The Keys To Victory at UFC 126

By Elton Hobson



If you’re reading this, then I probably don’t have to tell you that Super Bowl weekend is a huge deal in the world of sports.
Kind of like the Oscars are for movies, only better commercials and no Joan Rivers (here’s hoping, anyways).
This goes for the UFC as well, who traditionally put on a huge card in Las Vegas the weekend of the big game. Past Super Bowl weekend cards featured such historic events as the debut of Brock Lesnar, the hotly anticipated Penn/GSP rematch, and last year’s epic clash of titans that was Randy Couture vs. Mark Coleman.
Ok, so that one was a little on the lame side.
But this year, the UFC is back in a big way. Not since UFC 100 has the promotion assembled such a group of talent on one PPV card. Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort. Rich Franklin vs. Forrest Griffin. Jon Jones vs. Ryan Bader. Any of those fights could headline its own event. All will be going down the night of the 5th.
If your any kind of MMA fan – hell, even if you’re not – you need to be watching the action Saturday night. Here are the keys to victory for all of the headliner’s at UFC 126.

Middleweight Title Fight: Anderson Silva Vs. Vitor Belfort
Fresh off his “Fight of the Year” performance against Chael Sonnen, MMA’s Pound-for-pound #1 gets set to face an entirely new – but no less daunting – challenge in the fast hands and KO power of Vitor “The Phenom” Belfort.

If you’re a fan of striking, this fight is like Easter, Halloween, and Christmas Morning all rolled up into one. Without a doubt, these are two of the very best stand-up artists in MMA today locking horns. Even though it hasn’t even gone down yet, I predict this will be the fight I show in the future whenever someone says that MMA is nothing but sloppy boxing with 4 ounce gloves.
Silva’s Keys to Victory: Really, this fight should just be another day in the office for MMA’s most dominant champion.
And yet some chinks are already starting to appear in Silva’s invincible reputation. He was tagged and nearly dropped by Sonnen, despite the latter not being a particularly outstanding striker. Almost 36 years old now, Anderson is dangerously close to the Chuck Liddell “fall of a cliff competitively” age.
This fight will be all about finding out where Silva is physically and mentally; if the champ is on point, then the gameplan for this fight should be classic Silva. Stay out of range, gauge the opponent’s timing, then catch him with a shot so fast and accurate that the opponent seems to be moving in slow motion.
Vitor’s Keys to Victory: Vitor Belfort presents an interesting challenge to Silva because of his handspeed, KO power, and technical striking acumen. His last 3 fights have ended in KO, and the once erratic Belfort seems focused and motivated like never before.
Ok, so he recently fired his longtime head coach and started training with Mike Tyson. Seems you can’t take the Vitor out of Vitor.
Now, Belfort should definitely use his striking, but as a part of a larger, multi-faceted gameplan designed to keep Silva from getting in his comfort zone. People forget that Belfort was a BJJ Black Belt before he was a monster striker. Throw in his training with the elite wrestlers at Xtreme Couture and you have what should be a very well-rounded skillset.
Belfort should mix up his game with takedowns, dirty boxing, clinch work against the cage (watch the Muay Thai plum, of course) as well as his lightning fast boxing. The goal should be to force Silva to guess at Belforts next move, then tag him with strikes while he’s off his keel. Chael Sonnen tagged Anderson because “The Spider” was worried about Chael’s takedowns. Belfort needs to keep Anderson guessing, mix it up, then find a home for the Bigfoot of MMA strikes – the one that KO’s Anderson Silva.
Rich Franklin vs. Forrest Griffin
Its a battle of fan favourites as the original TUF winner and former LHW champ Griffin meets former MW champ and UFC mainstay Rich Franklin in a clash of men who both still flee Anderson Silva in their nightmares.
Ok, that’s kind of a cheap shot when you consider that these men are responsible for some of the best fights in UFC history. Win or lose, they’ve taken on all comers and never backed down. To even step into the cage with a guy like Anderson Silva takes big balls, which is why they’re the ones who do it, while we’re are the ones who relax at home on La-Z Boy’s drinking (cold, crisp, Canadian) beer and yelling at our television sets.
Seriously though. This fight comes at an interesting crossroads for both fighters. Franklin gets set to kick off a legit world title run at 205 instead of taking nothing but last-minute filler fights in the ultra-stacked “Catchweight” division and waiting for the company to pay him back.
For Forrest, this fight is a chance for him to rebuild his once formidable reputation as a world champion and elite level fighter, rather then the off-beat best selling author who fled Anderson Silva like he was the Bubonic Plague.
With both guys coming off an injury and hungry for a win, this one is anybodys ballgame.
Franklin’s Keys to Victory: Rich Franklin said it best in the countdown to UFC 126: small differences aside, him and Forrest are largely the same kind of fighter. High pace, lots of combination striking, underrated ground games, less then iron-chins (ok he might not have said that) and endless stamina in a dogfight.
For Rich, victory in this fight comes down to using his power effectively. Neither man has earth shattering power, but Franklin is the harder hitter with both hands and feet. He has good movement and is solid defensively, enough to be able to hang in the firefight with Griffin on the feet.
To take this fight, Franklin should follow the same gameplan as the Chuck Liddell fight. Strikes in bunches, good movement, staying in the pocket and looking to counter. If he can walk through Chuck’s power (including a broken arm) he can hang in the pocket with Forrest and look to land that big shot.

