UFC 102 (Jardine vs Thiago Silva)

[Rappy Veteran]

When one door closes, another opens.

Brazilian slugger Thiago Silva (13-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) woke up this morning believing he would be facing Forrest Griffin on Aug. 8 at UFC 101. He'll go to sleep preparing to face Keith Jardine (14-5-1 MMA, 6-4 UFC) at UFC 102.

Sources close to the organization have informed MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that "The Dean of Mean" and Siva have verbally agreed to meet at the Aug. 29 event.

Bout agreements are expected to be finalized shortly.

MMAjunkie.com originally learned of the planned Thiago Silva vs. Griffin matchup in March, but those plans were scrapped today in favor of the former light heavyweight champ and "The Ultimate Fighter" winner facing off with current UFC middleweight title holder Anderson Silva in a 205-pound contest.

The Anderson Silva vs. Griffin fight will serve as UFC 101's co-main event.

Thiago Silva will instead fight three weeks later, as the American Top Team fighter looks to rebound from his first career defeat. After reeling off four-straight wins to start his run in the UFC ? and 13-straight victories overall ? Silva was knocked out in a January bout with current No. 1 contender Lyoto Machida.

Jardine also looks to rebound from a recent loss. Also familiar with UFC card-shuffling, Jardine had been expected to face Luiz Cane at UFC 97, but a series of events led the Greg Jackson's Mixed Martial Arts fighter instead to a main event showdown with former light-heavyweight champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson at UFC 96 in March.

Jardine dropped a close unanimous decision to Jackson that many observers felt was decided in the final seconds of the 15-minute affair. While Jardine has gone just 2-3 in his past five fights, the always-dangerous, awkwardly styled fighter holds wins over Brandon Vera, Chuck Liddell, Griffin and Wilson Gouveia, among others.

While not officially announced, UFC 102 is expected to be headlined by a heavyweight bout between MMA legends Randy Couture and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira on Aug. 29 in Portland, Ore.

Source

[notta]

Wow, the Silva vs Griffin fight should be a good one. I first thought Silva would man-handle Forest like he has everyone else, but it's in the 205 class so that might be a different story. Plus, you have to take into consideration Griffin's heart.

I can't say why but I have no interest in Keith Jardine. I just don't ever see this guy being champ.

I keep checking every week to see when they're going to post Penn vs Florian. I read it was supposed to be held in Philly and if so I'm going baby! That will be a great one. As good as B.J. is, Florian is an animal right now.

[Rappy Veteran]

[Zoom7000]

Tough one to call, but for obvious sentimental reasons, I wanna see Randy Couture climb back up that ladder!

As for Thiago Silva, easy win I reckon against a very up and down Keith Jardine.

[trag3dy]

I was thinking of getting tickets for this, but I decided against it. I would love to see Randy fight irl but at $50 dollars a pop for tickets I can't justify it to see just one fight. And that's $50 for really crappy seats and they also charge a handling fee which is like 12 bucks. :hmmm:

[TheElite]

Wow, the only loss to Thiago has been from the man Machida himself.

[Fraggerr]

This card is gonna be sick. Two of my all time favorite fighters squaring off against each other for the main event....Nope not even gonna try and pick a winner.

Jardine against Silva. Jardine is basically my second favorite fighter behind Nog.

KSos coming in to fight Vera. Sos is on a roll but Vera is no joke but I am behind my main Man K Sos on this one. Never picked against him. Guy is a gamer.

Dont even get me started on Maia and Marquardt. If it goes to decision I got Marquardt dont see how Maia would be able to outpoint him. If it finished before the end of three rounds its gonna be Maia by submission.

[Rappy Veteran]

Here are the UFC 102 weigh-in results:

Main Bouts:

-Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (231) vs. Randy Couture (220)

-Keith Jardine (205) vs. Thiago Silva (205)

-Nate Marquardt (185) vs. Demian Maia (185)

-Krzysztof Soszynski (205) vs. Brandon Vera (205)

-Jake Rosholt (185) vs. Chris Leben (185)

Preliminary Bouts:

-Ed Herman (185.5) vs. Aaron Simpson (185)

-Gabe Gonzaga (259) vs. Chris Tuchscherer (258)

-Mike Russo (260) vs. Justin McCully (238)

-Tim Hague (263.5) vs. Todd Duffee (251)

-Nick Catone (185.5) vs. Mark Munoz (185.5)

-Marcus Aurelio (156) vs. Evan Dunham (155)

[Rappy Veteran]

anyone watching?

Maia :|

[trag3dy]

Yah, I wasn't even into the fight yet. Still getting situated after getting a drink. :s

[Rappy Veteran]

The whole fight was like "ok wtf just happened"

[trag3dy]

Yeah, had to see the replay to know what exactly happened.

[Rappy Veteran]

I am just waiting up for Randy haha....it's like 4:28am! haha

[Rappy Veteran]

maybe I might see it...jardine just got knocked the **** out!

[trag3dy]

And pretty quickly too. Main event starting now. They're talking about how Randy wants to go after the title again. Wouldn't it be awesome for him to retire as champ?

[Rappy Veteran]

PORTLAND, Ore. ? Predicting when MMA legend Randy Couture's storied career will finally come to a close is a near-impossible feat, but where it will close now appears a certainty.

Couture and UFC president Dana White announced following Saturday's "UFC 102: Couture vs. Nogueira" event that the 46-year-old signed a new six-fight, 28-month contract prior to his main-event loss to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in Portland, Ore.

"I think the opportunity to stay with the organization was my motivation," Couture (16-10 MMA, 13-7 UFC) said. "I think with things being the way they are, this is the place to be. I intend to finish my career here in the UFC."

