Lightweights Sam Stout (13-4-1) and Paul Kelly (7-0) will likely collide at UFC 89: “Bisping vs. Leben” at The National Indoor Arena (NIA) in Birmingham, England, on October 19, according to TKOExtreme.com.
Stout has won just one of his last three bouts inside the Octagon; however, the defeats to Rich Clementi his last time out at UFC 83: “Serra vs. St. Pierre 2” in April and against Spencer Fisher at UFC Fight Night 10 have both been crowd pleasers and razor thin decisions.
“Hands of Stone” prefers to keep things upright and provide onlookers with exciting action, which has clearly not gone unnoticed by UFC brass despite a losing record (2-3) within the eight-sided cage.
Kelly is an undefeated English prospect who was victorious in his Octagon debut, outpointing fellow countryman, Paul Taylor, on all three judges scorecards at UFC 80: “Rapid Fire” earlier this year. He was booked to return at UFC 85: “Bedlam” last month against Jonathan Goulet; however, he sustained a finger injury during training and was forced to bail out of the showdown.
It should be an entertaining scrap -– both fighters come to party and let it all hang out.
UFC 89 features the middleweight tilt between Michael Bisping and Chris Leben, as well as a potential welterweight war when Thiago Alves and Diego Sanchez meet in the center of the cage.
29 Comments »
Should be a good one!
Tough fight for Stout, Paul Kelly is real good & getting better.
Indeed.
I don’t know if Stout will EVER have what it takes to compete at the top of the 155 lb division. I don’t think we will ever see him up against a Top 5 opponent. So what the UFC should be doing is matching up with other strikers so at least we are guaranteed an exciting fight. I certainly don’t mind one “stand and bang” fight per card!
Kelly will ground n pound the crap out of him. Paul Kelly is a real strong, hard nosed dude for that division!
What about Sam S. vs Melvin G… it would be stand up fight for sure.
Yeah that would be a crazy fight Phil!
NO DOUBT!
However, I think that even Sam would be smart and not stand and trade with Melvin. Sam should have more than enough ground skills to submit Melvin. Hell, if I were on the matt with Melvin I’d submit him!
What’s odd to me on Melvin is.. he says he works on his ground game around the clock..but still he would even win a naga at 155/170 today. But the Kid his street cred..tyson type KO power.. Rich Clementi demostrated the blueprint to beat Melvin.
Can you imagine combining Melvin’s physical tools and natural ablilites with Forrest’s work ethic and willingness to learn?
He would be unstoppable.
In other words, I guess I’m saying, can you imagine if Forrest can “pop a grape” / had KO power.
fORREST WOULD BE UNSTOPPABLE, if he could “bust a grape”.
As a champion, i think he will have to fight like Machida, strike from the outside, back away anytime he is under attack, with his best chance of ending the fight being a submission. He has evolved so much since his days as a dumb/exciting slugger, that its hard to predict what kind of fighter he is now…..I say, he is a poor man’s Machida with a hell of a heart and a great work ethic.
I am so pissed that my boy Rampage is title-less, but if he had to loose, it may as well have been to one of the hardest working men in the sport….at least we know Forrest will work his ass of trying to defend that title, but i DONT THINK HE WILL BE ABLE TO HOLD ON TO IT FOR TOO LONG.
IMO, the only man that can become a dominant champion at 205 is Rampage, if he learns not to underestimate people and not take nights off. if Rampage wont be that guy, then the title is going to keep changing hands in the light heavyweight division!
That would be an awesome match up!
I haven’t been overly impressed by Stout in the past and unless he’s made a huge amount of progress, I won’t be now either. And I haven’t found any of his fights all that exciting. If I wanted to watch a kickboxing match, I’d watch K1. Although, it was cool to see Spencer Fisher pick him apart for 3 rounds. He needs to take a page out of Marcus Davis’ book and become much more well rounded to make things interesting.
Sorry Sam, even as a fellow Canuck, I’m going to have to go with Paul Kelly on this one!
completely agree with that statement. Stout is a stand up fiter who just hasnt finished anyone in the ufc. while his fites are usually impressive win or lose, you still need to put guys away and not go to a decision or you will be stuck on the undercard. Also havent been impressed with his ground game progression at all.
btw JRK, his 3 round picking apart of fisher was b/c the fisher took the fite on crazy short notice and had to cut like 20lbs in two days. Fisher had nothing in that fite, was gassed after the first round and the fact that stout couldnt knock him out shows how much of a non-finisher he really is. You saw how Fisher dominated him in the rematch.
Cheers, I was talking about the Fisher rematch. I wrote how Fisher picked Stout apart not the other way around. Fisher’s stand-up in that second fight made Stout look like an amateur! I like Stout and all, he seems like an intelligent fighter but maybe he needs to switch camps and train with a new perspective on things…
Another horrible match-up by Joe Silva. Haven’t him and the UFC brass learned anything by the relatively boring UFC 86 this past weekend??? Stop matching every striker up with grapplers/wrestlers. It creates stupid boring fights like Stout/Clementi and Cote/Almeida. Stupid, boring fights because styles make fights, and contrasting styles usually means a boring fight.
There are plenty of strikers in the lightweight division, yet they keep throwing Stout against grapplers. Chris Lytle same story, he lost a boring decision to Hughes and what did they think was gonna happen when he fought Koscheck? Koscheck did some damage, but basically laid on him for three rounds. Horrible matchmaking Joe Silva.
That’s a stupid, stupid match-up. Just like Cote/Almeida, Koscheck/Lytle, Stout/Clementi, Stout/Per Eklund… all horrible match-ups. For some reason people still think watching a striker fight a grappler is exciting??? It’s not, it creates a stalemate in which neither are willing to engage.
Why the hell is Stout not being matched up with Jeremy Stephens? That would be an awesome fight and it makes sense.
Sorry for the double post, I didn’t think my first one got posted.
Bisping v Leben. Sanchez v Alves. Stout v Taylor. is sanchez v alves agreed???? this card doesnt look bad does it? ive got tickets this is my first ufc! and someone said i was a idiot for paying to see bisping v leben what do you think? the card looks ok if sanchez v alves is on also. where is my comment? this might be a double post.
Still three months left to sign more fights. Hoping Paul Taylor will get a fight signed to this card.
Stout v Kelly rumour is not true!
Stout is nothing more than a gatekeeper. Let’s see if Kelly is for real.
Kelly is fast improving, i wont be surprised at all if kelly overwelms stout with his size and gets the win. i was impressed with kelly with his win over taylor.
what weight is the fight at?theres no way kelly can get down to lw hes a big ww and if stout moves up he will get destroyed.kelly by gnp 1st round.
They need to put Stout against Dan Hardy. This will be a good stand up fight.
It would be an excellent chance for Dan Hardy to come in and show the potential of some of our UK fighters against established UFC fighters. I’d love to see Paul ‘Semtex’ Daley in there as well!
Im sure Dan will be on this card it just would be good to know who his opponent is. He is a very exciting to watch thats for sure.
I got my ringside tickets last week…cant wait!! C u there!
I was not impressed with Kelly in his last bout.It looked like he left himself open to many submissions /sweeps when on top. It was just that Taylor was not able to capitalize due to his lack of ground. Stout’s takedown defense is solid. What weight is this fight at? I hope Stout is not moving to 170.
What about randy coture?????
He hasn’t had a fight for ages and he’s got to defend his title soon
Got my ticket, can’t wait to see bisping surely he’s gonna dominate his weight division
please comment!
Lets see it! Dude, I’ll toss 4/1 odds Kelly on the up, 2 rounds or less.