UFC 79 Nemesis GSP vs. Hughes 3

[DUCE]

Here was a New Years eve show to rival anything out of Japan. Unfortunely, Matt Serra vs. Matt Hughes isn't happening. Matt Serra injured his back. Interum title match; Matt Hughes versus GSP the rubber match! Come on Silva make it happen.

Confirmed

Interim Welterweight title
Matt Hughes(41-5) vs. GSP(14-2)



Super Fight Dream 205 Match Up
Chuck Liddell(20-5) vs. Wanderlei Silva(31-7-1)

Top ten LHW matchup
"Safari Punch" Sokoudjou(4-1) vs. Ryoto Machida(11-0)

Main card Lightweight bouts
Rich Clementi (28-12-1) vs. Melvin Guillard (20-6-2)

Manny Gamburyan (5-2) vs. Nate Mohr (8-4)

Preliminary Card
Heavyweight bout
Eddie Sanchez (7-1) vs. Soa Palalei (8-1)
Luis Cane vs. James Irvin(12-4-1)
-------------------Not yet confirmed---------------------
Preliminary Card
this bout could steal the show
Roan Carneiro (11-6) vs. Tony DeSouza (10-3)
Dean Lister (9-5) vs. Jordan Radev (11-2)
Doug Evans (5-1) vs. Mark Bocek (4-1)

mmajunkie.com/2007/11/16/report-eddie-sanchez-vs-soa-palalei-at-ufc-79/

[LWPD]

I was looking forward to this. Tough break for UFC...losing your main event after a long build that put the WW division of hold for six months is a very tough break. At the end of the day Matt Hughes...injured or not....defended his title 'as scheduled' over and over again. Hughes always showed up and made more title defenses than anyone in MMA history. Guys like GSP (and now Serra) just aren't of that same mold and that's why we see the constant 'injury pull outs' and reschedules. It hurts the sport and kills momentum.

So Hughes needs/deserves a pay day...but shouldn't have the title shot he's earned be effected by the 'result' of taking on a new opponent. Yet you also need an opponent 'good enough' to justify this being marketed as at least a co-main event. Not a good scenario.

[DUCE]

Matt is a professional though so I don't think this will take the legs out from under him. We could possibly never see this fight. Matt Serra can chirp about how much of a dick Hughes is but what exactly does that make him?

UFC is just one huge tough break. I wonder what Joel Silva is going to do? Just move up a fight to the main card and move Serra-Hughes to 81? 79 is stronger then 78 already but has far as star power it is not super card. A good solid card but that Serra-Hughes fight put it over the top.

[habbalah]

It's still a very watchable show even with out that fight. Maybe they could get Fitch to fill in for Serra.... I thought GSP is already booked for a title fight down the road. Why should he rush something he's not ready for?

[LWPD]

Here's Dave Meltzer's article on the implications of Sera pulling out. It looks like it will all come down to the Serra's projected return date. GSP is out until at least April (which was when he was supposed to get his return title shot). I wouldn't mind seeing Diego fight Hughes (maybe his last WW fight before dropping to 155).

Courtesy of Yahoo Sports

Back injury forces Serra out of title defense

By Dave Meltzer

It was not a Happy Thanksgiving for Matt Serra, or the Ultimate Fighting Championship, as both sides had to come to terms with the fact that the most hyped match of this year, Serra's welterweight title defense against Matt Hughes for Dec. 29, in Las Vegas, is out due to a herniated disc in Serra's back.

The injury not only affects UFC 79, but also threatens the viability of the long-term plan of the winner of this match facing Georges St. Pierre in the company's Montreal debut, which was tentatively scheduled for April.

Serra, the defending champion, has both a television and personal rivalry with Hughes, which developed weekly on The Ultimate Fighter reality show where they were rival coaches who did not get along. The champion was training with Matt Arroyo on Monday at Serra's gym. He was demonstrating a move when he felt something go wrong with his back, and he collapsed with pain searing through his body. He had to practically be carried to the hospital.

Serra didn't alert anyone right away, hoping that somehow things weren't as bad as he feared, and that perhaps chiropractic treatment would enable to him recover in time for the fight. But on Thursday, he told UFC officials that he there was no possible way he could fight.

