Sonnen is after a fight with Wand. Cormier might get Hunt/Nelson

Well after another title loss its back of the heap for Sonnen. Wand and Sonnen are only 3 places apart ranking wise, both have wins over Bisping and Stann too. I think the fight really makes sence now. Im backing Wand to win if it happens. I know Sonnen is a great wrestler but we havnt seen Wand get schooled wrestling wise before, He hung with Hw Judokas, Wrestlers and ADCC level BJJ guys on the ground before. Sonnens style of fighting in the clinch plays into Wands hands. Those uppercuts on Jones looked half power, Wand ends fights in the clinch. Wand 2nd Round TKO if it happens.

Cormier has made noise about fighting Nelson next. Im guessing we will see an even lighter Cormier, I guess he will keep fighting at Hw untill he is small enough to cut as oppose to taking time off to loose weight. Ive heard rumors that UFC want to match him with Hunt (Probabally if Hunt beats Junior) Id hope this isnt true because that is a fair number 1 contenders fight and I think Hunt should be given his shot but seems the 2 of the 3 fat guys are going to slug it out.

Id prefer Nelson fought Cormier. I fancy Nelson Standing but I could imagine all that Grappling of Nelsons going out the window if he was against the cage or on his back.

I wouldn't be so confident in Wandis' abilty to not get taken down by Sonnen. Unlike Jones he does not have a two weight class size advantage, and he hasn't fought anyone who would try to take him down in 8 years (in fact, didn't Chuck take him down a couple of times?) and he has never fought anyone with the takedown ability of Sonnen.

I don't think Chael will try to initiate a clinch. I think he will look to just use a power double, which wasn't really an option against Jones.

Any word on how long Jones is out for? The winner of this fight could conceivably fight for an interim belt before Jones gets back

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Dana has said that even if Hunt beats Dos Santos, he will still be fighting Nelson next. Grade A bullshit if you ask me.

Sonnen will walk through Wanderlei.

I think Chael is really over rated based on the beating he put on an Injured Anderson when he had the Testesterone of 2 Alistair Overeems.

Look at him non Juiced, Bisping gave him a close fight, he finished Stann in 2 after a scary moment. This is the Exact same as Wand did. There isnt some Gulf in tallent between them.

Style wise I dont think Chael has it in him to pin Wand down for 3 round and he will be Murdered on the feet, it isnt even close standing as far as im concerned. I really hope we see this because Chaels Standup will play right into Wands hands (or knees)

I cant remember seeing someone outgrapple Wand. Arona was the last man I remember beating him grappling wise and that was 8 years ago. Bisping Landed a few and he has worse wrestling than Chael but he did nothing with them and was able to mix things up because he has good boxing, Chaels standup is not strong at all bar the 1st Anderson fight.

Without trying to upset to many,Hunt shouldn't be getting this JDS fight,it's madness to me and all the campaigning for his title shot seemed like a practical joke gone to far,but to be fair,it's the only reason he's got this fight.

Sorry Gin and the stuck in a time warp Pride boys

I actually like the sounds of Hunt vs Nelson,a true battle of the bulge.

As for Cheal vs Wandi,I predicted that Wandi would spark out stann in the second in his last fight,but i can't see him pulling out the win in this one.
I see cheal controlling Wandi for 3 rds and taking a comfortable UD.

payneNglory1 wrote:Without trying to upset to many,Hunt shouldn't be getting this JDS fight,it's madness to me and all the campaigning for his title shot seemed like a practical joke gone to far,but to be fair,it's the only reason he's got this fight.

Sorry Gin and the stuck in a time warp Pride boys

I actually like the sounds of Hunt vs Nelson,a true battle of the bulge.

As for Cheal vs Wandi,I predicted that Wandi would spark out stann in the second in his last fight,but i can't see him pulling out the win in this one.
I see cheal controlling Wandi for 3 rds and taking a comfortable UD.

I understand what you are saying but Hunt stepped up and took the fight when there were few others keen to. If he wins, that would be 5 on the trot, including a top 10 fighter and the 2nd ranked HW - how many other HWs have that kind of streak going? Especially if Cormier won't fight Cain....

But the Nelson fight might be fun as long as Nelson comes to bang, otherwise I would imagine him going for a takedown and smothering Hunt for the win.

Hunt was a replacement, theres nothing unusual about it, two top 5ish guys were booked to fight one gets injured and everyone else is tied up so Hunt a legit top 10 fighter steps in. Nothing out of the ordinary there.

Nelson and Hunt are neck and neck them fighting would make sence but IF Hunt was to beat Junior why not give him the title shot. Cormier would be the ONLY man more deserving.

I see why he's getting the chance,all the stars aligned for him and by some small miracle,Hunt was the only option left.

Hunts the remainder of a dying breed of old school one dimensional fighters(not to discredit his high altitude BBJ masterclass he put on Rothwell ) and to be fair,there is a whole list of fighters that would have got the nod in front of him,if they weren't tied up.

Like Gin said,he'd be worried if Nelson took him down,well what happens if werdum,Reem again,Nog,Mir,Cormier,Carwin,Bigfoot and can you just imagine,cain takes him down.

You know you'd get a good price on him in any of these fights because he'd be a pretty big underdog,because he is that much behind them in this sport,He has a 10 second window against these guys,after that he's in trouble.

Would you honestly put 100 quid of your money on him in any of those match ups?

i might be being a bit harsh on him,don't get me wrong I like him and I'm glad he's in the division,but all those mentioned above would easily beat the 4 fighters he has in his current run and I can only just about struggle to put him in the top 10 in this shallow HW division.

