Quarterly Rankings
The Staples Center in Los Angeles is the home of the NHL's L.A. Kings and the NBA's royalty, the L.A. Lakers. This Saturday night mma fans around the world will witness the crowning of the #1 light-heavyweight in the world as undefeated UFC Champion Lyoto Machida puts his belt on the line against former PRIDE superstar Mauricio "Shogun" Rua. With exciting undercard fights airing free on Spike TV and a stacked main card that's sure to build excitement into the main event, UFC fans should be in for a great night.
The first fight scheduled for the main card is between lightweight veterans Joe Stevenson and Spencer Fisher. Joe "Daddy" recently notched a win over Nate Diaz at the TUF 9 Finale in June. He needed a win badly after dropping 3 of his previous 4, although those losses came from fighters at or near the top of the division. Now training with Greg Jackson, Stevenson was impressive in his victory over Diaz. He'll need a well-executed game plan to beat the always-tough Spencer Fisher.
Fisher has rattled off three consecutive wins, most recently a unanimous decision at UFC 99 over Caol Uno. The Miletich Fighting Systems product has heavy hands and will probably be looking to stand and bang with Stevenson in an attempt to score the twelfth knockout of his career.
Contrasting styles will collide when Anthony Johnson and Yoshiyuki Yoshida face off. "Rumble" Johnson is one of the more athletic competitors in all of mma. His talent is somewhat raw and he's shown a propensity to make mistakes but he has vicious knockout power and his collegiate wrestling background allows him to control fights that hit the floor. Few welterweights can match his size and strength and that could be the undoing of his opponent.
Yoshida might be exactly the type of fighter that can exploit a mistake by a young and inexperienced Johnson. A 4th degree Judo black belt, the shooto veteran comes into this fight with a record of 11-3 and although not known for his striking prowess, 4 of those 11 wins have come by TKO. If he's able to weather what's likely to be an early storm by Rumble, he might be able to find a way to win it later.
A lightweight contest features a couple of the division's tough guys in Gleison Tibau and Josh Neer. Tibau, an American Top Team product, was originally slated to face Sean Sherk at this event but Sherk was forced to withdraw due to a shoulder injury. Tibau had won consecutive fights before dropping a controversial split decision to Melvin Guillard at Ultimate Fight Night 19. The Brazilian veteran has solid striking but is best known for his jiu-jitsu and wrestling, with 9 wins by submission.
Neer will be hungry for this win as well after a decision loss to Kurt Pellegrino in which he claimed favortism by a referee who lived near Pellegrino. Prior to that loss, "The Dentist" was a winner in 4 of his last 5, losing only to Nate Diaz. Neer is a pretty balanced fighter. Of his 25 career wins, 12 have come by knockout and 9 by submission. He holds notable wins over Melvin Guillard and Joe Stevenson and a victory over Tibau would improve his record to 26-8.
The co-main event will be a heavyweight collision between undefeated Cain Velasquez and IFL veteran Ben Rothwell. Velasquez is...
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