UFC 60 Hughes vs Gracie interactive website

When perusing the UFC.com site this morning I noticed that they have a special interactive site setup for a preview of UFC 60 and it is very cool. If you haven't seen it yet you can check it out here: UFC 60

I spent at least an hour this morning watching the previews and checking out the interactive interviews with Matt Hughes, Royce Gracie and Dana White, this thing kicks ass!

Listening to Matt and Royce discuss their individual fight plans I find that they are much as I had speculated in my previous post.

Matt intends to keep this fight standing up and beat Royce with effective striking. Royce plans on working his game patiently to get Hughes to the ground and sink in some kind of submission.

The build up to this fight is going to be intense and I think this fight will be one for the record books.

Mike
(MMA Fanatic)

Matt Hughes VS. Royce Gracie... Too tough to call?

With about a month to go until this fight there certainly is a lot of speculation about who is going to win. I'm kind of torn on this one to be honest and I think this fight is evenly matched overall and will be just about impossible to pick a winner.

I'm an old school MMA fan from the mid-90's and got the fever watching Royce choke out Dan Severn after almost 40 minutes of grappling action. Just the other night Spike ran a Royce Gracie special highlighting some of his notable (Aren't they all?) wins from the very first couple of Ultimate Fighting Championship events.

Initially I was pretty confident that Matt Hughes was going to handle Royce fairly easily, but after watching that special I am not so sure as I was.

Royce was in his late 20's when the UFC and he got their start, and at that time he was clearly an accomplished master in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and submissions. Things get better with time and I suspect this is also the case with Royce Gracie.

Now, after more than 10 years since his last UFC fight I would have to think that Royce is near God like with his BJJ skills. Matt Hughes is certainly going to have his hands full when he steps into the octagon especially with 3 of his 4 losses coming via submission.

Hughes is going to have to come out strong and avoid the takedown at all costs which will be easier said than done. He's going to need his impressive strength to keep this fight standing and if he can get a few nice shots in on Royce early he'll have a much better chance of ending up with the win.

Royce will also be fighting without a gi (forget the rumors) and I believe that will also work against him. Once these guys start sweating, getting some traction for a submission gets harder and harder and with no gi to provide some friction Gracie will have to contend with that as well.

My final amateur analysis... =))

On top or on bottom, if it goes to the ground early I'm looking for Royce to win. If Matt can use the sprawl and his strength to keep the fight on their feet watch for a Hughes win.

Only a month until we find out, I can hardly wait....

Mike
(MMA Fanatic)

Well, as evidenced by last nights bouts, fight prediction is a fickle science. An excellent UFC event overall with some really good fights, needless to say I was suprised at some of the outcomes.

First Griffin and Ortiz... What a great fight, 2 fierce and determined guys leaving it all in the ring. Round 1 I found myself thinking the worst while Tito had Forrest down on the mat applying his patented ground an pound and landing elbow after elbow. Those elbows eventually opened up a couple nice cuts on Griffin's forehead and near his eye that bled like crazy.

Right near the end of round one Forrest breaks away from Tito and gets back to his feet with a quick flurry of punches to let Tito know he was still in the fight. Right about here I'm comming up out of my chair cause this fight is about to get really exciting.

Round 2 was dominated by Forrest who seemed to get into his "groove" and was landing alot of nice punches. I was struck by difference in Tito from round 1, Forrest was able to negate all of Tito's takedown attempts with an excellent sprawl and enforced his will the entire round.

Come to find out after the fight that Tito was fighting with a knee injury and disc problem with his back. I think he gave up a lot of gas that first round after dishing out almost a full 5 mins of on the ground punishment, probably with the thought of putting Forrest away in round 1.

Round 3 started much the same as round 2 with Forrest pressing the action and Tito being stiffled with his takedown attempts. Round 3 could have gone to Forrest were it not for a successfull takedown by Ortiz.

Tito was finally able to get Forrest to the ground about two thirds of the way thru the round. Although Forrest was able defend himself well from his guard this ultimately tipped the scales in Tito's favor with the judges and he got the decision.

Kick Ass fight overall, I love Forrest Griffin he really makes every fight as exciting as it can be.

On to Arlovski vs. Sylvia. Wow! What can you say about this fight, I was all for Arlovski so this was a dissaponting one for me to watch. First 90 seconds or so both fighters are trading and landing some punches. Then Arlovski catches Sylvia with a sweet right hand right on the button and drops Sylvia. Arlovski moves in to capitalize and 5 seconds later Sylvia catches Arlovski with a sweet right and drops him. Sylvia jumps in for the kill and lays a half dozen punches to Arlovski's head at which point the ref calls the fight.... bummer.

I am happy for Sylvia he did bust his ass with a single minded determination and you gotta respect him for that.

Thats it for today, keep checking back for more ramblings and amateur MMA analysis.

Mike
(MMA Fanatic)