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Quick Quote: Rothwell Says Barry Will Beat ‘Cro Cop’ at His Own Game
On the Sherdog Radio Network’s Savage Dog Show, Ben Rothwell called Patrick Barry’s bout against Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic on Saturday at UFC 115 a “passing of the torch.” Barry had helped Rothwell prepare for a fight against Cro Cop last year that was canceled. Rothwell said his own approach would have been different from what Barry is going to do: “The way Pat’s going to beat Cro Cop is at what Cro Cop does. I wasn’t going to go in there and throw left kicks at Cro Cop and try to beat him that way. Pat Barry can do that.”
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Poll: Rothwell-Yvel
By: Mike Fridley
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4 Questions: UFC 108
By: Jake Rossen
D. Mandel/Sherdog.com
Will Evans be apprehensive?
Ugly knockouts tend to take away delusions of invincibility: until you’ve been hammered, you might not believe you can be hammered. Rashad Evans had that mystery stripped away by Lyoto Machida in May: against Thiago Silva, another intimidating striker, he might back off where he’d normally wade in, take fewer chances than normal, or find himself unable to rip off the kind of offense needed for a decisive win. Better or worse, the Evans we see Saturday won’t be the same guy who walked in against Machida.
Is Daley the welterweight heavy hitter?
For all of the incredible, rounded talent on display at 170 lbs., the class lacks the kind of nervous-anticipation strikers housed at middleweight (Anderson Silva, Melvin Manhoef) or light heavyweight. Read more -
UFC 108 Primer
By: Jake Rossen
D. Mandel/Sherdog.com
How beleaguered is the UFC’s first card of the new year? Hampered by recurring injuries and illness, it’s invited speculation that some kind of occult practices are at work, that the program is “cursed,” and that Scott Coker is right now, as you read this, covered in chicken blood and chanting something in a dead language.
The show and its promoters are largely a blameless party. With 20 (or more) events planned for the year, not all of them are going to produce incontinence on the part of excited fans. And lack of anticipation is not necessarily an indication of quality. (It actually has one fight that’s worth maybe half the $44.95 asking price by itself: see below.) It just means we’ll probably get some good fights without the boost of an emotional response to their outcomes.
When fans gripe -- as they have, nearly to the point of embedding snoring .wav files into forum posts -- and proclaim that “the show sucks,” what they really mean is, “I am not aroused by this card, but I acknowledge the fights themselves may be entertaining.” Feeling nervous for fighters can make boring fights riveting; lack of prior interest can make good fights easily forgotten. No one is particularly beside themselves for Rashad Evans vs. Thiago Silva in the way they might be over Anderson Silva’s 11th UFC win or Randy Couture smashing a clock to pieces or Brock Lesnar displaying some kind of inhumane technique. Sometimes a show is just a show. Read more -
'Cigano' Not Impressed with Yvel's Talk
Video courtesy of UFC.com. Read more