"This is the hardest thing I've ever had to do," said Serra in a comment made on the UFC.com web site. "I've never had a back injury before. I could hardly get off the MRI table. There is no way I can train through this, and I'm devastated, especially because this was such an important fight. I was looking forward to fighting Matt Hughes. All my training was going phenomenally until Monday -- All I can do now is to get better and to fight again as soon as possible."

Regarding what happens next, everything is in a holding pattern for the next few days until Serra gets a diagnosis on how long he will be out of action. Hughes was told Friday morning about Serra's injury, and asked about potentially facing another opponent on Dec. 29. Hughes didn't have an immediate response, because without knowing how long Serra would be out, he couldn't make a concrete decision.

If Serra can be ready to fight in early 2008, it would make sense for Hughes to not fight on Dec. 29, and just delay the championship match.


For Hughes to agree to fight on Dec. 29, without the championship at stake, he would be risking his guaranteed title shot with a potential loss or injury. If the recovery period is extensive, UFC will have to make a decision regarding the championship, which has not been defended since Serra beat Georges St. Pierre on April 7th in Houston.

The long delay between matches was because Serra and Hughes were building up the match with being opposing coaches on the television series, which has its final episode on Dec. 5 and its finals three nights later.

According to a UFC official, if Serra is out for a long period of time and Hughes agrees to fight on Dec. 29, the two most likely candidates to for an opponent would be Jon Fitch or Thiago Alves. Josh Koscheck and Diego Sanchez are both coming off losses, and Sanchez has talked about cutting to 155.

Karo Parisyan, another potential opponent, is out with a broken hand. St. Pierre, the top contender for the title, was being held off until the planned April date. But a delay until March, which would seem to be the earliest a Serra vs. Hughes match could take place, would make an April title defense impossible.

[DUCE]

www.mmafightline.com/news/2007/1123/matt_hughes_309007.shtml
Hughes offered another fight

Matt Hughes, meanwhile, was offered a new opponent on Dec. 29, according to Meltzer, but was non-committal as of yesterday. His reasons appear valid, he wants a title shot; and a loss or injury to a another opponent before he fights Serra would put him out of title contention for awhile. Hughes' next fight seems completely dependent on whether or not Serra can heal up by March at the very latest. If he can, than Hughes will likely wait it out and get his title shot against Serra in March. If not then the UFC might be looking at another "interim title" situation until Serra can come back.

www.mmafightline.com/news/2007/1123/ufc_309018.shtml
Jon Fitch will not fight at UFC 79
Jon Fitch will not be available to fight Matt Hughes at UFC 78 according to MMAmania.com. According to Fitch he won't even be in the US:

“I’m not even going to be in the country. I’ll be in Vietnam tending to some personal matters.”

According to previous reports, if Fitch were unable to go, the fight would fall to Thiago Alves, who just came off of a victory over Chris Lytle at UFC 78.

It is uncertain whether Matt Hughes would take such a fight; but it appears unlikely that he would. Hughes wouldn't have much to gain from a showdown with Alves and a potential title shot to lose.

[DUCE]

from Matt Hughes website;

As of now, Matt Serra is out of the fight because of a herniated disc in his lower back. I believe Serra is actually hurt, so I don’t think this is just a ploy not to fight. Before my Royce fight, I had three bulged discs that I was able to repair enough to fight. As everybody knows you never go into a fight 100%. So, I’m just going to continue to train until I find out what’s next. –Matt

[DUCE]

www.wanderleisilva.com.br/blog/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=2&Itemid=5%20

[hofclemens]

I won't shed a tear for Hughes as he will get his shot whenever he wants it pretty much. Karo still hasn't gotten his title shot after nearly 2 years and it doesn't appear he will anytime soon.

[LWPD]

Wow. I didn't see this coming.

Courtesy of Matt Hughes Official Blog

BREAKING NEWS: Matt Fighting Georges St. Pierre at UFC 79!

November 24th, 2007

I’m going to fight Georges St. Pierre on December 29th. I’ve got a couple reasons why I’ve made this decision and I will share those at a later time. I’ve asked for this to be for an interim title and if Matt Serra can’t fight in a year, then this would just be the title fight; but I don’t know if that is going to happen right now. I will keep you all posted.
-Matt

EDIT: This WILL BE for the interim title, so it will be a 5-round fight. -Matt

[DUCE]

awesome way to save a main event Joel Silva.

