The WEC came out in a free fashion on the channel Versus June 3rd. It was actually a breath of fresh air after recent events in other MMA venues. Not that others lacked in action, but maybe lacking a belt holder that could hold on. It was cool to have an announcer like Frank Mir doing the play by plays since he knows the sport and has competed himself. It’s kind of like a baseball announcer who was a previous player. Not that Mr. Rogan isn’t good too.

In Rani Yahya Vs. Mark Hominick it showed that if you put your mind to something you can do anything. Rani tried a take down, and another one, and another, and another. Mark was just scrambling his best, but Rani kept trying and trying until Rani ended up on his back for a quick rear naked choke.

In Brock Larson Vs. Kevin Knabjian it was fast. Brock looked like a volcano ready to blow its top. He was grinding at the bit literally when they were introduced in the middle of the ring. It started and Brock threw a left and Kevin didn’t see it coming. Brock immediately flung Kevin down in a sloppy attempt to rain down punches. It took a few but finally the referre stopped it.

One of the interesting endings to a fight was Josh Smith Vs. Alex Karalexis. Everything was about Alex bringing it, being the aggressor and Josh defending one thing after another. Then in the end Alex throws the rules out the window and kicks Josh while he is on the ground in the chest from a standing up position. Big John McCarthy call a time out and deducts a point from Alex. Then the bell rang for round three to be over. Big John was hot, he went over to the officials and said, ” I called time out!”. I thought we were gonna see an unscheduled fight for a second.

Urijah Faber the “California Kid” came out as the main event of the night and like Chuck Liddell’s old days finished the fight as expected. He finished fast in the first round with a rear naked choke beating Chance Farrar. Maybe he has stopped the bad MMA upset mojo of dethroning champs this year or maybe there are no long reigning champs left to dethrone. Either way it was nice to watch a night of fighting and as a fan be able to say, “hey I am sure that in this fight this guy will win”. Maybe it is a boost of MMA trivia confidence, I don’t know why fans are so fascinated with knowing who is the top dog going into fights.

Getting on to the WEC fights, Urijah Faber is a featherweight phenom in the WEC organization owned by the UFC. He was the favorite at this event and did not disappoint. He finished it in the first round. In typical UFC rules the title fights can go five rounds, but didn’t and actually haven’t under Urijah’s rule since holding the belt. He even said in a Sherdog interview, “I’ve yet to go to a five-round fight, Let’s do it if it’s a possibility” This kid is a phenom I say because not only has his fights not been able to make it to the fifth round, but not many have made it past first round. When he fought Joe Pearson earlier this year he made the guy tap out because he was punching him to HARD?!? Who gets those kind of submissions on their records? Go look through the MMA records, who gets those???! Submission by hmmm I dont know Arm-Bar, Guillotine, nope Striking! I haven’t seen that since hmm, Mark Kerr when he fought against Mustapha al Turk in Cage Rage. Thanks alot Mark for not knowing when to retire. I didn’t know I would need an eraser for my list of heroes.

This California kid is impressive to say the least and I am sure he will hold the belt for a while and we can all be able to watch him in the future and know one fight that will go according to plan. Thanks Urijah, I slept much better last night.

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson beat Chuck Liddell, just as I thought would happen. I hate to say it but read the earlier blog. Ok I like to say it. I was off on everyfight of the night except for the Rampage vs. Lidell and the Karo vs. Burkman so it felt good. Rampage caught Chuck with a right to the jaw after Chuck sent a left to Jackson’s body. After Liddell fell to the mat Rampage followed up quickly with a combo flurry. It was a little messy, but got the job done in the end. It happened a little quicker than everyone anticisted though. In the UFC post fight press even Rampage himself thought it ended quicker than he personally expected.

I thought it was stopped a little early at first glance, but when the reply was shown I understood why the Big John McCarthy stopped it. Liddell’s arms went limp at one point flagging the ref to stop the fight. Chuck has great recovery time though and probally could have fought a little longer but this one was gonna end up with on the mat either way. I still dont understand why Rampage was the underdog though. Probally an uneducted media along with Chuck holding the belt.

