
(Props: MMA Mania)
Nine bouts have been officially confirmed for UFC 93 (January 17th; Dublin, Ireland) — though there are some surprises in the card’s arrangement. Here’s what we have so far:
MAIN CARD
Rich Franklin vs. Dan Henderson
Mark Coleman vs. Mauricio Rua
Alan Belcher vs. Denis Kang
Antonio Mendes vs. Andre Gusmao
Dennis Siver vs. Nate Mohr
UNDERCARD
Marcus Davis vs. Chris Lytle
Jeremy Horn vs. Rousimar Palhares
Tomasz Drwal vs. Ivan Serati
Thomas Egan vs. John Hathaway
How you gonna leave the Irish Hand Grenade off the main card in Dublin? It’s blasphemy, especially when he’s already promised the fans a pussy-free slugfest with Chris Lytle. It’s also strange to see Horn/Palhares on the untelevised card, when you consider who actually did make the cut.
First off, Antonio Mendes vs. Andre Gusmao. Both of these guys got owned in their UFC debuts; Mendes was steamrolled by Thiago Silva at UFC 84, and Gusmao was overwhelmed by Jon Jones‘s explosive athleticism at UFC 87 and lost a unanimous decision. So we’re letting them fight each other on the main card? No, this has to be some kind of mistake.
And seriously, Dennis Siver vs. Nate Mohr? My only theory is that Siver is German so they want to give him some exposure among European fans leading up to UFC 99. But he’s also 1-3 in the UFC and has no legitimate future in the lightweight division. Mohr, who has gone 1-2 in the UFC, hasn’t competed since last December due to a knee injury suffered in a fight against Manny Gamburyan. This shouldn’t even be a main card fight for a free event on Spike TV. We have to assume that things will get shuffled around a bit before showtime.
Speaking of Gamburyan, he was just booked to face Thiago Tavares at UFC 94 (January 31st, Las Vegas) in what could very well be a loser-gets-fired match. Manny is coming off a 12-second KO loss against Robert Emerson, while Tavares has lost three of his last four fights in the Octagon. Also supporting the Penn/St. Pierre superfight and Machida/Silva light-heavyweight feature will be Jake O’Brien vs. Christian Wellisch (another match where losing could mean a pink-slip), and TUF 6′s Matt Arroyo vs. TUF 7‘s Dan Cramer.


Mendes streamrolled by Silva? He almost had Silva knocked out he was kicking his ass until Silva took it to the ground.