In today’s edition of the shoot, I’ve got all the MMA news fit to print, including tons of fallout from the UFC 86 PPV, news on Cro Cop and EliteXC’s July 26 mega-card.

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In an interview with Sherdog.com, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s trainer Juanito Ibarra revealed that the Jackson camp may officially protest the outcome of the fight:

“We got robbed,” Ibarra told Sherdog.com Sunday afternoon. “We won the majority of the fight.”

Ibarra also said he immeadietly asked Dana White for a rematch:

According to Ibarra, there is no “if” concerning a rematch.

“I got it. I got it. I’m not waiting. Next fight,” said the coach, who explained that he approached UFC President Dana White and co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta in the Octagon about making a rematch. “I asked for it, immediately, in the cage, and Forrest agreed. The rematch is going to go like I first thought. Forrest is going to try to do more, and next time he’s gonna get beat.”

Randy Couture, interviewed in the same article, thinks that training-partner Forrest Griffin won a close fight:

“I thought that it was a very, very close fight,” Couture said. “I thought that it was three rounds to two [for Griffin]. I thought that Quinton did enough to win two of the rounds clearly. I thought they may have been able to give Quinton a 10-8 round in the first round with the knockdown and then the second round you could have given Forrest a 10-8 round.

“And it could have went the other way. If one or two rounds went the other way, it could have been three rounds to two for Quinton. It was that close.”

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While Ramapge seemed resigned to defeat in his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, he certainly changed his tune at the post fight press conference, according to MMA Weekly:

“I was surprised he won the fight, cause I could have swore I dropped him a couple times, I power bombed him, and then it was unanimous, I’m kind of surprised about that,” said former champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. “I feel like if you the champ, somebody got to beat the champ, but it was unanimous, I’m not a judge.”

Hmm, I could have sworn that he dropped him a couple of times, too. It definitely looks like this rivalry is heating up, and all the post-fight controversy means that this is the time for a rematch–Dana White should strike while the iron’s hot.

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The CompuStrike analysis for the Griffin/Jackson fight is very intriguing. I’ve never been a big fan of computer analysis of strikes in an MMA or boxing match–sometimes they tell the story accurately, and sometimes they are way off. I think both sides could make a case using the analysis from this fight.

Griffin was the more active fighter, landing 145 of 441 strikes, or 33 percent. Griffin landed more than half of his leg strikes (51 of 99) and nearly half of his ground strikes (46 of 95). However, Griffin only landed 19 percent of his arm strikes (48 of 247). Griffin also had four submission attempts (key word attempts), and two dominant positions–Jackson is listed as having no dominant positions, which I find odd considering Jackson was on top of Griffin in rounds one and four.

Despite Griffin’s activity, Jackson was far more efficient, hitting 84 of 173 strikes for 49 percent (67 of 141 arm strikes, 3 for 4 leg strikes and 14 of 28 ground strikes). Another big advantage for Jackson came in power arm strikes– he landed 64 to Griffin’s 47.

Make of these numbers what you will, but they seem to beg one question: is the better fighter more active, or more accurate?

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One more Rampage Jackson tidbit coming out of UFC 86: according to MMA Junkie, the Nevada Athletic Commission has suspended Jackson until January 2 due to possible leg injuries. This is standard stuff, and Jackson can be cleared by a doctor to fight before then.

Forrest Griffin was also suspended until September 4 due to the laceration on his eyelid. A full list of suspended fighters is available at MMA Junkie.

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In other UFC 86 news, Dana White has confirmed that Patrick Côté will indeed get a middleweight title shot, most likely in November.

“He’s getting the title shot,” Dana White told the Canadian Press.

Côté will most likely face Anderson Silva, who may have to get by Yushin Okami at UFC 88 in September, although that fight has not been confirmed.

Call me jaded, but if Côté’s fight against Ricardo Almeida is any indication, I don’t think he’ll have much of a chance against Silva.

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Speaking of Anderson Silva, it’s obvious that his opponent at the July 19 UFC Card, James Irvin, has no lack of confidence. Irvin made some interesting comments to Fightline.com today:

“I see what Silva is doing. There’s no one left for him to beat up at 185,” said Irvin, “but I think he’d better off going down a weight class. He’s not going to be as strong as he was at 185 lbs. He won’t be able to bully anybody around.”

