UFC on Fox sports 1 is set to launch with a card built to reel in eyeballs and keep them there with some exciting match ups.  Headlining the card is former Light Heavyweight champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua versus the always controversial, perennial title contender, Chael Sonnen.

Five Questions For UFC Fight Night 26

In the Heavyweight co-main event, Alistair Overeem returns to redeem himself from being KO’d in his last outing.  Travis Brown looks to play spoiler and continue climbing the ranks to earn a chance to fight for the heavyweight title.

MMASucka.com writers, Allen Strk and JP Lasaleta, take some time to explore some of the facets of the potentially most exciting card that the UFC has put on free North American TV.

1. Do you think the UFC had the intention of putting Joe Lauzon and Matt Brown on the first Fox Sports One card? They are arguably the most exciting mid-level fighters in the company.

Allen: It may come off as a coincidence, but to me Joe Silva and Sean Shelby had this mind. Lauzon and Brown have been putting on exceptional performances over the past year. Whenever you see Lauzon on the card, he is pretty much guaranteed to be part of the fight of the night. His last fight with Jim Miller was my pick for fight of the year in 2012. Brown has been a knockout machine as of late with his last two fights ending in vicious knockouts on the main card of multiple Fox events.

Lauzon is facing Michael Johnson, who could be cut if he were to lose his third consecutive fight. With Johnson dealing with huge amounts of pressure, he will likely come out aggressive. It’s the perfect opener for any fight fan, whether they are hardcore or new to the sport. It’ll be very high paced and the fight can go anywhere from standing or on the ground.

Thiago Alves would have made it more exciting, but Mike Pyle should be a good test for Brown. He is very gritty and has shown in the past that he isn’t afraid to fight any style. When you face someone like Brown, you’ll need that because he constantly pushes forward looking for a knockout. The UFC did a great job at making both of those fights for the main card. It will be a treat to watch.

JP:  They’re arguably the most exciting mid-level fighters in the company?

I’d say absolutely and I don’t blame them. The last thing the UFC wants to deal with is another Gray Maynard versus Clay Guida situation especially for an inaugural sporting event of a brand new network.

Lauzon is a no brainer pick with his record collection of “Fight of the night” awards, not to mention a hometown hero. They will be catching the crowd’s electricity off his fight with an always-dangerous Michael Johnson. It will start right off the top of the main broadcast, which will surely set the perfect tone for the night.  Then you add in Matt Brown’s three-fight vicious KO/TKO streak against a crafty veteran in Mike Pyle. That gives you have insurance against a possible drawn out decision in the main event.

Besides those two fights, you have to look at the rest of the card. Uriah Hall and John Howard are big hitters. Uriah Faber and Yuri Alcantara will be exciting based on Faber never being in a dull fight. The co main event with Travis Browne and Alistair Overeem will bring a guaranteed knockout. It’s no secret UFC wants an exclamation point to start off this new set of fight night cards.

2. Obviously the buzz about Uriah Hall has simmered down a bit. Are you expecting him to win convincingly on Saturday or will the hype train continue to be derailed?

Allen: This is a favorable matchup for Hall going up against a striker in John Howard. That will keep the fight standing, where he is most comfortable. He won’t be fighting off his back or attempting to defend takedowns on a consistent basis like he was against Kelvin Gastelum. Obviously his takedown defense will need to improve, once the competition gets better.

Still this is his fight to win against the returning Howard, who is fighting in his hometown.  Howard needs to make sure that he avoids going to the ground and doesn’t let Hall get comfortable with his jab. If he can move around and pick his spots with precision boxing, then he could manage to pull off the upset.

Hall has serious knockout power, especially when it comes to having ground position on top. He has been known to seriously injure his opponents in ground-and-pound, especially in his fights on “The Ultimate Fighter” against Bubba McDaniel and Dylan Andrews. I’m expecting him to win by controlling the pace and clipping Howard a few times, before finishing him off on the ground.

JP: The buzz has simmered down a bit, but I’m glad he’s been brought him back down to earth early in his career so he will be forced to round out his game.  With that said, I don’t think that this fight was put together with the expectations that it would be a grappling match.  I think whomever wins this fight will win convincingly, although I’m not 100 percent sold that Hall will win this one.

Since leaving the UFC, John Howard has gone 6-1 with five victories coming by KO/TKO.  Sure he hasn’t had the same level of competition as he would have in the UFC, but I think it was enough to bring his confidence and hunger to get back to stay in the UFC.  Its Hall’s fight to lose if he takes Howard’s combination of experience, hunger, confidence, and knockout power lightly.

 

3. Urijah Faber is usually comfortable when going to the ground in any fight, but now he’s facing a black belt in Brazilian jujitsu in Yuri Alcantara. Do you see him keeping the fight standing up or will he keep the same game plan like he always does?

Allen: Faber is one of the most intelligent fighters in the world today and always has the right game plan before every fight. That being said, he’s always confident in his abilities and isn’t afraid to go to the ground with anyone. He has submitted the likes of Raphael Assuncao and Ivan Menjivar, who are world-class fighters on the ground. There are few fighters that are more relentless than Faber and when he wants something, he’ll more than likely take it as long as it’s not a title fight.

