Ten Fights Now Official For UFC 104; Okami on Prelims, Sherk-Tibau Shifted to Main Card
Ten fights are now official for UFC 104: Machida vs. Shogun on October 24 in Los Angeles, as the UFC on Tuesday added eight additional bouts to the event’s official lineup, joining the previously announced main event between light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua as well as a confirmed heavyweight matchup between Ben Rothwell and Cain Velasquez.
Notable additions to the card include middleweight contender Yushin Okami, a winner of three-straight and 7 of his 8 UFC fights, who meets Chael Sonnen on the untelevised UFC 104 preliminary card, as well as former lightweight champion Sean Sherk, whose fight against Gleison Tibau has been shifted from UFC 103 to the UFC 104 main card.
The official fight card for UFC 104 now features:
MAIN CARD
- Lyoto Machida (c) vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua
UFC Light Heavyweight Championship - Cain Velasquez vs. Ben Rothwell
- Sean Sherk vs. Gleison Tibau
- Joe Stevenson vs. Spencer Fisher
- Anthony Johnson vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida
PRELIMINARY CARD
- Antoni Hardonk vs. Pat Barry
- Yushin Okami vs. Chael Sonnen
- Jorge Rivera vs. Rob Kimmons
- Ryan Bader vs. Eric Schafer
- Razak Al-Hassan vs. Kyle Kingsbury
- Chase Gormley vs. Stefan Struve
For more UFC 104 coverage check out MMAFrenzy.com’s UFC 104 section.
Pictured: Sean Sherk
Tags: Anthony Johnson, Antoni Hardonk, Chael Sonnen, Chase Gormley, Eric Schafer, Gleison Tibau, Joe Stevenson, Jorge Rivera, Kyle Kingsbury, Pat Berry, Razak Al-Hassan, Rob Kimmons, Ryan Bader, Sean Sherk, Spencer Fisher, Stefan Struve, Yoshiyuki Yoshida, Yushin Okami
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Wasn’t someone yesterday complaining how terrible this card was? Man, it sucks…
Except that it doesn’t. At all.
That would be me…
I didnt say it “sucked”, I said the ppv buys might be lacking without the addition of another name fighter. I think this card from top to bottom is solid, but will the casual fan come and buy if it doesnt have a lesnar,griffin,ortiz,silva,rampage,franklin,henderson name on it. TBD…
Also, anyone hear how ticket sales are doing?
I actually really like the undercard!
man this is a pretty good card IMO even like half of the lower card
Okimi vs. Sonnen should be on the main card but when there is only room for 5 fights and you are going up against other fights like they have slatted above, it’s tough to make a case for the Sonnen/ Okami fight. Anyway, my boy Spencer will be fighting on this card and representing NC. I hope Stevenson still thinks that he can box and wants to standup the whole fight and trade shots with the King.
Why isn’t Yushin Okami in the title picture? or talks about title shots? its all Hendo, Nate, and Demian! Silva beat Hendo and Nate, and Demian fighting style is kinda like Thales Leites! why doesn’t any one talk about Yushin Okami the last guy to not loss to Silva?
he is on the PRELIMINARY CARD?
Yushin was in the “title” picture then he got injured, then he had a fight got injured again, this is his first fight since his last injury, I do realize that O so many wish for Okami to fight Anderson Silva, mind you, ya might want to stay healthy for that to happen and some people (not including myself) find Okami a BORE to watch, soo thank Leites for another reason that Okami is now “third” in line for a shot (with a win here ofcourse), as far as being on the prelim portion of the card well honestly doesn’t bother me too much yet him v Chael should be good and perhaps ZUFFA will allow the Prelims to air somewhere? From top to bottom I have to agree with DbiZ the card looks pretty damnn solid
I hope the trend of air prelims on Spike isn’t a one time deal. I really hope that they start doing that on a regular basis. It would be a great way to garner a larger audience and possibly boost PPV sales by giving the audience a taste of the night’s events.
But if you show all of the prelims on SPIKE or whereever “for free” then what do you do when you have a event like UFC 84, where everyone on the main card got ended by sub, ko or (t)ko and we saw every fight on that card after the destruction of Sean Sherk by BJ Penn? Then would you (the masses, not You persay Ether) completly b!tch about it “o I paid 50 bucks and only saw 1 hour of fights how dare the UFC I’m never buying a card again F them I wish Affliction was here and F Dana White, he is deh greedy” I’m realizing how “fickle” some people can be ya know…
Also interesting that Sherk who said he would NEVER fight in the state of California again is well fighting in Cali again…
Hm, very good point FR, I suppose I didn’t really think of it from that view. I however, wouldn’t complain; but then again I still record/ watch every UFC Unleashed, no matter how many times it comes on. I enjoy watching watching fights multiple times, the first time I watch a fight, it is soley for entertainment purposes, the subsequent times I usually wear out the pause and rewind button and actually “watch” the fight.
Ether ya I too DVR’rr Unleashed I have sooo many of them recorded man, anyways thx for actually seeing my point ya know appreciate it.