But saying all that,If he does somehow beat JDS,then I couldn't argue against him getting a shot.

He'd of taken full advantage of his opportunity and beat the current #2 and ex champion.

Bearly top 10 and one dimentional are fair calls. Having said that as much a fish out of water as he would look on the ground with nearly all heavies ranked around him he would dominate near any Heavy standing. Im not even confident overly JDS will outstrike him when you factor in kicks. I see a Sub win for Junior. Still I think when you look at all the heavies Hunt is the most feared striker outside Junior and he packs more 1 punch KO power as well as a granite chin.

Hunt has a good TDD now days and I think some of the BJJ heavies like Nog, Mir and Werdum would have their hands full getting him down. Giving him more time to land that 1 big KO shot. He is one of those fighters who could pull a KO out of nowhere. Id have loved to see him vs Carwin if he isnt retired.

Nelson is a fair fight if he puts on a good show and loses to JDS because Nelson didnt have much to offer Junior either and IMO never will.

payneNglory1 wrote:i might be being a bit harsh on him,don't get me wrong I like him and I'm glad he's in the division,but all those mentioned above would easily beat the 4 fighters he has in his current run and I can only just about struggle to put him in the top 10 in this shallow HW division.

I agree that Mark Hunt should not be anywhere near a title fight based on ability but that isn't what gets title fights in the UFC anymore. I think by Dana White saying Hunt won't get the shot if he wins, the RallyforMarkHunt will start up again and if (and that is a very big IF) he beats JDS, he can change his mind about the title shot and say "I am giving the fans the fight they want".

At least he has a win streak under his belt. Look at Sonnen's recent shot, Bigfoot v Cain, winner of Maynard v Grant to face Bendo, Nick Diaz v GSP, any LW who wants to drop to 145 to face Aldo - in my opinion Hunt has "earned" his shot more than any of the above. But you are right - as much as I love him, he only has a punchers chance against the majority of the top 10 HW's.

It's a great Rocky story which I reckon Dana White would embrace more and market the hell out of if Hunt was more like Sonnen or had any marketable personality.

The underdog story is what should get him his title shot. Dana and the bosses at UFC should admire a guy who could have taken him Paycheck from he couch and never fought in UFC. Insted he is drawing more fans to the sport and producing epic fights for the company.

Not that they owe him someting but its something really admirable to be offered the deal he was and to fight on anyway.

Look at his wins, Kongo may be gone but he had done more against Cain in rocking him a couple of times than anyone other than Junior has done to this date and was on a 4 fight unbeaten run. Struve was also on a 4 fight unbeaten run, these are 2 great wins.

Tuchscherer wasnt highly ranked but showed Hunt could beat a good wrestler if needed and Rothwell has always hovered around the top 15 in recent times.

Junior is the guy people still see as top 2 in the devision, him and Cain seem to have set themselves apart from the rest of the pack and if Hunt could beat him he has earned his shot in all but Dana Whites eyes by the sound of things.

rudeboyben84 wrote:I think Chael is really over rated based on the beating he put on an Injured Anderson when he had the Testesterone of 2 Alistair Overeems.

Look at him non Juiced, Bisping gave him a close fight, he finished Stann in 2 after a scary moment. This is the Exact same as Wand did. There isnt some Gulf in tallent between them.

Style wise I dont think Chael has it in him to pin Wand down for 3 round and he will be Murdered on the feet, it isnt even close standing as far as im concerned. I really hope we see this because Chaels Standup will play right into Wands hands (or knees)

I cant remember seeing someone outgrapple Wand. Arona was the last man I remember beating him grappling wise and that was 8 years ago. Bisping Landed a few and he has worse wrestling than Chael but he did nothing with them and was able to mix things up because he has good boxing, Chaels standup is not strong at all bar the 1st Anderson fight.

He was preparing for a wrestler and took a striker on 4 days notice. That's why Bisping but up a decent show. Scary moment against Stann??

Wandi is done mate. Finished. Chael will dominate him. Bisping took him down and held him down.

Maby I remember the Stann vs Sonnen fight wrong, didnt Stann catch him on the way in and Rock him bad before a TD? Could be wrong, maby thinking of the Bisping vs Stann fight...

Anyway Wand isnt finished, he beat Cung Le and Brian Stann recently those are great wins, and show he can still hang with top 15 guys.

Sonnen might have been fighting higher caliber guys but he was in over his head badly all but the 1st Anderson fight when he was juiced to the eyeballs.

Wand is going to Stomp Chael when they fight, he does his damage in the clintch and Sonnen fighting there a lot. Styles make fights and Sonnen is going to play to Wands style. Avatar bet you...

Sonnen has just publicly declared he doesn't want Wand.... Something along the lines of

"I asked for the fight but he declined"

Sounds like he's goading him into fighting

Yeah mate read he was saying he wasnt a bully and if someone didnt want to fight him he wouldnt go after them... I think its all talk to get a rise out of Wand and get some attention on the fight, I really dont think Wand turns down fights.

The only guy ive ever heard his hesitant to fight was Brian Stann and he ended up taking that fight.

Wand is going to KO this Chump. No mission of Chael willing and I think he will shoot into a knee. Really want this to happen because id put Money on a Wand win and im sure he would be a big underdog.

Why not Sonnen vs Belfort?

Seems an appropriate fight for both. And Chael will get a rise out of Vitor.

sunthunder wrote:Why not Sonnen vs Belfort?

Seems an appropriate fight for both. And Chael will get a rise out of Vitor.

This sounds good - Chael was very complimentary of Belfort in the event coverage I saw in the weekend which I thought was odd - thought he hated Brazilians