Brazilians set to dominate at UFC 117
While it isn’t being marketed as such to the Ultimate Fighting Championships’ North American fans, Saturday’s UFC event is largely a Brazil vs America showdown. The five fights on the main card all feature an American mixed martial artist taking on a Brazilian, and fans watching live in Oakland, California might just be disappointed because if the bookmakers are correct, the Brazilians are set to dominate.
Of the five fights on the main card, not a single American comes in as a clear betting favourite. The co-main event of the evening features American Jon Fitch fighting Thiago Alves in a fight that is essentially a toss-up, with both fighters yielding even odds. The same applies for Brazilian lightweight Rafael Dos Anjos fighting Clay Guida, with bookmakers giving equal odds either way.
After that though it gets a lot harder for the Americans. The main event, a middleweight championship bout, sees the Brazilian legend Anderson Silva taking on challenger Chael Sonnen, and few people see the American winning this contest. Silva is a 4-1 favourite.
Similarly, the number one contender heavyweight fight features the feared Brazilian striker Junior Dos Santos fighting Roy Nelson, and coming in as a 3-1 favourite doing so. Dos Santos’ power in his fists is so good, it’s tough to see Nelson doing anything but going the way all of Dos Santos opponents have gone. JDS, as he is known, has never let an opponent reach the final bell against him in the UFC.
Lastly former welterweight champion Matt Hughes, who’s never had any issues about waving the American flag, is taking on Ricardo Almeida, who comes in as roughly a 3-2 favourite.
A long time in coming
While it may have been chance that caused these match-ups to come together, the idea of holding such an event is in many ways long overdue. The two nations are easily the most important in the MMA world. Americans have had a long tradition of creating great fighters from American college wrestling programs, often combining that discipline with American boxing to produce fighters such as current champions Frankie Edgar and Brock Lesnar.
As for Brazil, it’s the birthplace of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, a grappling art which has been synonymous with the rise of the UFC and is inseparable from MMA itself. Brazilians such as Silva are also known for combining their BJJ with a vicious, aggressive Muay Thai. Like the U.S, Brazil can currently boast two of the five UFC champions, with light heavyweights Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and middleweight Silva currently holding belts. The other country to have a champion is Canada, with 170lb Georges St-Pierre rounding out the list.
The UFC, despite being an American company, may well be hoping for a strong Brazilian showing. They’ve been marketing the event in Brazil and in Portuguese-speaking markets as a USA-Brazil showdown. While Brazil has consistently produced a huge share of the world’s best MMA fighters, the sport hasn’t made serious inroads in either television or live events, and a dominant performance by Brazil on Saturday could help the UFC gain new fans in the country.
The last time the UFC truly tried something like this was at UFC 58, which was then explicitly marketed as a USA vs Canada event. At that event, the Americans came out on top, going 5-3 against their northern neighbours.
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