ufc UFC on Fuel TV: Sanchez vs. Ellenberger

[D. S. Veteran]

The UFC continues it's expansion into network TV with events on Fuel (pretty much equivalent to a Fight Night card). The poster looks like crap but here it is.

Here's the card (pretty weak overall but hey, it's free):

Preliminary card (Facebook)

Tim Means vs. Bernardo Magalhaes - It's a battle of B-League LW champions. Tim's representing KOTC and Bernardo is the CFC champion. One more thing, Tim's nickname is "The Dirty Bird". I don't even know what to say. I've stopped counting these fights out after watching the first Erick Silva fight. A future champion could be here. Not likely but possible.

Anton Kuivanen vs. Justin Salas - See above. Kuivanen has had a pretty nice career in Europe and now debuts against another UFC newcomer. Should be interesting.

Buddy Roberts vs. Sean Loeffler - See above.

Jonathan Brookins vs. Vagner Rocha - Finally some recognizable fighters. Brookins made his bones in the WEC and jumped to the UFC with his TUF win. He was promptly derailed by future contender Erik Koch in a fight where I was pretty scared about the judge's decision because of the Leonard Garcia Factor. Rocha had a tough loss in his UFC debut against Donald Cerrone and has now decided to drop to FW. Brookins is a 1 dimensional grappler (not wrestler) with bad striking. If Rocha keeps up the offensive and avoids getting pressed against the fence, he should win the decision.

Ivan Menjivar vs. John Albert - The UFC either hates Albert or knows something we don't. Albert beat Dustin Pague by TKO in the TUF finale but to have him fight Menjivar for a second fight is lunacy. Menjivar, besides being freakishly strong for a BW, is much more experienced and should have no trouble dispatching Albert.

Main card

T.J. Dillashaw vs. Walel Watson - Walel fought hard against Yves Jabouin, the decision could have gone either way. He has a big reach advantage over T.J but we know TAM guys are great top control wrestlers.

Stipe Miocic vs. Philip De Fries - Here's an interesting fight. Miocic is the closest thing to the 2nd coming of Mirko. He's very big and lean HW who put a beating on Joey Beltran in his UFC debut. He also holds a win by submission due to leg kicks. So it's the classic match-up of striker vs grappler since De Fries is a very good BJJ fighter with 7 of his 8 wins coming by way of submission. He beat warm HW body Rob Broughton in his UFC debut. If Stipe can keep the fight standing, he can probably take it. If not... it's going to be a long night.

Aaron Simpson vs. Ronny Markes - Markes holds a win over Paulo Filho. Wonder how many people still remember who he is.

Stefan Struve vs. Dave Herman - Struve is know for two things: taking amazing amounts of punishment before turning the fight around and losing in spectacular fashion. Whichever one of those performances he'll put on, we all win.

Diego Sanchez vs. Jake Ellenberger - Sanchez, after robbing Martin Kapmann of a clear cut win by abusing the Leonard Garcia Factor (the fighter who keeps plodding ahead, swinging on air wins points) gets to face the Juggernaut. Oh boy. Kampmann did a number on Sanchez, tagging him over and over with clean, crisp shots that left him disfigured and bleeding like a faucet when the decision was read. Kampmann lacked the power to KO notoriously tough Sanchez (his battle with BJ Penn is still fresh on my mind, the amount of punishment he took). But I'm pretty sure Ellenberger won't have that problem, at all. He clearly has KO power and knows how to use it. Combine that with a strong wrestling base and you can see why he's a top contender for the WW crown. Either Sanchez got his **** together at 170 and starts bringing back his LW "The Nightmare" self or this fight shouldn't even last 2 rounds, nevermind 5 rounds. Altough a 5 round beatdown should be also entertaining.

[D. S. Veteran]

Meh card. If it wasn't on free TV, people would have been ****ED. The commentary was goddamned awful, the moment where they compared Elleberger's striking to Anderson Silva's striking was ludicrous beyond belief.

Preliminary card (Facebook)

Tim Means vs. Bernardo Magalhaes - Didn't watch.

Anton Kuivanen vs. Justin Salas - Didn't watch.

Buddy Roberts vs. Sean Loeffler - Didn't watch.

Jonathan Brookins vs. Vagner Rocha - Stuffed takedown, 2 or 3 punches in the jaw, done. Meh to the nth power. Had Rocha kept the fight standing instead of going for the ridiculous attempt, he would have battered Brookings for 15 minutes and gotten himself a nice, confortable decision win.

Ivan Menjivar vs. John Albert - I'll admit that Albert looked surprisingly good on the ground, throwing triangles and omoplatas everywhere. But since you need to finish those in order to win, he got beat. And it was weird, it still can't get it. One minute he was throwing subs left and right and the next he's just lying there on all 4, not moving, like he had just been unplugged. Did his cardio run out just like that? Menjivar did what was expected of him.

Main card

T.J. Dillashaw vs. Walel Watson - Pure TAM display of top control wrestling. T.J got Walel down, got his back at least 1000 times and dominated him. But he really should diversify his arsenal. There are more chokes available than the RNC and when you're styling all over an opponent like that, you can try them for a finish. Walel just couldn't keep up despite his huge size advantage. The striking stats for this fight were ridiculous.

Stipe Miocic vs. Philip De Fries - Miocic keeps marching on. He took some shots and answered back with fury. He's still developing but has shown nothing but improvement. Maybe have him fight Struve? That or Mike Russow.

Aaron Simpson vs. Ronny Markes - Simpson had ample chances to put a stop to the fight. Don't leave it in the hands of the judges. Meh.

Stefan Struve vs. Dave Herman - Struve needs a new training camp, RIGHT ****ING NOW. He's finally started filling in his massive frame, looking physically imposing, but was constantly getting backed up by Herman despite being bigger, arguibly stronger and having a MUCH longer range. What are those guys teaching him in Holland? Don't use your massive legs to keep guys at bay? Christ ****. Overeem should ship him to America. Herman looked totally lost when mounted, reminded me of Kimbo Slice. And as for the Sasquatch thing, sorry but no. Brian Ebersole has you beat.

Diego Sanchez vs. Jake Ellenberger - I was scared this was going to end up another Kampmann style robbery due to the last 2 minutes of the fight. The rest of the fight was Sanchez plodding on and getting tagged in the face by Ellenberger. Like a boss. He's tough. But he's seems to be chanelling Joey Beltran instead of a capable wrestler who had amazing GnP. The WW division is full of guys who are more than happy to use him as a punching bag.