1st of all give the devil his due, some pretty entertaining fights on a lackluster fight card. This was helped by awful refereeing (again), last second comebacks, just wildly over matched fighters, and a great main event.
Quinton "Rampage" Jackson defeats Keith Jardine by Unanimous Decision in a dig in and fight headliner. Let's just stop the drinking game where whenever someone calls Jardine "unorthodox" or "awkward" you drink, and lets just call him a good fighter. The 2 men threw early and I immediately noticed Keith's hands down and boom he's knocked down and eats a lot of punches on his way back to the feet, but toughs it out and recovers. Jardine looks really tired and Rampage shoots in and takes him down! The 2nd saw some good exchanges as both fighters start settling down when with about a minute left, Keith lands huge and hurts Jackson. Both men just throw in a monstrous exchange but the "Dean Of Mean" is gassed and can't finish Quinton. In the final round the 2 run in and collide in the center of the octagon. As the fight ensues Jackson surprises Jardine again with a takedown he was not prepared for. Keith is winning the 3rd on the feet but neither man is hurt now. In the final 30 seconds Rampage turns it on and even knocks down Keith again for the final seconds to steal the round. Close fight but little doubt as to who won and Rampage gets the title shot as Rashad Evans enters the cage and the 2 exchange an entertaining trash talk session for a few moments hyping up their future fight. Pretty damn funny and worth watching.
Shane Carwin was hurt and getting owned by Gabriel Gonzaga when he threw a huge bomb that saved his ass as he KO'd Napao! I hate to say it, but I thought this might happen as the better fighter just got caught by the crushing hands of a 4XL gloved Heavyweight. Had Napao not gone for the takedown when he had Shane rocked, he might have put him away instead of getting caught by a last ditch punch. Move on Mr. Carwin and Gabe is about to take a long road back to relevance.
Matt "What?" Hamill had little trouble with Mark Munoz and head kicked him to sleep in an as always sloppy performance. Mark was out for a long time but walked out of the ring with a neck brace but under his own power. Why the announcers keep referring to Matt's striking as "much improved" when he should be called "Hands Down" Hamill, I have no idea. Yet, Munoz had no stand up at all and no business being in there as he does not look UFC ready. I'm still not impressed with Matt or his oft limited gas tank.
Matt Brown beat the shit outta Pete Sell in a bizarre 1-sided affair. Brown came out and hurt Sell with a superman punch and then just brutalized him. Pete goes down and ref Yves Lavine steps in between the fighters to stop the fight, Sell gets up, and Yves tells the fighters to continue!? Brown looks shocked and continues to assault "Drago" who is falling all around the ring and falls down without a punch! Matt glares at Lavine to stop the fight but he doesn't and Brown punches the helpless fighter until finally Yves stops the madness. Jeezus, that was unnecessary as the normally great referee Yves Lavine screwed this up bad Brown was incredulous at the fight not being stopped and showed good class looking out for the clowned Sell.
Gray Maynard defeats Jim Miller by unanimous decision in the bullying way everyone knew he would. The surprise was Gray did it on the feet, beating and bloodying Jim in a lopsided affair. Nice win for Maynard whose takedown defense looked stellar helping him advance in the stacked Lightweight division.
Tamdan McCrory TKO'd Ryan Madigan with some evil elbows after dominating the fight though he did make a mistake an almost got caught in a leg lock. More on the "Barn Cat" in a moment.
Kendall Grove also got a TKO win against Jason Day in uno rounda. Day needs to drop to Welterweight and I'd like to see a BJ Penn trained Kendall Grove vs Tamdan McCrory in a battle of the lankys. It would be a good next step for both fighters and good luck to Day as he will be cut from the UFC roster by Monday.
A focused Brandon Vera chopped down Mike Patt who obviously is out of his league in the UFC (he'll be joining Day & Munoz on the unemployment line soon). Zero answer for Vera's picture perfect leg kicks who is ready for top tier competition again.
Shane Nelson knocked down Aaron Riley and the ref stopped the fight in an absurd premature stoppage! What the hell was that about? Aaron was fine and has a real case for his soon to be filed complaint with the athletic commission.
Jason Brilz upset Tim Boetsch by decision with a better gas tank and just smothered the "Barbarian."
Tough night for Keith Jardine but if not for the knockdown in the final round this fight could've possibly went his way on the cards. Look for the "Dean" to come back possibly against Forrest Griffin in a rematch next. Lets throw bombs and have Shane "1 Round" Carwin vs Junior Dos Santos! Is Kendall wearing a nicotine patch on his chest, or what is that thing? How about Brandon Vera vs Stephan Bonnar so we can see where both of these 2 confusing fighters stand in the Light Heavyweight division? Not impressed with my 6-4 on the picks but what can ya do with Riley getting screwed, Carwin's lucky strike, and it was worth the loss to watch Sell get humiliated.
MMA Video links (as promised)
http://www.mma-core.com/
http://www.mmalinker.com/
http://mixedmartialartvideos.com/
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