UFC 142 - Aldo vs Mendes

[Ross]

Live on Main Event this Sunday at 2pm, ONE won't be showing the two hours of FX prelims until later that night but I think you can stream them live on UFC.tv for free. There's also a prelim on Facebook starting at 10:30am. Main card is nothing spectacular but there's a few fights that look to be tough to pick.

It's also notable that, because of daylight savings and the UFC going back to their old PPV starting time, the main event won't start until 3am in Rio time.

Main card
Featherweight Championship: Jose Aldo vs Chad Mendes - going the upset but I'm not really confident, neither fighter looked great in their fights last year, both taking out a pair unspectacular decision wins. This fight simply comes down to if Aldo can defend the takedown, if he can he'll win and he'll lose otherwise
Middleweight bout: Vitor Belfort vs Anthony Johnson - interesting fight to make and it's hard to see how it plays out, Johnson's offense can be spectacular but IMO he isn't on Vitor's level, thinking Rumble will look for a takedown, won't get it and will get starched by Vitor in the first round
Middleweight bout: Rousimar Palhares vs Mike Massenzio - Palhares should take this one by sub pretty quickly but he's kind of nuts so who knows what will happen
Welterweight bout: Erick Silva vs Carlo Prater - easy win for Silva, Prater's a journeyman who scored wins years ago against Condit, Guillard and Fisher but has been up and down in recent years
Lightweight bout: Edson Barboza vs Terry Etim - expecting three rounds of close kickboxing with Barboza edging it out

FX prelims
Lightweight bout: Thiago Tavares vs Sam Stout - decision
Heavyweight bout: Gabriel Gonzaga vs Ednaldo Oliveira - no idea, if Oliveira lives up to his record he'll probably KTFO Gonzaga, if he's not that good he'll get smashed, either way this probably ends in the first or second
Featherweight bout: Yuri Alcantara vs Michihiro Omigawa - decision
Welterweight bout: Ricardo Funch vs Mike Pyle - sub

Facebook prelim
Featherweight bout: Felipe Arantes vs Antonio Carvalho - decision

 

[Vinnie Vegas]

Quickly, I've got:

Aldo by decision
Johnson by KO
Palhares by sub
Silva by decision
Barboza by KO

Tavares by ???
Oliveira by KO
Alcantara/Omigawa - NFI
Pyle by sub

Arantes by decision

Aside from the top two fights, I'm also really interested in the Barboza/Etim fight, as they're responsible for two of the most badass stoppages in recent history - Barboza KOing Mike Lullo with leg kicks until he couldn't stand, and Etim submitting Faaloto in 17 seconds.

Barboza excites me a lot as a prospect though, and he'll be in title contention with a good win here.

 

[lenkani]

UFC 142: Aldo vs. Mendes will be a great fight. Some good channel for this fight are: Justin.tv, ustream, Greenfeedz.com

 

[RevDog]

FUEL TV showing the UFC 142 Prelims Live before hand.

 

[BradWCE]

FUEL TV showing the UFC 142 Prelims Live before hand.

That's good, last events prelims weren't shown for quite a while after they took place. Great sport day on Sunday for me, going to the cricket then get home to watch all the UFC action.

Picks, a couple with no confidence:
Aldo by TKO in the 3rd round
Johnson by decision
Palhares by submission in the 1st round
Silva by decision
Barboza by decision
Stout by KO in the 2nd round
Oliveira by TKO in the 1st round
Omigawa by decision
Pyle by submission in the 3rd round
Carvalho by decision

 

[gytre]

Main card
Featherweight Championship: Jose Aldo vs Chad Mendes - I expect Aldo to be back to his best. He'll finish Mendes in the 2nd or 3rd round by TKO.
Middleweight bout: Vitor Belfort vs Anthony Johnson - Hard to make a case for Johnson. He was a decent Welterweight, but he'll get smashed trying to take Belfort down.
Middleweight bout: Rousimar Palhares vs Mike Massenzio - Good to see Palhares back. If it's the old Palhares he'll win by sub in the 1st or 2nd.
Welterweight bout: Erick Silva vs Carlo Prater - No idea.
Lightweight bout: Edson Barboza vs Terry Etim - This should be fireworks. If Etim can close the distance, his superior all-round game should get him a decision. He'd better watch those leg kicks though!

Looks a pretty weak card on paper, but I'll certainly still be watching!

 

[Jab]

Johnson moves up a weight class, but still cant make weight!!

http://www.mmafighting.com/2012/01/13/ufc-142-weigh-in-results/

Anthony Johnson, who is no stranger to missing weight, came in over once again, stepping on the scale at 197 pounds for his middleweight debut

The fight still looks like it is going to happen. Vitor has agreed to still fight him, as long as he is under 205 by tomorrow.

 

[alfy!]

i'm literally shocked about johnson

how dumb can you be?

 

[gytre]

i'm literally shocked about johnson

how dumb can you be?