I suppose that I could just DVR the prelims and then hope the PPV goes as it usually does.
A significant number of people don’t sit at home and watch these things alone. I know we in the Nati have a group of 6-12 people who get to together at someone’s house or at a local wings establishment and turn it into “Guy’s Night” (bust the married guys out of prison for one night). When we go out, it is damn hard to fight a seat an hour before it starts. Generally, someone has to get there a couple hours just to get seats, so that might be the way to do it. That way, all the fights will be seen, people will still get their 2+ hour of entertainment, and you can go back and do what Ether does.
And yet someone will still complain.
Ha, true bs, someone will always complain. I’m usually the person that gets there at like 7 for the fight @ 10 (eastern time). Doesn’t bother me, I get a light snack and a few beers and a jager bomb to get me excited about the fights.
*I think using the word “excited” was a bad choice because I am already excited, I guess I should have used “prepared”.
I have to admit FR, I’m not a super fan of Okami. Just doesn’t do anything for me. I think it’s a good opportunity for him to turn fans around though. Win or lose if he put’s forth a solid effort…Sonnen is obviously a game opponent, Okami could earn some respect and fans back.
About the card. I’ve heard a few of my friends comment about upcoming cards not being very eventful. I tell them they are ra-tarded. First of all they get to watch fights…what’s better than that? Really? Second, if you have half a brain, you can clearly see, while they may not all be contenders, there are some great match ups.
I agree with you dude.. I mean.. I love MMA and have a good level of knowledge of standup and submission fighting.. but for some reason every time Okami steps into the ring I am bored speechless. I cannot figure out why.
I gotta agree with Windmiller, but it’s based on how exciting it’s going to be, not who deserves. There’s the flaw to being an entertainment company first, sport second.
This card looks pretty good overall. I think that Johnson fight and Rothwell fight won’t go the distance, so hopefully we’ll see some pre-lims, unlike Strikeforce.
random jab to StrikeForce hahahahaha
This card is super sick. All the fights shuld be awesome, even the pre-lims are good. Right off the bat one of the fights that catches my eye is Rumble Johnson vs Shang Sung from Mortal Kombat the movie. I hope that Rumble gets the win and keeps moving up, but Mortal Kombat look alike has a good ground game, something that Rumble needs work on.
besides the main event, the co-main even looks to have a lot at stake for both guys. Rothwell is a well known dude with some pressure to prove that he’s the real stuff, not just a former IFL champ. Cain, man i still feel he got the short end of the stick, but with a win can further cement his status as a top 5 Heavyweight but if he loses it’ll be a big and tough loss considering he just beat Kongo and was set to fight in a #1 Contenders fight only to lose to a former IFL star making his debut, hope Cain can pull this one off.
I like Sean Sherk, the dude is sick and hope he can go back to his wrestling ans dominate this fight.
Since Joe Stevenson had his shot already, i hope that Fisher gets the win and moves up the rankings, this can be a big win for him and i’m starting to look at Stevenson as the “gatekeeper” at 155, seems like beating him makes you legit lately.
Bahahahahaha!
I can’t believe that I never picked up on that before but Yoshida does look like Shang Sung.
Losses to Penn, Florian, and a decision loss to Sanchez make him a GATEKEEPER?
Holy Christ you have some strange values. You must HATE Nate Diaz then. Just lost to the “gatekeeper” at 155, why even keep him around? And Tibau? Get his butt out of here since he’ll never amount to anything after losing to the “gatekeeper”.
I guess we have a lot of people who need to hang it up, including…oh wait, SHERK since he can’t seem to beat the top 2 or 3 guys in his division. And those are just the lightweights….
Man, that’s a lot of gatekeepers.
dbiz,
hey a lot of people consider Jardine to be the gatekeeper at 205 and the guys gets ko’d or loses left and right and when he does win, he wins by lackluster decision, soooo i’m just going by that standard, and yeah Joe Stevenson has become somewhat the gatekeeper, how?…..well after Florian beat him he got his title sho AND after Diego Sanchz beat him, he too got his shot….sooooo kinda hard to argue with that…
I guess I’m just confused by your definition of “gatekeeper” then.
To me, and many others I suspect, “gatekeeper” means are you ready to start a title shot RUN, not are you ready for your immediate title shot. Or perhaps more accurately, are you ready to be considered a #(<=5) contender.
For me, Houston Alexander is somewhat a gatekeeper. If you can beat him, you're clearly ready for greater challenges in a division, but haven't by any stretch proven you deserve a title shot.
Heath Herring is a gatekeeper, but doesn't mean you're ready for the belt.
Marcus Davis is a gatekeeper, but it doesn't automatically mean you're ready for GSP.
Stephenson is still higher than my definition of gatekeeper, then. In fact, Fisher would be much closer to my definition. He's not anywhere near a title shot, but if you can beat him you're ready to make a run to the title.
You say Fisher is ready to start that run, and maybe he is, but his recent competition sure doesn't show that. Since his TKO loss to Franca, he has avenged a split decision loss to Stout with a unanimous decision victory, dropped a UD to Edgar, picked up UD over Jeremy Stephens and Caol Uno, and a submission of Shannon Gugerty.
