The Ultimate eXperience 05.06.08: UFC 85, Travis Lutter & DREAM Thoughts

Posted by Ryan Seymour on 05.06.2008

UFC 85's card has changed immensely from Liddell/Shogun as the main event to Alves/Hughes, has it changed for better or worse? Also I give my thoughts on the recent releasing of Travis Lutter and how the DREAM organization is going.

Hello I'm Ryan Seymour and welcome to the very first edition of The Ultimate eXperience . No mucking around in this column and without further ado we will get it started.

UFC 85
I have to say that this event went from looking like another UFC 78 event to being one of the best cards on paper so far this year. First of all it was a super fight between Shogun and Liddell which would have been a fight that I think everybody would have enjoyed, but Shogun was injured during training and had to pull out of the fight. Then it went to Chuck Liddell facing of against Rashad Evans which is an alright bout but doesn't have as much excitement as the Shogun match up. Injuries kept affecting this fight as Chuck Liddell for the first time in ten years had to pull out of a fight because of injury. Looking for replacements for Liddell was hard because most of the light heavyweight division had fought recently or already had a fight on a future card. James Irvin took Liddell's spot in the fight after his impressive win over Houston Alexander.

Irvin vs. Evans is a good fight but there was no way that it is main event material.
UFC has managed to make this card well worth the buy with a few changes to the card. Firstly they named a new main event which will put Matt Hughes against Thiago Alves which will surely be a great fight to watch. If Thiago Alves is able to win then you would think he would get the champion, whoever it is after Georges St. Pierre and Jon Fitch face of. Matt Hughes has already stated on his website that he will be facing Matt Serra no matter what happens, but this fight will still be an indicator for Hughes as to where his heart is after his devastating loss to GSP. Another fight what has been added to the card is Michael Bisping against Chris Leben which should be a stand up war. I have to say I hadn't really thought much of Bisping but after his impressive win at UFC 83, I am really looking forward to his next fight as he could be a threat in the 185 pound division. We all know about Chris Leben, he comes into the fight guns blazing and just throwing bombs, so if this fight isn't exciting then I would be surprised.

The card now looks like this.

Main Card
Matt Hughes vs. Thiago Alves
Michael Bisping vs. Chris Leben
Mike Swick vs. Marcus Davis
Rashad Evans vs. James Irvin
Fabricio Werdum vs. Brandon Vera

Preliminary Card
Martin Kampmann vs. Jorge Rivera
Nathan Marquardt vs. Thales Leites
Matt Wiman vs. Thiago Tavares
Jason Lambert vs. Luis Cane
Antoni Hardonk vs. Neil Wain
Jess Liaudin vs. Paul Taylor


So now the main event is good and also the entire card. Fights such as Swick/Davis and Werdum/Vera help cement the top guys in the division. Especially if Werdum and Davis win as they wouldn't be to far of a title shot if they are able to win at UFC 85. Even the preliminary bouts are exciting and would normally be on the main card, they are that good. Marquardt/Leites is a fight that I am looking forward to as it was been postponed twice in the UFC both times Leites pulled out. Instead of fighting Leites, Marquardt fought extremely experienced fighter Jeremy Horn and absolutely dominated him. Now the fight is set for UFC 85 and Marquardt has proved that he is a threat in the middleweight division with a record of 5-1 in the UFC. While on the other hand Leites is a great BJJ fighter and if this fight goes to the ground, Marquardt could be in trouble. With an impressive record of 12-1, Leites could sky rocket his move in the middleweight division with a win. At least one person in each fight at UFC 85 has been on the main card of the UFC at one point in their career. That just tells you right there how strong the card is.

Travis Lutter
I don't think there is any denying that Travis Lutter had a bunch of talent and was one of if not the best BJJ specialist in the middleweight division. After his second consecutive lose in the UFC, the UFC decided to release him from his contract. With a record of 2-4 you wouldn't think this is a big shock that he got released but Travis Lutter is the only person to challenge Anderson Silva inside the UFC. Travis Lutter had the fight almost won when he had full mount on Anderson Silva and was raining down punches. Then he went for a lazy armbar attempt on Anderson Silva and lost the position he had and it all went down hill from then on.

Weight and conditioning would have really pissed of the UFC and probably led to his departure. The main goal of winning The Ultimate Fighter 4: The Comeback was that the winners would get a title shot, at the finale Travis Lutter had real problems making the weight and had to take an extra hour to make 185 pounds. Then his next fight at UFC 67 against Anderson Silva for the UFC Middleweight championship, he fails to make weight and it ends up being a not title fight. That of would annoyed the UFC immensely, especially if Lutter was able to pull out the victory (which he was close to doing). Conditioning has also been a big down side in Lutters fighting career. Especially in his last two fights he has been against top fighters and his conditioning has been the factor which made him lose. No doubt he has the skills but his conditioning has made him lose, his stand up isn't incredible but usually when he goes for a takedown he gets it and his submissions are incredible. It'll be interesting what organization he fights for now and who he faces.



It has been very interesting having the new promotion DREAM, so far they have had two events and I have mixed feelings about them. The lightweight grand prix has a good bunch of fighters and in the later stages of the grand prix we will be seeing top lightweights fight it out. DREAM has plenty of lightweights who are considered extremely talented fighters with three of the fighters in the top ten lightweights in the world (Gesias ‘JZ' Calvancante, Mitsuhiro Ishida, Tatsuya Kawajiri). As well as them great fighters there are also a few that have been impressive in the past and could be real threats in the lightweight GP. Joachim Hansen has a lot of skill and has defeated great fighters such as Gesias ‘JZ' Calvancante, Yves Edwards and Caol Uno. The fighter that Hansen will be facing is Eddie Alvarez who is unknown to many but has a very impressive record of 13-1.

The middleweight GP has looked very mediocre compared to the great stars in the lightweight GP. Kazushi Sakuraba is 39 years old and there are rumors going around that he smokes a packet of smokes a day (from Frank Trigg on Inside MMA) and is really getting to the end of his career. He faced a fighter who is 0-0 which is just bizarre and the surprising thing is that Sakuraba didn't look that convincing against Andrews Nakahara (0-1 now). After that performance I would be very surprised if Sakuraba was able to get through his next opponent. Even fans who watched most PRIDE events would have trouble identifying the quarterfinalist in the middleweight GP with the exception of Sakuraba.

A fight that I am really looking forward to from DREAM is Cro Cop vs. LeBanner which will be at DREAM.4 in June. The fight Cro Cop had against Tatsuya Mizuno at DREAM.1 counted for nothing as Tatsuya Mizuno is unheard of. But LeBanner is a top class K-1 striker and has defeated some other great K-1 strikers and K-1 World GP winners such as Remy Bojansky and Peter Aerts. This fight will really show how well Cro Cop's striking is and also it will show if he can be the same dominant fighter he was in PRIDE.