Category: Mixed Martial Arts

The Iceman Chuck Liddell, UFC’s most dominant Light Heavyweight fighter, has been unbeated in about 3 years. Last night saw the Iceman fell via KO by the hands of an opponent who last beaten him, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson.

How did Rampage beat Chuck?

It’s all about styles of fighting. Chuck’s hands are dynamite and anyone caught with one of his punches will go to sleep. Chuck knows the power he has and uses it well. Chuck likes to keep his distance and throw his looping punches and combinations. His strategy includes moving laterally around the cage or even back pedaling to lure his opponents. From there, Chuck would catch them with his big hooks.

Unfortunately, the strategy seems to work with grapplers with less stellar stand-up skills. Unlike Chucks past victims, Rampage has a get-in-your-face style and actually has the skill to go toe-to-toe with the Iceman. Rampage controlled the Octagon from the get-go. Chuck moved around trying to find his range. Every punch Chuck threw Rampage was able to block. It was during a flurry of Chuck’s punches that Rampage was able to throw a heavy right hook that drops Chuck to the floor. Smelling blood, Rampage pounced and finished the fight.

Chuck has now been dethroned and Rampage is in the spotlight. A title defense is in the works, and Rampage will have to defend his newly held title against long time friend, Dan Henderson. Pride’s 185 and 205 lbs Champion.

For the first time UFC gave the American and Canadian MMA fans a free UFC PPV-type event. Everyone else in the world had to pay to watch. The card was stacked with big names such as Arlovski, Bisping, Werdum, and Mirko Cro Cop. This is the third UFC event in a row where the main event bout was won by the underdog. These underdogs weren’t just average underdogs, the odds were heavily against them. Everyone expected them to lose.

First, it was Couture who got the upset by beating Tim Syliva by unanimous decision. Then it was Matt Serra that beat George St. Pierre by TKO, ref stoppage. And last night, Gonzaga, who did the unthinkable, KOed Cro Cop with a high kick to the temple dropping the Croation like a sack of potatos.

It’s either hell has frozen over or that MMA is taking its course of natural selection. These upsets maybe exciting for the newer fans of MMA, but for me, a long-time and serious fan, it’s driving me nuts.

I totally forgot. Back in Feburary I went to Vegas for a birthday thing with some friends. It was the same weekend as the PrideFC event. During breakfast as Ceasar’s Palace I ran into Shogun and Josh Barnett. My friend took the pictures and sent them to my email and I forgot all about it. Well here it is.

This UFC event was an underdog betting man’s dream. Three out of the five fights on the card were won by the underdogs. The overall event was decent, but unfortunately George St. Pierre (GSP), a favorite fighter of mine, loss to Matt Serra. The odd against Serra were huge, 12 to 1. Before the fight it was almost inconceivable to believe that GSP would lose. It’s not easy watching your fighter lose in any fashion. But we all know in an MMA fight anything can happen. I’m sure if they fight again GSP will still be the favorite to win.

What did GSP do wrong in this fight? GSP didn’t have the same aggression as he did in his previous fights. His striking is technically superior to Serra’s yet he seemed to have held back. The only reason I can think of is that GSP respected his opponent too much and fought too cautiously. You have to give Serra credit for not just winning but to choose to stand and strike with GSP, and luckily for him GSP’s cautiousness Serra was able to catch GSP with a right hook that stunned him where Serra would take advantage and finish the fight.

The Sanchez and Koscheck bout was the fight I was more excited to see. Sanchez was on a 19 fight winning streak, and Koscheck has been moving up the rankings in the welter weight division. Their last encounter was on the first season of TUF where Sanchez won the fight, but only due to the fact that Koscheck was inexperience and his MMA talent consisted mostly of his wrestling abilities. After TUF Koscheck began training at AKA where he was able to develop into a more complete MMA fighter.

Koscheck came into the bout with an effective game plan, to stand and test Sanchez’s striking. In round one, the majority of the round had them standing toe to toe with Koscheck scoring with his jabs and straight punches. The last 20 seconds Koscheck took Sanchez to the ground, but only to be swept and Sanchez almost having Koscheck’s back at the end of the first round. Rounds two and three were similar but minus the takedown. Sanchez is a smart fighter, but I don’t understand why he didn’t take the fight to the ground where it seem he was better than Koscheck. His standup wasn’t scoring any points with the judges. Maybe it was his ego, and he wanted to win by KO. Koscheck definitely deserve the win even though the crowd was unhappy with the performance. UFC loves setting up rematches and we can see them again for a third time sometime in the future. But for now, Koscheck has the last laugh.

This overall Las Vegas trip was great. I was able to stay on top at the tables 😀

Check out the rest of the pictures in the gallery.

I will be posting live results for the event since I’m here watching it live. So don’t read further if you don’t want me to spoil it for you.

Continue reading “UFC 67 Live results. Literally.”

Anderson Silva and Geroge St. Pierre will be defending their title.

Quinten “Rampage” Jackson and Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic will be making their UFC debut.

Eat your heart out suckas!

Update:
George St. Pierre will not be fighting due to a knee injury.