UFC Anderson Silva Vs. James Irvin Live Thread | MMA | Anderson Silva

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Most of UFC's fights are naturally on Pay-Per-View, but tonight, they're giving us a treat. In a move to crush the Affliction MMA league, which is having a Pay-Per-View event tonight, UFC decided to make tonight's fights free to watch on SpikeTV starting at 9pm EST. And, even more impressive, UFC has one of their biggest stars, Anderson Silva, fighting tonight to draw as many viewers as possible.

Silva is the reigning middleweight UFC champion, and is considered by many people to be the best fighter in the world, period. Meaning in MMA, boxing or whatever.

It's hard to disagree. Silva is the closest thing to perfection that MMA boasts right now with a record of 22 wins and 4 losses. Silva's greatest strength as a fighter is the seamless way he blends all the MMA styles – boxing, Thai boxing, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu – all into one, more so than any other fighter in the UFC, which is why his style is talked of as that of a complete martial artist.

What will be interesting to see tonight is he can handle the additional 20 pounds he packed on for this fight. Silva is attempting to climb the UFC light heavyweight mountain, and he has said he wants to be both the light heavyweight champion and the middleweight champion at the same time.

Silva's opponent, James Irvin, is a light heavyweight. But since the fight was put together with only six weeks notice, and Silva had little time to train at his higher weight, this fight is almost the equivalent of a middleweight versus a light heavyweight.

Irvin is obviously no slouch. He possesses a massive right handed punch and his record stands at 14 wins, 4 losses, and 1 tie. This will certainly be a fight of skill versus power.

Here are the other matchups that will included on SpikeTV tonight.

BRANDON VERA (8-2-0) v REESE ANDY (7-1-0)
HERMES FRANCA (19-5-0) v FRANK EDGAR (8-1-0)
CARLOS VELASQUEZ (3-0-0) v JAKE O'BRIEN (10-2-0)
ANTHONY JOHNSON (4-1-0) v KEVIN BURNS (7-1-0)
JESSE TAYLOR (7-2-0) vs CB DOLLAWAY (7-1-0)

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351 days ago

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James Irvin knocked out Houston Alexander in 8 seconds. He also has a KO win(wicked flying knee) over Terry Martin that was 9 seconds in round 2. Irvin is a tough dude. Even Silva said this could be the fight of the year.

After saying all that Silva will probably KO Irvin in about 10 seconds.

351 days ago

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"A Chance To Watch Potentially The Best Pound-For-Pound Fighter Alive"

I thought you were talking about Fedor on Affliction. He can also make a case for best pound for pound fighter as well. The only thing that could hurt his case is all the extra pounds that he has.

351 days ago

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Is anyone watching the Affliction PPV? I'm thinking about putting the UFC on DVR and buying the Affliction show, so I can watch both... once I get my new cable box set up... I got the DVR specifically for today. Yeah, kinda pathetic, but I'm ok with that.

351 days ago

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Pat wrote:

Well, it's all relative. Silva's definitely an awesome fighter. Fedor is no slouch either. And obviously, they'll never be able to go up against each other. But it's fun to speculate. This is like "who is the greatest athlete of all time?" There is no right answer, but people love to debate it.

That said, I'm really looking forward to this fight. I would have liked to have a live thread for Affliction, but with it on Pay-Per-View, didn't make a lot of sense.

351 days ago

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Pat wrote:

I'll definitely get highlights of both up as soon as I can.

351 days ago

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So, I figure I'd turn this on, since my first MMA experience was the Kimbo Slice thing, and everywhere I heard said that was low skilled compared to UFC (something I don't doubt).

I turn in to see a guy with CondomDepot.com on his ass. There's something I never thought I'd see.

351 days ago

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CondomDepot.com? I don't think I'm going to Google that.

351 days ago

Jubanator14

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gearhead wrote:

Yeah, that is odd location for a condom sponsor. Especially since the sport does include a couple of guys rolling around on each other on the ground.

351 days ago

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Jubanator14 wrote:

Yeah, that is odd location for a condom sponsor. Especially since the sport does include a couple of guys rolling around on each other on the ground.

indeed.

351 days ago

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He's not the first one to have that sponsor. I could be wrong but I think Chris Leban has had that on his shorts before too.

351 days ago

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There were about 5 guys on the last UFC card with Condom Depot somewhere on their shorts. That was the first time I had seen it, though.

351 days ago

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In case anyone was wondering where Big John McCarthy went, he's announcing for Affliction. He's also rocking a sweet goatee. He's not exactly a polished commentator, but you gotta love Big John.

351 days ago

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Hermes Franca is getting dominated by Frank Edgar right now. I'd be shocked to see this one make it past the second.

351 days ago

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I love Frank Edgar... he's a scrappy dude.

351 days ago

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Pat wrote:

Hermes Franca is getting dominated by Frank Edgar right now. I'd be shocked to see this one make it past the second.

Well... it made it past the second. But Franca's going to need a knockout if he wants to pull this one out. He's losing badly, no question about it.

351 days ago

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Franca had a chance there, with those bombs that he dropped with about 30 minutes left, but too little too late... I'd score it 30-27, Edgar. And that's being generous to Hermes Franca, if anything. The 2nd round could have been scored 10-8.

351 days ago

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One solid armbar attempt and the big knee at the end was all Franca did. The rest of the fight was Edgar.