So Rampage repeated history only to have Dan Henderson come in the ring at the end of the fight with his two Pride belts over shining Jackson’s newly aquired light heavyweight belt. Jackson didnt get a long time to reveal in his new spotlight. Dan is a bad dude as well from Pride in Japan. Dan just recently knocked Wanderli out in a Pride fight. Remeber the guy who has knocked Rampage out twice? Yep. Looks like the UFC Light Heavyweight just got a serious infusion of hard pipe swinging fighters. After the fight I drove myself mad trying to think of who would match up next. Wanderli and Chuck?, Rampage and Dan?, Shogun and ??. Someone said what about Tito, and my first reaction was, “who?”.

I had a feeling Karo would beat him by decision due to Karo’s long history of decisions, but like always he made for a good showing. He basically threw Burkman down more often and landed some good combos to get a decision. Not to mention he dominated the entire fight. Burkman was never in control of the fight. He made a joke at the end singing my judo throws are the best. It sounded a little arrogant, but later he explained he was mocking a Borat movie scene song. Don’t quit your day job Karo.

Who is Houston Alexander? Well, eveyone found out when he went up against Jardine. Keith Jardine was quoted as saying that he should have to fight a new comer since he had just beaten Forrest Griffen. Hmmm, gotta fight every fight like it is your last dude. He basically took the fight to lightley in my mind. I expected Jardine to finish Alexander in the first round. It seemed like it would happen because Jardine caught Alexander in the beginning, but Alexander put him against the fence and bombed Jardine to death till he fell face first on the mat. Alexander said he sliped at first, but after watching the reply Im not sure I buy it. Maybe moved out of the way and lost balance after a punch knocked him back or something. Way to go Alexander, but don’t get to cocky especially after how Jardine lost.

Terry Martin came to bang at UFC 71. This guy is a pounder and could easily go down to the welterweight class. Maybe his strategy is to stay since this divison has less competition. I would too, the UFC welterweigt and the light heavy is so deep now your gonna have to fight a career of fights before getting a belt shot.

The Leben match was not as good as Chris Leben annouced at the end. It had its bangs and takedowns but not much action in my opinion for two fighters of this caliber. I though Chrsi would win this one too, but he ended up losing a close decision. Even Kalib thought it was close because he annouced after the fight that Chris should have won. I am betting the winning check still goes in Kalib’s bank account.

I was watching the countdown special on Spike TV last night for UFC 71. Quinton Jackson was not only funny but made a reference to his faith. After looking into it Jackson is a born again christian and makes it known in several of his interviews on UFC.com - Rampage Article

“I was just messing up. But it wasn’t me who decided it was enough; God was the one who did all this. Because I was still out there partying and a couple of days before I was born again. My friends thought I was going crazy. My family was very religious, I grew up in the church, and at first my mom thought I had did some drugs or something like that. So I broke it down to her. My mom was born again when I was younger, and I said, ‘well if you don’t think I can be born again just like you was, then you need to check your own faith.’ Then she understood and now we have a better relationship.” - 05/21/2007 Quinton’s Quotables By Thomas Gerbasi

Off hand the ones that I have heard or seen make reference to their faith latley are:

Ken Shamrock (In a special for IFL)
Diego Sanchez (He usually makes a shout out after every fight)
Josh Koscheck (He made a quick reference in an online video interview)
Pat Miletich (I saw him praying last night for his IFL team)

I am sure there at tons of other fighters out there that are chrisitans too and it is nice finding out.

If anybody can give the Iceman a run for his money it would be Rampage. Forget that Quinton is one of the only three people that have already beaten Chuck fair and square. Lets leave their fighting history out of it and look at each fighter individually.

As we take a closer look at Rampage career for starters, his losses don’t reflect six solid losses. One was a disqualification because he accidently kneed the guy in the groin (Loss) and another was early on in his career with Marvin Eastman (Decision) that he recently avenged in UFC 67 via KO. Jackson has been a fighter without any real losses, with the exception of those pesky Wanderlei knees. Wanderlei is the only guy who has been able to actually knock Quinton out and two times at that. The Mauricio Rua fight was misleaded because of a previous injury Jackson had from a fight earlier in that same tournament. Jackson shouldn’t have been in the ring against Rua in the first place due to an injury that made him give up the match in the first round. Even if you contest that fact, the only people capable of beating Rampage have all been people from the Chute Boxe Academy. An Academy that puts out elite fighters like “Axe Murderers” and “Shoguns”. Bottom line Quinton “Rampage” Jackson doesn’t go down easy. Especially when he only has to prepare for one fight a night.

