A First Look At UFC 136 Part 1: Herman/Russow, Maia/Santiago, And Grispi/Grice All Added

It took one day, one single day, for the upcoming ufc 136 card to go from a few matches to nearly complete. Yesterday, a grand total of six fights were all announced throughout the day for the upcoming event, with several major can’t-miss attractions scheduled for the card. It was news so huge that I’m going to have to break it up into two parts. So here’s the first part of “A First Look At UFC 136”, featuring the first three recently-announced bouts: Dave Herman vs. Mike Russow, Josh Grispi vs. Matt Grice, and Demian Maia vs. Jorge Santiago.

We head first to MMAFighting for confirmation that UFC 136 will feature Grispi/Grice and Herman/Russow.

Up next is a report at MMA Weekly that states that UFC 136 will also host an encounter between Demian Maia and Jorge Santiago.

Dave Herman recently made his UFC debut against Jon Olav Einemo at UFC 131. Herman was a late replacement for Shane Carwin, who was Einemo’s original opponent. After enduring some heavy shots, Herman would end up rallying and TKO’ing his opponent in a “Fight of the Night” performance.

Mike Russow is currently 14-1 and riding high on a three-fight win-streak inside the Octagon. Russow’s biggest moment came when he KO’d Todd Duffee in an incredible third-round comeback that won him “Knockout of the Night”. Most recently, Russow earned a doctor stoppage win over John Madsen.

Once regarded as the last great threat to current UFC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo, former WEC veteran Josh Grispi has yet to taste victory inside of the Octagon. Grispi entered the UFC 14-1 and with a flawless 4-0 record in the WEC, but has lost back-to-back fights in the UFC.

Matt Grice, meanwhile, is fighting in the UFC for the second time after getting released in 2009 after going 1-3 inside the Octagon. Grice earned another shot inside the Octagon by chaining together four straight wins outside of it, with three stoppages. However, Grice lost his recent UFC re-debut by first-round TKO.

When he first debuted inside the Octagon and started submitting people left and right, Demian Maia was hyped as a Royce Gracie for the modern generation. After his initial run of submission wins, Maia would go 3-3 in his next six, with deflating losses to Anderson Silva and Nate Marquardt. Most recently, Maia lost a Unanimous Decision to Mark Munoz. Maia’s recent fights have seen him display improving stand-up, which is likely why he’s still able to win some fights even though he hasn’t submitted anybody in two years.

At UFC 130, Jorge Santiago re-entered the UFC with a considerable amount of hype after going on a great run in Japan. Santiago was immediately matched up against Brian Stann, and unfortunately for Santiago, Stann would put on a striking clinic before TKO’ing Santiago in Round 2.

Although these fights will probably take place near the start of the show or even on the undercard, I like them. I think this is more smart booking by the UFC, and if you take an “it is what it is” outlook on these fights, they should be pretty enjoyable. Yes, they’re not the best fighters, but they should be entertaining fights nonetheless.

I’m interested to see what Dave Herman does now that he’s got some hype around him. I’m also interested to see if Mike Russow can continue to try and emerge out of the shadow of his KO win over Duffee.

I think it’s “do or die” time for Josh Grispi, and that if he doesn’t win this fight he’s definitely going to be cut. I think you could make an argument for cutting Grice if he loses this fight as well.

Santiago/Maia has a lot on the line too. I really think this is Maia’s last chance to get back some of that hype he had way back when, because if he doesn’t win this fight he’s probably going to fade off into the background and never return to the spotlight. Santiago needs a win badly too, since he came into the UFC with so much hype.

Overall, UFC 136 looks to be an amazing event. And it gets even better with Part 2.