351 days ago

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Babalu with the unanimous decision over Mike Whitehead on the Affliction card. I've been pausing it to watch UFC, so I'm a bit behind, but the fights in Affliction have been pretty good so far. Similar rules to the UFC, except there are ropes instead of a cage, much like Pride has.

Time to switch back over to UFC to catch the Vera fight.

351 days ago

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Notable celebs so far in the Affliction audience:
Tito and Jenna, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Michael Strahan, and the man with the money behind it, The Donald.

351 days ago

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It's a good thing you said that you were watching Banned... I was going to post the results as they happen.

351 days ago

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Notable celeb at UFC: My boy Paul Pierce. The Truth watching The Truth. Well...or just watching his Blackberry, from the looks of it.

351 days ago

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How many MMA leagues/organizations are there now exactly? Is this Affliction one new?

351 days ago

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Mark Hominick on Affliction with the shameless sponsor request for Donald Trump... what a d-bag. Screw Megadeth, or whoever was playing. Thanks for the opportunity to fast forward.

In other news, Brandon Vera might be lethal at light heavy. He looks skinny as hell, but he's still strong.

351 days ago

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gearhead wrote:

How many MMA leagues/organizations are there now exactly? Is this Affliction one new?

Yes, it's a newer one, and from the looks of the quality of fighters they're bringing in, as well as their funding (Donald Trump), and it looks like they'll be the main competition for the UFC.

As for how many there are, I have no idea, exactly. There's Bodog fights, HDNet fights, EliteXC, WEC (stepchild of the UFC), Pride (UFC's Japanese sister organization), Affliction... here in Hawaii, ICON Sports is a big one as well, and I was able to see guys like Frank Trigg, Robbie Lawlor and Jason "Mayhem" Miller live here in Hawaii under the ICON label.

351 days ago

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What is Vera waiting for... this fight should be over.

351 days ago

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Josh Barnett vs Pedro Rizzo is next on Affliction. These guys were both UFC stars back in the day, especially Rizzo. They fought in 2001 in the UFC, and Rizzo knocked Barnett out.

351 days ago

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Sherdog has some good play-by-play for both events, if anyone wants to check them out.

UFC
Affliction

351 days ago

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Brandon Vera does NOT look healthy right now. Once he adjusts to the drop in weight, I think that he'll be excellent. In the meantime, he better hope that he doesn't fight anyone elite.

351 days ago

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Just to show how little I know about MMA and its fighters, I keep having to think like Homer Simpson.

Silva = black
Irvin = white

351 days ago

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Metallica vs DMX... sweet.

351 days ago

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Wow. That was quick.

351 days ago

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Um, wow.

351 days ago

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Man oh man. That was unreal. There's a reason Silva's the best in the business. And he proved it right there.

351 days ago

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You gotta be kidding me.

351 days ago

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Look that may have been quick, but that was incredible. Irvin made one mistake and was done. I'm not going to get mad that that didn't go longer. That was just ridiculous. You won't see a better punch thrown than that.

351 days ago

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It's a good thing Fedor isn't any lighter.

351 days ago

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EdSpeshel wrote:

It's a good thing Fedor isn't any lighter.

yeah he's definitely the best out there in my mind.

351 days ago

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I'm not a big conspiracy theorist, but anyone think Irvin took a dive? I don't really think so, mostly because if that were the case, they would have drawn it out a little longer. But man... Irvin never had a chance.

351 days ago

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I'm catching up on the Affliction fights now. Andrei Arlovski looks like he just walked off the set of 300. He's completely ripped, and has the beard back.

Andrei + beard = domination. Look out.

351 days ago

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(Edited 07/19/08 11:56PM by 100%InjuryRate)

They showed another fight. That kick was awesome.

351 days ago

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Pat wrote:

Took a dive? That face crunching punch Silva threw says otherwise.

351 days ago

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Yup. The beard did it for Arlovski. He was a complete animal, and destroyed "Big Ben" Rothwell. I can't believe Rothwell took as many shots to the chin as he did, but Andrei finally took him out with a huge right uppercut. Sick.

351 days ago

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gearhead wrote:

They showed another fight. That kick was awesome.

Sorry I hit edit instead of reply on your post gearhead.

I was going to say those were two of the better knockouts we'll see in a while.

351 days ago

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100%InjuryRate wrote:

Took a dive? That face crunching punch Silva threw says otherwise.

Maybe "dive" was a bad term. Maybe the fight was just so lopsided, it didn't look like Irvin was trying. Maybe I just expected more from Irvin. Maybe I underestimated Silva's ability to move up to 205 so comfortably. It was just crazy.

In other news, Affliction decided to list off all of the celebs in the crowd. The crowd was generally indifferent, except for a couple of them. Jenna Jameson got a hearty cheer... and the most boos? None other than Manny Ramirez.

350 days ago

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Pat wrote:

Manny was there? Hahaha. What the hell was Manny doing there?

350 days ago

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100%InjuryRate wrote:

Manny was there? Hahaha. What the hell was Manny doing there?

No clue. But the Sox game was only 2 hours, 49 minutes, and the fights are in Anaheim, less than 3 miles from the Stadium.

In other news, the Fedor-Sylvia fight was almost as quick as the Silva-Irvin fight. He rocked Sylvia a few times, and ended it in 36 seconds by rear naked choke.

350 days ago