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Pelkey's Take
PELKEY: UFC 136 - The Best Card Nobody Will See
Oct 6, 2011 - 10:15:01 PM
PELKEY: UFC 136 - The Best Card Nobody Will See
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By Matt Pelkey, MMATorch Columnist

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In case you hadn't heard, the UFC has a pay-per-view coming up on Saturday. Ok, so if you're reading this of course you already know that. If you're reading this, you're one of the 200,000 people who the UFC knows will tune into any and everything they put out, even if it was a card headlined by Tank Abbott and a no-tailed dolphin (admittedly, the thought intrigues me. Would the dolphin just wait for Tank to gas?). But we're not the one's the UFC makes money off of. We're part of the break-even crowd.

There just isn't the buzz about UFC 136 that there was for UFC 135 a couple weeks ago. UFC 135 was headlined by a Light Heavyweight Title fight between Jon "Bones" Jones and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, but offered little else both on paper and in practice. UFC 136 lacks the same star power in the main event slot, but (at least on paper) it's the far superior card, and yet it'll be seen by no more than half the people that laid down their hard earned dinero for UFC 135.

And that's a shame, because those who don't tune in will be missing out on one of the deeper and more important cards the UFC has put on in quite some time. Let's start at the top. The main event is the rematch (or really, trilogy fight) between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard for the UFC Lightweight Title. Now I'll be the first to admit neither guy comes to mind when I think of the most exciting fighters to watch, but the last time they stepped in the cage together they produced what many people (not me) still consider to be the Fight of the Year at UFC 125 in January. It'll be hard to live up to that last encounter, but its still a title fight between two great fighters who can and will go full steam for five hard rounds.

In the co-main event slot is yet another title fight (so that's literally 100% more title fights at UFC 136 than there were at UFC 135, for those keeping score). This one is in the featherweight division, where Kenny Florian gets his third crack at UFC gold against incumbent Champion Jose Aldo, a consensus top-5 pound-for-pound fighter and a guy nearing "must see" status based on past performances. Florian brings his experience, intelligence, and high-level Muay Thai and grappling into the cage against Aldo's youth, explosiveness, other-worldly Muay Thai and underrated grappling. That's my long winded way of saying this fight ain't gonna suck. No way, no how. Even if it turns into a blowout for Aldo (the only way this fight is one-sided), it's guaranteed to be fireworks and will only further cement Aldo's place among today's greats.

If this was only a two fight card, those two title fights, especially considering the match-ups, would be worth the price of admission alone. But, the rest of the card might be what's really worth tuning in for. Aside from the title fights, there's two others that have direct title implications. In the #3 slot is the return of Chael Sonnen as he and his mouth step into the cage with Brian "(The) All-American (American)" Stann. The winner isn't guaranteed a title shot, but a dominant performance by either would probably do the trick.

The other fight relevant to a title picture is the one between Melvin Guillard and Joe Lauzon. Granted, if Lauzon were to pull off the upset he wouldn't be jumping past the Ben Henderson-Clay Guida winner (or Gilbert Melendez) in the lightweight pecking order, but a big showing by Guillard might make him the most attractive next challenger for the Edgar-Maynard victor considering they're fighting on the same card. Add to the title relevance the fact that Joe Lauzon is objectively the most exciting first round fighter in the history of MMA and this one checks in as the fourth must-see fight on this card.

So the main card is clearly stacked, but that doesn't even include the best two-fight Spike TV preliminary card the UFC has ever offered. For what I believe is the first time, a UFC Spike prelim show will feature a fight between two top-10 level opponents when submission wizard and former middleweight title challenger Demian Maia squares off with fellow Brazilian and former Sengoku Middleweight Champion Jorge Santiago. Neither will be title challengers any time soon, but both are high level fighters and this is about as good of a non-main card fight as you'll ever see.

The other fight on the hour long pre-show is between Anthony Pettis, looking to rebound from his setback in his UFC debut against Clay Guida, and Jeremy Stephens, probably the hardest puncher at 155. All I need to say about this is that its my pick for Fight of the Night. Pettis will finally be able to let his strikes go without fear of having to defend takedowns and Stephens would knock out your grandma if you paid him to. Thinking about it is making me giddy.

Add in two fighters on the undercard who make my "Matt Pelkey All-Guilty Pleasures" team in Steve Cantwell and Eric "Red" Schafer, and I'm personally looking forward to this event as much as any I can remember. It has it all: title fights, title eliminators, ten(!) top-10 fighters, guaranteed action. The only thing that's missing is a big name at the top of the marquee. Unfortunately for MMA, that's still the key to drawing serious eyeballs. And that's too bad. Because this is the kinda show you'd want to show your friends.


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