UFC 181: Hendricks vs Lawler II thread

[KenaiAndrews]

Fight fans, UFC 181 is Saturday, December 6th from the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

Here's the main card, which is on PPV:

Johny Hendricks (C) vs Robbie Lawler for UFC welterweight title

Anthony Pettis (C) vs Gilbert Melendez for UFC lightweight title

Travis Browne vs Brendan Schaub (HW)

Todd Duffee vs Anthony Hamilton (HW)

Tony Ferguson vs Abel Trujillo (LW)

Prelims on FOX Sports 1:

Urijah Faber vs Francisco Rivera (BW)

Eddie Gordon vs Josh Samman (MW)

Corey Anderson vs Justin Jones (LHW)

Raquel Pennington vs Ashlee Evans-Smith (WBW) * Evans-Smith replaces Holly Holm

UFC Fight Pass Prelims (UFC Fight Pass)

Sergio Pettis vs Matt Hobar (BW)

Alex White vs Clay Collard (FW)

All in all, it looks like a decent card. Above average main and co-main event. Who ya got?

 

[mscriv]

Has Urijah Faber fallen so far that he can only get on a prelim card now? I enjoy MMA and used to watch all the PPV fights, but in the past couple of years I haven't kept up as much. I do still watch TUF and will catch the results of big fights, but just have gotten to busy to keep up with things like I used to.

 

[KenaiAndrews]

The problem with Faber is that he lost a couple of bantamweight title fights to the champion Renan Barao. Everytime he gets close, he loses the big fight, so's he's kind of a gatekeeper in my opinion right now. He's still a good, exciting fighter. His spot in this card is indicative of the fact he's working his way back up, that's all.

 

[mscriv]

I caught Hendricks vs. Lawler 1 in replay today on Fox Sports. Pretty tough match with both guys brawling hard. I think they are both likable fighters but in the rematch I think I'll be pulling for Hendricks to successfully defend. Being a DFW resident I gotta cheer for the home town hero in this one.

 

[KenaiAndrews]

Their first fight was great and I'm expecting more of the same Saturday night. I agree with you they are both likeable fighters. Hendricks is coming off the injury shelf, while Lawler looked impressive in wins over Jake Ellenberger and Matt Brown this year. It's a tossup to me.

But there's also a good co-main event between the TUF 20 coaches. UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis also comes off the injury shelf to defend against former Strikeforce lightweight champ Gilbert Melendez.

I want to see Pettis land the Showtime kick in the UFC

 

[mscriv]

Their first fight was great and I'm expecting more of the same Saturday night. I agree with you they are both likeable fighters. Hendricks is coming off the injury shelf, while Lawler looked impressive in wins over Jake Ellenberger and Matt Brown this year. It's a tossup to me.

But there's also a good co-main event between the TUF 20 coaches. UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis also comes off the injury shelf to defend against former Strikeforce lightweight champ Gilbert Melendez.

I want to see Pettis land the Showtime kick in the UFC

Yep, I remember that kick and must confess that I was blown away seeing it live on TV. I'll be pulling for Pettis to get the belt over Melendez.

 

[KenaiAndrews]

The UFC needs this one. A lot of the cards have been plagued by injuries this year. As a result, a lot of casual fans have jumped off the bandwagon in my view. But there are a lot of good looking cards on paper coming up. UFC 182 - Jon Jones vs Daniel Cormier (finally). UFC 183 - Anderson Silva vs Nick Diaz. UFC 184 - Chris Weidman vs Vitor Belfort, Ronda Rousey vs Cat Zingano.

 

[mscriv]

The UFC needs this one. A lot of the cards have been plagued by injuries this year. As a result, a lot of casual fans have jumped off the bandwagon in my view. But there are a lot of good looking cards on paper coming up. UFC 182 - Jon Jones vs Daniel Cormier (finally). UFC 183 - Anderson Silva vs Nick Diaz. UFC 184 - Chris Weidman vs Vitor Belfort, Ronda Rousey vs Cat Zingano.

