Written by Lex on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 in EliteXC, MMA, The Shoot, UFC, Uncategorized.
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.
While I thought UFC 86 was a solid, if unspectacular PPV offering, any momentum the show had was killed off by the erratic performance of the judges in the final two fights last night. If you read any of my live coverage last night, you know that I had both Almeida and and Rampage winning their fights.
As someone who was, quite honestly, rooting for Rampage Jackson, I decided to take a respite from blogging immediately after the show, and then re-watch the last two fights this afternoon with a clear head and see if I came to a different conclusion about each decision. Of course, I focused on the rounds in question: round two of the Côté/Almeida fight, and rounds one, three and five of the Jackson/Griffin fight.
Written by Lex on Saturday, July 5th, 2008 in UFC.
It’s time for another highly-anticipated UFC PPV, with Forrest Griffin and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson facing off in the main event for Jackson’s light heavyweight title. If you haven’t read my UFC 86 preview, check it out to brush up on the fighters on tonight’s card, as well as my picks for the show.
Here’s what the UFC has planned for tonight’s show:
Discuss UFC 86 here. I’ll be leaving live results in the comment thread as the show progresses.
Written by Lex on Friday, July 4th, 2008 in UFC.
UFC 86 doesn’t seem to be getting the hype that it deserves. The main event for this card is nothing short of epic, as two of the greatest fighters in MMA history will face off for the UFC light heavyweight championship. Based on that alone, this should be one of the most hyped UFC events ever, but it just doesn’t seem that way.
Regardless, let’s go ahead and get on with previewing the main card for UFC 86.
Written by Lex on Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 in UFC.
Forrest Griffin did an interview with The Sun this week discussing his upcoming fight against “Rampage” Jackson. The interview was standard pre-fight fare, and the most interesting portion regarded a completely different subject: Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida. Here’s what Griffin had to say about “The Dragon”:
“I want nothing to do with that guy. Not at all. He’s a tough fighter and I’d like to fight a lot of other guys first.”
Wow. That’s a pretty weird quote, if you ask me. It’s possible that The Sun took the quote out of context, but it does make Griffin sound like he’s afraid of losing to Machida.
Still, we all know that Griffin’s not afraid, and my take on it is that Griffin doesn’t want to face Machida because of his fighting style.
Machida’s last fight against Tito Ortiz was a perfect example of what I’m talking about. While Machida was victorious, he did it in a very surgical manner. It wasn’t the kind of stuff that riles up the fans–Machida got in, got out, and bobbed and weaved around the ring. It was by no means as bad as what Kalib Starnes did at UFC 83 against Nate Quarry, but it still wasn’t crowd-pleasing. While Machida is a talented guy, I’m not exactly excited about seeing him main event pay-per-views if he’s going to continue to fight in that style.
Griffin is smart to avoid Machida if at all possible, but he probably should have expressed his desire to do so in a different manner.
The UFC has officially begun announcing matches for UFC 86, which will take place on July 5, 2008 at the Mandalay Events Center in Las Vegas. Here’s the official card that’s been announced so far on UFC.com:
In addition, the following matches have been rumored or announced by outside sources, but not confirmed by UFC.com:
Of course, the most anticipated bout will be the main event, where “Rampage” Jackson will square off against Forest Griffin. I’ll go ahead and pick Jackson to win this fight, but this could be his toughest test yet. While I think Jackson will take the fight, I wouldn’t be shocked to see Forest Griffin walk out of Mandalay Bay as champion. I do think this fight will go all five rounds.
The Frank Mir/Justin McCulley fight should also be good–look for Mir to continue his winning ways and tap out McCulley in this one.
The sleeper fight of the night could be Patrick Côté v. Ricardo Almeida. Côté has won four fights in a row since his loss to Travis Lutter, and Almeida is most definitely back at full strength after nearly four years out from the sport. This one is really tough to pick, but my gut says Almeida because of his experience. Even though he was out for nearly four years, let’s not forget that Almeida has won seven fights in a row dating back to 2002. I’m definitely jacked for this one.
Written by Lex on Sunday, March 9th, 2008 in UFC.
Chuck Liddell recently did two interviews with The Sun newspaper out of the UK. It looks like he’s got two guys that he’d like to face in the coming year–Fedor Emelianenko and “The Dean of Mean,” Keith Jardine. Chuck had a lot to say about the possibility of a fight with Fedor and a move up to the Heavyweight division:
“I think I could take him. I think I match up well with him.
“As far as I know he’s never knocked anyone out from his feet and I think he’d have a hard time taking me down.”
And The Iceman admitted a move up to the heavyweight division could happen once he has achieved his goals at light heavyweight.
He added: “A move to heavyweight is a possibility for me. If I’m done with everything at light heavyweight I might move up.
“The top guys up there aren’t all that big heavyweights. Randy was but I knocked him out twice.”
It sounds like Chuck would try and turn it into a stand-up fight with Fedor. He’s certainly got the knock out power to take him down. With Fedor now making overtures toward the UFC, this fight could happen sooner rather than later, although you’d have to think Fedor would get his fight with Randy Couture, first.
In the same interview, Liddell revealed that he wouldn’t mind taking on Wanderlei Silva again. That would be one rematch that people would be clamoring for.
In another interview with the Sun, Chuck said he’d like a rematch with Keith Jardine. Well, at least, after he gets a light heavyweight title shot at the Forest Griffin/Rampage Jackson winner. So if you’re scoring at home, Chuck wants to Rampage or Forrest Griffin fight for the light heavyweight title, Keith Jardine, Wanderlei Silva and Fedor Emelianenko. That’s all well and good, but Chuck better not forget about Rashad Evans at UFC 85. With the winner of that matchup likely getting the next title shot, I’d say Evans will be pretty damn focused.
