This Saturday, January 22nd, the UFC makes its way to Fort Hood, Texas for UFC: Fight For The Troops 2. This card has been plagued by injury over the past month, and fights have been added, removed and shuffled around to ensure that a quality night of fights would be put on for the troops. With just days before the event is scheduled to go down, the card has been finalized, barring any late injuries, so let’s take a moment to break down the televised portion of the card.
To open up the broadcast, we have a Lightweight bout between Cole “Magrinho” Miller (17-4) and “Handsome” Matt Wiman (12-5). This fight was originally scheduled to go down at UFC 125, but was rescheduled for this card. Both men come into this fight riding on a two-fight win streak and are looking to continue moving up the Lightweight ladder and closer to a title shot. In Miller’s last two fights, he walked away with a “Submission of the Night” bonus, and Wiman has left with a “Fight of the Night” bonus in three of his last five fights. Expect these two to definitely put on a show once the cage door is closed.
The next fight, and an early candidate for “Fight of the Night”, is a Heavyweight showdown between Pat “HD” Barry (5-2) and Joey “The Mexicutioner” Beltran (12-4). In Beltran’s last fight against Matt Mitrione, the two battled for just about the full fifteen minutes and they walked away with a “Fight of the Night” bonus. In a couple of interviews, Barry has referred to Beltran as a zombie in the sense that he just walks through punches and keeps attacking. Both men are great strikers, coming off a loss and love to fight hard for the fans, so this should definitely be a war that you don’t want to miss.
The third fight on the card is a battle between Mark “The Machine” Hominick (19-8) and George Roop (11-6-1) in the Featherweight division. Dana White recently announced that if Hominick wins, he will be the next to face Jose Aldo for the UFC Featherweight Championship. However, no such implications were set for Roop, which gave him extra motivation to take a page out of Dustin Poirer’s book and spoil Hominick’s title party. In Roop’s last fight, he took out “The Korean Zombie” with a perfectly placed head kick and earned himself a “Knockout of the Night” bonus. That same night, Hominick defeated Leonard Garcia who had recently beaten The Korean Zombie and fought to a draw with Roop. The reasoning for Roop not getting a title shot with a win is still unclear but that will just add fuel to the fire and make a win over Hominick more impressive.
The Co-Main Event of the evening features Matt “Meathead” Mitrione (3-0) facing off against fellow Heavyweight Tim “The Thrashing Machine” Hague (12-4). After losing to Joey Beltran at UFC 113, Hague was cut from the company, but is now returning after picking up two quick Knockout victories up in Canada. In his last fight, a three round war with Joey Beltran, Mitrione’s striking looked like it had improved immensely since coming off-season ten of The Ultimate Fighter. Hague is mostly known for being knocked out by Todd Duffee in seven seconds, and with Mitrione’s power he could be in danger of being knocked out quickly again. However, Mitrione has yet to face anybody with Hague’s grappling experience and we haven’t seen too much grappling from Mitrione. With this being Hague’s third shot in the UFC, a bad loss for him could send him packing for good.
Finally, time for the Main Event: a Lightweight battle between Evan “3-D” Dunham (11-1) and “The Young Assassin” Melvin Guillard (26-8-2-1(NC)). Originally Dunham was set to face Kenny Florian, but a knee injury forced him off the card and left Dunham without an opponent. Guillard was then pulled from his bout with Yves Edwards and named as the replacement to take on Dunham. In his last fight, Dunham lost a split decision to Sean Sherk that many, including Dana White thought he should’ve won. With his first taste of defeat, Dunham will use it as motivation to try to prevent Guillard from adding his name to his current three-fight win streak. With Dunham being an offensive striker and Guillard showing a “new form” after coming out of Greg Jackson’s camp, these two are perfectly matched up for each other. Guillard will have to get in close and prevent Dunham from using his reach advantage. A win for either man will greatly improve his stock within the Lightweight division.
It was announced this morning that two preliminary fights will be shown before the start of the broadcast on SpikeTV. The first preliminary fight that will be aired is a bout in the Welterweight division between DaMarques “Darkness” Johnson (11-8) and Mike “The Joker” Guymon (12-4-1). The second fight will feature TUF alum Cody “Big Time” McKenzie (12-0) and MMA Veteran “The Texas Gunslinger” Yves Edwards (39-16-1).
In order to view these two preliminary fights, you have to “Like” the UFC Facebook page. The weigh-ins will also be available on that page on Friday.
Make sure to tune in at 8PM ET/5PM PT on Saturday to catch the prelims and then turn your TV to SpikeTV immediately following to catch the remainder of the card.
