Thursday, November 15, 2007

UFC this weekend

This weekend, the UFC will return to the east coast for the first time in a couple of years with UFC 78: Validation. The main event pits Ultimate Fighter winners Rashad Evans vs Michael Bisping. This will be the first time the two winners of the Ultimate Fighter show have fought against each other. The fight would make a great undercard to a main event fight, unfortunately the UFC has none to offer. The rumored main event of B.J. Penn vs Sean Sherk never was able to get out of the rumor stage because of Sherk's suspension by the California State Athletic Commission for having Testosterone levels deemed to high. Sherk is still appealing his suspension and hopes to basically have it knocked to time served, since he hasn't fought since then and the appeal is scheduled for the first week in December. Penn is scheduled to fight Joe Stevenson in England in January for the interim belt, with the winner eventually to face Sherk to "unify" the two titles.

But back to Saturday. The undercard was to also feature the return of David Terrell vs Ed Herman, but Terrell had to pull out due to an ankle injury. Terrell hasn't fought in the past year and a half due to various injuries and looks to be on the shelf for some time to come.

Evans and Bisping are both coming off controversial decisions in their previous outing. Evans basically drawing with Tito Ortiz because Ortiz lost a point in their fight for holding the fence. A rematch between Ortiz and Evans was also rumored to be the main event for this card, but Tito is locked in a contract dispute with the UFC and has decided to be a part of Donald Trump's celebrity Apprentice instead.

Bisping last fought against Matt Hamill, a fellow cast member of his season of TUF a won a decision in his home country of England, depsite the fans in attendance and most watching the event thinking Hamill to have won. Hamill and Bisping are headed for a rematch as soon as Hamill recovers from knee surgery.

In a recent conference call, UFC President Dana White has said that the winner of this fight could have title implications, something that I don't think makes sense. Both fighters come into the fight undefeated, but not deserving of a title shot. Both fighters are at least a couple wins away from even being able to get a title shot. The Light Heavyweight division in the UFC has a couple of fighters more deserving of title shots and I hope that White thinks about them before the winner of Evan and Bisping. Besides, I think bought fighters have a rematch that the fans are waiting for first.

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