UFC on FX 5: Browne vs. Silva Prelim Recap

The UFC delivers again. This event was yet another fantastic card on their small scale that introduced promising fighters, new title contenders, and hometown favorites prevailing in victory. Let's take a look at some of those bouts and some possible matchups for both the winners and losers

Darren Uyenoyama vs. Phil Harris: Both fighters impressed me in this fight. I thought it was going to be a striker vs. grappler match, but it was really a mixed martial artist against mixed martial artist. Harris took down Uyenoyama early, but they got up quickly and Darren threw some sort of flying spinning somersault kick. Yea, it was just as crazy looking as it sounds. The first round was closely contested but the second was another story. Uyenoyama took down Harris and got his back in an absolutely beautiful transition. He then soon after got the rear naked choke for the highlight reel submission.

Possible matchups for Uyenoyama: Darren Uyenoyama has now become a top guy in the UFC’s flyweight division with this finish over Harris. He has both unorthodox standup and a brilliant ground game. His original opponent for this fight was Louis Gaudinot and this fight still makes sense as they are both 1-0 at flyweight in the UFC with second round submissions. Who ever wins that fight should then fight in a number one contenders match.

Possible matchups for Harris: Despite being finished in his UFC debut, Harris is still a fighter with a lot of promise. Another fighter who lost his UFC debut was Ulysses Gomez. Because they are both 0-1, they should fight for a possible loser goes home, but hopefully not, fight.

Bart Palaszewski vs. Diego Nunes: This fight was bound to produce fireworks and it did, plus a little extra. Diego Nunes is typically the type of technical striker that picks his shots and strikes when he sees the opportunity. In this fight, he blitzed Bart from the opening bell. No one has ever seen Diego fight so aggressively, and I got to say, I really like it. He caught Bart on multiple occasions and almost finished him in the first and at the end of the fight. He even landed one of the most solid spinning back-fists to not knock someone out. If Diego can work on his cardio and continue to do what he did on Saturday, he will quickly become a top contender.

Possible matchups for Nunes: Like I just said, Nunes can become a title contender very quickly if he continues to do exactly what he did the other night. Now that he is a contender, he needs to fight some contenders. Hatsu Hioki is coming off of a huge loss to Ricardo Lamas and because he is still a top guy at 145, he will continue to fight top guys. With Diego Nunes looking to become a top guy and Hioki looking to reestablish himself as a top contender, this fight would be fantastic.

Possible matchups for Palaszewski: This has now been two losses in a row for "Bartimus" and his third of his last four. That isn’t great but he is still one of the better fighters at featherweight. Mike Brown is a former champion at 145 and is looking to go back into title contention. Now that he has wins over both Daniel Pineda and Nam Phan, he needs to take a step up in competition if he wants to get there. Bart Palaszewski is that step up.

Jacob Volkmann vs. Shane Roller: Volkmann finally got hat first finish under the UFC banner and better yet, he did it in front of his hometown in Minneapolis. Volkmann ran out and put his hands on Roller as quickly as possible. He got the takedown and Roller’s back in the process. The rear naked choke attempt followed soon after but Roller was not giving his neck up, but Volkmann didn't care, he decided to crush his jaw instead. Volkmann really impressed me in this fight. And with this loss, Roller has now lost 4 of his 5 fights. That is simply not UFC caliber. He has now even decided to retire.

Possible matchups for Volkmann: The man named "Christmas" is surprisingly a force at 155 pounds. He doesn't look menacing. Actually, he’s quite unassuming. But he has some solid grappling that can put any lightweight fighter on their back. I'm sure he wants another step up in competition and a fighter that was screwed out of a fight on Saturday was Thiago Tavares. This would be a fun grappling match.

