Just heard Ariel Helwani say he was debutting against Gian Villante in an unconfirmed date, this sucks if indeed true. They should put him against one of the top 10 not against a Strikeforce Challenger. I would've prefer they put him against the loser of Hendo/Machida, or the winner of Rashad/Lil Nog. There are plenty of matchups for Gegar and they choose this.
Who is Gian Villante? Booooo. Although he could be good, I don't follow the lower tiers of the sport well enough to know whether or not he is deserving or if he is just a can.
Cause Mousasi used to train with Fedor. Therefore all of the people who claim to have watched Fedor in PRIDE (see all 2012 join dates) now associate Mousasi with Fedor and think he deserves better.
Exactly who has Mousasi beat for him to deserve to fight a top 10? He should face someone like Bonnar or Matyuschenko.
Looks like they are slowly building him up. They are testing his wrestling with a mid level wrestler like Villante to see if its okay to start matching him up with the top 10 wrestlers in the division.
I liken this to when Big Nog debuted in the UFC versus the Texas Crazy Horse. Why?! There are so many more intriguing matchups you could make with the new names in the organization, why would you match him up with the one other guy that came over from Strikeforce??
I guess UFC just want him to come in with a almost guaranteed win, god forbid they've had a bit trouble in the past with guys like Lombard(losing to Boetsch).
1. It's Gegard not Gegar 2. He was saying that they were the 2 light heavyweights joining the UFC, NOT that they were fighting each other. He actually even said Mousasi was looking for a top 5 matchup, which i believe he deserves.
And i thought the same thing, until i listened to the words coming out of his mouth. The way they presented it on tv made it look like a matchup, but it was a list of strikeforce fighters joining the UFC- the only 2 apparently.
