click here:- watch UFC 126 Silva vs. Belfort” Live Results and Coverage
Did you miss Wednesday's airing of "UFC 126 Countdown: Silva vs. Belfort" on Spike TV or want to re-live it all over again? If so, we here at Bloody Elbow have you covered with our full recap of the show, which took a look at UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva and challenger Vitor Belfort as they prepare for their title clash this Saturday at "UFC 126: Silva vs. Belfort" in Las Vegas.
The show also took a look at the two critical light-heavyweight bouts on the card. First up was a clash between former champions as Forrest Griffin meets Rich Franklin. Next was a look at the battle of two of the UFC's biggest rising stars in Jon Jones and Ryan Bader.
We open things with a look at some of Anderson Silva's greatest hits. Joe Rogan says Silva is the most spectacular fighter on the planet. Belfort says he respects Silva's skills, but he's not afraid of them. It's going to be a lion against a lion.
Rogan now touts Belfort's skills. "When he has a dude hurt, he moves in. He's a finisher," Rogan says. We see a clip of Belfort brutally knocking out Matt Lindland at "Affliction: Day of Reckoning" in January 2009. Ed Soares says this has everything to be one of the greatest middleweight fights of all time.
We take a look at Belfort's knock outs of Tra Telligman, Marvin Eastman and Wanderlei Silva. Belfort trainer Ron Frazier says Silva is going to see something he's never seen in the cage before: Someone who has better hands and someone who is as fast, if not faster, as he is.
Now it's back to Silva and a look at his UFC 117 fight with Chael Sonnen. For good measure, the UFC has decided to throw in some of Sonnen's best trash-talking clips. I highly approve of this. Soares says Silva went into that fight with the goal of submitting Sonnen, because when have you ever seen Silva go into a fight wearing a gi?
We see clips from the fight. Silva says he wanted to maintain his concentration when Sonnen was on top. Silva says he kept his guard low throughout the fight so Sonnen would be surprised when he brought his guard up high. He ended up submitting Sonnen in the fifth round when he brought his guard up high. Silva says Sonnen paid the price for everything for everything he said about the Nogueira brothers and that a champion is defined by the adversity he overcomes.
That's it for the first segment. Stay with us after the jump for the rest of the program.
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Now it's on to Belfort. We get a look at his UFC 12 heavyweight tournament win and his UFC 13 win over Tank Abbott. They highlight his UFC light-heavyweight title win over Randy Couture and then his UFC 103 main event fight with Rich Franklin.
Belfort said he was coming back to the UFC to regain his legacy. Belfort won that fight quickly by TKO.
"But something was missing," the narrator says. While he was training in Las Vegas, his family was in Rio, which is not very safe. Belfort says he doesn't want anything to go wrong with his family, so he has moved his family to Las Vegas to be with him. We see video of him having a Skype family conversation with his family in August 2009. At this point, Belfort starts to cry. "I hate it when you're over there," his son tells him. He said he promised his kids he won't be away from them anymore. He says it's hard for him because he doesn't want to sacrifice his family to achieve a professional goal.
The goal for Belfort here is to be the first UFC fighter to win a title in three different weight classes.
Silva says he doesn't have much to say about Belfort. "He's a great athlete and former UFC champion," the champ says. The narrator says Silva harbors resentment for Belfort because Belfort trained with Silva at Black House and then turned around and asked for a fight with him.
We see some video of a recent promotional shoot where "the tension was palpable."
Rogan says when people attack Silva, he's at his best. Frazier says Belfort is going in there to knock Silva out on the feet. Belfort says he's not going to be dancing around. "I'm not a dancer, I'm there to fight," he says. We'll see.
Belfort says he has everything to beat Silva up. "This is Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort, what more could you want," Soares asks, in full fight promotion mode.
And that's a wrap for the Silva/Belfort hype.
It's now time to talk about the fight between Griffin and Franklin. "I think this is going to be an outstanding matchup," Rogan notes. This is why he gets paid the big bucks, folks.
We take a look at Griffin's fight with Tito Ortiz at UFC 106 in November 2009. In that fight, Griffin took over in the third round and won a split decision.
