With roughly a month separating UFC 116 and UFC on Versus 2 on August 1 (how strange is it that we're now considering that to be a long time between major events?), the MMA calender has nicely divided itself into two halves and has allowed us a nice couple of weeks of reflection on what was a landmark six months of mixed martial arts.
We saw B.J. Penn drop his lightweight crown to Frankie Edgar in a controversial decision, Anderson Silva complete his turn to MMA villain, Chael Sonnen fight his way from also-ran to contender and then talk his way into a likely big payday, a post-fight brawl in Strikeforce and a post-fight sucker punch from Paul Daley inside the Octagon, Chris Leben pulling off the best two week stretch in modern MMA history, and the dethroning of Fedor just in time to set up Brock Lesnar's title defense (not to mention return from life threatening illness) against Shane Carwin as the battle for best heavyweight in the world.
After taking a couple weeks to look back, I say it's time to look forward. UFC on Versus 2 is a week from Sunday, and the next step in Jon "Bones" Jones' progression is just the kickoff to a huge fall not only for the UFC, but for every other major stateside promotion as well. Let's take a look at what's on tap.
UFC
Gotta start with the biggie. UFC on Versus 2 is headlined by Jon Jones vs. Vladimir Matyushenko, but its a really good main card with all four fights being relevant to the top(ish) of their respective divisions. The winner of Mark Munoz-Yushin Okami may only be one or two more wins away from a title shot in the always-starving-for-contenders middleweight division; the winner of Jake Ellenberger-John Howard will be due for a step up in competition and will inject the top half of the welterweight division with some new blood; and the Tyson Griffin-Takanori Gomi (two "name" fighters coming off losses) winner will have immediate momentum at 155 lbs.
Six days later is UFC 117 from Oakland with a card much more deserving of the "Stacked" moniker bestowed on UFC 73. Headlined by a middleweight title fight between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen and supported by Jon Fitch-Thiago Alves II, Roy Nelson-Junior Dos Santos for the next heavyweight title shot, Matt Hughes-Ricardo Almeida, and Clay Guida-Rafael Dos Anjos, UFC 117 is shaping up as "can't miss" on the main card alone. Throw in an undercard dotted with names like Thiago Silva, Dustin Hazelett, Ben Saunders, and Johny Hendricks and this may be one of the better cards the UFC has ever put on (on paper - this in no way guarantees the fights actually deliver).
UFC 118 wraps up a huge August for the UFC and also marks their debut in Boston, UFC President Dana White's hometown. While not as deep of a card as UFC 117, 118 does bring the Frankie Edgar-B.J. Penn rematch, Kenny Florian-Gray Maynard, and a battle between two of my ten favorite fighters in Joe Lauzon vs. Terry Etim. Oh, and there's also a fight between Randy Couture and a debuting James Toney.
Most MMA fans tend to downplay the importance of this fight, maybe rightfully so, but everyone needs to admit that Toney has a chance here. Couture is a Greco Roman wrestler and prefers to score takedowns from the clinch as opposed to shooting doubles from halfway across the cage. That means that he needs to get close to Toney. You know, like in his punching range.
Common sense says Couture takes care of business, and makes it look easy in the process, but a loss is possible. Fear not, however. If that dark day does come to fruition, it won't mean boxing is alive, or better than MMA, or that boxers are better fighters than, well, fighters. All it will mean is that anyone can be knocked out, especially 47 year olds getting punched by hands covered in 4oz. gloves.
UFC 119 will be the only chunk taken out of your wallet in September, and it's a relatively soft card (two main fights are Mir-Big Nog II and Lil Nog-Bader), but September also brings us a fight night featuring Demian Maia vs. Alan Belcher (I've been wrong before, but my gut says Maia is getting thumped), which serves as the kickoff to the newest season of The Ultimate Fighter. This time the show will be coached by Georges St. Pierre and Josh Koscheck. It'll feature lightweight fighters and is expected to repeat the 14 fighters in the house/wildcard fight format. It'll also serve as the hype machine for St. Pierre's eventual title defense against Koscheck, likely to be the headliner of a year-end December event.
UFC 120 and 121 come just a week apart in October, but with 120 coming from London and featuring the second half of back-to-back "lesser" events along with UFC 119, it'll be free on Spike TV. British fans have complained about the lack of a true headliner, but for American fans, getting a card featuring Bisping-Akiyama and Hardy-Condit as the top two fights for free on cable, it's nothing to complain about.