Marcus LeVesseur vs. Carlo Prater: There is always that one fight you wish you could un-see at every UFC event. This was that one fight. And let me tell you, it was awful. For two guys who's jobs were on the line, you would expect a spirited affair. But this fight was packed with sloppy takedowns and guillotine attempts. That was it. The outcome was very questionable and no one cared. Prater is basically 0-3 in the UFC. He's gone.

Possible matchups for LeVesseur: Marcus could very well be 0-2 in the UFC so I don't think he deserves any step up and should be put right into a loser goes home fight. CJ Keith is coming off of a first round TKO loss to Ramsey Nijem after missing weight. I thought he would have been released but since he's still in the UFC, these two should square off.

Mike Pierce vs. Aaron Simpson: This fight was shockingly good. The UFC had it as the first fight originally for a reason. They have both had very boring fights in their last two performances. This fight was anything but. Midway through the first round, Simpson caught Pierce and almost finished him with some ground and pound and a submission. Simpson looked fantastic in the first round but Pierce showed a lot of heart going into the second round. He landed a huge right hand right on the chin of "The A-Train" and instantly put him out. It was a great comeback, but it wasn't the only one.

Possible matchups for Pierce: Pierce is one of the more under appreciated fighters in the UFC. He holds great knockout power and fantastic wrestling, a pretty good equation for success. He is slowly but surely making his way to the top and if he wants to continue that ascension, he should fight the winner of Mike Swick and Matt Brown. The winner would most likely become a top-10 welterweight.

Possible matchups for Simpson: If Aaron Simpson isn't considering retirement yet at 38 years of age, his time is coming soon. A fighter who is coming off of a win but just about at the same level of Simpson is Dan Miller. A wrestler vs. wrestler can sometimes turn into a slugfest.

Danny Castillo vs. Michael Johnson: Remember when I said Pierce's comeback wasn’t the only one? Well this is the other one. Danny Castillo dropped the Blackzilian at about the one minute mark of the first round. He then started to rain down so many hammer fists on Johnson's temple, that I was actually telling the ref to stop the fight. After that, Castillo locked in an ultra tight arm triangle choke that I thought was going to end the fight for sure. But no, Johnson showed the heart of a warrior and defended well against every one of Castillo's attacks. Going into the second round, Johnson was instantly the aggressor, taking hold of the center of the octagon. Castillo came in and Johnson caught him with a short left hand and dropped him. He followed up with some brutal hammer fists of his own and knocked Danny Castillo clean out. It was another fantastic comeback.

Possible matchups for Johnson: With this win, Michael Johnson has become a legitimate contender at 155 pounds. He is athletic, strong, has great wrestling, and powerful striking. There is no wonder as to why Rashad says he is a future champion in the UFC. Another fighter who has looked great in his last performance was Matt Wiman. This would be a huge step up in competition for Johnson and it would also be extremely entertaining.

Possible matchups for Castillo: The Alpha Male product has yet to do anything that really impresses me inside the UFC. His lone finish win was over an out of shape Shamar Bailey. Although he is still a talented fighter, he has yet to truly make a statement. Evan Dunham is coming off of a close loss to TJ Grant and if either fighter wants to reinstate themselves as contenders, they need a win over a fellow former contender in each other. 

UFC on Fuel TV 4 Main Card Recap

Chris Weidman finishing the fight.
Photo by The Fight Nation

Overall, this was a very good night of fights.  We got to see a potential dethroner of Anderson Silva’s long reign show why he is being considered the next big thing in MMA with his win. We also got to see a potential Fight of the Year and several other rising prospects show that they are ready for a step up in competition. Only two fights were not entertaining, that’s a rarity that there were only two. Anyway, into the recap!

Rafael dos Anjos vs. Anthony Njokuani: Dos Anjos continues to show why he should be such a feared fighter. He beat a kick boxer at his own game and dominated the ground game with wrestling and BJJ. Dos Anjos ended up dominating every round, even though one of the judges gave one to Njokuani.