I’m sure he’ll be wary of Alcantara’s ground game and be patient if he has top control. The difference is Alcantara is larger than most bantamweights, along with possessing knockout power. This is a huge step up in competition for him going up against a top three bantamweight in Faber. I’m looking forward to seeing if he can fight for fifteen minutes of high paced action in such a big fight.

The fact that Faber is fighting for the third time this year shows how focused he is in wanting another title shot. He’s been successful throughout his career by utilizing his strengths with his wrestling and finishing his opponents on the ground with various submissions. I don’t see how this fight will be any different in Faber’s mind when it comes to finishing the fight. He’ll need to be cautious though, especially if he tries to take Alcantara’s back to go for his patented rear naked choke.

JP: Faber still truly believes he will never get submitted. He’s going to work to get Alcantara fatigued and test his game plan that he’s won most of his fights with.  The game plan will be to ground his opponent when he gets the chance, pound on him for the decision victory or go for the submission if Alcantara makes a mistake.

4. There is nobody on the card with more pressure on them than Alistair Overeem. Do you expect the Overeem of old to show up in shape and be relentless with his striking?

Allen: I’m still puzzled by Overeem’s last fight. When you see how well someone looks physically, you immediately assume that they are in terrific shape. He was a rare exception on that night. A combination of rust and fatigue was his downfall against Antonio Silva. Now he comes back rejuvenated and seems to be focused on knocking out Travis Browne.

Browne has done very well in his career so far, but there is still a lot of uncertainty about him. He is very well rounded and always comes into fights in tremendous shape. I’m just waiting to see him against more top competition, which will see on Saturday. He is one of the larger heavyweights in the division at six foot seven, so it’ll be intriguing to see if Overeem can overpower him when they are grappling. He’ll need to close the distance whenever he can, so Overeem doesn’t start getting comfortable in standup. Then he’ll have to beware of Overeem’s knees in the clinch.

If the fight goes to the third round, that’s where will see if Overeem truly did come in shape. That is the round, where Browne could do serious damage simply by having more endurance and that can lead to openings in attacking his questionable chin. The big difference in this fight is that Overeem is too dynamic and has far more tools in his striking arsenal than Browne. Browne’s knockouts have been mostly capitalizing on someone’s mistake. Overeem is too experienced to get caught again. His striking is far better and that will propel him to victory on Saturday.

JP: When you look at the way Overeem lost his last fight, he will be back looking for redemption and will subsequently be back in shape. You can also expect him to be more aggressive for the finish. This will be very interesting test for him, as Travis Browne is a stand and strike first fighter. This should be an exciting fight from the start. I’m anticipating a quick fight.

5. Speaking of fighters that have been questioned about their cardio, there are a lot of questions about Mauricio “Shogun” Rua’s conditioning. Do you see him able to withstand Chael Sonnen’s constant pace?

Allen: If this were a three round fight, I’d have a hard time believing in Shogun. This will be a five round fight, which will give him more than enough time to finish Sonnen. He is always dangerous with his Muay Thai style, especially with his vicious knees. It seems like the perfect style to knock out a wrestler, when he’s shooting for a takedown. Sonnen can counter that by continuing to go for takedowns by grappling upwards and using sweeps rather than fully shooting in. This is the ultimate styles clash, which makes this an exciting main event.

The fact that this is a five round fight will benefit Shogun because he is too strong to be kept down for five rounds. He should be in shape, considering he was scheduled to fight last June against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. Also you have to think that Shogun has heard the critics talk about his possible decline. Everyone saw how he had no answer for Alexander Gustafsson. He was taken down several times, while not being able to handle Gustafsson’s reach advantage. After taking such a beating, you’d have to expect him to come out aggressive and prepared.

Sonnen isn’t the athletic freak that Gustafsson is, which makes this a better matchup. Shogun’s takedown defense is a major  concern, but he has a very good chin and won’t be knocked out. If he can keep the fight standing, then he shouldn’t have much of a problem. It could get ugly though with Sonnen constantly grappling Shogun and forcing him to get out from the bottom or against the cage. Both fighters know each other’s style; it will come down to who can implement their style more. A few extra months will benefit his conditioning and should help him deal with Sonnen’s wrestling.

JP: Shogun always looks tired no matter who he fights, but no matter what, he will always be in the fight. He’ll always be swinging, regardless if he’s gassed or not. The bad part about this is that Chael will be on top even if he is active.  I don’t see Shogun being successful in stuffing all of Chael’s takedowns and escaping Chael’s dominant positioning even when he’s fresh.  Chael can easily ride this fight all the way to the end on top for the decision.

Allen: You will probably never witness a fight night card as stacked as this ever again. This will be a fantastic event and could be one of the best UFC events of the year when it’s all said and done. As for the “Fight Night” concept, it should be very successful. While I think they are over saturating a bit, the return of Wednesday night fights is a great idea. People will be generally excited to watch fights like Carlos Condit versus Martin Kampmann and Yushin Okami versus Jacare Souza.

The fact that it’s happening on Wednesday gives fans something to look forward to during the middle of the week. I’ll be doing a five questions article for each fight night, as long as it’s not on the same week of a pay-per-view. So I won’t be doing one for Fight Night 27 due to UFC 164 being the same week. Then I’ll be able to do a question preview about Fight Night 28. I’m looking forward to the return of Wednesday night fights, despite my feeling that there are still too many events.

You can follow both of us on twitter at @Allen_Strk & @jplasaleta