Have you ever seen a pet snake kill a mouse? The moment the human hand drops the tiny mammal into the cage it doesn’t attack and gnaw on its corpse within seconds, it just locks eyes on it immediately. Panic is written all over the mouses face as it runs and desperately seeks a way out of this nightmare.
When the superior reptile gets a hold of the mouse it doesn’t turn into a brutal bloodbath, he toys with it, squeezing the life out of it before finally putting it out of its misery.
Anderson Silva was the King Kobra in the Octagon in Rio de Janero, Brazil and Stephan Bonnar was the helpless field mouse that was awaiting certain defeat in the evening’s main event.
There’s always something in the air when the Ultimate Fighting Championship invades Brazil as they are always action-filled interesting nights of violent fisticuffs inside an eight-sided fighting circle surrounded by rabid fight fanatics.
If you’re a regular visitor to MMASucka.com you probably know how this goes, and if you’re not, what’s up with that? Time to throw on those smarty pants and stylish matchmakers cap and throw together interesting fighters with interesting dance partners.
Anderson Silva vs. Jon Jones or George St. Pierre
Dream fights are what kept my interest in mixed martial arts alive for years as I debated amongst my peers the outcome of Fedor Emelianenko meeting Randy Couture or Kazushi Sakuraba squaring off with Rickson Gracie.
With these fights were the barriers of two promotions not being willing to play ball in the heyday of Pride-versus-UFC rivalry but the 37-year-old middleweight king is placed right in the middle of two gigantic money super fights that can fill Cowboy Stadium in Texas, a 90,000 seat arena in Brazil or any other venue they please.
The real road block is going to be getting these matches to materialize. Silva wants George St. Pierre but at this stage that seems like a bit of a longshot with the reigning 170-pound king returning to claim his throne he is already booked to meet Carlos Condit next month.
Not to mention the imminent return on Nick Diaz is on everyone’s radar and Johny Hendricks and Martin Kampmann are fighting to earn a spot at the top of the cue also.
On the flipside, both Silva and Jones have stated that they want no part of that fight but these are business men and money talks.
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Cheick Kongo
I have it on good authority that right before he went out to fight Dave Herman peeked Homer Simpson’s fight against Drederick Tatum and thought that looked like a sweet gameplan. After blocking seven thousands punches with his face “Big Nog” proved the worth of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, finishing with an armbar.
This win elicited a magical sight. The ruckus crowd at the HSBC arena erupted as they wildly chanted at their hero and backstage Anderson Silva cries like a child who just got jacked of a lollypop as his mentor scores a huge victory.
As someone who has admired the Brazilian submission ace since his youth I would love for him to exit the Octagon with his head held high and hang up those gloves in a storybook ending to a Hall of Fame caliber career.
Unfortunately, that won’t happen. The heart and desire of “Big Nog” was what made him a beloved fan-favorite for all these years but it’s also the driving force behind why he will probably never retire without his hand being forced.
At this point he’s not going to be challenging for a UFC title, whether Junior dos Santos holds it or not so I could see the shopworn veteran being used mainly as an attraction in Brazil, pairing him once again with Cheick Kongo could be a fun fight for the Brazilian, hopefully this time it doesn’t get riddled by the injury bug.
Glover Teixeria vs. Quinton Jackson
If what Glover Teixeria did to Fabio Maldinado happened on the streets outside of a nightclub he would be arrested and probably do time. Luckily for him, it happened inside an eight-sided cage so his animalistic beatdown of epic proportions is applauded.
Teixeria’s beating was like a solar eclipse, I knew I shouldn’t be watching this inhumane thrashing as he blew his doors off with vicious elbows but I couldn’t look away. When it was all over, I came to the conclusion that Mario Yamasaki either hates Fabio Maldinaro or really sucks at his job – You decide.
Post-fight the powerful Brazilian called out his original dance partner for this evening, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and the former UFC light-heavyweight titlist was quick to fire back on the Twitter Machine. A motivated Quinton Jackson is still a scary Quinton Jackson but even he might not be able to stop this raging bull.
Jon Fitch vs. Jake Ellenberger
Jon Fitch rolled into Brazil with a lot to prove as an underdog for the first time in a long time. Not only did he get his hand raised but he also lined his pockets with an additional $65,000 earning a ‘Fight of the Night’ bonus. Who had that in the MMASucka office pool? Seriously.
The 34-year-old was grindin’ like only Jon Fitch can in the opening frame as he ragdolled the Brazilian around and doing that wrasslin’ business before Silva rallied back in the middle frame to stun the former title-challenger and even almost forced the tap from a rear-naked-choke.
While it was a valiant effort, it took just about everything that Silva had so in the final round Fitch treated him like a child as he threw him around at will and punished him to rack up a 10-8 round on every score card provided from someone who wasn’t completely incompetent.
Fitch has sat at the top of the 170-pound pecking order before and still has the skills to be there. Matching him up with Jake Ellenberger who is also looking to re-built a pathway to a welterweight championship would be a great fight and a huge leapfrog for the winner.
Demian Maia vs. Dan Hardy
When a man laces an opponent with a neck crank so dag-nasty that it sends a disgusting display of blood and snot gushing out of his 170-pound foe’s nose and he doesn’t get a win bonus, there’s something wrong with the world.
Maia returned to his roots. Arguably the best submission grappler in the welterweight division smushed Rick Story against the cage, threw him about and finished with, if not the best submission of the year, possibly the most gruesome one.
With two wins at his new weight class he just needs to get back in that cage and start climbing towards that logjam at the top of the 170-pound division, a match with former title-challenger Dan Hardy would be an interesting clash of styles that will probably end badly, one way or the other.
That’s about all from me folks, I’ll back with another installment of this series after the UFC goes to Mecau, China with Rich Franklin and Cung Le in the evening’s featured fight. Until then, you better be checking MMASucka.com, or else!.
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