The win came at a cost, the narrator tells us. He aggravated an old shoulder injury and underwent surgery a few months later. During his downtime, Griffin focused on his writing career, penning a second book, "Be Ready When the S--- Goes Down: A Survival Guide to the Apocalypse."
"I think millions of people are going to be saved because of that book," Griffin deadpans. "It's probably the most important piece of literature ever written."
Griffin says he likes to lecture and would like to go back to school for religious philosophy.
We go over to Franklin and his UFC 115 fight with Chuck Liddell. He talks about his broken left arm, suffered due to a Liddell kick. He says he just wanted to survive the first round so he could tell he coaches and get a new strategy. Good thing his trainer wasn't Greg Jackson because he would've just told him to hit Liddell with his broken arm. Franklin documents his struggle to get back to his feet following a takedown because he couldn't post on his left arm. Franklin battled back and caught Liddell with a right hook in an exchange and knocked him out. We see Franklin in the locker room and him cringing when they are trying to cut the tape off his hands because of the bone moving.
Now Franklin is preparing for his fifth consecutive fight against a former champion after a three-month recovery.
Dana White says it's going to be a gritty, tough war.
There's a break and we come back with some highlights of Griffin's ground game and how he recently received his BJJ black belt from Robert Drysdale. "If you show up for a decade, eventually you'll quit sucking," Griffin says.
Griffin says he and Franklin are much alike skill-wise. Then Franklin gets a little philosophical and takes it to a whole new level: "You have a fairly well-rounded fighter that has knockout power on his feet and is a very tenacious fighter and as the fight goes on, he fights harder. Did I just describe me or did I just describe Forrest?"
Griffin details how people often mistake he and Franklin for brothers, even going so far to think Franklin (age 36) is actually Griffin's (age 31) younger brother. "I think Randy Couture has actually stolen my youth from me. I don't know how, but when we're wrestling, he's stealing my youth," Griffin quips.
Franklin says he thinks Griffin is going to use his striking to close the distance and then take him down. "I think it's going to be more difficult for him than that," Franklin says.
Franklin trainer Jorge Gurgel says they don't want take Griffin on in wrestling or in the clinch. He wants Franklin to use his speed to his advantage.
Griffin says this is a huge fight because he hasn't won in a year. Franklin says he outworks other people, that's how he wins.
Now it's time to move on to a fight between "two potential belt-holders" when Jon Jones meets Ryan Bader.
We start with Jones. He says wrestling in high school gave him a lot of confidence and two years later, he made his MMA debut. "I was going through fights left and right," Jones said.
He made his UFC debut at UFC 87 with a bunch of nerves. "It's a good thing I was able to perform on the fly," Jones notes.
Jones said he felt he was getting fed to the sharks against Stephan Bonnar at UFC 94. Instead, Jones dominated. Training partner Brian Stann says it's different to see guys who can elevate their game a level or two higher when they compete.
We see him beat Jake O'Brien and Brandon Vera in impressive fashion and then his win over Vladimir Matyushenko in August. Jackson says Jones picks things up like a sponge. "The sky's the limit," he adds.
"I think I can own the UFC," Jones says. "I think I'm exactly where I should be."
We take a break and we're back with Bader.
Jones says Bader got exposed against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira at UFC 119 with his takedowns. Bader says he got a lot of questions about those but many of them were just a setup.
Bader notes Jones has a 10-inch reach advantage on him so he has to get inside and go from there. Bader says he can punish Jones for trying some of his trademark flashy maneuvers, whether it's taking him down or with punches. Jones says Bader is afraid of that, so that's what he's going to bring.
"You're going to see the skinny kid defend himself against the bull," Jones says.
"I think the best way to stop the Jon Jones hype train is to leave him laying on the mat come Feb. 5," Bader says.
And that's a wrap for the UFC 126 Countdown. Stellar episode tonight, I must say. If you didn't have a chance to see it, I definitely recommend watching it. The part with Belfort's family was especially strong and I really liked the Franklin/Griffin segment.
