Jul 15 2008
Things don’t look good today for Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.
Not to say that you don’t expect fighters to make mistakes, but I’m sure a few people were caught off guard with this story today. Obviously, what was reported was simply what happened, and I’m sure we’ll hear more details soon.
Credit F4WOnline.com/Wrestling Observer for the quote and details.
Jul 06 2008
One of the things I want to do on fightgameblog.com is provide a follow up to major shows or stories. With a roster of 5 writers (and possibly more) we can gather different viewpoints on issues. Sometimes, the second day look is more important than the immediate one. For starters, the FGBers (fightgamebloggers) took a second look at what we liked (and didn’t) about UFC 86.
Big D
Show overall rating: Thumbs in the middle
Best Fight: Forrest Griffin vs. Quintin “Rampage” Jackson
Worst Fight: Patrick Cote vs. Ricardo Almeida
Jul 06 2008
Here are my predictions for the five fights that are scheduled to be on the PPV show.
Tyson Griffin over Marcus Aurelio by decision.
Josh Koscheck over Chris Lytle by decision. (If Koscheck lets his hands go, this could be the sleeper fight of the night. If not, might be the worst fight of the night.)
Joe Stevenson over Gleison Tibau by third round submission.
Ricardo Almeida over Patrick Cote by second round submission via guillotine.
Rampage Jackson over Forrest Griffin by third round TKO.
By the way, I suck at predictions, so take that for what it’s worth.
1. Tyson Griffin vs. Marcus Aurelio
Jul 04 2008
When I heard that UFC President Dana White announced at the Spike TV Video Game Awards that UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Ultimate Fighter Season One Winner Forrest Griffin would be the two head coaches for the seventh season of the Ultimate Fighter reality series, I got giddy with glee. The 205 lb division in the UFC is without a doubt the most stacked in terms of talent. The most popular stars in the UFC with a few notable exceptions are all from the 205 lb division.
I’ve been there.
I’ve been at the bars and seen the people cheer. Who are they cheering for? Forrest Griffin. Forrest Griffin, ever since giving one hell of a performance against Stephan Bonnar in the finals of the Ultimate Fighter, has been so unbelievably popular its surreal. Anytime he’s fighting anybody, the crowd chants his name. They admire his work ethic and never-say-die attitude. His fight with Tito Ortiz may have done more for his career than anything to notarize the man, but his victory against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua is what really made a lot of people say “damn… this Griffin guy is for real”.
Jul 19 2007
News and notes from around the MMA world …
- Both lightweight champion Sean Sherk and contender Hermes Franca tested positive for steroids after their fight at UFC 73 according to UFCMania.com. Franca sent an apology to MMA Weekly.com to explain his positive test.
- Sherdog.com’s Josh Gross has a story about a drug violations report released by the California State Athletic Commission.
- Zach Arnold of FightOpinion.com provides his take on the situation.
- Dave Meltzer reported yesterday that Mauricio Shogun Rua will face Forrest Griffin on the under card of UFC’s September card in Anaheim. The main event is Chuck Liddell vs. Keith Jardine.
Talking Points
Dana White doesn’t want a dirty sport. That much is obvious. At every step, he and Marc Ratner have talked about regulation as a positive thing. One way to halt UFC’s mainstream push is for many of their fighters to fail steroid tests. Sean Sherk is a workout madman. The fact that he failed a steroid test doesn’t really surprise many in the MMA world, just based on how he looks. But to the common fan who watched his UFC All Access show and watched how hard he trained, I’m not so sure they have the same unsurprised opinion. Most regular sports fans don’t understand steroids and don’t want to understand steroids. To them, a baseball player can steal signs to his benefit, but if he puts something in his body that helps him hit a home run, he’s a cheater. It’s all about the level playing field. And it’s very much black and white.
As UFC grows, they will be under closer examination for failing anything. One way the boxing industry can counter argue MMA and UFC is if more UFC fighters test dirty than boxers. I think Dana White and the people at UFC are smart enough to see this as a problem that could eventually hurt them and will do what they need to do to make sure it doesn’t become a huge issue. But having your lightweight champion test positive for steroids is a big enough deal to raise some eyebrows.
After wondering why Chuck Liddell wasn’t facing Forrest Griffin rather than Keith Jardine, my final thought was that they were protecting Griffin. Well, that thought is out the window. He’s now facing Shogun Rua, who is arguably the best 205 pound guy in the world. He doesn’t have the notoriety of a Chuck Liddell or Rampage Jackson in the US, but many consider him the best based on his career in Pride FC. To me, Liddell vs. Griffin is the biggest match they could’ve created with the situation at hand. Some might say that putting Griffin with Shogun gives the fight some mainstream eyes because Griffin is still the more well known fighter in the US. I buy that somewhat. But if the idea is to make the most money off of two fights, there is no doubt in my mind that Liddell and Griffin would do much more business than any other combination of the four fighters. Yes, that includes putting Shogun in the ring with Chuck, which is a dream fight for any MMA fan. The fact is that Griffin is simply better known and far more popular with the UFC audience. If Griffin loses to Rua, maybe Rua earns instant credibility in the eyes of the US fight fan, but where does that leave Griffin? If he loses to Liddell, he just lost to the UFC’s biggest star. And let’s say that Griffin were to upset either guy. Who does he gain most in beating? Well, that’s an easy one as well.
