Verbal Submission: UFC 120 Preview

Its been a while since I’ve done a Verbal Submission and I feel bad about that. Oh, first…

Music to listen to: Wicked Garden by Stone Temple Pilots

I feel bad about not doing a post lately because we’ve had events in Dream, Strikeforce, Bellator, the WEC and others since the last one. I enjoy all of these organizations and will try to hit on each one of these before I get to my UFC 120 preview, which takes place on Saturday.

-I enjoyed watching the Dream 16 event in Japan live on television. My brother has HDNet at his home and was able to see live MMA across the world at 1 a.m. in high definition. That was tremendous.

I usually see the fights in Japan a few weeks after they take place on the internet but seeing the event live was a new experience.

If you haven’t seen a combat sporting event in Japan such as professional wrestling, MMA, kickboxing, etc. it is different that in the United States. As Americans, we’re used to making noise and cheering during the entire fight in a dim arena outside of the spotlight on the ring.

In Japan, the audience is completely silent in a well-lit arena. The fans aren’t disappointed but just have a different way of showing their appreciation for the fighters.

Anyway, it was good to see Gegard Mousasi win the light heavyweight title. The last time we saw him before Dream 16, he was getting dominated by Mo Lawal at Strikeforce: Nashville. I was there and it was a rough night for the Armenian.

Also getting the win at Dream 16 was Shinya Aoki, who also lost at Strikeforce: Nashville. Seeing the Japanese fighter on his home turf was great as well.

Finally, it was mixed emotions seeing Mayhem Miller defeat Kazushi Sakuraba. I’m a fan of both men and anyone who is an older MMA fan for the past ten years or so has much love for Sakuraba, even if he keeps losing fights. Miller was obviously emotional after the win because he defeated his fighting hero.

-Speaking of Mayhem, he was once again in the middle of some drama because he is continually calling out Nick Diaz, who just retained his Strikeforce welterweight title last Saturday against KJ Noons.

I think this is a fight that each man would benefit from a matchup. There’s legit bad blood between them, the style matchup would be intriguing and more importantly, the pre-fight buildup would be tremendous. I think Diaz’s standup would be too much for Mayhem but Strikeforce needs to make this happen soon.

-After WEC 51, I simply stated on my Twitter account that Jose Aldo is a bad, bad man after he defended his featherweight title over Manny Gamburyan at the event. It may be too soon to put him in the argument as the top pound-for-pound fighter in MMA with Georges St. Pierre and Anderson Silva, but Aldo is making a solid case.

Aldo has won his last 10 fights and hasn’t been defeated in five years. Among those victories are triumphs over former WEC champions Mike Brown and Urijah Faber.

-If Urijah Faber is able to successfully make a transition to the bantamweight division with a win over dangerous Takeya Mizugaki at WEC 52 in November, we can all look forward to a Faber vs. Miguel Angel Torres fight in 2011. Hopefully it isn’t on pay-per-view but if it is, I can’t hate on the hustle of the organization.

-Chael Sonnen, you disappoint me.

-OK, it seems like UFC 119 and UFC 120 are just killing time till we get to UFC 121 and the heavyweight title bout between Brock Lesnar and Cain Valazquez, but Saturday will offer some interesting matchups. Furthermore, its free on Spike TV so there won’t be the concern of debating about if UFC 120 is worth my money.

You have the always entertaining Cheick Kongo fighting Travis Browne. You know that someone will get knocked out in this fight and it won’t go to the ground.

I will say that if anyone is fighting a Brit in the event, you better not let it go to a decision because the event is in London. I’m just saying that the judging may be biased.

I like the Dan Hardy and Carlos Condit fight a lot. Hardy is coming off of a defeat to Georges St. Pierre in March for the UFC welterweight title. GSP dominated the fight but that wasn’t surprising. Since the fight is in London, Hardy will get plenty of love from the home fans. Condit is the former WEC welterweight champ and is 2-1 since going to the UFC, but Hardy will be his toughest opponent in it.

I like Condit to get the upset via TKO in the second round.

The main event is Brit Michael Bisping vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama. It seems that every time the UFC goes to England, Bisping finds his way on to the card. That’s smart business but also shows that Bisping is an average fighter that the UFC knows can’t carry an event outside of Europe. He is 2-2 in his last four fights and really has no right to be the main event of a UFC main card outside of a fight night but once again, smart business.

Sexyama is always fun to watch but has struggled recently in his own way, being 1-1 in the UFC and losing his last fight to Chris Leben in July. Once again, he is a very popular fighter who has an international following. London is one of the most diverse cities in the world. Say it with me, smart business.

As for the fight itself, I’ll take Bisping by decision.

Those are my thoughts, what are yours?