Everybody knows about Chuck and his recent history of stopping anyone that is put in the cage with him. He is more powerful with his punches than he was just three years ago. His knockout power is in the top of MMA ranks. I ask though, what else has he showed us lately? Sprawl and punch, sprawl and punch, repeat. Sounds like the direction on the back of a shampoo bottle. If it isn’t broken why fix it, right? I agree with this motto, but you can’t fight the same style for every match. It is one of the only certain things we have seen evolve over MMA history. One strategy might work great with one fighter and horrible against another. If anyone wants to see how this will turn out take a close look at Chuck’s training for this fight if you can. It is usually so secret the UFC is the only one with coverage. If he is training exactly like the fights before, I think he will end up on the long list of MMA upsets we have witnessed this year already. You have to adapt in this sport even if you are at the top or you will not be there long. Chuck has enjoyed one of the longest reigns as champion of the Light Heavyweight division of the UFC, but for how much longer?

Now as far as their fighting history in the Ring between the two, there has only been one match. The UFC fight on May 26th has been dubbed as Part 2. Judging from their first debut together, conditoning could actually be a deciding factor with these two powerful hitters. If they both come fully conditioned for five, 5 minute rounds this could go to the judges score card because if I rightfully remember their striking was about even until Rampage combo’ed his way into a TKO victory. If Chuck’s decides to use his tactic of circling the ring to a safe spot and then throwing punches at his leasure against Jackson this fight will wind up in the judges hands. Fortunatly for UFC fans, Jackson will not just lay back and will force the pace if this happens. Chuck will be fighting against one of the strongest opponents that he has stepped into the Octagon with. Jackson’s slams alone have knockout power, just ask Ricardo Arona & Masaaki Satake. (See my favorite highlights on the left)

All in all this will be a chance for Chuck to show if he is a legend in the light heavy weight divison. If he beats Quinton Saturday they only other contender left in the world would have to be Wanderlei Silva. I don’t think it will go this far because I believe Jackson will stop Chuck cold in his tracks much like the last fight they had together at PRIDE - Final Conflict in 2003. I might give Chuck till round three this time.

This Article is in response to Steve Sieverts Article with the Houston Chronicle

“HBO shake-up could scuttle UFC plans”
http://blogs.chron.com/fighting/2007/05/hbo_shakeup_could_scuttle_ufc.html

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HBO vs. MTV

What would be the advantage for the UFC to be on HBO? All the advantages would be in favor for HBO to get a younger audience. Just because they historically seemed to facilitate the boxing arena doesn’t mean MMA should follow suite.

The UFC is still banging away, breaking PPV records. “Steady the course”, keep looking for something new but HBO seems to have turned into an apathetic conservative station droning out “B list” movies.

They can make as many HBO clone channels as they want, but as long as they play the same crap on them they are spinning their wheels. I hate to say it, but MTV had extra channels but they started showing different things on each channel and were still able to target the same audience.

MTV at least is a money machine with the audience taking in everything they throw at them and they keep asking for more, more please? I think if the UFC talked to MTV it would be like gangbusters.

Every generation in the pop culture has some type of physical competitive sport to attach them selves to and to call their own or having come from their own era. Xtreme sports, X-games and so on. MMA could be the next one for the younger generation if marketed properly. Who better than MTV to help put it in yet another wrapped sellable package.

I was watching my typical MMA matches on Bodog fight when it came time for the women’s match. I still get a little uncomfortable watching them fight, but it always helps to know how long and hard they train. I am usually curious to see how much technique I will be able to identify when the women are fighting.

With Rosi and Windy, they both showed alot of moves and technique going into round two. Then it happened, Rosi went for a waist clinch take down and Windy’s fatigue seemed to make her flop down. As Windy fell her footing was in the wrong place and her ankle dislocated or broke (still not sure) into a gnarly looking bend.

I thought to myself this one looks pretty bad. I was thinking I have never seen one this bad, surely something like this does happen right? Then the announcer asked Royce Gracie, “Royce in your years of MMA have you seen something this bad?”. Royce said “no, not in all my years of this sport”. Well Rosi got the win since she was leading on the scorecard up to the injury, but Windy gets the prize for the most gruesome MMA injury in quite a long time. I would post the video but you can find it on Youtube pretty easy if you are interested.

Rosi Sexton (5-1-0) vs. Windy Tomomi (7-3-4)