Match maker Joe Silva and Dana White understand what they are doing. I’m not doing to discredit either man. Both men have forgotten more than I currently know about UFC and their marketplace. The thought simply might be that Rua needs a win over Griffin to immediately become a star in the US. And if that’s the thought, I’m ok with it. Maybe secretly I just want to see Liddell vs. Griffin.
Jul 09 2007
News and notes from around the MMA world …
- According to UFCMania.com, Tito Ortiz and Rashad Evans will fight again in a rematch which will be the next immediate fight for each.
- The website also stated that at the post fight press conference on Saturday, White stated that B.J. Penn was going to stay in the lightweight division. They also reported that Rich Franklin would get his rematch against Anderson Silva for the middleweight championship at UFC 77, and that it would be held in Franklin’s hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio.
- Gary Herman’s Notebook column on CBSSportsline.com has a quote from Dana White saying that Fedor Emelianenko will be fighting in the UFC in late 2007 or early 2008.
Talking Points
After an extremely heavy June, it looks like the MMA world will slow down. The next UFC show isn’t until UFC 74 on August 25, 2007 headlined by Randy Couture’s title defense against Gabriel Gonzaga. It will be interesting to see if the lack the national coverage will put the UFC on the back burner for a while.
What happened to all the ESPN coverage? They had a ton of coverage for the show headlined by Chuck Liddell vs. Quinton Jackson just two months ago. But after that, it’s been pretty light. On ESPN’s website, Wladimir Klitschko’s victory over Lamon Brewster in a heavyweight title fight was on the front page. I didn’t see if the UFC show made the front page or not, but if it did, it wasn’t up there for long. The boxing match wasn’t even a PPV event, instead being shown on HBO on Saturday afternoon. While the UFC didn’t have an easy to market fight on the card, they did have a lightweight and middleweight title fight in addition to a Tito Ortiz fight. From a notoriety standpoint, Ortiz is probably in the top 5 of recognizable faces in MMA and has headlined two of the biggest UFC PPV shows in history against Chuck Liddell and Ken Shamrock. It’s easy to see that a Tito Ortiz fight means more to MMA than a Wladimir Klitschko title fight does for boxing. But until the UFC is able turn the corner in the eyes of the sports media, a UFC event which is big business based on live gate and PPV buys will still not be seen as important as a boxing match that wasn’t even important enough to put on PPV.
Comments Off
Jun 22 2007
News and notes from around the MMA world …
- In an argument that we’re going to see probably until the end of time, ESPN.com goes 12 rounds with writers Tim Struby and Ryan Hockensmith. Someone please send Tim Struby a tape of Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar I or even the fight last weekend between Tyson Griffin and Clay Guida.
- Two days ago, The Fight Network’s Brian Knapp reported through Loretta Hunt that Ken Shamrock could possibly come out of retirement to face new young star Michael Bisping on the undercard of UFC 75. The scheduled main event for that card is a showdown between UFC Light Heavyweight champ Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Pride Middleweight and Welterweight champ Dan Henderson. However, just yesterday, Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer reported that while the match between Shamrock and Bisping has been discussed, the scheduled match at this time is still between Matt Hamill and Michael Bisping.
- Sports Illustrated’s Todd Martin has quotes from both Manny Gamburyan and Nate Diaz about their match-up Saturday night in the finals of the latest The Ultimate Fighter.
- Manny Gamburyan also chatted with Sam Caplan from CBS Sportsline about his experience on The Ultimate Fighter including what Gabe Ruediger was really like on the show.
Talking Points
There’s a lot of fan discussion about who really won the fight between Tyson Griffin and Clay Guida at last Saturday’s UFC show from Belfast, Ireland. I scored it for Griffin simply because I thought he scored more from being on the bottom than Guida did from being on the top in the third and deciding round. However, it seems that the majority of fans (including those in Belfast) thought Guida won, which is entirely possible. Those in the Guida camp believe that he not only won the second round (which I also had him winning), but that by being on top, he dominated the third round. I’m not sure it was robbery, though both Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez from Figure 4 Online thought Guida won definitively. I’m fine with the fight going either way, but I may have to watch it again to see how I’d score it a second time. It’s not like watching that great fight again would be a chore.
I will be attending Strike Force’s first Pay Per View event on Friday night in San Jose, CA. The fight between Frank Shamrock and Phil Baroni has been built up for many months and is sure to be a big ticket seller in the Bay Area. I will have a live report and hopefully some photos from the event. I’ll also have more on the fight and the event itself in the next couple of days.
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