UFC Vancouver: Underwhelming Card?

All eyes will be on Vancouver June 12 when the city hosts its first major sanctioned mma event. And it doesn’t get more “major” than the UFC, who took it upon themselves to lobby the local government for sanctioning. They’ve held three events in Montréal and want very desperately to expand through all of Canada, to take advantage of the second largest mma audience in the world. The Vancouver show is a milestone. So why did we get stuck with such a boring card?

No offence to the fighters involved – I know they train their asses off to get in that octagon and provide the fans with great entertainment. But the matchups on this card are actually somewhat worse than the matchups on the card at UFC 114, which turned out to be quite a snoozefest. I talk about that in another article.

UFC 115 was originally slated to be this season’s The Ultimate Fighter coaches’ finale, with Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz stoking the fires of hatred for eleven episodes before unleashing their fury on each other in the octagon. But Ortiz had to pull out of the show – and therefore the fight – due to impending neck surgery. Liddell will now face Rich Franklin, who was a coach on TUF in season two.

This will be the second season in a row to not match up the coaches at season’s end, as Quinton Jackson and Rashad Evans were scheduled to face off in December. Although they did eventually meet in the octagon, one has to wonder how much better the fight would have been if Jackson had been prepared, as he would have been in December, had he not taken time off to be a movie star.

In spite of Chuck Liddell’s high-profile appearance on last season’s Dancing With The Stars, his popularity has taken a backseat to younger, up & coming fighters. Rich Franklin is also on a road to raise his name-awareness, with a matchup against UFC Hall-of-Famer Randy Couture expected later this year. Both are respected veterans of mma, but are they interesting enough to warrant a main event?

The long-awaited rematch between Thiago Alves and Jon Fitch is now even-longer-awaited, if you don’t mind me making up words. Although it had been tentatively scheduled for UFC 115, it has now been pushed back to UFC 117. The reason for the delay is no fault of the UFC, but is the result of the discovery of an arteriovenous malformation in the brain of Thiago Alves. He has since had the surgery to fix this and will likely be ready for his rematch in August.

I noted previously that the UFC adds homegrown talent to the card when they go beyond the US borders. Last time they came to Canada (UFC 113, in Montréal), there were seven Canadian fighters on the full card. Unfortunately, six of them lost and this time around the UFC is going with only three Canadians on the card.

Claude Patrick will face Brazilian Ricardo Funch and David Loiseau will face Brazilian Mario Miranda on the preliminary card while Rory MacDonald will face American Carlos Condit in the first fight of the pay-per-view. This ppv will be shown around the United States in selected movie theatres, such as was done for UFC 111.

Two fights are scheduled to be aired on Spike TV. Ultimate Fighter 6 winner Mac Danzig faces “Handsome” Matt Wiman, a semi-finalist of season 5; Tyson Griffin and Evan Dunham will tangle in a fight that was originally scheduled for the main card. Moving up to the main card, to fill that space, is Ben Rothwell and Gilbert Yvel, both of whom lost their last fight. One has to wonder if Spike TV is asking for (and receiving) more promising fights to air in their preliminary special, which is effectively a one hour infomercial for the pay-per-view.

On the main card, Brazilian Paulo Thiago, who won Submission of the Night in his last fight, faces great Dane Martin Kampmann, who also finished his last fight with a submission. So can we expect to see more “lay and pray”? Or will they enter the octagon fearful of each other’s ground game and just stand and bang?

Mirko “Cro Cop” hopes to continue his winning streak against unknown fighters by taking on UFC newcomer Patrick Barry [#16]. You will recall he beat Australian fighter Anthony Perosh in February after opening a cut on his forehead.

Quite honestly, Liddell vs Ortiz is only interesting because they hate each other so much. But let’s face it, they’ve fought each other twice before and both times Liddell has knocked him out. Did we really need to see a #3?

And while Liddell and Franklin are both veterans of the octagon, they have not fought each other before. But so what? Does anybody really care? I’m not even sure a card was announced when the tickets went on sale in Vancouver for this event. They sold out in a UFC record of under 30 minutes, beating the previous record of 24 hours for UFC 83 (in Montréal). But that was due to the excitement of having the world’s foremost mma organization coming to town. When it’s the first of its kind in your city, the fans don’t care who’s on the card. Hopefully the UFC will ensure a more attractive lineup the next time they journey to Lotus Land.

Main card (pay-per-view)

• Light Heavyweight bout: Chuck Liddell vs. Rich Franklin
• Heavyweight bout: Mirko Cro Cop vs. Patrick Barry
• Welterweight bout: Paulo Thiago vs. Martin Kampmann
• Heavyweight bout: Ben Rothwell vs. Gilbert Yvel
• Welterweight bout: Carlos Condit vs. Rory MacDonald

Preliminary card (Spike TV)

• Lightweight bout: Tyson Griffin vs. Evan Dunham
• Lightweight bout: Mac Danzig vs. Matt Wiman

Preliminary card

• Middleweight bout: David Loiseau vs. Mario Miranda
• Welterweight bout: James Wilks vs. Peter Sobotta
• Welterweight bout: Ricardo Funch vs. Claude Patrick
• Welterweight bout: Mike Pyle vs. Jesse Lennox

~WHERE TO WATCH UFC 115
at your local Bar/Restaurant,
in the US & Canada~