Griffin’s Keys to Victory: It used to be that no one relished a brawl in the UFC like Forrest Griffin did. Then the Keith Jardine loss (remember that?) happened, and Forrest emerged a more intelligent, well-rounded fighter for the experience. He built himself up into one of the best fighters in the world, an elite level contender and former world champion.
Then the Anderson Silva fight happened. To be honest, we haven’t seen how Forrest will bounce back from that loss yet when faced with true adversity (sorry, Tito).
The truth is Forrest has a lot more tools then just his balls out brawling style to win this fight, and if he wants to revitalise his career and start hunting for that belt again he’s got to use them.
For one, he’ll be the signifigantly larger man in the cage come fight time. Griffin should make Franklin carry that weight, and use his height and size to control Franklin in the clinch the same way Anderson Silva did.
We hear constantly about Forrest phemonenal ground game, yet only see the briefest glimpses of it (choking out “Shogun”, anyone?). Forrest should for once take Robert Drysdale’s advice and look to win the fight on the floor, even if Rich is notoriously hard to submit.
And finally, Forrest should throw leg kicks. Lots of leg kicks. Lots of very painful leg kicks. Franklin isn’t much of a takedown threat, so Griffin should tee off on Rich’s instep like it was a pimply-faced member of the MMA media asking him for the millionth time why he fled the cage like a little girl that night in Philly.
Jon Jones vs. Ryan Bader
Now we’re talking. This is the kind of fight boxing just can’t seem to make anymore: a clash of two red-hot up and comers meeting when both are still (for all intents and purposes) undefeated and on the doorstep of greatness.
The winner climbs the ladder into the LHW top-5. The loser goes back to the drawing board but really, a loss for either man wouldn’t be a gigantic setback. The only losers in this fight are the rest of the LHW division as they watch the future become the present, one way or another.
Jones’s Keys to Victory: Is “do your thing” sufficent as a key to victory?
Cause really, what advice do you give someone like Jon Jones? In all his trips to the Octagon, Jones has looked not just good, but phenomenal. Almost larger then life. He takes guys you know are tough, that you’ve seen fight and win many times, and makes them look like 1st day amateurs.
To win this fight, Jones needs to keep putting it all together as a fighter. People call him a 205 pound GSP, and it’s an apt comparison. Like GSP, Jones needs to establish the range in this fight with a fast, stiff jab. His 84.5 inch reach gives him a huge advantage, and Bader should spend his whole night outside of takedown range, eating jabs.
Until Jones attacks. No one is better at using a fighter’s momentum against them then Jones. He needs to wait for a scramble, then pull off a signature Greco-Roman style takedown and start the assault. Once Bader is beneath Jones, I don’t see him getting back up – or the fight lasting very long.
Ryan Bader’s Keys to Victory: Ryan, I got three words for you: Double. Leg. Takedown.
Now, I’m not saying that your only chance in this fight is to dive for takedowns all night and hope for the best, cause it clearly is not. That said, if Bader wants to win this fight he needs to establish an effective, explosive double-leg takedown early on. Or at least the threat of one that Jones has to respect.
Bader has to do what no one else has yet managed to achieve, and that’s to make Jones the anvil and not the hammer. To do this, he’ll have to do nothing less then absolutely bring it to Jones for the whole 15 minutes, or as long as it takes. If Bader lets Jones takes control of this fight for even a minute, he could find himself in serious trouble.
Bader’s a gritty guy with a solid gas tank and the wrestling skills to put it on Jones for three full rounds. We don’t know how Jones will react under pressure, if his mental strength matches his supreme physical gifts.
Bader needs to answer that question if he wants to win this fight.