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Rampage Jackson or Jon Jones?

Matt Hughes or Josh Koscheck?

I find myself wanting to see Rampage doing well and getting his belt back if only for a little while. I suspect though, Jones will chop away at him unmercifully with leg kicks and thereby Rampage will have little chance of throwing big punches. I figure most of the fight will be standing.

Koscheck is a big mouth hot head and for no other reason I'd like to see Hughes win big.

Your thoughts?

Jones questions Jackson's power after seeing him unable to finish Hamill or Machida who he hit clean. Wouldn't mind seeing Jackson taking him down a peg but I am thinking Jones finishes Jackson in the second or third.
Similarly I'd like to see Matt Hughes smash Koscheck but I don't think Matt has anything to offer Koscheck at this point in his career.

Jackson is a tough fight for Jones simply due to his durability. It takes a massive amount of punishment to put Quinton away. Jones has shown in the past that once his fights hit the third round, he starts getting extremely tired. If Quinton can make it into a war and slow Jones down, he can put him away. Most likely though, I see a situation where Jones stays as far away from Quinton as possible and throws lots of kicks to the legs and body. If the range gets too close, I think Jones tries to tie him up in the Thai clinch and work some knees. You have to favor Jones here, but Quinton Jackson isn't an easy fight for anyone and he definetly has the chance to pull off the upset.

I love Matt Hughes but let's face it, he's on the downside of his career. Unless Koscheck is still a mess from his injury and put off by the short notice of the fight, I think he hits Hughes with a big shot and that's it. Hughes is a bit too stiff and mechanical on the feet to offer much of a threat to Koscheck there. Hughes would have to catch Koscheck on the ground in a bad position and try to submit him - I don't see any other route to victory for him. Rooting for Hughes, but I think Koscheck takes it without too much trouble.

Brian.

Any other notables on the card, Brian? I glanced over it but nothing really jumped out at me.

Nate Diaz vs. Gomi should be a barnburner while it lasts. One of the best fights I've ever seen was Gomi against Nate's brother Nick - just an insane fight. Nate isn't quite as good as his brother, and Gomi has certainly faded over the years, but it still should be an exciting fight.

Travis Browne vs. Rob Broughton is worth paying attention to simply because Browne is a very talented prospect and is pretty exciting as well. Ben Rothwell vs. Mark Hunt is what it is, and I have no clue why they put it on the main card other than hoping that Hunt knocks Rothwell's head off in epic fashion.

Nick Ring vs. Tim Boetsch on the Spike prelim card is a quality fight. Nick Ring is super talented despite having a knee that's held together by silly string, and Boetsch is an absolute beast at 185 pounds. Tony Fergueson vs. Aaron Riley has some potential as well - both those guys like to throw down and it will most likely be one of those knock down, drag em out type fights. Te Huna vs. Romero will most likely sneak it's way onto the broadcast somehow, as it most likely won't go long.

At first glance, it's a top heavy card but there are some quality fights to be had. My only fear is that there are two heavyweight fights on the main card.........and they're in Denver. There's an excellent chance we see two guys standing with their hands on their knees gasping for air and not even thinking about fighting each other. Why they would book a single heavyweight fight in Denver is beyond me, as they're really tempting fate.

Brian.

Speaking of the elder Diaz...

I'm a bit surprised Dana is giving him a 2nd chance and keeping him around.

What else is he going to do with him? They need new interesting challengers for GSP, which is the ONLY reason they gave Diaz a title shot in the first place. In actuality, putting Diaz in against Penn is an extreme form of punishment. Due to GSP's conservative fighting style, Diaz at least had a chance to be mildly competitive. Against Penn, he's just going to get his doors blown off and might even get stopped. Not only that, but Penn isn't a top contender - so losing to him would set Diaz back and force him to fight a bunch of generic wrestlers, all of whom Diaz would struggle with.

If, and I mean if Diaz somehow manages to beat Penn, then they can just stick him against the winner of GSP vs. Condit and you have a nice little story line to sell the fight with. I would be extremely suprised though if Diaz was even moderatley competitive with Penn, let alone beat him.

Brian.

IMO they are running this circus over one fight, Jackson and Jones. The rest is just filler. Then in another week they will have another ppv. I guess it's really just about the money, I thought Dana had figured out you gotta give the folks a show.

I was ringside at that fight and at the time it was the greatest fight I had ever seen live. The crowd was going apeshit and Diaz just kept coming at him. Damn what a fight!

Obviously, the very next fight on that card was my favorite but other that fights that involve my friends that Diaz/Gomi fight was the best I've ever seen live. The combination of striking and submissions combined with the electricity in the crowd was insane

I'll be at the fights in Denver tonight and am hoping for a great main event. Rampage looked damn good in workouts on Thursday and he was just going through the motions and working up a sweat

Speaking of your friend, I'm glad Dan is back in the UFC. I'd like to see him match up w/ Silva again.