Possible matchups for dos Anjos: The guy deserves a top-10 opponent. I thought that he beat Tibau and he was winning against Clay Guida before his jaw broke and he had to tap out when Guida was putting pressure on it. Donald Cerrone looked fantastic in his last fight with Jeremy Stephens. Dos Anjos and Cerrone would put on one hell of a brawl. Dos Anjos and him are similar but Cerrone has the better technical and fast standup while dos Anjos is wild but powerful with his.

Possible matchups for Njokuani: Paul Taylor and Njokuani were supposed to fight twice before, including on this card. That fight would be spectacular so lets try again, third times the charm.

Vaughan Lee vs. TJ Dillashaw: Lee started off very good in the standup, getting the better of the exchanges and landing some solid kicks to the body. He started to get a little wild and missed a head kick, which was caught and he was instantly taken down. His back was taken and the fight was over. First round submission for Team Alpha Male.

Possible matchups for Dillashaw: TJ still really needs to work on his standup. His ground game is fantastic but his stand up is too wide and can be easily countered. He should face off against the winner of Mizugaki and Hougland. Both of those guys would be a tough test for TJ; Mizugaki in the standup and Hougland on the ground.

Possible matchups for Lee: Lee seems very undersized at 135 to me. I think a move down to 125 would pay off very well. He is very well rounded and very fast on his feet. Another bantamweight that just moved down to 125 is Jared Papazian. These guys would put on an amazing fight and I would hate to see either of them go for the loser would most likely be cut.

Francis Carmont vs. Karlos Vemola: I really like both of these guys. They both have tons of potential and like to finish fights. The first round was close but Carmont most likely won for his takedowns and controlling the standup. Eventually in the second round, he had Vemola in a crucifix and transitioned into a RNC for the finish.

Possible matchups for Carmont: Carmont wants a top-10 guy, I say not yet. Him and Costa Philippou have been doing very well at middleweight lately and they should face off in the near future. The winner of that fight should be able to take big step up in competition, possibly top-10.

Possible matchups for Vemola: The heavyweight turned middleweight has one big problem in his fights: impatience. He thinks he finds a guillotine, so he dives on it without trying to set it up. He sprints forward for the takedown and gets caught doing so. If he can be patient, he could do big things. Clifford Starks could be the perfect opponent to help him with that. Starks is a big and very athletic 185er who is a hard fight for anyone not named Anderson Silva at middleweight. If Vemola could be patient in a fight with Starks, he would win.

Aaron Simpson vs. Kenny Robertson: This fight was the second one mentioned in the first paragraph. The first round was pretty fun but after that, the best shots landed were knees to the butt. Seriously. Eventually, Simpson won the dominant decision win.

Possible matchups for Simpson: I’m still interested to see how well Jon Fitch will recover from his loss to Hendricks. I wouldn’t mind seeing them fight eventually.

Possible matchups for Robertson: I don’t really have much interest in Robertson after this performance and I wouldn’t be surprised if he is cut. But a fight between him and Besam Yousef would be a loser goes home fight.

James Te Huna vs. Joey Beltran: “The Mexicutioner” never fails to put on an awesome fight. This was one of the best fights so far this year and will most likely be running for FOTY later in 2012. Te Huna also landed the most significant strikes in one round and the whole fight; a record for the 205 pound division. It was a dominant win for Te Huna and I believe that he is ready to take on some big names.

Possible matchups for Te Huna: Glover Teixeira is fighting Rampage at UFC 153. Win or lose, Te Huna vs. Glover Teixeira is guaranteed fireworks. They both love to finish and I believe that Te Huna would be a really tough test for Glover.

Possible matchups for Beltran: The newest addition to the UFC light heavyweight division is Jimi Manuwa, who is now the former BAMMA 205 champion. He still doesn’t have his debut fight set up and Beltran is always a good test for new comers.