Irvin does admit that Silva possesses superior skills, but believes that the Brazilian superstar won’t be strong enough to handle him.

“He’s a better fighter than me. He’s better all around than me,” said Irvin. “But I am bigger and stronger.”

I admire Irvin’s confidence, but he’s got to realize that his strength and size advantage may be a moot point against such a masterful fighter. I’ll still take Anderson Silva in this fight.

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I’ll close out my UFC-talk for this edition of The Shoot with one final UFC rumor. MMA Junkie reports that if UFC 89 is indeed picked up by Spike TV, UFC 90 could air a week later on PPV (Oct. 25) from Chicago, Illinois.

This would be the first UFC event in Chicago, which just started regulating MMA last year. If you’ve ever wanted to go to a UFC event outside of Las Vegas, this might be the one to check out–I was just in Chicago last week, and it’s definitely a fun town, and highly conducive to this type of event.

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Mirko Cro Crop has officially pulled out of Dream 5, according to his blog:

unfortunately I have some bad news– I won’t be fighting at DREAM 5 at all. I was about to face Jerome LeBanner but he decided to fight in K1 against Schilt. Mighty Mo was the alternative and I accepted this challenge, but unfortunately Mighty Mo pulled off from the fight. I was ready to face Mo, but maybe this scenario wasn’t that bad for me at all and I’ll tell you why.
I’ve been having problems with my right elbow for years and the injury got even worse over last 6 months. I’m already receiving a proper treatment but the recovery won’t happen over night. The second problem is a knee injury, something that troubles me for quite a while. I had difficulties using my kicks and over last few weeks I focused more on boxing and grappling. I really wanted to fight on July 21 and I was even ignoring doctor’s suggestions, but now I’ve rached the point from which I can’t continue with my normal training regiment due to my injuries.
I was willing to accept the risk of fighting Mo or someone else without being 100% ready fo the fight. I had only one fight this year, I miss big fights and top level competition. I’m eager to get back to the big stage, I still have good fights left in me and I won’t give up. I’m not happy with this outcome of course, but at this moment I need to be patient and give some time for my body to recover.
I’m scheduled for arthroscopy tomorrow morning, it’s a minor surgical procedure but it will keep me away from MMA trainings for 2-3 weeks probably. From Wednesday I’ll focus on my new cardio training program and we’ll add MMA elements to my training regiment as soon as my knee will be ready for action.
My goal is to become the first heavyweight champion in DREAM and to do that I need to be ready to fight on September 23. I’m not interested in summer time, vacations or things like that; I’ll focus on getting back to shape and hopefully I’ll fight in September. I would really like to fight Alistair Overeem, we all know why and I won’t let it go. My career is far from being over, I’ll be fighting some strong competitors soon again and hopefully I’ll meet Fedor in the ring once more in 2009.

It’s unfortunate that Mirko is hurt, but if this time allows him to get better and eventually work up to facing Fedor Emelianenko, it’s worth it.

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Final piece of news for the day: the EliteXC on CBS card for July 26 is now final. EliteXC has added a women’s bout to the televised portion of the show: Shayna Baszler v. Cristiane Cyborg. I’m not particularly familiar with either woman, but how awesome is the name “Cyborg?”

Here’s the complete card for the show. Note that part of the card will air on CBS, and part on Showtime–that’s going to be one long, great night of MMA for yours truly:

CBS Card

• EliteXC Middleweight Championship: Scott “Hands of Steel” Smith v. Robbie Lawler(c) II
• EliteXC Welterweight Championship: Jake Shields v. Nick Thompson
• Lightweight bout: “Wildman” Thomas Denny v. Nick Diaz
• Bantamweight bout: Shayna Baszler v. Cristiane Cyborg

Showtime Card

• EliteXC Heavyweight Championship: Antonio Silva v. Justin Eilers
• Light Heavyweight bout: Rafael Feijao v. TBA
• Featherweight bout: Wilson Reis v. Brian Caraway