Eddie Bravo Previews UFC 51 Reported By: Boxing Insider - 02/02/2005 11:53 PM EDDIE BRAVO BREAKS DOWN UFC 51 By Ken Pishna, BoxingInsider.com BoxingInsider.com: Eddie, good to talk with you again. Everybody always looks forward to your insights into the fights, so let¹s get started with our UFC 51 breakdown. Let¹s talk David Loiseau and Joe Riggs. Riggs is known for his overwhelming ground and pound game. Loiseau is a striker as well, but known more for his stand-up skills. How do you call this fight? Eddie Bravo: Well, it¹s a hard one to call. It¹s going to be interesting to see if Joe Riggs is going to want to stand with Loiseau. For sure, Loiseau wants to keep it standing. Not so sure if Riggs is going to want to stand. Who knows? Maybe he stands up and knocks Loiseau out. That could happen. Or what most people think he¹ll probably try to do is take him down and brutalize him on the ground. It all depends on Joe Riggs. It is hard to call, but I would have to give the edge to Joe Riggs based on his aggression, he¹s an animal out there. BoxingInsider.com: Lots of heavyweights on this card. We¹ve got Paul Buentello, who is new to the UFC, but no stranger to you or anyone who follows King of the Cage, up against Justin Eilers. Eilers is back after healing up from a broken hand. Both guys like to stand and bang; this could be an exciting fight. Eddie Bravo: Yeah. Paul Buentello probably has better technique standing, but Justin Eilers comes at you like a freight train. It¹s hard to stop that wave of anger. I think this is going to be like Riggs vs. Loiseau, a really aggressive fighter going against someone who is more of a technician, more of a counter puncher. We¹ll see if Paul Buentello can weather the storm and slip some punches and get in a couple good cracks of his own, maybe rock Eilers. Again, I¹m going to go with the more aggressive of the two and that¹s Justin Eilers. BoxingInsider.com: So, you think that Eilers will be able to overcome the seasoning of Buentello? Like you said, he¹s very calm in the ring, good counter puncher and just seems to know how to handle himself in the ring. Eddie Bravo: Again, anything can happen. These are just guesses. Who knows what is going to happen? But if I had to put my money down, I mostly always go with the more aggressive guy, the guy that looks like he just can¹t wait to perform, can¹t wait to get in the ring. Those guys, they¹re the most dangerous. BoxingInsider.com: In our next heavyweight bout, we¹ve got another fighter who is new to the Octagon in James Irvin, a fighter making his name lately in Northern California at W.E.C. He steps in against Mike Kyle, who has been kind of up and down since arriving on the UFC scene. I have to admit not knowing too much about Irvin. He does train under Cassio Wernek. Eddie Bravo: Cassio Wernek is a jiujitsu black belt. He¹s pretty good. Mike KyleŠ it¹s hard to put a finger on that guy. What is it that he¹s really good at? He¹s big, strong, explosive, but I haven't seen too much technique from him. Can't really call this one. BoxingInsider.com:That¹s a tough one to call. Irvin¹s a big guy, 7-0 record. Should be interesting to see how it plays out. In the welterweight division, we¹ve got Drew Fickett and Nick Diaz. Coming in predominantly as a jiujitsu fighter, Diaz surprised a lot of people with his striking, especially when he knocked out Robbie Lawler. Drew Fickett is a veteran of Rage in the Cage and the Arizona scene. Not too many people outside of the southwestern United States have seen much of him yet. He¹s a good wrestler and pretty big guy for a welterweight, cuts down from about 190 pounds. What can you tell us about Fickett? Eddie Bravo: He¹s going to take it to Nick Diaz, that¹s for sure. Like you said, he¹s a really good wrestler and he¹s really a good ground and pounder. If Nick Diaz gets taken downŠ will his guard be good enough to submit Drew Fickett? It¹s going to be tough because he¹s hard to submit. He¹s strong, has incredible work ethic, he¹s good at jiujitsu, but he's mainly a wrestler. Again, he¹s going to be the more aggressive of the two. It¹s the same style matchups. Drew Fickett is much more aggressive than Nick Diaz. But Nick Diaz, I didn¹t know he had good hands until he beat Robbie Lawler. He also submitted a Brazilian jiujitsu black belt, Jorge Patino Macaco in a grappling tournament and shocked everybody. I¹m going to go with Drew Fickett on this one based on his fighting