Winning by lackluster decision much?
I thought the Stout fight (both of them actually) were awesome fights and the Caol Uno fight was great too. I also think that he is better than being a “gatekeeper”, but my opinion is biased because I’m a Fisher fan boy
dbiz, i’ll say this then i’ll drop this topic.
everyone has their own opinion of what a gatekeeper is. I certainly don’t feel that Jardine is a gatekeeper because wuite frankly i think the guy is overrated, i also felt that about Joe Stevenson, BUT most people hold them somewhat at a high level so that’s what i meant, but i agree with you that if you do beat a “gatkeeper” it means that you are ready to face better competition at your division, and i think that if Fisher beats Stevenson it doesn’t make Fisher an automatic contender, but puts him in a higher place in that division.
wow…bader un televised, his last fight was televised and he won it enough said, yushin against a no-name should be televised, chael against a no-name sould be televised, what does that mean!?
Bader’s problem is he’s a one dimensional boring fighter, also its doesnt help that Schafer might be just as one dimensional as Bader is. As much as the UFC would probably love to televise Bader on this card, they just cant. Although this is a VERY solid card, it just lacks “star power”. When this happens and theres not too many story lines to sell to the masses, from a business stand point they have to make sure the televised fights are as action-packed as possible. A Bader/Schafer match just doesnt do that. In my opinion.
I totally agree man. The UFC knows the fight between eric and bader has a high chance of being a snoozer, so they dont wanna risk putting it on the main card. I wonder whos choice it was to swap the Sherk/Tibau fight with the Okami/Miller fight. likely Dana i guess.
@FR has the UFC confirmed that they are gonna air all of the pre-lim fights? Cause if they were to only show a few and save some in case the main card goes quickly then that could work. Cause this is definately an undercard I wouldnt mind seeing.
Although this card does lack alot of star power I think they are realy going to try and push the main event. With the talk of Machida being undefeated and Rua beating Chuck and coming back to his old form, and so on. Even so the casual fan hasnt fully jumped on board with Machida and Shogun yet, so I dont think PPV buys will be huge for this card. Which if fine for the UFC cause they know they have another blockbuster in the Lesnar/Carwin fight,plus Tito’s return.
Short answer, petterson, is that with guys like Sonnen, Okami, and TUF winner Bader on the undercard, its a clear signal as to the strength of this card in particular and the depth of talent in the UFC overall.
My initital reaction to hearing that Okami-Sonnen was on the undercard was, “wow, the promotion must be giving up on one or both of these guys”, but upon further review I have to admit that with room for just 5 fights on the main card, who gets bumped to make room for Sonnen-Okami? Maybe, MAYBE Rumble and Ypshida, but then you’d trigger a rash of, “how the fu<k is my boy Rumble and the syunt body double from Mortal Kombat dropped down to the undercard?!"
The truth is Okami-Sonnen should have probably been moved to the main card of another event, but when you start looking at the schedule moving forward, there just isn't enough room to accommodate everyone.
Also, if you're a guy like Okami or Sonnen and you're looking for the spotlight, you might consider other options. The UFC is SO stacked at so many weightclasses there are only a distinct number of "spots" in a given timeframe. I'm sure that Strikeforce, that someone needlessly cheap-shotted earlier, would be MORE than happy to make room for either Sonnen or Okami in their organization.
I'm sure they won't be the first, but this go-around it's Sonnen and Okami that are getting the short end of the stick…
one thing i am happy about is the fact that anto is televised i know he is one of the best welterweights in the world
I would have liked to have seen Okami get Bisping. Oh well!
This is a great card. The main event alone is awesome. Im not too excited for the velasquez fight though. I think Okami-Sonnen should be on the main card instead of Sherk-Tibau. The only reason i think they did that was because Sherk is a bigger name and is known by casual MMA fans. Im a big Sherk fan, but I really dont think a fight between him and Gleison Tibau is main card material for an event like UFC 104 IMO. But thats just an opinion. Who knows, it could end up being FOTN, but thats very unlikely.
that is true jcohl, i suppose this is a seriously stacked card and i will admit if my boy anto was on the undercard i wouldn’t of been happy eithr, i’m actually glad anthony made it on to the maincard because i can’t see chael-yushin being as good a fight as anthony-shang tsung(heihachi aswell he’s acting him in the tekken movie).
IMO a gatekeeper is someone who holds the gate to the division. Jardine is a good example, he is an exciting fighter who has proven three things which are important to be a good gate keeper:
1- He has shown he can beat top fighters in the division
2- He has shown he can go three rounds at a very high pace and not gas
3- He is exciting
Basically if Jardine rapes you you have no place in the UFC because you won’t be these three important things. A loss to Jardine dosn’t put you out of the UFC if you show you can go three rounds and be exciting or have an exciting fight in which you can hang with him. IMO that is what makes a good gatekeeper to each division. In this regard there is many fighters who could be considered “gatekeepers” to any given division.