Couture had one fight remaining on his old deal, and despite the sometimes-strained relationship between "The Natural" and his employer that led to a near-15-month layoff less than two years ago, the fighter looks forward to future challenges in the UFC.

If Couture were to complete the new deal, he would finish the contract with 32 career fights at 48 years old. There's certainly no guarantee the UFC Hall of Famer will complete the terms, but Couture said age has nothing to do with how he'll approach the coming bouts.

"I'm going to take it one fight at a time as I did 12 years ago when I started this thing," Couture said. "I'll see where that goes.

"I didn't have the outcome that I wanted (against Nogueira), but I still had a good performance, overall. I did a lot of things that I trained to do for this fight. We'll evaluate that, evaluate the training and see what fight is next and take it one at a time."

As for where that next step lies, Couture said he'd let White decide. But the UFC exec said the future is a clean slate that Couture can fill with any wish he chooses.

"It keeps the heavyweight division interesting, and maybe the light heavyweight division, too, depending on what [Couture] decides to do," White said. "I don't care what he wants to do. He can do whatever he wants.

"He's proven that he can stay in there and hang with the heavyweights if that's what he wants to do. And I think he's a beast at 205 pounds."

With a rematch with Lesnar out of the immediate picture following the loss to NogueiraCouture may indeed turn his eye to light heavyweight. Citing a need for "interesting fights," Couture has publicly stated that 205-pound matchups with current light-heavyweight champ Lyoto Machida or middleweight-champ-turned-light-heavyweight-contender Anderson Silva would be intriguing.b>

"I'm interested in interesting fights," Couture said. "There's a lot of guys in both divisions that are interesting to fight."

[Lovell]

Hopefully Nogueira vs Brock is next after he destroys Carwin.

[revvo]

Nogueira great last time, but man Couture at his age didn't give in to submissions...

[Rappy Veteran]

Nogueira great last time, but man Couture at his age didn't give in to submissions...

Couture is a beast! seeing as he signed a new deal he is going to have more epic fights :D

[trag3dy]

Yeah, that fight..or battle was pretty epic. Probably the most entertaining fight I've watched in a long time. A lot of fights these days I'm sitting here watching the clock count down waiting for it to end, not so with this one. :laugh:

[Lovell]

I know to many fighters either lay n pray, or just prancing around the ring taking potshots till they win the fight by decision, Japanese MMA had a good scoring system where the person who tries to finish the fight wins as well as counting all the rounds together so you can't win the first 2 then just back off till the 3rd is over, need more fighters trying to finish the fight rather than going for 3 rounds of **** to win by split decision.

[Bubbabyte]

Hopefully Nogueira vs Brock is next after he destroys Carwin.

Call my crazy, but seriously wtf makes you think Lesnar is gonna run through Carwin? You've either gotta be a Brock Fan, or not knowledgeable. Carwin is undefeated, been doing this a hell of a lot more then brock, has like 50/50 TKO/Subs and nobody has ever made it past the first round. Not to mention the fact that he's just as big as brock is 6"3 260-265 lbs. You're kidding yourself if you really think Lesnar is gonna have an easy fight.

Now regarding lastnight's event.. that Marquart KO was amazing. Maia is no joke, but he didn't have stand up skills to match Nate. The Jardine KO was kinda surprising, i thought he might be able to take the win. Also, Duffe is serious business, he reminds me of a really big Mac Danzig. The main event fight was nothing short of amazing, great battle. So many times Couture could have been counted out but he fought through it. He's old but he just signed a new 6 fight contract so as long as people like myself enjoy watching his fights he's gonna be in the octagon.

[Zoom7000]

Yet another stupid move by Yves Lavigne. Chris Leben clearly tapped, yet he didn't stop the hold and Leben was sent to sleep! Get that ref out of there man!

I think Marquardt definitely deserves a shot at Silva and to some extent I agree that he should either get it before Henderson or at least face off against Henderson to decide the no. 1 contender.

[trag3dy]

Call my crazy, but seriously wtf makes you think Lesnar is gonna run through Carwin? You've either gotta be a Brock Fan, or not knowledgeable. Carwin is undefeated, been doing this a hell of a lot more then brock, has like 50/50 TKO/Subs and nobody has ever made it past the first round. Not to mention the fact that he's just as big as brock is 6"3 260-265 lbs. You're kidding yourself if you really think Lesnar is gonna have an easy fight.

Now regarding lastnight's event.. that Marquart KO was amazing. Maia is no joke, but he didn't have stand up skills to match Nate. The Jardine KO was kinda surprising, i thought he might be able to take the win. Also, Duffe is serious business, he reminds me of a really big Mac Danzig. The main event fight was nothing short of amazing, great battle. So many times Couture could have been counted out but he fought through it. He's old but he just signed a new 6 fight contract so as long as people like myself enjoy watching his fights he's gonna be in the octagon.

I would agree....everything I've seen from Brock says that his only advantage is his size. If you take that advantage from him we'll see how good of a champ he really is. He had a huge size advantage on Couture and Mir. Brock is a bully and that is all there is to it (and him).

[Bubbabyte]

Yet another stupid move by Yves Lavigne. Chris Leben clearly tapped, yet he didn't stop the hold and Leben was sent to sleep! Get that ref out of there man!

I think Marquardt definitely deserves a shot at Silva and to some extent I agree that he should either get it before Henderson or at least face off against Henderson to decide the no. 1 contender.

as good as Nate is, he already had a shot. But even more then that I really don't think he can beat Henderson OR Franklin in that division. If he can beat one of the 2 i just mentioned, then he deserves another shot.