[LWPD]

I have to give major props to Hughes & GSP. They both took a career risk to save the show. I'm sure their bonuses will be huge...and deservedly so!

$1 for every 100,000 PPV Buys
$3 for every 330,000 PPV Buys

Make it rain

[hofclemens]

great news.. an event better matchup is made! Either way whomever wins it makes for a good matchup storywise with Serra. If GSP wins and then beats Serra I could still see them doing Hughes vs. Serra as even I was surprised how much people were talking about the fight.

[DUCE]

[DUCE]

fcfighter.brinkster.net/fighter.asp?FighterID=13551
www.mmaontap.com/mma/category/roan-carneiro/

Two new rumors and one kind of old one to report for UFC 79…

The Fight Network’s Loretta Hunt is reporting that Tony DeSouza will return to the Octagon to face Roan Carneiro:

Tony DeSouza has been slated to face Roan Carneiro in a welterweight bout at Dec. 29’s UFC 79 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. In most recent action, the ground savvy DeSouza touts a first-round submission victory over Ohio upstart Dustin Hazelett (10-3) from last October’s UFC Fight Night featuring Tito Ortiz versus Ken Shamrock in Hollywood, Fla. DeSouza suffered a second-round knockout loss to American Top Team’s Thiago Alves (12-3) at last December 29’s UFC 66 in Las Vegas, and has not competed in the ten months since.

“My last fight made me very hungry to get back in the game,” says DeSouza, 33. “I am looking forward to my return.”

DeSouza will be training with B.J. Penn, Renato Verissimo, and Joe Lauzon in Hawaii for the fight.


Even bigger than those two combined was a statement made by Chuck Liddell’s trainer John Hackleman during a recent interview with FightHype where he says that the UFC is most likely going to match Liddell and Wanderlei Silva together for UFC 79:

PC: I know you guys were eyeballing a fight with Shogun, but his knee surgery will prevent that fight from happening. Will you still like to get the Wanderlei fight?

JH: Looks like the Wanderlei fight is going to happen.

PC: Ok, is it still going to be in December?

JH: December, yeah!

Like I’ve said before there is no better time to finally do Liddell-Silva then right now. It might even be the only chance actually. Hackelman continues to seem confident that Chuck is going to facing Silva and he’s rarely wrong. I guess we’ll find out for sure in the coming weeks.

[DUCE]

Tony De Souza vs. Roan Carneiro should be the submission of the night and dark horse for fight of the night of the night.

KO will be the safari punch if it lands.

[DUCE]

Updated
Luis Cane vs. James Irvin could be replacing one of the other rumored bouts

[hofclemens]

hoping the Desouza fight makes the main card. Was just watching him dominate a match large guy in a grappling contest from Grappler's Quest. He's an exciting fighter for sure.

[Darth Turkish]

Great card! Man, I went 1 for 5 in my pics last night

Guillard lloked sluggish and needs to seriously work on submission defense.

Soko looked very poor last night, he tried to muscle a few escapes from the bottom and when that did not work, he simply held Machida in place. He got a look of not wanting to be in there when he tapped out. Come on, man, a top level judoka should not just crap out just because he has no gi to help him leverage out. Machida looked very good. He had a solid game plan and executed very well.

Sanchez looked pretty decent laast night- It is tough to fight a guy not willing to engage.

Good to see Manvel Gamburyan back. too bad he messed up that guy's knee with the Achilles lock.

Chuck Looked great last night. He was spot on and landed some very good shots. I think Silva was a little gun shy- he needed to go all out in the third and did not. Great fight

GSP is a monster. Hughes had nothing for him. At the end of the first round Hughes jad a look of wating to be somewhere else. GSP is going to be around a long time.

[Trent Lawless]

I was really hoping for more from Sokoudjou. Part of me really wants someone to just be like Tyson was in his early days and just blast opponents within 2 minutes of round 1. Guess that fantasy is over with.

I think Silva did a little better than folks might give him credit for. He did win a round (2) IMO. But yeah, Chuck won the fight. I was watching it with a couple of big Silva fans and they were screaming at him after he recovered from that back fist to do something, but he just didn't. Don't exactly know why.

So who's more dominant right now, GSP or Anderson Silva? Tough call, if you ask me.

And I was sorry to see Nate Holm go down, just because he's from my wife's hometown of Davenport, IA and has my older son's first name.