Preview: UFC Fight Night 134 "Shogun vs. Smith"



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The
Ultimate Fighting Championship
makes his sixth trip to Germany,
and his second in Hamburg, continuing a little frustrating
relationship that the promotion seems to have with the country.
When the UFC set out to expand to Europe about ten years ago,
they targeted two regions: Germany and the United Kingdom. Their United Kingdom
the efforts were a great success, as the fighters like Michael
Bisping
and Dan Hardy
quickly became top draws and regular visits to Britain have done quite
Well, but in Germany, things have never really started. contrary to
Bisping and Hardy, German signatures such as Dennis Siver
and Peter
Sobotta
was washed out during his first fights at the UFC – although both
eventually developed into strong veterans when returning to the
company – and when combined with a sometimes icy local attitude
towards mixed martial arts, the promotion has apparently pulled the jack
on his German aspirations after UFC 122.

After UFC 122, it would take four years before the octagon comes back
in Germany, and although this is an almost annual event since,
by jumping only 2017, it still seems that the UFC's attempts to win
a foot in the country was half-hearted. 2014 to 2016
saw three cards that were broadcast on UFC Fight Pass, and the UFC booked
them accordingly, as none of these maps were particularly deep and
had major events that were mediocre at best. And while the first
composition for
UFC Fight Night 134
was not particularly surprising, it seemed that
if the UFC was trying to take a good step forward with
interesting clashes that have had repercussions on the litigation
to the light heavyweight. So, naturally, three major fights on the
the map has seen late changes. First, there was the main event. Mauricio Rua
was planned to face Volkan
Oezdemir
in a fight that was originally scrapped from a Chile
card in May, thanks to the outstanding assault charges of a bar fight
Oezdemir would have been involved last year.

The UFC stated that she was confident that these problems would be solved
the time that this map rolled, and while they were, things were
cut close enough that UFC has seen fit to rebook Oezdemir in a fight
against Alexander
Gustafsson
next month. Add injuries to Ilir Latifi
and Alan
Jouban
who took them out of the co-main event and the most
interesting fight on the rest of the main map, respectively, and
This year's edition of UFC Hamburg has been more successful than
could probably afford. On the plus side, the UFC did well
find replacements that should provide action, so in the end
of the day, it's a fun six-end main card with some interesting
fighters on the preliminaries. It does not seem so essential to me
as he could have.

Let's move on to the analysis and select UFC Fight Night 134: Shogun
Smith:

Mainboard FS1
Light Heavy Duty
Mauricio
Rua
(25-10) against Anthony
Smith
(29-13)
Chances: Smith (-240), Rua (+200)

When Anthony
Smith
made his return on short notice to the UFC, stepping up to cope
Leonardo
Guimaraes
on a map in early 2016, the main hope was just that
Smith could surpass his first, forgettable UFC. Smith was one
most anonymous fighters coming when the UFC has absorbed the
Strikeforce in 2013, and his first UFC race was strict "wink
and you will miss "stuff"; Smith opened the streaming preliminaries of
a fuel TV card against Antonio
Braga Neto
was submitted in less than two minutes, then
his walking papers. After losing his first fight post-UFC
Josh
Neer
hope that Smith will return even to the octagon does not look like
awesome, but Smith quickly took off a series of seven wins,
culminating in a revenge victory over Neer that earned Smith a comeback
at the big moment.