Prize fighting is all about the money? I'm shocked.

BTW, probably the best heavyweight title fight in years is going to be free on Fox in November, so don't cry in your beer too much.

Brian.

It was like something out of a movie - insane drama from the opening bell on. Diaz getting his face broke in half, not even flinching and then winning the fight immediatley after that.



Yeah, Diaz really stole that show but the Henderson vs. Wanderlei rematch was absolutley fantastic as well. Dan hitting Wanderlei with a spinning back fist is one of my all time favorite MMA moments.

I hope Dan mashes Shogun as bad as he did Fedor. That fight is going to be violent.

Brian.

The MMA world is so competitive I do not have the time to keep track of all the players. With the exception of a couple(Silva and GSP) the champions come and go so fast it is hard to be a fan of a particular player.

Is there an explaination for the fast demise of Fedor. He was so dominant and now he has lost 3 in a row. Real glad for Henderson. I really like him.

2nd fight on the undercard was SICK!!!!

I tried to answer this yesterday but after writing up a very long explanation, the forum crashed and it didn't get posted. So let's try it again.

1. Fedor still trains like it's 1999. His training camps consist of a couple of his buddies sparing with him in an absolutley bare bones gym (just a room with a few mats on the ground, a punching bag and some weights in a corner), taking runs in the mountains and choping firewood. Once in awhile he'll go to Holland and spar for a week with Ernesto Hoost, and that's about as far as he goes with his training.

2. Since he's never working out with contemporary high level (or even mid level) MMA fighters or even a proper MMA coach, his game hasn't progressed at all since he first hit the scene. He started throwing hands with his opponents more in the last 3 or 4 years of his career, but his striking was the same as it always was - throw big looping overhand rights and hope for the best.

3. Fedor's offense (both on the feet and on the mat) has always been good, but his defense has always stunk. People seem to forget that he got stuck on the bottom for what seemed like forever against Ricardo Arona, he damn near got knocked out by Kazuyuki Fujita, he had his back taken by Mark Coleman, he got thrown on his head by Kevin Randleman, he got put on his back and was nearly submitted by Mark Hunt, and he got reverse mounted by Brett Rogers of all people.

4. Despite these issues, Fedor was always able to get away with them and have an extremely good career. This was mostly due to two factors - the weakness of the heavyweight division and the fact that Fedor was an incredibly fast, agile athlete. But he's older now (he turns 35 in a few days), and while he's still very quick he's not the same level of athlete he was 6 or 7 years ago. Once his purely athletic skills started to slow a bit, he turned into a guy who was just a small heavyweight with good power in his hands, some offensive submission chops and an incredibly reckless fighting style devoid of defense.

5. His last three fights were against three of the best opponents he'd ever faced in an 11 year career. Against two very high level BJJ blackbelts, he simply couldn't get away with the mistakes he was able to skate by with against guys like Mark Coleman and Mark Hunt. Against Dan Henderson, he showed a complete lack of game planning - Fedor was fighting a guy with an iron jaw and incredible power in his hands, and Fedor's game plan was essentially to swing for the fences and hope for the best.

Brian.

Well, Jones is the real deal. Beating Shogun to win the title and beating Rampage to retain the title is no joke. I don't see Evans adds anything that Shogun and Rampage didn't already bring to the table, except maybe some more wrestling. But Jones has already proven to be a great wrestler offensively and defensively. The one guy in the division, from a stylist stand point, that I would like to see him fight is Lyoto Machita. Jones has a strong reach advantage that he's been able to exploit well. Rampage's demise, mostly, came from his inability to close that reach gap and engage inside against Jones. Lyoto has the best ability to dart in, close the gap, get a strike in, and retreat. He is the only one I see taking some of the reach advantage away from Jones. Time will tell...

Two years ago, everyone was convinced Machida would reign as champion forever and Jones was fighting on the unaired prelims. Things change really fast in MMA. I wouldn't be shocked whatsoever if two years from now Jones was trying to work his way back up to another title shot while some other "unbeatable" guy holds the belt.

Brian.

My thought exactly about Rashad. If he could get a few take downs he might be able to land a few punches, other than that, nothing. Machita could pose a real threat if he started chopping at Jon's legs but I think Jones would pretty much put Machida on his back and end it there. I used to think Davis stood the best chance of beating Jon. I'd only watched one of his fights, now that I have sat down and watched as many as I could find I do believe God would have to intervene in Davis's favor for him to have any chance.

Davis is even more green than Jones. Give him a year or two to develop his game. He's by FAR the best wrestler at 205 in the UFC, and he's got a very effective top position submission game. If Davis took down anyone in that division and submitted them, I wouldn't be shocked at all.

Brian.