Ridiculous. Dana should just cut him.

 

[Nickos66]

Looks like this will probably be Johnson's last fight in the UFC, seriously.. How the **** can he be so off target?? How slack can one be to put your whole career in jeopardy like this.

 

[alfy!]

Apparently he got sick:

http://mmaweekly.com/medical-reasons-not-lack-of-effort-prevented-anthony-johnson-from-making-weight

The doctor gave Johnson fluids to see if it would improve his condition, and within a couple of hours, the Blackzilian fighter started to come back to life. Unfortunately, at this point it was too late to cut the weight back down to 186lbs.

“It was medical reasons, it wasn’t for lack of effort,” Robinson said. “The UFC was extremely supportive and said health comes first.”

 

[Nickos66]

Cheers for that Alfy. Very interesting, I guess since it was only hours before the weigh in it's not as if he could tell Dana beforehand too.

 

[Guy Threepwood]

My picks:

Main Card

Aldo by close decision
Vitor by early KO
Palhares by early sub
Silva by TKO late
Barboza by late stoppage

Prelims:

Tavares by decision
Gonzaga by sub
Omigawa by decision
Pyle by sub early
Alcantara by decision

 

[Nickos66]

Any idea what time this is on? It's on tomorrow for us, right?

 

[BradWCE]

Any idea what time this is on? It's on tomorrow for us, right?

Yeah tomorrow, Prelims on Fuel TV at 9am Perth time and the PPV on at 11am Perth time. The Facebook fights were meant to start at 8am but now that there's only 1 fight on Facebook it'll probably start later.

Don't like Johnson's chances at all now. He has to weigh in tomorrow at 205 pounds or less otherwise the fights off. That plus the issues with his health before weigh in has me thinking that Belfort will destroy him.

 

[Aldo]

Main card
Jose Aldo vs Chad Mendes - Probably guessed by my name I'm a little biased. However, I really don't think Mendes can take Aldo down, no one has been able to effectively use wrestling on him so far. Faber couldn't get close and Maynard said he had a lot of trouble taking him down in training. I think Aldo softens Mendes up first, then shows the world some of his own grappling abilities, winning by submission late in the fight.
Vitor Belfort vs Anthony Johnson - I want to see Vitor kick Johnson's fat unprofessional ass. However, I think Johnson is just going to use his size and strength to overpower Vitor and then pound him into oblivion, probably in round 2.
Rousimar Palhares vs Mike Massenzio - Palhares slams Massenzio, gets a heel, Massenzio taps, Palhares cranks it, snapping the heel, gets in a huge trouble from Dana and co. haha
Erick Silva vs Carlo Prater - Prato was a pretty good fighter in the old days, but right now I think Erick Silva is too big, too athletic and too good for him. I think Silva knocks him out in the first round.
Edson Barboza vs Terry Etim - Two very quick and technical fighters. I think Etim could surprise Barboza with a submission, but I think the fight stays standing with Barboza getting the upper hand in an entertaining striking battle. Etim hangs in there but loses a decision.

FX prelims
Thiago Tavares vs Sam Stout - Stout has great striking skills and Tavares has a suspect chin. I think Stout knocks him out early on.
Gabriel Gonzaga vs Edinaldo Oliveira - I think Oliveira could be a very successful fighter in the UFC at LHW and HW. I reckon he knocks poor Gonzaga out in the first round like he's buddy JDS did.
Yuri Alcantara vs Michihiro Omigawa - Alcantara is on a big winning streak, but against weak competition. Omigawa hasn't been in the best of form, but he did win his last fight, and was robbed in the one before that. Omigawa now that he is comfortable in the UFC should get a decision win.
Ricardo Funch vs Mike Pyle - Don't know much about Funch, so I'll go with Pyle who may not be a contender, but is always competent.

Facebook prelim
Felipe Arantes vs Antonio Carvalho - Not sure on these two, Arantes lost to Alcantara in his first UFC go, but I guess I'll side with him because of the hometown factor.

 

[Asgardian]

Plan on buying this PPV, so it had better not suck.

 

[mickelboy182]

Etim walking out to Phil Collins, **** got real.

 

[alfy!]

epic spinning kick ko

 

[Aldo]

Holy s**t!! Barboza! That was absolutely amazing. One of the best knockouts I have ever seen, and it came out of absolutely no where.

 

[alfy!]

lol this silva kid is awesome, so talented

 

[Aldo]

Wow, wth. There was one accidental shot to the back of the head, definietly not worthy of disqualification.

 

[alfy!]

that's a bull s**t call from mario

much respect to how silva has handled this

 

[mickelboy182]

What a **** up from Yamasaki....

 

[Aldo]

that's a bull s**t call from mario

much respect to how silva has handled this

Agree, he'd be justified to throw a fit, but he kept it classy and respected the referee's decision. Even though it's a loss on his record, everyone knows he won that fight. Similar to how everyone knows Jon Jones beat Matt Hamill.