Gilbert Yvel vs Junior Dos Santos at Ufc 108

Night Gilbert

They are really hurting for large fighters.

This will be a great fight. Glad Yvel finally made it to the UFC.

One may question Yvel's recent comp(his loss to Barnett aside) but dude can bang. That's a great replacement matchup in terms of creating an entertaining fight.

i'll assume Miragliata will be the ref.

So Carwin beats GG, Neil Wain and Christian Wellisch and gets a title shot, while Dos Santos knocks out Werdum (a guy that TKO'd GG twice), Struve (a dangerous unknown at the time), and TKOs Crocop just to fight GG, or now Yvel? WTF?

Junior is getting screwed out of opponents that earn him title shots. Why does Velasquez jump him in fight selections too? I'm not saying Junior is better than those guys, but he's fought better competition and been really impressive in victory, while those guys earn title shots. When Nog went down with Staph or Brock with the illness, Junior should have been right in line for Carwin or Cain.

If Junior stands with Gilbert he is getting knocked out.

So you think Gilbert has better stand-up than Crocop and Struve? Dos Santos looks awfully explosive with his strikes and his boxing seems pretty technical. I wish he was facing a grappler that could test his ground game.

boomer sooner wrote:

So you think Gilbert has better stand-up than Crocop and Struve? Dos Santos looks awfully explosive with his strikes and his boxing seems pretty technical. I wish he was facing a grappler that could test his ground game.

Yes, I do. Struve isn't known for his stand up at all. And Cro Cop has looked like shit for awhile now.

Nothing against Gilbert, but it seem Junior has taken noting but steps down in competition since he dominated Werdum. I don't know about everybody else, but i think Werdum is a top 10 HW..i think the guys Carwin and Cain have defeated are not and everybody is talking about them, and the UFC is talking about them as title contenders when Junior has the better run IMO and is now going to fight Yvel?

Now Gilbert can possibly be better than Mirko at this point, but it's very possible that he is not and this is going to be another step down in comp for Junior when he should have been in bigger fights than Struve after he owned Fabricio. It's amazing how UFC decides to give somebody a pro wrestling main event push after one decent win(Carwin over Gonzaga, Brock over Heath) but when somebody like Junor stings together better wins than than both had before they got to the main event, he still is not really moving forward.

..before people say he was going to fight Zag, i don't see that as a step up from Mirko. Definetly not from Werdum.

Don't get me wrong on Yvel. I think he is a good fighter and i'm glad the UFC picked him up because he's legit, but that's not the point. I hate how inconsistant UFC is with who get pushed to the front of the line while possibly better fighters have to go through the roster before they even get to the top 3 UFC HW's, like it looks like Junior is going to have to.

Carwin is easier to market and is undefeated. Plus he's older so its now or never for him. JDS is young and the UFC is building him up slowly. No one really knows who he is at this point, but we all see he's going to a true threat to Brock and the top tier guys.

Struve's base is kickboxing -- that's how he was advertised. He's Dutch for heaven's sake!

boomer sooner wrote:

Struve's base is kickboxing -- that's how he was advertised. He's Dutch for heaven's sake!

He is a kickboxer, but he's big into his ground game. 14 of his 18 wins are by sub.

Ninja\Rua/Fan wrote:

If Junior stands with Gilbert he is getting knocked out.

You couldn't be more wrong. JDS has more than enough skills on the feet to finish Gilbert there.

Farmer1906 wrote:

Carwin is easier to market and is undefeated. Plus he's older so its now or never for him. JDS is young and the UFC is building him up slowly. No one really knows who he is at this point, but we all see he's going to a true threat to Brock and the top tier guys.

That's the moral of the story right there.

And he's size and lack of wrestling make him a pretty easy opponent for Brock.

Gabe's a good fighter, and Yvel is a good replacement.

I think this will be a most interesting fight and might upset some people and mid-level rankings.

Ninja\Rua/Fan wrote:

If Junior stands with Gilbert he is getting knocked out.

Oh Snap!

Well frankly I just don't know why Carwin is on the shelf for Brock when he doesn't deserve this shot to begin with. Let him fight Nog or JDS to earn the shot -- it's a perfect opportunity with Brock still sick as hell.