UFC 85: Bedlam Preview
MMA, TV, UFC June 6th. 2008, 3:14pm
Tomorrow marks Ultimate Fighting Championships’ first show since mixed martial arts was “introduced” to the masses last Saturday. UFC 85: Bedlam will also mark the UFC’s second show ever in London, England. To your right is headliner Matt Hughes giving his patented “greeting” to a fan. You can see why he’s so popular.
Originally, UFC 85 was going to feature a fight between Chuck Liddell and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. Then Rua re-injured his knee and Rashad Evans stepped in. Then, in April one of Liddell’s hamstrings decided to stop cooperating which forced “The Iceman” to withdraw from the contest. At this point the UFC was looking at a card without a big name to sell.
Enter Matt Hughes and Michael Bisping.
Hughes and Bisping are two fighters headed in different directions in the UFC. British Bisping (Not his nickname) is a fighter on the rise in the Middleweight division (185 lbs), while Hughes is a legend out to prove he’s got plenty left in the tank.
Hughes will headline the fight and take on a Thiago Alves. Alves is another rising star in the UFC coming off 5 straight wins including a dominating performance against Karo Parisyan in April. It will be Hughes’ first fight since being destroyed by Georges St. Pierre last December. If Alves wins, he’ll probably be in line to take on the champ.
As for Bisping, this will be his second UFC fight at his natural fighting weight of 185 pounds. “The Count” is 15-1, having lost to Rashad Evans back in November while I was in attendance. He’ll be taking on Jason Day. Day is yet another replacement for the London card. He’s taking Chris Leben’s spot after Leben violated parole and had to withdraw due to the unfair constraints of the legal system.
The card will also feature two of the UFC’s most exciting fighters, Marcus “The Irish Hand Grenade” Davis (Greatest nickname ever, by the way.) and Brandon “The Truth” Vera. When last Davis was in London he made an incredible comeback against Paul Taylor.
Vera was last seen taking an extremely angering (Oh, I was the only one who was really angry?) loss to Tim Sylvia in October. That fight was most notable for the amount of time I spent screaming at my television for Sylvia to “Stop f****** leaning on him and fight you piece of s***!” Ahh, good times.
The entire card via MMAjunkie.com:
- Thiago Alves vs. Matt Hughes
- Michael Bisping vs. Jason Day
- Marcus Davis vs. Mike Swick
- Thales Leites vs. Nate Marquardt
- Brandon Vera vs. Fabricio Werdum
PRELIMINARY CARD (NOT TELEVISED)
- Martin Kampmann vs. Jorge Rivera
- Thiago Tavares vs. Matt Wiman
- Luiz Cane vs. Jason Lambert
- Kevin Burns vs. Roan Carneiro
- Jess Liaudin vs. Paul Taylor
- Eddie Sanchez vs. Antoni Hardonk
15 Responses to “UFC 85: Bedlam Preview”
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June 6th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Update: Alves didn’t make weight so win or lose, Dana White is going to be pissed.
June 6th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Why is that chick wearing her sports bra on top of her clothes and backwards?
June 6th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
……And I picked Alves too…..DAMNIT!
June 6th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Bisping was smart to move down to middleweight and duck a rematch with Matt Hamill. Pussy.
June 6th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
@clown – they’ve got to have that fight – perhaps at 195? I think he was ducking the entire division – 205 is full of (deservingly) big names.
June 6th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
If MMA is all about choking bitches then it’s right up my alley
/ Wayne Brady
June 6th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
I think this fight for Swick will be better, style-wise. Davis is good with a stand-up. Somebody could get KTFO’d.
June 6th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Less people will pay for this “card” than the TripleCast.
June 6th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Yeah, this card isn’t even live, unless you buy it the middle of the day.
This card is wack.
June 6th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Can’t…keep…up…with…the…post…deluge.
Cry havoc and let slip the posts of Intern Bill!
June 6th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Hughes comes off as a fucking dickhead, but I guess thats because he can be. he’s one tough sonofabitch
June 6th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Hughes may come off as a dick, but he’s actually a really nice, down-to-earth guy.
June 6th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
I see Hughes beating Alves with one more reaching chance at the title before he retires. Hamill beat Bispieg but “the count” moving down hels him… I will see this but I will not be psyched for another PPV until UFC 87.
June 6th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
I yell the same thing for every Sylvia fight. Such a waste of space.
June 6th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Martin Kampmann wins every time I see him fight. He’s actually pretty good. I wonder if Alves not making weight suggests being out of shape or unprepared? Swick is probably better than Davis, but he’ll have his hands full after coming off a lackluster win over Josh Berkman and Davis being on a roll.