After defeating Guimaraes by clear, if not particularly impressive,
decision, Smith's next fight saw him fight firmly
Cezar
Ferreira
more or less pigeonholing Smith as an imperfect action
fighter with a clear ceiling go from the front. But again, Smith
was able to bounce back from an impressive loss, this time a
end of the sudden comeback, while Smith suffered the first storms
from Elvis
Mutapcic
Andrew
Sanchez
and Hector
Lombard
only to score three consecutive defeats late. Smith
The winning streak ended last February against Thiago
Santos
but not before the two put on an excellent fight,
and Smith – still giant for middleweights – announced his
intentions to shift to light heavyweight in his next fight. This
the next fight happened at UFC 225 last June, where Smith went through
former heavyweight champion Rashad
Evans
. Coming out of this fight, reading was mostly Smith's
just served as a point of reference to show how much Evans had fallen from
his championship top, but as it stands, victory also put Smith
for a great opportunity. Smith, of course, had an eye for a spot
on the next UFC map in his native Nebraska country but instead he
intervenes at the last minute and gets a chance to become an improbable
lightweight lightweight competitor, provided that he can beat Rua.

We are more than a decade away from the beginnings of Rua UFC, where the

Pride pride championship
Grand Prix average weight average 2005
incredibly lost champion at Forrest
Griffin
who, as it stands, foreshadowed a UFC from top to bottom
career. After the loss of Griffin, Rua disappeared for about a year
and a half because of injuries, but on his return, quickly made his way
the scale of the light heavyweights of the UFC, finally dethrone Lyoto
Machida
to become light heavyweight champion at UFC 113. But
Rua lost his title to Jon Jones
his first defense, and after narrowly losing a legendary five round
war in Dan
Henderson
at UFC 139, Shogun has entered the most difficult part of
his career. The UFC 139 loss started a race where Rua lost five
seven years, with his victories over the faded versions of Brandon Vera
and James Te
Huna
and his losses are mainly unilateral;
October 2014 was definitely the low point, with Rua suffering from a
Loss of 34 seconds in a main event location in front of Ovince St.
Preux
.

But Rua has, surprisingly enough, managed to revive his career. he is
obviously not the same "Shogun" he was at his peak, and since the
Saint-Preux, he only fought once a calendar year, but he is
become more fit to slow things down and fight a smarter
fight against some imperfect opponents. Victories on Antonio
Rogerio Nogueira
and Corey
Anderson
was a narrow business earned at the margin, but Rua
third round of Gian
Villante
last year showed that while it's broken a few
Once, Rua is still able to win a fight. Which is good news,
because he'll probably have to win a fight here. And as Rua has
slowly put together his winning streak, the light heavyweight
division continued to fade around him, making Rua unlikely
champion at this stage of his career. With a win here he
the figures to be taken into account in the title photo come 2019, even if it is
We do not know exactly what this picture looks like.

Smith's name came out of nowhere with respect to
opportunity like this but this is getting ready to be a fun fight
it can go both ways. Smith's fights tend to turn into fights
at one point, even if it's after his opponent gassed after
beat Smith, and Rua coming out of a fight where the same
happened, so I would be shocked if these two did not swing wildly
the other at the moment this fight reaches the third round. And of
there it comes down to what flaw in each fighter's game holds up
The best: Smith's porous defense or his concerns about the sustainability of Rua.
Smith is here to be touched, but I should still favor him if both
the guys just decide to exchange hits, since Rua is still not
far from a point where his chin seemed to betray him. the
Factor X is Rua's fight; it's been a while since we've seen the
Brazilian purely support this aspect of his game, but it is a
obvious hole in what Smith brings to the table, so if Shogun wants
to take the security approach, the possibility seems to be there for
him to win a victory of more than 25 minutes.

Yet, I expect this fight to take place mainly on the feet, and
once again, I favor Smith there. It will be dangerous for the whole
fight every moment he's not on his back, and he's shown
enough durability that I would lean towards Rua be unable to put it
far early in the fight. So, from there, I expect it to look a lot like
like Smith's last wins at average weight, at least in a macro
meaning; Smith either outwrestled spell or taken apart, but to some
point turns things or finds an opening for a big shot that gets
things are rolling towards the finish. It's strange to choose Smith here,
since every light weight prospect gets
diverted by the old guard, and most of them are more talented
than Smith, but this sport boils down to clashes, and Smith looks
to have obtained the right to obtain a decisive victory. My choice is
Smith by KO, towards the third or fourth round.

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