The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

UFC 133 preview and predictions

Roar Guru
6th August, 2011
0

When Rashad Evans and Tito Ortiz first met back in 2007, they scrapped out a hard fought draw at an event entitled UFC 73: Stacked.

Now, four years and 60 UFC pay-per-view events later, they meet in the main event of UFC 133 – an event that through no fault of those two or the UFC, is anything but stacked.

The match-ups on this card have been picked away at like blocks in a game of Jenga, but admirably the UFC have managed to stop it from falling.

I highlighted the plague of injuries that have decimated this card previously, so there’s no use dwelling on it here. In the end, what we are left with it still a pretty solid card, with a nice story to the main event and some quality match-ups.

To the fights!

Main Event – Rashad Evans vs Tito Ortiz.

As mentioned above, this is a rematch from their 2007 bout that was ruled a unanimous draw. Ortiz would have claimed the bout via unanimous decision if he was not deducted a point in the second round for grabbing the cage.

Since that fight their careers have gone in very different directions. Rashad went on to grab and lose UFC gold, while racking up victories over UFC superstars, Chuck Liddell, Forrest Griffin and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.

Advertisement

Conversely, Tito went on to lose his next three fights and faced the axe from the promotion. His stunning victory over Ryan Bader last month at UFC 132 was his first victory since 2006.

With this fight there’s a lot of talk about Tito Ortiz being “back” which of course refers back to the days in which he held the UFC light heavyweight title. I don’t feel that that Tito Ortiz is back. Mainly because I don’t feel the ground-and-pound centric Tito that won the title would have beaten Ryan Bader.

The days of Ortiz being the biggest kid in the playground and bludgeoning smaller opponents with a dominating wrestling game are over. The new Tito Ortiz that we saw against Ryan Bader that showed a willingness to explore the other areas of his game such as his underrated submission ability has a chance to succeed in the modern MMA climate.

Will the change be enough though?

Rashad Evans is a much different fighter than the one from UFC 73, and in recent times he has seemed to evolved his game even further to incorporate his wrestling skills. However, he also has not fought in fifteen months. All the momentum from his unanimous decision win over Rampage in May of last year has disappeared while Tito is rising a wave of momentum having upset a former contender just five weeks ago.

In summary, this is an ideal situation for Tito to notch another win. With that being said I still think Evans has the better set of skills and will start slow but end up taking the last two rounds to notch a tight decision win.

Co-Main Event – Vitor Belfort vs Yoshihiro Akiyama.

Advertisement

In his first fight back since tasting the foot of Anderson Silva, Vitor Belfort will look to blitz Akiyama in a way that only he can. A lighting fast Vitor Belfort knock out is close to the biggest hype-builder in the sport, and the Brazilian will need all the hype he can get after losing a lot of lustre against Silva in February.

Akiyama, meanwhile, will be looking to avoid making it a three fight slide in the UFC. Akiyama’s popularity in Japan garners him a substantial amount of coin from UFC management, however with that coin comes no easy fights. But as usual, Akiyama has the skills and the grit to make this a fight.

Akiyama’s biggest problem on Sunday is again going to be size disadvantage he faces against pretty much all middleweights. Vitor Belfort is a big middleweight and come Sunday he will absolutely dwarf Akiyama. Add to that the speed advantage Belfort possesses and you’re looking at a fun, short night for the man dubbed as Sexyama.

Brian Ebersole vs Dennis Hallman.

With a combined total of 129 bouts there isn’t a lot Brian Ebersole and Dennis Hallman haven’t seen in their fighting careers. One thing they haven’t seen though, is each other.

While Ebersole burst onto the UFC scene with an entertaining unanimous decision win over Chris Lytle back in February, Hallman has worked his way up the UFC ranks after being recalled to the big show at the end of 2009.

It’s an interesting clash and will come down to who controls the wrestling. Hallman’s dynamite submissions gloss over his weak striking so if he can’t get it to the floor he will probably get cartwheel kicked all night long.

Advertisement

Ebersole has a solid wrestling background so I’ll take him to do just that. Here’s hoping for a beautifully manscaped chest as well.

Jorge Rivera vs Constantinos Phillipou.

I’m not sure how much Rivera still has in the tank after his fiery battle with Michael Bisping but it should be enough to take care of Phillipou. If Phillipou can get the fight to the mat, he has a chance but I don’t think he does. Rivera via KO in round 1.

Rory MacDonald vs Mike Pyle.

Pyle has a tendency to wilt under pressure and MacDonald is all about putting the pressure on people. Pyle has a chance with his wily game, and could possible catch the still raw McDonald but I don’t see it happening. MacDonald via TKO in round 2.

Preliminary Card:

Matt Hamill vs Alexander Gustaffson – Gustaffson via TKO in round 2
Chad Mendes vs Rani Yahya – Mendes via KO in round 1
Ivan Menjivar vs Nick Pace – Menjivar via submission in round 2.
Johnny Hendricks vs Mike Pierce – Hendricks via decision.
Mike Brown vs Nam Phan – Brown via decision.
Paul Bradley vs Rafael Natal – Bradley via decision.

Advertisement
close