style. But I wouldn¹t be surprised if Nick Diaz pulled it out. BoxingInsider.com: Next up, we¹ve got another first-timer to the Octagon. Pete Sell, out of Matt Serra¹s school, is stepping in to take Robbie Lawler¹s place who is out due to injury. He¹s stepping in to face Phil Baroni who is kind of on his last leg in the UFC right now. Baroni is one of those guys that you either love or hate, but he does manage to draw your attention. But with a 5-4 record, all 4 losses in the UFC, this has got to be really a make or break fight for him and Sell is coming in with nothing to lose. Eddie Bravo: Yeah, this is definitely a must win for Phil Baroni. I mean if he loses this, and this is just my opinion, but I think if he loses, he is out of the UFC for a while. They¹re giving him his final chance to try and put something together and put a W up. I don¹t know too much about Pete Sell, but if he comes from Matt Serra¹s school he¹s going to have some good jiujitsu. Matt Serra wouldn¹t turn the UFC on to one of his students if he didn¹t have his jiujitsu down. He¹s probably going to have better jiujitsu than Phil Baroni, but is he going to be able to get Baroni down? I don¹t know. Apparently, he¹s a pretty good striker. There¹s a chance that he might knock Phil Baroni out, if those rumors are true. Who knows? Maybe he thinks he¹s more dangerous than he is and Phil Baroni knocks him out. Baroni is a very dangerous striker and very explosive. Once he has you hurt, he knows how to close the show. BoxingInsider.com: Next up, we¹ve got a couple of guys that have got to be very close to earning a title shot in the welterweight division, Chris Lytle and Karo Parisyan. Lytle has been on such a tear over the past year or so, his boxing his finally caught up with his submission game and he¹s become a very solid all around fighter. He steps in against another guy who is quickly becoming known as a tremendous all around fighter himself. Eddie Bravo: It seems that Chris Lytle is probably one of the most underrated fighters out there. Like you said, his boxing has got to the point where he can stand with anyone in his weight division. He¹s got accurate hands and his submissions are razor sharp. Karo Parisyan, he¹s a guy that pours it on at the end. He gets stronger towards the end. He¹s got incredible heart. His nickname is ³Heat,² that¹s real. He really does bring heat. Is Chris Lytle going to want to take Karo to the ground? Is he goingto want to keep him up? It¹s probably going to be Karo wanting to take Lytle down. Lytle¹s hands are probably a lot more polished than Karo¹s. Who knows? Karo has got his striking together over the last six months. Maybe Karo Parisyan knocks out Chris Lytle. That could easily happen. It¹s probably going to be Karo trying to take Chris down, but if he does, is he going to be able to submit him? They¹re very evenly matched on the ground. I think it¹s going to be a long battle, a back and forth grueling decision. They both have a lot of heart; it¹s going to be hard to put either fighter away. BoxingInsider.com: Lot¹s of big fights on this card. We¹re finally going to crown a middleweight champion. David Terrell is back to the UFC. I know he didn¹t shock you by winning his last time out in the UFC, but I think he did shock a lot of people by the way that he beat Matt Lindland knocking him out. He¹s getting a shot at the title against Evan Tanner who was a teammate of Matt Lindland¹s. Tanner has always been kind of a free spirit and just recently left Team Quest. Do you think that with a title fight coming up is Evan making a good move, leaving a team that has helped him become so successful? Eddie Bravo: It¹s common for fighters to switch camps. That happens all the time. It could be a bad move at this time with the title on the line or maybe it might make him better. Maybe he found someone he can work better with or learn from more. Who knows? It could be a bad decision. Maybe he¹s the one with the problem. BoxingInsider.com: Now, Evan Tanner is a big guy, especially for the 185-pound division. He comes in dropping down from about 205 to 210 pounds. Do you think that is going to be difficult for David Terrell to handle? Eddie Bravo: We¹ll see. That¹s definitely going to be a factor. Not only that, but he¹s a lot more experienced than Terrell. If you take away the experience and the size, I would go with David Terrell. He¹s got it all. He¹s got an excellent ground game. He¹s definitely