Shogun Rua vs. Brandon Vera (UFC on Fox 4 main event)

Vera has an excellent stand-up.

Only those who chose to take him down scored a win over him (except for Silvia where he borke his arm.). Odd for a guy who was an olympic alternate wrestler to be outgrappled by the likes of Thiago Silva.

Shogun will be in a fire fight and has someone in front of him who can also fire back.

 

Brandon has decent sand up. His only hope is too take advantage of Shogun who is a slow starter these days and push the pace HARD. Only Jones and Griffin have been able too put him away in these circumstances. I think a few punch kick combos from Rua will be enough to make the Truth lose heart

 

Vera is a classic front runner. He's C level at best, his only hope is that Hendo did half his job for him

 

Did you just say firefight when talking about a fight Vera is in?

It sure will be a firefight. Till Vera gets hit hard and becomes passive.

Then dies a horrible death.

 

What did Vera do to deserve this. Both ways actually who did he beat to get it and who hates him so much at the UFC they give him it.

 

Vera's muay thai is good enough that this could be a good fight. He's not going to beat Shogun but he may not get overwhelmed either.

 

Damn on the UFC on Fox 4 card, Phil Davies, Machida, and Shogun are fighting. But none of those guys are fighting each other.

 

Yes a fire fight , only thing is Shogun will be using a heavy machine gun and Brandon Vera will have a pea shooter

Skill wise these two don't match up and in fighting spirit these two don't match up , Vera cannot beat Shogun on the feet :deal

 

that little girl looks so out of place in there

 

Thanks for posting this. I'm wondering if the people who keep praising Vera saw this fight. He almost got his head knocked off by Marshall who's a grappler with really shitty striking. Marshall then proceeded to break Vera's arm right before the fight ended. IMO the only reason that Vera won is because of the idiotic standards for judging MMA under the unified rules. He did nothing in this fight but push Marshall up against the cage for the better part of the first two rounds.

Maybe this fight was just an aberration, but it looked to me like the guy has seriously declined. Regardless, even if Vera had gone out and KO'd Marshall in the first round, he'd still have no business fighting in the main event of a high profile card against a fighter of Shogun's caliber.

 

Vera had a bad night. It is what it is. Maybe he is mentally weak like Bob Sapp. But it is worth mentioning that Vera has a muay thai pedigree and was a protege of Rob Kamen one of the greatest kickboxers of all time.

 

Yes, but he just doesn't pull the trigger anymore, he fights not to lose rather then to win. Like you said in an above post I don't see him beating Shogun but I think he will be competitive. Dana wasn't going to give him an easy fight because he was suppose to be cut after his Thiago loss but of course the failed drug test gave him new life.

 

Not exactly a protege , he trained with him yes but its not like he was a stand out student , his ground game (brown belt under Lloyd Irvine) and his roman greco are his strong points , his stand up technically is very solid , but he doesn't like being hit !!! , he can kick and wallop pads all day long , but he has no fighting spirit , or ill re phrase that , he doesn't have the type of fighting spirit thats required for him to reach the top of the sport , his stand up is extremely weak in that respect , so to that end he is absolutely not a striker , plus his boxing is pretty shocking to be honest

He is a wrestler / grappler with a stand up game , he is not a striker , there's a difference

 

Not even remotely close.