in UFC / MMA Articles

At UFC 65 this Saturday, November 18, heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia takes on challenger Jeff Monson.

Sylvia is an animal, standing a towering six foot eight inches high and likes to bludgeon his opponents with big punches and high kicks. Monson, on the other hand, is five foot nine, and resembles Butterbean in appearance. He is a barrel of muscle, a submission specialist who looks to knock his opponents down to the ground and then tie them up.

The Sylvia-Monson fight is being sold as a co-main event Saturday at Arco Arena with welterweight champion Matt Hughes fighting Montreal's Georges St. Pierre in the other headline bout. The fights are live on pay-per-view and UFC President Dana White is hoping that sales will be high.

Both these heavyweights are eye-catching in and out of the ring. They’re not exactly poster boys for the UFC but this fight will show us what the UFC is about.

Monson is a shaven-headed, ball of muscle, weighing in at over 240 pounds. Sylvia is like a grizzly bear standing on its hind legs, and at 265-pounds Sylvia could snap a man’s neck, just like a grizzly bear. His jagged sideburns make him look like something out of a horror B-movie.

"Sylvia’s the toughest guy that I'm going to fight," Monson said. "It seems he’s at the top of his game. He's a tough guy, mean as hell and he's a good puncher, hard to take down. I don't have anything bad to say about him or his fighting abilities."

Monson has sacrificed a lot for this fight, spending the last three months away from his home in Olympia, Washington, his girlfriend and his 13-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter. He has been living in a hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida training at his American Top Team camp.

Monson has twice won the prestigious Abu Dhabi world submission grappling title and got his nickname there. He beat four Brazilians in a row at the 1999 event, and the Brazilians dubbed him snowball because of his momentum. Somehow that ended up as the Snowman, although he is white as snow, apart from his tattoos, and has the shape of a frozen ball of sleet.

Syvlia is a giant, but Monson is no stranger to fighting men bigger than him. He is only five nine, after all. "I don't think I've ever fought a guy my height or shorter as a heavyweight," he said. "Six eight is tall, but when you're inside on him, it doesn't really matter any more." He went on to say “If Sylvia didn’t use it to his advantage, then it wouldn’t be that big a deal, but he’s good at keeping people away and striking with them, so it’s definitely a task, but it’s something where if I’m in tight, it could be to my advantage to be shorter.”

Monson claimed “To be the UFC heavyweight champ would be a dream come true – it would be great, and it’s not just another fight, but in a way it is just another fight and it’s an event that I don’t want to lose”.

Monson has won his last 16 fights, including 11 by submissions, and is 22-5. He had wins in UFC 57, 59 and 61 but before that had not been in the Octagon since UFC 35 in 2000 when he lost to Ricco Rodriguez. Monson was beaten by Chuck Liddell that year in UFC 29 and defeated Tim Lajcik in UFC 27.

In fighting Sylvia, he faces a fighter known for refusing to tap out against Frank Mir in UFC 48 back in 2004, even when his arm snapped in an arm lock. Referee Herb Dean stopped the fight instead. Sylvia impressed by beating Andrei Arlovski twice earlier this year after losing via submission after just 47 seconds in their first fight in 2005.

Sylvia at 24-2 is based out of Iowa, says those wins are proof he deserves respect.

"I think people realize I've beat somebody who was supposed to be unbeatable," said Sylvia, a native of Maine whose nickname is The Maineiac. "Everybody thought he was the greatest thing on earth. Well I beat him twice in a row. First time I knocked him out and then I picked him apart for five rounds. I shut up all the critics after that."

Catch all the action of UFC 65: Bad Intentions on November 18th on Pay Per View, and place your bets right here on BetUS.

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Eamon O'Cairbre is a freelance columnist and regular contributor to the BetUS.com Locker room.