UFC 121 will feature Brock Lesnar's third defense of his heavyweight title, this time against fellow athletically freaky heavyweight Cain Velasquez. The card will also be home to Jake Shields' UFC debut against Martin Kampmann.
That does is it as far as what the UFC has officially planned, but before the year is out we'll also see Lyoto Machida return to action, likely in November, against Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. There's also a chance we'll see one more lightweight and/or middleweight title defense before the calender turns, and I'll guarantee we'll be seeing countless fantastic fights and unknown contenders emerge.
WEC
The WEC only has two future events currently on the docket, but we'll likely see one to two more added before the year is up. What we do know is that WEC 50 will take place on August 18, and it will feature Dominick Cruz trying to defend his bantamweight title for the first time against Joseph Benavidez, a man he already owns a decision victory over. Benavidez, however, is coming off an impressive submission victory over former division kingpin Miguel Torres.
The card, while severely lacking in star power, is backed up by three more fantastic match-ups rounding out the televised portion in Anthony Pettis-Shane Roller in a likely #1 contender bout for the lightweight strap, Urijah Faber pupil Chad Mendes facing his sternest test to date against Cub Swanson and Scott Jorgensen-Brad Pickett in a bantamweight title eliminator.
Where WEC 50 lacks in big names, WEC 51 more than makes up the difference. It's headlined by Jose Aldo defending his Featherweight title against Manvel "The Anvil" Gamburyan. Urijah Faber could look to start his run to a bantamweight title shot when he battles Takeya Mizugaki in a fight originally slated for WEC 50 before a Faber injury pushed the fight back a month if it gets booked for this card. We'll also see the return of Miguel Torres as he takes on Charlie Valencia, and a guaranteed slugfest between Leonard Garcia and Mark Hominick.
A rematch between Jamie Varner and Donald Cerrone is now signed for WEC 51, but with all the big names/fights already on this card and Varner being one of the people involved, don't be surprised to see one of the other big fights moved to a later date.
Possible WEC happenings that aren't currently obvious and/or scheduled? Scott Jorgensen getting a title fight, a possible Fight of the Year contender between Anthony Pettis and Ben Henderson (provided Pettis can get past Shane Roller), Jose Aldo continuing to build his legacy against Josh Grispi, and a better-late-than-never superfight between Urijah Faber and Miguel Torres.
Strikeforce
Ah, Strikeforce. Our favorite whipping boy. Despite their current debacles (a vacant middleweight title, the entire heavyweight division, the entire lack of a welterweight division), Strikeforce can still put on some pretty good fights, and their second half of 2010 is really gonna depend on what they do after their currently scheduled shows happen. Other than two Challengers events headlined by Shane Del Rosario and Sarah Kaufmann defending her 135lb. title against Roxanne Modafferi (July 23) and Joe Riggs vs. Louis Taylor (August 13), Strikeforce only has one major event currently scheduled.
The August 21 show in Houston will see Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal defend his light-heavyweight title for the first time against Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante as well as Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza vs. Tim Kennedy to crown a new Middleweight Champion. K.J. Noons-Jorge Gurgel and the return of Bobby Lashley round out the card.
Other than that, there's currently nothing on the Strikeforce docket. Fear not, however, because Strikeforce has a knack for keeping themselves in the headlines. The fall should bring us an eight man middleweight tournament to crown the next title contender, and is expected to feature Robbie Lawler, Kazuo Misaki, and Welterweight Champion Nick Diaz (I'm actually fine with this. It keeps Diaz busy and in the limelight, while giving the welterweight division time to sort itself out and find a proper contender to Diaz's title). We should also see some kind of resolution to the heavyweight title picture with at least announcements of the next fights for Alistair Overeem, Fedor, Fabricio Werdum, and Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva.
Let's also not forget that Gilbert Melendez, Josh Thomson, Dan Henderson, Renato "Babalu" Sobral, and Gegard Mousasi should be seeing action sometime in the fall.
Bellator
Like the little engine that could, Bellator is set to bring us Season 3 starting soon. It'll feature new tournaments for bantamweights, heavyweights, and a deep crew of ladies (presumably all concluding with champions being crowned, much like Season 1), as well as all of Season 1's champions making their first official title defenses against Season 2's tournament champs. Joe Soto defending his featherweight title against Joe Warren was the first to be announced, for Bellator 27 on September 2nd, and Alvarez-Curran, Good-Askren, and Lombard-Shlemenko will all take place during Season 3 this fall.
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