UFC 97: Redemeption - Officially Announced

[stxnas]

"UFC 97: Redemption" fight card official with 12 bouts | MMAjunkie.com

"UFC 97: Redemption" fight card official with 12 bouts
by MMAjunkie.com Staff on Mar 14, 2009 at 5:15 pm ET

With just over a month remaining before the world's biggest MMA organization returns to Canada for "UFC 97: Redemption," the UFC has officially announced the evening's full activities.

Featuring a main event of middleweight champion Anderson Silva versus challenger Thales Leites, UFC 97 will also feature 11 other matchups.

UFC 97 is scheduled for April 18 at the Bell Centre in Montreal. The main card will air live on pay-per-view.

Almost one year to the day after the UFC's first visit to Canada for UFC 83 in April 2008, the Bell Centre once again reached sell-out status in less than one week. UFC 83 set the organization's all-time attendance (21,390) and live gate ($5.1 million) records.

The evening's full card will now include:

MAIN CARD (televised)
Middleweight champ Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leites
Chuck Liddell vs. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua
Krzysztof Soszynski vs. Brian Stann
Cheick Kongo vs. Antoni Hardonk
Luis Cane vs. Steve Cantwell

PRELIMINARY CARD (un-televised)
Mike Ciesnolevicz vs. Eliot Marshall
Xavier Foupa-Pokam vs. Denis Kang
Jason MacDonald vs. Nate Quarry
Ed Herman vs. David Loiseau
David Bielkheden vs. Mark Bocek
Ryo Chonan vs. T.J. Grant
Sam Stout vs. Matt Wiman

 

[bigwhiteguy29]

anderson wins 2nd round tko

chuck 3rd round tko


if chuck loses he is done. i hate shogun i hope chuck gets a flashy k.o. late in the match.

i wanna see anderson sudmit him to show off that brownbelt vs this bjj star


i hope silva isnt lazy like he was with cote. he didnt even try with cote he wanted to get a 4th or 5th round k.o. to see how far he could go.

 

[Emerge]

Jason MacDonald vs. Nate Quarry
Ed Herman vs. David Loiseau

I would rather have seen these fights than the latter of the televised.

 

[stxnas]

Honestly, I want to see all of the fights that are showed above as un-televised!

 

[MrBrightside]

Silva will retain his belt.

Bielkheden got completely worked by Diego Sanchez...tapped from strikes and looked like a total bitch. I'm surprised he's fighting again.

Aaand I'm pretty excited about Quarry/McDonald.

 

[bigwhiteguy29]

i like ed herman i hope he gets a good GnP victory

 

[Emerge]

I doubt it man. Lousiau is very dangerous. I like how he uses his elbows in his stand up.

 

[MrBrightside]

Whoa, didn't even catch the Loiseau/Herman fight. This card actually looks pretty great.

 

[bigwhiteguy29]

are you kidding me? he looked terrible in eliteXC hopefully hes worked that out. but yeah he is dangerous non the less

 

[Emerge]

He's never looked terrible in all the fights I've seen. I never caught him on eliteXC, but my general rule is to ignore eliteXC.

 

[bigwhiteguy29]

he did terrible. gassed out threw crazy spinning kicks that when no where. got taken down so easy everything reverssed it was sad. dominated but yeah elitexc should be ignored but i think ed is a tough guy who is tired of losing.

 

[Emerge]

Haha yeah he was such a cocky **** on tuf and he has got his ass handed to him many a times.

 

[Jessep76]

are you kidding me? he looked terrible in eliteXC hopefully hes worked that out. but yeah he is dangerous non the less

I assume you mean David L? Thats strange they'd bring him back if he's been sloppy. Its been like 3 years or so. You can't tell me there's no other 185ers worthy of such a great card..

 

[bigwhiteguy29]

wandy and franklin should be good but i wanna see franklin vs. nat mar

 

[stxnas]

I assume you mean David L? Thats strange they'd bring him back if he's been sloppy. Its been like 3 years or so. You can't tell me there's no other 185ers worthy of such a great card..

I haven't seen any of his last three fights, but he's won his last three fights. Granted, these were in smaller organizations, but I'm guessing he's looked solid as of late.

