I didn’t get to see any of the action tonight, but by the looks of it, it wasn’t the greatest nights of fights.

Juan Manuel Marquez knocked out Joel Casamayor in the 11th round to become the new lightweight champion.

Vernon Forrest proved that he isn’t done by cleanly defeating Sergio Mora in a one sided unanimous decision.

SC at Bad Left Hook has all the details.

Several things are going on this weekend.

Tomorrow night, we have two fairly decent sized title fights.

Juan Manuel Marquez and Joel Casamayor are fighting for the lightweight champion with Sergio Mora and Vernon Forrest underneath. Marquez is coming up to lightweight, hoping to secure a third fight with Manny Pacquiao and faces the lineal champion in Casamayor. Casamayor could possibly get a fight with Pacquiao if he’s impressive in victory.

Of course, that’s after Pacquiao’s big fight with Oscar De La Hoya at the end of this year.

Mora and Forrest are fighting for Mora’s newly won junior middleweight title, which he beat Forrest for earlier this year. Forrest looked well on his way to beating up the smaller Mora, but about mid way through, the fight changed and Mora looked quicker, slicker, and just outpointed him the rest of the way. All of a sudden, Forrest looked all of his 37 years old. It will be interesting to see which Forrest we’ll get because we know which Mora we’ll get. He’s always been “The Latin Snake”. Will Forrest be “The Viper” though?

Also, TNA has a PPV this weekend. No Surrender features a four way for the belt between Samoa Joe, Kurt Angle, Christian Cage, and Booker T. They are teasing a Jeff Jarrett return, and if you go to TNA’s website they are also teasing Mick Foley. Foley left WWE last month after his contract ran out. He was Jim Ross’ Smackdown announcing partner and said that part of his reason for leaving was because of Vince McMahon yelling at him through his headset.

If they waste Foley’s return without using him to sell the show, it’s a huge mistake.

Though UFC and WWE are no where to be found this weekend, it’s still going to be a pretty good weekend of action.

Here’s our takes on what happened this past weekend with UFC and WWE.

UFC 88

GG

Show overall rating: Thumbs down

Best Fight: Rich Franklin vs. Matt Hamill
Worst Fight: Chuck Liddell vs. Rashad Evans

I rarely dislike UFC shows, but I just couldn’t get into this one. I was amazed that instead of putting Kurt Pelligrino vs. Thiago Tavares on the live show, they put Dong Hyun Kim vs. Matt Brown on the live show. From the live feedback, Pelligrino’s win was the best match on the show, and before the show, I thought it was definitely going to be good. Brown vs. Kim was boring. I thought Dan Henderson vs. Rousimar Palhares was such a style clash that it made the fight awkward. Even though Rich Franklin vs. Matt Hamill was the kind of match where the guys didn’t really dislike each other, I thought there was good action and some tough striking. Franklin looked beat up and he’s the guy who won. Chuck Liddell didn’t fight his fight and tried to stalk Rashad Evans rather than be the counter puncher like usual. And Evans stayed away from him so much that the first round might’ve been one of most boring rounds I’ve ever seen. Then Evans waylaid him and it was over. Crazy one punch knockout, terrible terrible fight.

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Earlier this evening, The San Jose Mercury News reported that a body, possibly believed to be that of former UFC middleweight champion, Evan Tanner was found near a remote desert campsite near the California/Arizona border.

The UFC has confirmed that it was indeed Tanner’s body. Thomas Gerbasi of UFC.com reported that Evan Tanner has passed away at the age of 37.

Here’s part of his article.

Tanner, on a camping trip in the Palo Verde mountain area, was found by an Imperial County Sheriff’s Department Deputy on Monday. The cause of death is not known at this time. He had not answered friends’ text messages since last Wednesday, and was officially reported missing on Friday.

Tanner was best known as the former UFC middleweight champion, who beat David Terrell for the vacant championship in 2005. He would lose it to Rich Franklin in his first title defense. The last bout of his career was a loss to Kendall Grove at The Ultimate Fighter 7 Finale.

Let me just say that the only reason I bought this show was because of Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels. Nothing else is even half way interesting.

Picture by Erdnuckel_86

To a lesser extent, having the ability to purchase the show in HD was also a buying factor. We don’t even get Raw or Smackdown in HD out here in Gilroy, CA. Charter needs to work on their HD signal as I’m seeing a bit of pixelation.

1. ECW Championship Scramble

Matt Hardy and the Miz started out the match. No pinfalls, but the Miz did hit his finisher for a two count.

Chavo came out next, hit the frog splash on Matt Hardy and is the in match champion.

Hardy hit the side effect and pinned Chavo and is the in match champion. Mark Henry is in next.

Henry hit the world’s strongest slam on Chavo and pinned him and is the new in match champion. Finlay is the last guy in.

Finlay pinned Hardy, but then Hardy pinned The Miz. Hardy is the current in match champion. The Miz has a nasty cut and is bleeding pretty badly.

Hardy played keep away for about 3 minutes, which didn’t really make sense because the rules state that you can pin anyone an win the belt. But Hardy is the new ECW Champion. Henry lost the belt without having been pinned.

Winner: Matt Hardy

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This has gone from a show with the UFC’s top draw, to an overlooked show that was overshadowed by the Randy Couture’s return and his upcoming fight with Brock Lesnar.

But it’s still Chuck Liddell and whenever Chuck fights, there’s excitement.

1. Dong Hyun Kim vs. Matt Brown

Matt’s nickname is Matt “The Immortal” Brown. He’s just waiting to be beat with that nickname. I guess “The Undefeated” Matt Brown was taken. Kim didn’t have a nickname unfortunately.

Kim got Brown’s back within the first 30 seconds of the fight and tried for the standing rear naked choke, but it was too early in the fight and Brown was too strong. Brown kept the pressure on him, but Kim was pretty savvy and has great body control.

The second round was pretty much all Matt Brown. He used his strength to control Kim, got him in a clinch, and then took him down and utilized his ground and pound.

Brown used his strength to push Kim around for much of the third, but Kim got him down and was throwing some vicious elbows, busting Brown open underneath his left eye to end the round.

Winner: Dong Hyun Kim by way of split decision

I told you that nickname was bad news.

2. Martin Kampmann vs. Nate Marquardt

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