It will be good to see Anderson Silva back in the octagon. I hope he comes back strong.

 

[KenaiAndrews]

The Spider is back and Diaz is not afraid.

 

[grizzlyedwin]

Faber's position at 135 is pretty much the same as Chad Mendes position at 145. They're at the top of the division and better than everyone in the division, except they can' beat the champ.

Faber is also setup to headline the prelims as he's still a somewhat recongizable big name and they use him to draw eyeballs to the prelims.

There's not much to watch on the prelims.

Little Pettis is a fun fighter, but he got chocked out by Bruce Leeroy last time around. He used to fight and had dropped to 125 lbs. before getting signed, so I think he would be best off at 125 lbs. I think he should be able to beat Hobar.

The WMMA fight isn't really that interesting.

And Faber should steamroll Cisco fairly easily.

See my opinion on the WMMA fight for my opinion on the remaining prelims fights.

The 2 title fights are the only interesting ones for me on the main card.

Ferguson vs. Trujillo could end in brutal fashion by KO, but it's not a fight I'm particularly looking forward to.

I like both Pettis and Gil, but I think Gil may use his wrestling to takedown Pettis and use his ground and pound to bruise him up on the ground and his sub. defense to avoid getting subbed by Pettis.

WW title fight should be good too even though I have Hendricks beating Lawler again. Either way Rory gets the next shot and even though I like Rory, I think Hendricks can beat him, but a rematch with Lawler would be good and could see him beating him.

 

[Agent OrangeZ]

Has Urijah Faber fallen so far that he can only get on a prelim card now?

I actually had this same thought... but then I did some research and heard that Faber actually likes being the prelim main event because the fight is free, so more people will see his fights!

 

[KenaiAndrews]

I actually had this same thought... but then I did some research and heard that Faber actually likes being the prelim main event because the fight is free, so more people will see his fights!

Yep, he's ranked #3 in the division right now so like a few posters said he's pretty much the gatekeeper for the upper half of the division.

 

[grizzlyedwin]

CM Punk has signed with the UFC and will be making his debut next year at either 185 lbs. or 170 lbs.

He's going to be doing a test weight cut to 185 lbs. and then see if he can make 170 lbs.

 

[KenaiAndrews]

CM Punk has signed with the UFC and will be making his debut next year at either 185 lbs. or 170 lbs.

He's going to be doing a test weight cut to 185 lbs. and then see if he can make 170 lbs.

Yep. I enjoyed the fights for the most part. Nice finishes Raquel Pennington, Josh Samman, Anthony Pettis!

 

[sviato]

Unfortunately, Schaub couldn't back up all of his talk about beating Brown.

WW fight was both interesting and uninteresting, though personally I don't care much for either fighter. Hoping Rory MacDonald gets a title fight, and the title, soon.

 

[KenaiAndrews]

Schaub couldn't figure out the height and length of Hapa. Caught him with a couple of shots, then Hapa took over. He's gotta figure that out to make a move in the division.

 

[grizzlyedwin]

Yep. I enjoyed the fights for the most part. Nice finishes Raquel Pennington, Josh Samman, Anthony Pettis!

Pettis finishing Gil wa particularly shocking. Pettis has really, really developed some legit sub. skills.

Once Gil began pushing the pace and clincing Pettis against the cage in the first, I thought he had set the tone as to how the fight was going to develop and Gil was going to take the decision.

WW fight was both interesting and uninteresting, though personally I don't care much for either fighter. Hoping Rory MacDonald gets a title fight, and the title, soon.

The main event wasn't on par with their first fight and on first view I didn't agree with the decision. I thought Hendricks took at least 3 or 4 rounds depending on how you scored the last round. Many people thought so too and then changed their opinion on the decision upon re-watching the fight.

Considering it was a split decision, I see them making a third fight between them next before giving Rory a rematch title shot with Lawler.