keep fighting at WW, despite being a bit undersized. Edwards had a golden chance of finishing the fight in the first round but Maguire fought hard to keep the fight going. Both guys showed some good striking with Edwards taking the upper hand here but Maguire's grappling was key for his victory. Whenever the fight went to the ground, Maguire maintained control, got the back whenever possible and kept busy, even getting a body triangle in the 2nd round. The 3rd round gave us the clash of the leglocks which was also pretty cool. Edwards showed a lot of heart and good cardio. He will live to fight another day. Maybe a drop to LW would improve his chances.

Main card
Cyrille Diabat? vs. Anthony Perosh - Perosh came in with a gameplan and he executed it perfectly. He started the fight on the outside but Diabat? didn't capitalize on it despite his amazing range. Perosh's weakness is in his takedowns, he's a grappler not a wrestler. When he went for a leg, he didn't drive trough with power in order to get Diabat? to the ground. He ends up finally getting a takedown and it was pretty clear that Diabat?'s ground game is very lacking. Perosh took his time, hardly doing any GnP, being content with spinning around and keep Diabat? controled for the 1st round. In the 2nd round, Hippo gets Diabat? down and does whatever he wants: gets the back, gets mount, keeps Diabat? on his back with ease. Perosh showed a LOT of patience, picking his submission attempts in order not to gass his arms out (he had an arm triangle available twice and didn't take it). In the end, he got his back, flattened him out with GnP and got the RNC for the win (I didn't even see the tap). Who's next for Perosh now that he's at LHW? He's almost in his forties so he really isn't cut out for a title run. Maybe Brandon Vera or James Te Huna?
Terry Etim vs. Eddie Faaloloto - Hahaha. HAHAHAHA. Faaloloto loses to a 17 second, arm-in standing guillotine. Also he got into that because he doesn't know how to do a takedown and picked Etim up (enough to get tangled) instead of driving him down. I don't even know why the WEC picked up this guy in the first place. Is it because he's hawaiian and they are known for being good fighters? Etim starts his long climb back to relevancy in the shark tank that is the LW division. And he picks up a nice SOTN bonus.
Thiago Alves vs. Papy Abedi - Didn't know that Abedi was a judo black belt. Good for him, shame he didn't put it to use. He came out striking with some confidence and that cost him in the end. Why would you want to go toe to toe with a guy renowned for his striking instead of using your grapplings skills to win? Thiago got some vicious punches in, wobbled Abedi and pounced for the kill with vicious GnP. Absolutely brutal elbows. Goddard was on top of things again, not stopping the fight while Abedi was still defending himself (despite the smashing he was getting). Also, if you get submitted by Alves, the first submission of his entire career of knocking people out, you're now officially a little bitch. It's like tapping to strikes or getting subbed by Cro-Cop (looking at you Pat Barry).
Brad Pickett vs. Renan Bar?o - This fight was amazing and well deserving of FOTN honors. Both guys came out swinging, throwing leather with great technique. Both Pickett and Bar?o showed great chins and duked it out. And then... that knee. Bar?o hits Pickett, drops him and pounces on for the finish. Pickett, being made out of bricks, gets himself up but Bar?o jumps onto his back in less than a second! And finishes with a RNC. Wow. Bar?o showed the world that his record is no fluke. He's the real deal, the BW Jos? Aldo. Dominick Cruz better watch out because he's coming for his title. He probably gets to jump right in the Top 10 BW rankings.
Chris Leben vs. Mark Mu?oz - Mu?oz understood early that brawling with Leben wasn't the best gameplan to win the fight. He worked dilligently to get his takedowns and punches in and put a beating on Leben. Leben also had some chances to put Mu?oz away but couldn't do enough damage to stop him. And that cut sealed the deal for the fight.The moment when Leben says to the ref that he can see just so that fight could go on was pretty funny as he was bleeding like a faucet and gassing like crazy. Good thing this fight didn't go the distance because there was no way Leben would have cardio for 5 rounds and neither would Mark. The 5 round main event thing may end up backfiring against the UFC. Fans may have booed the Doctor Stoppage but the safety of the fighters comes first and Leben did no disservice to the fans during those 2 rounds. Mu?oz has a long road ahead of him until his title shot so he may want to fight as soon as possible again against a Top 10 MW (winner of Bisping vs Mayhem would arguibly fit that category like I said).

[dippednbutter]

Etim and Mills got hand picked opponents, not much of a challenge.

I can't believe anyone thought Abedi was ready for a shot in the UFC. His tapes showed he was green. You could see he was going to get caught. He moves straight back, has no head movement, literally sticking his chin out for Alves.

[D. S. Veteran]

Etim and Mills got hand picked opponents, not much of a challenge.

I can't believe anyone thought Abedi was ready for a shot in the UFC. His tapes showed he was green. You could see he was going to get caught. He moves straight back, has no head movement, literally sticking his chin out for Alves.

He was ready for the UFC seeing how some pretty mediocre WW fighters also got to fight on this card, just not for a 1st fight against Thiago Alves. Had his first fight been with say, Chris Cope, he would have been 9-0 by now. Also this was his first fight ever at WW and he goes and accepts a fight with a previous title contender. Not very smart.