UFC 139 Preview: Shogun vs. Henderson and A Lot Of Other Great Fights

You suffering from MMA fatigue yet? It’s been three weeks since the coronation of Nick Diaz as the People’s Champion. Two weeks since Mark Muñoz called out Anderson Silva and one week since the UFC hit and mostly bored the mainstream. Next week is a brief reprieve and then it’s the TUF Finale and Jon Jones vs. Lyoto Machida. That’s 6 cards in 7 weeks. It should be noted that this is best card (on paper) of the entire stretch.

Cung Le vs. Wanderlei Silva (34-11-1, 1nc, 2-6 UFC)
Cung Le is more legend than legendary. I personally never thought we’d see Le fight again, let alone in the UFC. It should be interesting to see how his creative striking matches up against Wand’s brawling style. Silva better protect his chin or we might see Le again.

Brian Bowles (10-1, 2-0 UFC) vs. Urijah Faber (25-5, 1-1 UFC)
Urijah Faber sure seems beatable these days, doesn’t he? You  may remember Bowles allowing his title fight against Dominick Cruz to be stopped when he broke his hand while Faber famously went the distance against Mike Brown with two hands he broke early in the fight. These two were the opposite ends of the tough guy with heart fighting through pain no matter what spectrum. Now they clash.

Martin Kampmann (17-5, 8-4 UFC) vs. Rick Story (13-4, 6-2 UFC)
Rick Story has had a while to prep for Kampmann unlike the last minute fight against Charlie Brenneman that may have cost him a title shot. Kampmann is coming off two straight losses against tough opponents.  He could be in some trouble as Story tries to get back on track with his dominating wrestling.

Stephan Bonnar (13-7, 7-6 UFC) vs. Kyle Kingsbury (11-2, 1nc, 4-1 UFC)
Bonnar gets to fight on the main card for the rest of his career. Kingsbury has been involved in two fights of the night over his last three fights. Bonnar has a history of brawling, but surprisingly went to his wrestling for a less exciting victory in his last fight against Igor Pokrajac. With two straight wins and more job security than he’s had since 2007, I think Bonnar goes looking for another classic tomorrow.

SpikeTV Fights
Ryan Bader vs. Jason Brilz
Michael McDonald vs. Alex Soto

Facebook Fights
Tom Lawlor vs. Chris Weidman
Nick Pace vs. Miguel Torres
Rafael dos Anjos vs. Gleison Tibau
Seth Baczynski vs. Matt Brown
Shamar Bailey vs. Danny Castillo