Smartest Guy at the Bar: UFC 199 Edition

It has been four years since the Ultimate Fighting Championship brought the Octagon to the Los Angeles area without Ronda Rousey in tow. Two title fights featuring American champions will provide the one-two punch at UFC 199 on Saturday at The Forum in Inglewood, California. Middleweight champion Luke Rockhold meets late replacement Michael Bisping in the main event, and the long-awaited trilogy bout pitting bantamweight titleholder Dominick Cruz against rival Urijah Faber takes co-headliner billing. All four participants live in the Golden State, with Bisping, the Brit, residing closest to the venue. Each will arrive in the West Coast media capital eager to leave his mark on pop culture by capturing gold. All the title hoopla aside, the event features an American legend and a slew of action fighters across weight class and gender lines. The Forum was renovated in an effort to recapture some of the Showtime magic it once housed. Twenty-six fighters will now get their chance.HOW WE GOT HERE: Rockhold rocked Bisping with a left high kick and tapped “The Count” with a topside guillotine in November 2014. A little more than a year later, he toppled Chris Weidman with unanswered ground strikes to claim the UFC middleweight championship. Weidman said in pre-fight interviews that he would not be able to go home to face his family if he lost to Rockhold. The American Kickboxing Academy rep forced him to do just that. It goes without saying that Weidman’s desire for a rematch was instantaneous. Thus, the UFC’s insistence on immediate rematches was satiated, along with the former champion’s campaign for a mulligan. Rockhold told MMAJunkie Radio he wanted to compete on any card other than UFC 199, so naturally, matchmakers booked Rockhold-Weidman 2 for UFC 199. The promotion had to pave the road to UFC 200 with something meaningful. However, the sequel fell apart when Weidman went down with a neck injury. In its place comes a rematch that makes logistical sense, with Weidman and No. 1 contender in waiting Ronaldo Souza both sidelined … Cruz was first slated for a trilogy bout with Faber in the summer of 2012, following the completion of “The Ultimate Fighter 15.” Cruz’s seemingly endless injury troubles started there, and he was ultimately stripped of the bantamweight title. Faber was unable to capture the belt in Cruz’s stead on two occasions against Renan Barao. Cruz regained the championship from Faber’s former friend and Team Alpha Male protégé T.J. Dillashaw, who twice brutalized Barao. Faber remained a perennial contender all the while. The result is a trilogy nine years in the making, and it takes place on neutral ground, between Faber’s camp in Sacramento and Cruz’s base in San Diego.PUTTING THE STAR IN STARS AND STRIPES: Rockhold-Weidman was going to determine divisional supremacy at 185 pounds while also serving as a de facto contest to reveal the future’s brightest American star. It was the …

continue reading in source www.sherdog.com