As for the supporting cast, UFC is comprised of ten more matchups all televised in one form or another via Facebook. Spike TV, and the main card pay-per-view.
Supporting the main event is an exciting showdown featuring another resurgent “old-school” phenom in Vitor Belfort taking on Japanese superstar Yoshihiro Akiyama in a middleweight matchup. Heading into UFC 133, Belfort has won five out of his last six bouts, with his only loss courtesy of an Anderson Silva snap-front-kick in their championship bout this past February. Prior to that, he had won impressively beating Rich Franklin and Matt Lindland back-to-back. In this bout, Vitor will be taking on “Sexyama,” a JMMA superstar and a highly-decorated world champion judoka. Yoshihiro started his MMA career with a 12-1 streak prior to making his way into the U.S. at UFC 100. Since he’s been here, his record has been a pedestrian 1-2 but impressive in that every single UFC bout he’s been a part of has won “Fight of the Night” honors. Couple that fact with Belfort’s guns-blazing style and this matchup should provide fireworks.
The rest of the card offers up a mix of veterans looking to climb the rankings (Matt Hamill, Chad Mendes) and newer fighters looking to one day get to that point. Let’s take a look at the entire card and preview how we expect UFC 133 to shake out when all is said and done.
UFC 133: Main Card (PPV)
Analysis: This fight is a rematch of a July 2007 matchup that saw these two battle to a draw after Ortiz was penalized for repeatedly grabbing the fence to avoid being taken down. Evans has evolved since then, developing his striking and growing to the point of becoming the #1 contender at 205 on multiple occasions. Meanwhile, Tito has also shown that an “old dog can learn new tricks” with his guillotine choke victory over Bader, the first BJJ-based submission of his career. Most people believe Tito’s skills to be diminishing at this point in his career but he proved to be sharp in his last fight. Meanwhile, Rashad is supposed to be ascending but he hasn’t fought in a year. This fight is going to be telling for the direction of both these men. These two can both wrestle and are well-versed enough on the ground to scramble out of bad positions. It’s what they do on their feet that will prove to be the difference.
Prediction: Rashad Evans by decision.
Middleweight bout: Vitor Belfort versus Yoshihiro Akiyama
Analysis: Fight of the night anyone? This one has all the makings of one considering the past history of these two men. Like I said earlier, Belfort has won five out of his last six minus a title loss to Anderson Silva and is still known for having some of the fast hands in the biz. Meanwhile, Akiyama may be a world-champion judoka but he’s proved to have hardly any interest in taking the fight to the ground. Instead, he’s opted to bang it out with his opponents and the result for him has been three FOTN bonuses. Those checks are nice but what he needs at this point is a win and that will be hard to come by for the JMMA star. It should be war and perhaps even another FOTN but Belfort should win this one going away.
Prediction: Vitor Belfort by unanimous decision.
Analysis: These guys have well over 100 fights between them. That’s the claim to fame in this one as the 50-13-2 Hallman takes on the 47-14-1 Ebersole. Dennis “Superman” Hallman has taken out Karo Parisyan and Ben Saunders on the way to this one =while Ebersole has won his last eight culminating with a victory over Chris Lytle in his last one. This one is going to come down to Ebersole’s top contol versus Hallman’s guard and the former usually wins in the UFC nowadays.
Prediction: Brian Ebersole by unanimous decision.
Middleweight bout: Jorge Rivera versus Costantinos Philippou
Analysis: Jorge “The Conquistador” Rivera was very entertaining with his pre-fight videos before he faced Michael Bisping in his last fight. Unfortunately, he looked every bit of 39-years-old when they stepped into the cage. He was supposed to face another striker in Alessio Sakara in this fight before injury derailed that matchup. Costantinos Philippou is a decent late replacement but he’s probably not on the same level as his opponent.
Prediction: Jorge Rivera by TKO in round one.
Welterweight bout: Rory MacDonald versus Mike Pyle
Analysis: This is probably one of the most intriguing fights on the card. Canada’s Rory MacDonald is one of the top up-and-comers in MMA with an 11-1 record. He’s coming off an impressive victory over Nate Diaz. His lone loss comes to Carlos Condit in a FOTN performance that all of a sudden doesn’t look bad given that Condit is knocking on a door of a title shot himself. Meanwhile, Mike Pyle out of Xtreme Couture has never been anything to scoff at given his experience. Through his career Pyle has proven to be a gritty fighter and has won his last three fights, most recently against Ricardo Almeida. He’ll prove to be a stiff test but it should be one Rory should pass.
Prediction: Rory MacDonald by TKO in the third round.
UFC 133: Preliminary card (Spike TV)
Analysis: The Swede Alexander Gustafsson (11-1) has been on a tear since starting in MMA four years ago, only losing to Phil Davis since making it into the UFC. More impressive is that all of his fights minus one have ended in submissions or KO/TKO. Meanwhile, Matt Hamill is looking to bounce back from his first loss in three years to Rampage Jackson by taking out the up-and-comer. Gustafsson is well-rounded and has decent takedown defense. He’s also 6’5” with reach on his side. It’s likely that Hamill will need to get this fight to the ground to win or risk getting peppered like he did in his last fight.
Prediction: Alexander Gustafsson by unanimous decision
Featherweight bout: Chad Mendes versus Rani Yahya
Analysis: There is a lot at stake here for Team Alpha Male’s Chad Mendes. A win in this fight and he could be next in line for the featherweight title currently held by Jose Aldo. In order to get there, he’ll have to get past one of the MMA world’s top featherweight jiu-jitsu practitioners in Rani Yahya. A strong grappler in his own right, Chad has the wrestling pedigree to force this fight to the ground or keep it standing if that’s what suits him. Yahya will have to catch Mendes will something quick and slick if he wants to win this fight and that’s much easier said than done.
Prediction: Chad Mendes by TKO in the second round.
UFC 133: Preliminary card (Facebook)
Prediction: Nick Pace by submission in the second round.
Welterweight bout: Johny Hendricks versus Mike Pierce
Prediction: Johny Hendricks by unanimous decision.
Featherweight bout: Mike Brown versus Nam Phan
Prediction: Nam Phan by submission in round three.
Middleweight bout: Rafael Natal versus Paul Bradley
Prediction: Rafael Natal by submission in round one.
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