The UFC comes to Rio this weekend with UFC 134 being held in the capital of Brazil. It will be the second UFC event held in Brazil with the first being in 1998. The card is headlined by Anderson da Silva of Brazil and Japanese fighter, Yushin Okami. The pair will battle it out for the prized UFC Middleweight Title with da Silva being the current belt holder.
Silva vs Okami
In the main event current UFC Middleweight champion Anderson Silva (30-4) fighting in his home country will take on challenger Yushin Okami (26-5) of Japan. Silva will be hoping for redemption as Okami was the last person to defeat him in January 2006 which was by disqualification.
Silva’s jiu-jitsu is quite dangerous and Okami will be looking to get the top position and do damage from the guard.
My Tip: Silva KO 4
Rua vs Griffin
In a much anticipated rematch Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua (19-5) will take on Forrest Griffin (18-6). The pair met back in 2007 in Rua’s debut UFC fight. That night Griffin took advantage of Shogun’s injured knee to choke him out in round 3. Rua briefly held the UFC Light-Heavyweight Title before Jon Jones took it from him in his first defense. Griffin was the first TUF winner and will be looking for a repeat of 2007 in their 3 round Light-Heavyweight bout.
Nogueira vs Schaub
Antonio Nogueira (32-6-1) will make his long awaited return to his home country of Brazil when he takes on contender, Brendan Schaub (8-1) from America in their Heavyweight bout. Schaub has won three of his last four fights via TKO with the latest being against Mirko Cro Cop at UFC 128. Noguiera’s most recent win came at UFC 102, when he defeated Randy Couture.
Pearson vs Barboza
TUF Season 9 winner from the UK, Ross ‘The Real Deal’ Pearson (12-4) will take on undefeated, Edson Barboza (8-0) from Brazil. Both fighters show great stand up skills with Barboza having a black belt in Muay Thai.
Cane vs Nedkob
On the main card, hometown favourite Luiz Cane (11-3) will take on a
newcomer to the UFC, Stanislav Nedkob. Cane is trying to bounce back after consecutive losses while Nedkov from Bulgaria was a two-time national wrestling champion and will be dangerous on the ground.
For Cane to win he must stick to his strength of his ground game and Brazilian Ji-Jitsu while Nedkov will be looking to take the fight to the ground early on where he is more likely to win.
This fight will be the opening on the main card and will be over 3 rounds at Light-Heavyweight.
On the preliminary card:
- In the final preliminary before the PPV main card, Thiago Tavares (15-4-1) from Brazil takes on veteran 35 year old, Spencer Fisher (24-7) from America.
- In the first of the Spike prelims, Rousimar Palhares (12-3) takes on American, Dan Miller (13-5) at Middleweight.
- Local boy, Paul Thiago will go to battle with American, David Mitchell at Welterweight.
- In another all local fight, Raphael Assunção takes on Johnny Eduardo at Bantamweight
- Brazilian Featherweights, Yuri Alcantara and Felipe Arantes go to war over 3 rounds.
- Yves Jabouin of Canada takes on Ian Loveland from USA at Bantamweight.
- Erick Silva takes on Luis Ramos at Welterweight. Both fighters are from Brazil.
