UFC Fight Night LIVE and FREE on Spike TV
Last month I wrote about how World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) is catching up to Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in regards to popularity and having the most well-rounded Mixed Martial Artists (MMA). Back then, WEC had a Featherweight (145-lbs) Championship fight between Urijah Faber and challenger Jens Pulver as the main event. It was showcased live on Versus channel. Although it was some quality fights, the upcoming UFC Fight Night on Spike TV will also be televised live on Saturday (07/19/08) that will show exactly how much more skilled the UFC fighters really are. Their main event is a fight no MMA fan should miss.
The main event is between the Middleweight (185-lbs) Champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva (22-4), who I believe is the pound-per-pound best MMA fighter in any league. Since he has either knocked out (or TKO’d) or won by submission on every fight since he joined the UFC in June of 2006 (6-0) at the Middleweight (185-lbs) division. He is now moving up into the very competitive Light Heavyweight (205-lbs) division against hard hitting James “The Sandman” Irvin (14-4-1), who is definitely no slouch. Irvin is coming off a dominating win over Houston Alexander (8-1), TKO in only 8-seconds, on April 2nd, 2008. This should be a very interesting fight to see if Silva can handle this hard hitting division.
There are also some good and up coming fighters on this fight card. The first being Brandon “The Truth” Vera (8-2), who is a very good MMA fighter. He had a lot of potential, until losing to former Heavyweight Champion Tim “The Maniac” Silvia (26-4) and again to Fabricio Werdum (11-3-1) in a controversial loss. But Vera is skilled in all faucets of MMA and will face against a little known fighter named Reese Andy (7-1). I don’t see Vera having a problem with Andy, so we should see Vera back on the winning track.
Ultimately, this fight card should be an exciting and entertaining one. There will be a few fighters from the Spike TV reality show The Ultimate Fighter (TUF), fighting against each other, which should be good to watch. The quality of fights on UFC is better then WEC (even if slightly) on average, but far better then all the other leagues. I know the true MMA fans will tune in to watch, but I encourage even the curious fan to watch as well, to see what MMA is all about. The quality and technical aspects of the fights will be easily seen. If anyone is interested in the entire fight card, click here. I will certainly be watching!
