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UFC 86 Jackson vs Griffin: A Look Back

Oct 27

Posted by Matthew Brown in MMA | Comments off

 

I originally saw this event live. I must admit I didn’t remember what a great card this was until a recent review. This event was held on July 5, 2008, at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Corey Hill vs Justin Buchholz

Hill was known as the tallest lightweight in the UFC. With the height came a seven inch reach advantage. He came out strong in the early rounds showing off his cardio and solid striking. It looked like early in the fight Hill was going to take it with ease. Buchholz has a wrestling base and had been training with then WEC Champ Uriajiah Faber. Even though Justin had been punched in the face several times but started to land a lot of good leg kicks. Later in the first round he started to look a lot more comfortable. Even so Hill kept bring superior striking and killer uppercuts. Justin was rocked more than once to finish the first.

In the second round it looked it was only a natter of time before Hill’s striking finished the fight. However, Justin came out with a strong leg kick and rocked Hill followed by a flurry of punches. As they went to the ground, Hill tried to seperate Justin’s arm and jumped to side control but as Justin rolled his able to get to Hill’s back and sink in a huge rear naked choke FTW.

Melvin Guilliard vs Dennis Siver

One of the best performances of Guillard’s career. He came out and almost instantly caught the German with an overhand right that knocked him to the ground. Siver survived the initial on slaught and they both stood-up. In only a few seconds though Melvin caught him again and then just reigned down a flurry of punches that reminded me of a Vitor Belfort finish. Currently he doesn’t look like Guillard has come very far. He still isn’t a well known lightweight and isn’t considered in the top five.

Jorge Gurgel – Cole Miller

Both of these guys opened with decent striking, clinche and working their opponent. Later in the 1st Miller got rocked. He was able to regain his composure in the clinche. After a few leg kicks round one was in the books.

After almost two rounds of back and forth striking with less than a minute when the fight went to the ground Jorge left his arm in the guard and Miller slipped in a nice triangle. This was an amazing submission of a long-time jujitsu black belt.

Gaberial Gonzaga vs Justin Mccully

Mccully had been working his way up the heavyweight ranks and caught Gonzaga on his way down. Geberial, once a title contender became a gate keeper and tested Mccully. This fight was all Gonzaga as he dropped Mccully early with a tremendous Leg Kick. This put Gonzaga on top and he was just to much. With the mount he easily put on an Americana.

Tyson Griffin vs Marcus Aurelio

Griffin basically dominated the entire fight. Oddly enough he hasn’t done a whole lot in his career since then. Griffin is one of those guys that’s hard to match up with the fighters currently in the division. It has yet to be seen whether or not Aurelio has since developed. After watching this fight it’s obvious that he needs to work pretty much everything except jujitsu.

Patrick Cote vs Ricardo Almeida

This was a really close fight. Usually even when the judges have a close decision I still have a clear winner in my head. It looked like Almedia ground n pounded the first round, but Cote scrapped out the second. The third round was extremely close. I believe this fight really gives props to Almedia though.

Looking back cote had a title shot against Anderson Silva because he beating and finishing guys and the fact he couldn’t do anything with Ricardo is kind of amazing. Cote has the Split decision. Watching this fight it’s easy to see how Almedia lost a fight to Matt Hughes.

Jackson vs Griffin:

Well, I certainly remember this fight quite vividly. All I can think about is leg kicks and Forrest taking Rampage’s belt. Jackson did do more damage in the first round than what I remember. Forrest had already worn that leg out in the 2nd and Rampage dropped so he could get elbows for the rest of the round.  I enjoyed this fight more the second time around. It’s kind of funny how irrelevant both of these guys seem now at the light-weight division has taken on a completely new form.

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UFC 114 Jackson vs Evans

Jun 26

Posted by Matthew Brown in MMA | Comments off

Another event where the preliminary bouts shined through to save from a lack luster (more lacking than lustering) main event. This event took place on May 29th at the MGM in Vegas. I was troubled to watch one of my favorite fighters Amir Sadollah lost his bout. He just gained a new sponsor and I was hoping to see a win for him. I’m not sure how much longer he will be around or how many more fights he has in his contract from winning TUF.

Duffee vs Russow: When Roy Nelson busted on the scene of the UfC’s reality TV show with a large gut and the ability to fight I thought that he would be the only fighter we would see in a long time to look in such bad shape and be so tough and a good fighter but wow at Russow. Duffee with this massive muscular physique came charging at Russow’s fat rolls like he was going to kill. For the most part he did though Duffee landed some pretty big shots but Russow just kept absorbing them and moving around. By trying to end the fight so quickly the Mr. muscle ran out of gas and out of no where Russow landed the big KO punch in the third round. While I was watching this fight there were a lot of guys laughing at Russow because he was so soft looking and over weight. It looked as though this fight was going to be a joke. One of the things I love about this sport is the surprises.

Diego vs Hathaway: Diego looked focused walking in. He always does. I’m definitely a fan of his attitude and zeal for his fights. He knows what he’s doing but this young British Hathaway kid looked really good. His striking and combos was on key – good head movement and foot work. I was really surprised as I had never heard of Hathaway before this event. He definitely has talent and a future in the UFC at his age. As for Diego, he seems to be moving into a more stagnant gate keeper role like Josh Koscheck to the true contenders in his weight class.

Noguiera vs Brills: A close fight. It was hard for me to really examine a close fight like this in the environment I was in. There was a lot of ground action. It’s been some time since I’ve enjoyed a fight with so much ground work. You could tell both of these guys wanted a win bad. This was a very good fight for the virtually unknown Brills. Even though he lost this fight to one of the Nog brothers it was a tremendous effort that put him in the spotlight.

Rampage vs Evans: Another fight that doesn’t live up to its hype. Say what you will about Anderson Silva but if he isn’t going to finish a fight at least he dances for you. After all the trash talking and verbal abuse by these guys you would think that there would be a little bit more going on. All they basically did was pin each other up against the cage and sit there. Okay, it was ‘wrestling’. Of course the brief moments of ground and pound by each fighter followed by more boring pins. Not enough to justify a PPV main event. It just goes to show the business is just as much about hype as it is fighting. Of course we also understand the case that these guys did want to play it conservatively. I mean who wants to go in guns blazing and get KO’d early in the first round?

I think the truth is it’s going to be hard for a fighter to focus on winning fights when they are doing everything but training for it. We have seen numerous examples of what happens when fighters focus on other things than the fight game and with all the tine and energy that goes into making the movie the distraction proved to be to much for Rampage. He looked out of shape.

Now that Rashad is looking at another title shot is anyone really interested in a Shogun fight? Does anyone really think that Rashad can beat him? Nope.

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