got dangerous hands; he knocked out Lindland pretty quickly. But I¹m going to go with Evan Tanner based on the experience and the size. That¹s huge! Evan Tanner is really good on the ground too. He might be just as good as David Terrell on the ground. His standup is really good on the inside; he¹s got good elbows and knees. I¹m going to go with Evan Tanner on this one based on the experience factor, but I am pulling for David Terrell. I want David Terrell to win, but I¹m going with the experience on this one. BoxingInsider.com: Plenty of main event caliber fights on this card. Next up, we¹ve got a battle for the UFC Interim Heavyweight Title since Frank Mir is out for a while. Tim Sylvia is returning to the Octagon, recovering from the injury at the hands of Mir, and Andre Arlovski also coming off of an injury to his hand. How do you break this one down? Eddie Bravo: I think it¹s going to be a standup war. Arlovski is the better striker, but you can¹t ignore the height and the reach that Tim Sylvia has over him. And Tim Sylvia can knock you out. It¹s going to be, can Arlovski get on the inside and land some shots and hurt Tim Sylvia? Maybe he can¹t hurt Tim Sylvia. He proved he had a pretty good chin against Cabbage. We know that Tim Sylvia has a chin. But does Arlovski hit harder than Cabbage? You could say, yes. But will it be enough to hurt Sylvia? Will Tim Sylvia¹s reach be the factor in the fight? It¹s going to be hard to tell. I don¹t think we¹ll see much of this fight on the ground. BoxingInsider.com: Yeah. There¹s a lot of pressure on the heavyweight s to come out and be exciting. I think they¹re going to want to just throw down. Eddie Bravo: Definitely. Definitely. I¹m going to have to go with Arlovski on this one even though he¹s got a hard task in front of him with that reach and height advantage that Sylvia has. BoxingInsider.com: Here we are at the main event. This fight has been a long time in the making. The UFC has tried to put this fight together many times, but finally they have Tito Ortiz returning to the ring against Vitor Belfort. There are a lot of angles to this one. But let¹s say that both fighters show up zoned in at the top of their games. If that happens, how do you see this fight playing out? Eddie Bravo: If they both come in at the top of their game? I¹m going to go with Vitor, definitely. Two years ago, when this fight was originally supposed to happen, I made a bet with Joe Rogan. He was going to take Vitor and I was sure that Tito would beat Vitor. But now days, I think things are different. I think Tito is going to have a hard time taking Vitor down. He might be forced to stand with Vitor and you¹ve got to give Vitor a huge edge in striking. It might be another Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz style fight where he¹s just against the cage getting rained on. Or maybe Tito can take Vitor down easily and he keeps him down and grounds and pounds him. That would be shocking because Vitor¹s wrestling is getting very good. Tito¹s not a world-class wrestler, so I see Tito having an extremely hard time taking Vitor down and taking some punishment on his feet. I see another knockout. Vitor Belfort knocking out Tito standing. Two years ago, I wouldn¹t have thought that, but now things are a little different. BoxingInsider.com: It¹s not that often that both fighters, in any fight, come in 100% on top of their game. Both Tito and Vitor have gone through some trials lately. Tito had a couple of losses and then was criticized for a lackluster performance in his win over Patrick Cote. And then, Vitor Belfort had a sketchy win over Randy Couture early last year then he comes back in the rematch and gets dominated by Randy. How do you think each of these guys is going to come into this fight considering their recent history? Eddie Bravo: I think they¹re going to show up in great shape and mentally focused. They¹re both going to be at the top of their game. This is a huge fight. Like I said, I see Tito having a hard time taking Vitor down and then eventually getting caught on his feet. Then again, that¹s what I¹m predicting, but who knows? Eddie Bravo is a regular contributo to boxinginsider.com check out his website at www.thetwister.tv Ken Pishna is a regular contributor to BoxingInsider.com and a senior writer and editor at MMAWeekly.com. He can be contacted via email at KenPishna@MMAWeekly.com. 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