Chris Weidman vs. Mark Munoz: No one has ever, EVER, dominated Mark Munoz like that. I thought that Weidman would have the slightest wrestling advantage but not as big as it showed in this fight. Weidman took down Mark at will, and held him there. Weidman was continually going for chokes and armbars and kimuras. He was relentless. He did the same again in the beginning of the second round but Munoz got back up. Mark swung a big right hand; Chris ducked under it and elbowed him straight in the face, nearly knocking out Munoz. He drops to the floor and Weidman lands around 15 unanswered punches to the side of the head of Munoz. It was brutal and one of the latest stoppages that I have ever seen.

Possible matchups for Weidman: This 28-year-old kid could very well be the person to dethrone Anderson Silva. It’s only his 9^th fight in his career and he dominated a top-3 middleweight. He has the wrestling that can beat Anderson. He has a submission game so he can defend against Silva’s attacks off his back. His standup is the only question but it looked amazing on Wednesday. Munoz never even landed a single punch. He is basically a better, stronger, more humble version of Chael Sonnen. If he does get this fight with Silva, which I think he deserves, I might just go with him.

Possible matchups for Munoz: This was a devastating loss for Mark. The guy is a class act and I never like to see him lose. But he is still a top-10 middleweight. Hector Lombard and Tim Boetsch are fighting in a week, so the loser of that could come fight Munoz for a rebound fight.

For Prelim Recap Click Here

UFC on Fuel TV 4: Munoz vs. Weidman Predictions

Sam’s Picks

Main Card

Chris Weidman vs. Mark Munoz: I am very excited to watch these two middleweights prove their title contention. Chris Weidman, aside from Jon Jones, is one of the quickest rising stars that I have ever seen. It's only his 9th fight ever and it's a potential number one contender bout. The main problem with Weidman is his cardio, which was shown in his fight with Maia. Although he took the fight on one week notice, he slowed down dramatically in the later rounds. The one problem with trying to predict this fight is just how equally matched they are in all facets of the game. Munoz has the power advantage but Weidman has a distinctive technical advantage. Munoz was the better collegiate wrestler while Weidman has utilized his better in MMA. So far, Weidman has been far more impressive on his UFC career and Munoz has barely won a lot of the decisions that he has gone to. Sigh, this fight is tough but I see Weidman being the more technical standup fighter after they cancel each other out on the ground = Weidman by unanimous decision.

James Te Huna vs. Joey Beltran: Although I don't think that this fight is hard to predict the winner, it's that it's hard to predict how Beltran will do at 205 in the UFC. Beltran has never been known for his technical prowess, but for his toughness. Sorry, but toughness doesn't win you fights, technique does. Te Huna could very well be one of the most underrated fighters at 205. The guy has looked brutal in his last two fights and is known to be a finisher. His only loss in the UFC is to Alexander Gustaffson. Following that, he had two 1st round knockouts. I definitely see Te Huna winning, but I highly doubt he has the power of Lavar Johnson = Te Huna by unanimous decision.

Kenny Robertson vs. Aaron Simpson: Aaron Simpson is finally moving down to his natural weight class. I always found him very undersized at middleweight and this fight will show us where he can go at 170 pounds. Robertson will be a tough test. Kenny has been a good prospect at 170 for some time now, despite his TKO loss to Mike Pierce. Simpson will have a strength and experience advantage, leading me to believe he will take a close decision win = Simpson by split decision.

Francis Carmont vs. Karlos Vemola: Carmont is extremely talented and has a ton of potential, but Vemola looked fantastic in his middleweight debut against Massenzio. Carmont, on the other hand, did not look very good against his last opponent in Magnus Cedenblad, a fighter whom I would believe Vemola would easily defeat. Vemola has become a new fighter at 185 and he will continue to showcase it on Wednesday = Vemola by 3rd round TKO. My 2nd pick for FOTN!

