UFC 54: Boiling Point

[TheRick]

Anybody else ordering this PPV? Here's the card so far:

Light Heavweight Championship
Chuck Liddell vs. Jeremy Horn

Light Heavyweight Bout
Randy Couture vs. Mike Van Arsdale

Welterweight Bout
Diego Sanchez vs. Brian Gassaway

Welterweight Bout
Frank Trigg vs. Georges St. Pierre

Heavyweight Bout
Tim Sylvia vs. Tra Telligman

Middleweight Bout
Matt Lindland vs. Joe Doerksen
Travis Lutter vs. Trevor Prangley

Light Heavyweight Bout
James Irvin vs. Terry Martin

So what do you guys think? Personally I think Trigg vs. St. Pierre is going to be the MOTN. This is the only one I truley think is up in the air. Both men have gotten really close to dethroning Hughes in the past (even though Hughes ended up decimating Trigg after slamming him across the entire length of the octagon...man that was sweet) and St. Pierre is on FIRE lately. I say St. Pierre goes over Trigg and gets a second chance against Hughes.

[Riley G]

I think Liddell is in trouble.

[NewFnShow]

I'm most likely ordering. Should be a great show. Liddell vs. Horn and GSP vs. Trigg should both be awesome.

[mercutio80]

A bunch of guys from work are getting together to watch this. We had a great time during the Couture/Liddel a few months ago.

[TheRick]

rileyg said:

I think Liddell is in trouble.

A lot of people are saying that. While I'm not counting Horn out, I have a feeling Liddell is going to be ready for him. He knows he can't come off of a big win over Couture just to lose to Horn. I'll predict Liddell by knockout.

[Riley G]

it's going to be close but i'm predicting Horn by submission.

[NewFnShow]

Originally I was going with Horn, since it looks like a mismatch for Liddell, but I'm now thinking Liddell will pull this out. It could go either way though.

I'm more interested in GSP vs. Trigg though, to be quite honest. That fight should be FOTN. That'll be a war.

[TheRick]

On a tangent does anybody know if Trigg vs. St. Pierre is a #1 contenders match or not? Both have had very recent shots at Hughe's title, but I can't really think of anybody better than them in that weight class. Well, not currently in the UFC anyway.

[NewFnShow]

Karo Parisyan is getting the next shot in either October(UFC 55) or November(UFN 2). Perhaps in December at 56, but I doubt it.

Trigg and GSP are definately the next two in line after that I would think. So I'm sure the winner will get the shot after Parisyan.

[TheRick]

I didn't know that about Karo getting a shot. I forsee Matt destroying him. Anybody have any other thoughts?

Also on a tangent I'm sure we all remember Jason "Mayhem" Miller who was defeated by GSP a couple PPVs ago? I was just thinking how much fun it'd be to watch him fight Koscheck. At the very least Mayhem left an impression on me and I think the two of them could have a good fight. Sorry to threadjack my own thread, but I'd love to see Koscheck try to wrestle somebody who is built like a rubber band.

Oh, and what do people think about Sylvia? After the steroids thing I could personally go without seeing him again, although the heavyweight division is extremely thing right now so I don't blame UFC for bringing him back. Here's hoping that Tra takes him out though.

[NewFnShow]

I'm really high on Karo, but I also see Hughes just dominating him. His style is similar to that of Hughes, but Hughes is just better at it. It should be very one sided.

Miller was fun to watch, but I think Koscheck would dominate him. After seeing Koscheck's last two victories, I'm really starting to become a Koscheck believer.

Tra vs. Sylvia will be a slugfest. Could go either way, but I'm thinking Sylvia will pull it out. I didn't like the whole steroids thing, but Sylvia is still a decent fighter, so I'm glad to see him back.

[TheRick]

I have a feeling Syliva is going to go over as well. Tra hasn't fought (according to Sherdog) since 2003 coming off of a loss to Pedro Rizzo. The guy is 40 years old and has lost 3 of his last 4 fights. Randy is an obvious indicator that age isn't always a factor, but Tra is an old school Lions Den fighter and I have a feeling his glory days are far behind him much like Shamrock.

[TheRick]

Anybody else catch the PPV? Here are some of my thoughts.

Chuck Liddell vs. Jeremy Horn
Not the most exciting fight. I actually thought Horn had a chance after escaping the first round as I thought Chuck might have ran out of ideas, but I guess you can only get decked in the eyes so many times before you can't see anything. My only complaint is that Chuck kept making Horn stand up. While I totally understand the logic behind it, it didn't make for a very exciting fight.

Randy Couture vs. Mike Van Arsdale
Lots of really good wrestling in the first round. Kinda surprised it took Randy that long, but he got the win as everybody expected.

Diego Sanchez vs. Brian Gassaway
Diego is going to be huge. The new hair/mustache is gold.

Frank Trigg vs. Georges St. Pierre
Holy f'n crap. St. Pierre made Trigg look like he had no idea what he was doing. St. Pierre was pretty much painted on Trigg the whole fight. I have never seen such a one-sided fight before. It's a shame Parysian gets a shot at Hughes first. I'm going to predict right now that St. Pierre / Hughes 2 goes to St. Pierre.

Tim Sylvia vs. Tra Telligman
Really boring fight until the huge knock out at the end. I don't know know what the hell Tra thought he was doing signing to fight Syliva in the first place, but I bet he wish he hadn't right now. Took a huge foot the side of the head at 4:59 of the first round and got taken out on a stretcher. Way to show anything but class and not bother to check and see if he's ok, Sylvia.

Matt Lindland vs. Joe Doerksen
I really like Lindland. It could be that he lives here in Oregon and I'm a huge Team Quest / Sportfight mark, but the guy is really likable. Not the most exciting fight, but really one way and Lindland has proven over and over again why he deserves a shot at Franklin. Can he beat him? I going to say no, but he at least deserves a shot.

James Irvin vs. Terry Martin
Martin literally owned the entire first round. Then 9 seconds into the second round Irvin charges at him with a flying knee strike that almost resembled a shining wizard. Cool knockout, but once again showed absolutely no class by not even checking on his opponent. I know they don't have to or anything, but at least make sure the guy is breating. Sherdog said he was completely unresponsive for three minutes.

[NewFnShow]

I ended up not ordering the show because I wasn't home, but it sounded like a good show. I'll probably check out the DVD when it comes out. I've seen clips of Sylvia's knockout, and I gotta say, that was unreal. I really wanna see the GSP/Trigg fight, which I've been reading was great(though one-sided).

Since I missed UFC this weekend, I'm DEFINATELY ordering Pride Final Conflict next weekend. Actually, I'm gonna make a thread right now.

[mercutio80]

I obviously have limited knowledge about MMA but really enjoyed the card. Sylvia just about took Tra's head off with that kick. I thought it was classless of the UFC to totally ignore the fact that Tra and Martin both went out on a stretcher, but Sylvia at least checked on Tra as he was leaving.

I always seem to like the people that everyone hates, because I'm digging Lindland. He was on both PPV's I've watched so far, and he's one of my favorites.