Saturday, November 19, 2011

UFC 139 Preview

     Tonight is UFC's first Pay-Per-View event since the UFC on FOX premiere last week.  I am interested to see how many new viewers this card attracts.  The whole card is great, with the headlining fight featuring two former Pride fighters, former UFC light heavyweight champion Mauricio Shogun Rua (20-5) and former Pride and Strikeforce champion Dan Henderson (28-8) in a five round, non-title fight.  Henderson is fighting in his first fight back in the UFC.  Henderson is coming off three straight wins in Strikeforce, and Shogun enters the fight off a win against Forrest Griffin, but is 2-2 in his last 4 fights.  Shogun finished off Forrest in just under two minutes in late August, and is fighting for the third time this year.  Henderson is also fighting his third fight of the year, his last taking place at the end of July that resulted in a TKO of Fedor in the first round.  Both of these fighters have a lot to prove in this fight and the winner will be the man who wants it more.  The winner is likely to get a title fight, and Shogun is trying to fight his way back to the top and reclaim that title.  Henderson, at 41 years old, is trying to continue winning to get a title shot one last time.  In terms of the favorite in this fight, it is almost even, Shogun with the slight advantage.  I want to see Henderson take this fight tonight and believe he can, but either way, it should be a classic one.
    The rest of the main card: Wanderlei Silva 33-11-1, 1NC) against Cung Le (7-1), Urijah Faber (25-5) vs. Brian Bowles (10-1), Martin Kampmann (17-5) vs. Rick Story (13-4), and Stephan Bonnar (16-7) vs. Kyle Kingsbury (11-2, 1 NC).  Another fight I am looking forward to that will be on the prelims on Spike is Ryan Bader (12-2) vs. Jason Brilz (18-4-1).  This will be a great night of fights, hope everyone enjoys!

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