TJ Dillashaw vs. Vaughan Lee: This is going to be much closer than people think. I actually see Vaughan submitting Dillashaw. Lee's win over Kid was thrilling and impressive. Not even one of the Gracie's could do that. His standup looked improved and his ground game very advanced. His recovery skills were also impressive after he was rocked by Yamamoto. Dillashaw is a dynamic wrestler. Lee is an all around mixed martial artist with particularly good BJJ. I see Dillashaw running right into a triangle in the 1st after going for a takedown. This will be Lee's coming out party = Lee by 1st round triangle choke. My pick for SOTN!

Rafael dos Anjos vs. Anthony Njokuani: Dos Anjos IS the most underrated lightweight in the UFC. He has a really good ground game and powerful standup. He showcased all of this in his quick performance against Kamal Shalorus in which he almost knocked him out with a head kick and then submitting him with a RNC. Njokuani has yet to impress me in the UFC. Dos Anjos should take this one pretty easily = dos Anjos by 2nd round TKO. My 1st pick for FOTN!

Prelims
Alex Caceres vs. Damacio Page = Page by 2nd round KO. My pick for KOOTN!
Chris Cariaso vs. Josh Ferguson = Cariaso by 1st round submission (arm). My 3rd pick for FOTN!
Andrew Craig vs. Rafael Natal = Natal by split decision.
Marcelo Guimaraes vs. Dan Stittgen = Guimaraes by 3rd round submission.
Raphael Assuncao vs. Issei Tamura = Assuncao by split decision.

Dave’s Picks

Main Card

Chris Weidman vs. Mark Munoz: This fight is going to be very close. I am a huge Munoz fan and have been watching him wrestle since his college days. I disagree with Sam and actually think Munoz has better technique in his striking and see him winning the standup. I think Weidman will have the advantage in wrestling. Weidman seems to have adapted his wrestling better to MMA than Munoz who was the superior collegiate wrestler. It will be tight but I’m going with my boy Munoz = Munoz by unanimous decision.

James Te Huna vs. Joey Beltran: Te Huna is the real deal. He has great striking; especially his power. Beltran is a decent fighter and dropping down to 205 was a good career move but Te Huna might be too big of a test. Guys in the past in boxing and MMA actually have worse chins in lower weight classes. Cardio actually plays a huge role in how well your chin lasts and Beltran might be a victim of this. Either way Te Huna is better = Te Huna by TKO in round 2. My Pick for KO of the Night!

Kenny Robertson vs. Aaron Simpson: Interesting fight here. If Simpson was younger and in his prime I would take him in a heartbeat but he is almost 38 years old. However, I think Simpson will be able to outwrestle Robertson and take a close decision. = Simpson by unanimous decision.

Francis Carmont vs. Karlos Vemola: Carmont is a very talented fighter and comes from an amazing camp but Vemola is a beast! I see Vemola being able to control the fight and eventually finishing it on the ground. = Vemola by TKO in round 2.

TJ Dillashaw vs. Vaughan Lee: I think Dillashaw has a bright future at 135 and I see him easily handling Lee. Dillashaw is a great wrestler and I see him controlling this fight and eventually finishing it later on. =Dillashaw by submission in round 2.

Rafael dos Anjos vs. Anthony Njokuani: What a great fight!!! But this one is simple in my opinion. Dos Anjos is one of the most underrated fighters alive; I have said this before; he is incredibly well rounded. I like Njokuani but his ground game is not all that great. I think dos Anjos will eventually take this to the ground and sub him quick. = dos Anjos by submissionin round 1. My Pick for Fight of the Night! My Pick for Submission of the Night!

Prelims
Alex Caceres vs. Damacio Page = Page by TKO in round 3.
Chris Cariaso vs. Josh Ferguson = Cariaso by submission in round 1.
Andrew Craig vs. Rafael Natal = Craig by split decision.
Marcelo Guimaraes vs. Dan Stittgen = Guimaraes by split decision.
Raphael Assuncao vs. Issei Tamura = Assuncao by unanimous decision.