 

[hillbilly_210]

Jason MacDonald vs. Nate Quarry
Ed Herman vs. David Loiseau

I would rather have seen these fights than the latter of the televised.

I agree with ya on this one.

 

[hitsquaddd]

Middleweight champ Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leites
Silva wins via fatality. Seriously, Silva needs better competition...

Chuck Liddell vs. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua
I'm not liking this fight too much, it just doesn't interest me for some reason. If I had to guess, I'd say Chuckie takes it 3rd round KO.

Krzysztof Soszynski vs. Brian Stann
I had no idea where this fight came from, but I'm glad it's happening. I'll say Krzysztof takes the win via TKO 2nd round.

Cheick Kongo vs. Antoni Hardonk
I've gotta man crush on Kongo. So Kongo wins via headshot with his bongo.
No? I tried to make a joke :/

Luis Cane vs. Steve Cantwell
I don't know much about Cane, so I'll just go with Cantwell via horrible referee stoppage. Just kidding... I think.

 

[Jessep76]

Middleweight champ Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leites
Silva wins via fatality. Seriously, Silva needs better competition...

Chuck Liddell vs. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua
I'm not liking this fight too much, it just doesn't interest me for some reason. If I had to guess, I'd say Chuckie takes it 3rd round KO.

Krzysztof Soszynski vs. Brian Stann
I had no idea where this fight came from, but I'm glad it's happening. I'll say Krzysztof takes the win via TKO 2nd round.

Cheick Kongo vs. Antoni Hardonk
I've gotta man crush on Kongo. So Kongo wins via headshot with his bongo.
No? I tried to make a joke :/

Luis Cane vs. Steve Cantwell
I don't know much about Cane, so I'll just go with Cantwell via horrible referee stoppage. Just kidding... I think.

Silva absolutely.

I love or 'loved' watching chuck. Should have put chuck against forrest...but anyway why can't older fighters come back from losing streaks? I'm hoping for a classic where chuck puts his hands by his waste like he's farting for the win ARRRR!

I'm not saying you should not like Krzysztof. I just don't. He was prickish on the show and then came out with sub par fight. Stann on the other hand has the biggest (well if you watch WEC) hype and all he talks about after his wins is "this is for my buddies who couldn't make it back from iraq". Another 2 reasons to pull for him is he has very exciting stand up. Not much else... but Krz isn't as exciting so I will go with Stann. Plus fck'n George W called him out as a respectable Veteran on national tv. H Y P E!!!!! ...in an interesting way.

Spot on with Kongo. I hope we see more of him this year. "headshot"

Cantwell is very aggressive. He will win by knock out of another arm snap. I think this might be 'one' of the best fights

 

[bigwhiteguy29]

i think silva is bored maybe he will wanan go to the ground? nah prolly not against him but i hope he doesnt drag out a fight like he did with cote jsut toying with him.

Krzysztof Soszynski will win by submission

 

[Jessep76]

i think silva is bored maybe he will wanan go to the ground? nah prolly not against him but i hope he doesnt drag out a fight like he did with cote jsut toying with him.

Krzysztof Soszynski will win by submission

oh no you deh'ent. haha.. Stan is gonna sink the red october.

"scuttle the ship"

 

[vika808]

thats some fricken good prelims

 

[TheNinja]

I think Mike Ciesnolevicz has been replaced by Vinny Magahles...or whoever that Vinny from TUF was that lost to Bader. I think Vinny vs Elliot would be an AWESOME ground war to watch. I wonder if Elliot will try to keep it standing though, b/c Vinny's standup is horrible!

The Kristof vs Stann and Cane vs Cantwell seem like undercard fights, but I guess the UFC is pushing some of it's former WEC guys. Don't count out Luis Cane though. If I was betting on that fight I'd take Cane.

Oh, and if the Kongo vs Hardonk fight stays standing....Kongo will get beat. Hardonk is a stud kickboxer and Kongo has skinny legs, bad combo. I personally think Kongo will take down Hardonk and apply some light GnP for a decision....but I'm rooting for Hardonk.