Round 5 To Give First Look At Series 4 With Dana White, Royce Gracie, Brock Lesnar At UFC® Fan Expo™ In Boston
Round 5 To Give First Look At Series 4 With Dana White, Royce Gracie, Brock Lesnar At UFC® Fan Expo™ In Boston
Velazquez, Buffer, Shogun, Jackson Also Highlighted; Regular And Limited Editions On Display At Booth No. 2524 At Expo, August 27-28
MARKHAM, Ontario, Canada – The past, present and future of the UFC, in and out of the cage, will be on display – literally – as attendees of UFC® Fan Expo™, August 27-28 at the John B. Hynes Convention Center in Boston, will get the first look at the Round 5 “Ultimate Collector” Series 4 collectible figurines. Fans can see new standard and Limited Edition sculpts representing seven different UFC personalities, including Royce Gracie, Brock Lesnar, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Cain Velasquez, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Dana White (regular only) and Bruce Buffer (Limited Edition only).
Round 5 can be found at Booth No. 2524 on the convention floor. The “Ultimate Collector” Series 4 displays are in addition to the previously announced “3-packs” featuring Buffer, exclusive to Expo in the U.S., and prototypes of its high-detail “Live” series with Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell.
“We are pleased to be introducing our latest series of new figurines to fans at UFC Fan Expo,” said Damon Lau, Round 5 president and co-founder. “There are some completely new athletes, including Royce Gracie and Cain Velasquez, and our first ‘Ultimate Collector’ non-fighters in Dana White and Bruce Buffer.”
“Ultimate Collector” Series 4 is expected at retail in time for the 2010 Holiday season.
Fans will also be able to purchase the new “Ultimate Collector” Series 3 figurines at the Expo, including new representations of Rich Franklin, Anderson Silva, Antonio Nogueira, Diego Sanchez and both UFC and PRIDE versions of Wanderlei Silva.
“Ultimate Collector” Series 1 and 2 are now available at leading retailers across North America, and Series 3 will be available shortly. A list of retailers can be found at www.Round5MMA.com.
Josh Barnett on Brock Lesnar
It’d be nice to see Josh Barnett back inside the UFC Octagon doing his thing. He’s been around for several years among the top 10 heavyweights however evidently has not seen eye to eye with UFC president Dana White and has never been able find his way back into the UFC since his last fight at UFC 36 in March of 2002. Barnett of course had a great career in Japan in the Pride FC organization, but with it being engulfed by the UFC, it’s sort of too bad that Barnett wasn’t able to get back into the big show.
The UFC heavyweight division is a very exciting one right now, and Barnett would make a fun addition to the mix. While White has been able to reconcile even the most unreconiling of feuds, I think he just doesn’t feel Barnett has the same sort of cache and mainstream appeal to make him worth trying to try and chase after. Fedor was a fighter White was chasing after with great vigor due to his popularity, legendary status prior to his first defeat, and demand to see the Russian fight in the organization. Their isn’t the same sort of obsession surrounding Barnett, who a casual fight fan may not even be aware of. Nonetheless, I hope one day Barnett can fight once more in the Ultimate Fighting Championship before he puts his 4 ounce gloves to rest for a final time.
Video: Cain Velasquez talks about fighting Brock Lesnar at UFC 121
This is going to be an incredible fight that can really go in every domain. Striking wise Cain Velasquez has the edge over Brock Lesnar, but the most intereresting factor will be the wrestling arena of the bout. Lesnar is most likely going to go to his bread and butter–taking down opponents and ground and pounding them, or potentially using his new tools of submissions. One thing for certain is that Velasquez won’t gas out, and is known for having a full gas tank to work with for the full fight. He has arguably the best cardio in the game at heavyweight and that was a huge factor in Lesnar defeating Shane Carwin when the two fought. Carwin ran out of gas and punched himself as he delivered over 6 dozen blows to Lesnar in the first round. Velasquez won’t punch himself and will be able to go hard for the full 25 minutes allotted in this contest.
Lesnar has great wrestling, but I feel Velasquez will be able to use his exceptional wrestling skill to stuff some takedowns, and work his way back up to the feet if he does get planted on the mat. It’s obviously not an easy task with a 280 plus-pound giant like Lesnar on top of you, who is a tremendous wrestler, but Velasquez is not an idiot and preparing for this. He’s bringing in division 1 calibre wrestlers who have a huge frame on them to simulate that sort of style. It’s hard to simulate the kind of athlete Lesnar is, but I think Velasquez’s training will allow him to contend with some of the main factors that Lesnar brings to the table.
Lesnar certainly has the size advantage and it will play into the contest. But size and strength is key but of even more paramount importance is skill. And the striking skills of Velasquez are at a much higher level and he has a skillset and cardio to take this battle into the championship rounds and pick up a decision win. It’s obviously a hard task to defeat Lesnar by stopping him with strikes, but Velasquez can potentially outpoint him on the feet and outlast him in the championship rounds.
It’s going to be a very interesting fight that could go an infinite amount of ways.