THIS WEEKS HIGHLIGHTS: FEDOR v.s SYLVIA

Fedor Emelianenko

Nickname: The Last Emperor
Height: 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight: 106.5 kg (235 lb)
Nationality: Russian
Born: September 28, 1976 (1976-09-28) age 31
Fighting out of: Stary Oskol, Russia
Town of birth: Rubizhne, Luhansk, Ukrainian SSR, USSR
Team/Association: Red Devil Sport Club
Fighting style: Sambo, judo, boxing, Muay Thai

Fedor Emelianenko ,is a Russian heavyweight mixed martial artist and the last person to hold the PRIDE heavyweight championship. He had been the reigning heavyweight champion in PRIDE since March 16, 2003.Emelianenko has been considered the best heavyweight fighter in the world for the last five years by many major publications.


Tim Deane Sylvia

Nickname: The Maine-iac
Height: 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)
Weight: 260.5 lb (118.2 kg/18.61 st)
Nationality: American
Born: March 5, 1976 (1976-03-05) (age 32)
Fighting out of: Bettendorf, Iowa
Town of birth: Ellsworth, Maine
Team/Association: Miletich Martial Arts
Fighting style: Kickboxing

Timothy Deane Sylvia, is an American professional MMA fighter. He is the former Ultimate Fighting Championship, heavyweight champion and holds a professional record of 24 wins and 4 losses. He trains as a member of the Miletich Fighting Systems camp and is part of their MFSE (Miletich Fighting System Elite) group. He presently fights for Adrenaline MMA..He holds very popular wins over Ben Rothwell, Mike Whitehead, Jason Lambert, Wesley Correira, Ricco Rodriguez, Gan McGee, Wes Sims, Tra Telligman, Assuerio Silva, and Andrei Arlovski.



PREDICTION

The main event of the of the upcomeing event "Affliction Banned" is also a historic matchup, as former PRIDE Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko faces off with former multiple-time UFC Champion Tim Sylvia.

Fedor’s biggest weakness is his tendency to get cut. His “loss” to Kohsaka was because of a cut on his forehead, and his second fight with Noguiera had to be stopped after an accidental headbutt split his head wide open yet again. Tim Sylvia’s long reach ,punching power and great take-down defense make him a perfect candidate to exploit this weakness. If Sylvia can use his reach to keep Fedor at a distance, he might have a good chance of using his stong jab to open up some of Fedor’s scare tissue and put him in very serious situation.

Sylvia’s ground game is obviosly his weakness . Any Hard core UFC fan will remember when Frank Mir snapped Tim’s arm like a twig. And Also Arlovski almost submitted Tim easily, and it took Noguiera about 15 seconds on the ground to make him tap. If any fighter is capable of exploiting this weakness, it most certenly is Fedor, who has arguably the most impressive list of submission victories in the division’s history. He submitted Mark Coleman and Kevin Randleman, both of whom are very more experienced than Sylvia on the ground, with almost comical ease. If he can manage to get one take-down against Sylvia, Fedor will win this fight hands down, as the only thing more devastating than his submission game is his ground and pound.

Basically, this fight will be decided by how well Fedor can close the distance and take the action to the ground. If Tim can keep the fight standing like he did against Noguiera, there is no way Fedor can survive the same kind of beating that Noguiera had to take in order to secure a submission. In the end, though, I think that Fedor’s striking, while not on the same level as Tim’s, will at least be good enough to create openings to tie Sylvia up in the clinch and secure the takedown.

I think there is going to be boxing match early in this fight, w Fedor going to take it to the ground in Round 2, Tim will tire out and going to be finished quickly via submission.