Posts tagged Ufc86 at FanHouse

USA Today is out with a list of the Top 5 sports losses of 2008, and at the top of the list is Roger Federer's loss on Sunday to Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon on Sunday:

Federer had to be crushed not to get his sixth consecutive Wimbledon title. Still, he and Nadal have created a rivalry that will lift them both. If the loss stirs Federer to come back stronger his legacy will be huge. As it was, his comeback from two sets down in the four hours, 48 minute classic will be talked about for a long time.

I have no real argument with that, but there's a loss that happened less than 24 hours earlier that deserves to at least be in the Top 5.

I'm talking, of course, about Quinton "Rampage" Jackson's loss to Forrest Griffin at UFC 86. That fight, in which Griffin took Jackson's light heavyweight title by a close unanimous decision, was probably my single favorite sporting event so far in 2008, and I haven't seen anyone in any sport fight harder in defeat than Rampage did Saturday night.

In the run-up to Rampage Jackson's fight against Forrest Griffin at UFC 86, Jackson's trainer, Juanito Ibarra, expressed such confidence that he vowed to retire if Griffin won.

Griffin won. Ibarra didn't retire.

But he hasn't stopped talking, and he's now promising to protest the judges' decision with the Nevada State Athletic Commission:

"We got robbed," Ibarra told Sherdog.com Sunday afternoon. "We won the majority of the fight."

As I live blogged the fight, I believed that Jackson won, and I was surprised that the judges awarded the fight to Griffin. But to say that Jackson got robbed is ridiculous. It was a close fight, and the judges used their discretion. Rampage lost, and he and his camp need to accept it and move on.

Join us at 1 p.m. Eastern Monday for a live chat in which we recap UFC 86, look ahead at what could be next for new light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin, and talk about anything else you want to discuss in the world of mixed martial arts.

The following guest post was written by Rami Genauer, contributor at FightMetric.

FightMetric tracked every second of UFC 86's main event fight between Forrest Griffin and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. How did the new UFC light-heavyweight champ stack up in this bout? We've pored over the numbers to make sense of this extremely close battle. You can check out the full stats from the fight here, but below are the numbers that matter:

First Round: One

The number of knockdowns in the round.

Make no mistake, it is certainly possible to win a round in which your opponent has knocked you down ... but it's hard. You really have to do a lot of damage to counteract the knockdown, which is the single-largest contributor to fight endings in MMA. Griffin led the round for all but the last 90 seconds. But the minimal effectiveness of those three-and-a-half minutes pales in comparison to Rampage's knockdown and those last 90 seconds, which represented the closest either fighter ever came to ending the fight. The round simply has to go to Rampage. Pity that only one of the judges (Nelson Hamilton) felt the same way.

By defeating Ricardo Almeida at UFC 86, Patrick Cote has earned a title shot against middleweight champion Anderson Silva, possibly as soon as November.

I suppose that's fine, but really, does anyone who watched that fight last night think Cote has a prayer against Silva? Cote fought a fairly safe, fairly boring fight against Almeida, and I came away from it thinking Silva would need maybe four minutes to beat him.

The current plan appears to be for Silva to fight James Irvin in two weeks, then Yushin Okami in September, then Cote before the year is out. Assuming Silva wins all three fights -- and I assume he will -- it might then be time for him to move up to light heavyweight permanently, simply to make the middleweight division competitive again.

In the seven hours since Bruce Buffer announced that Forrest Griffin had defeated Quinton "Rampage" Jackson by unanimous decision at UFC 86, I've received a lot of messages from fans who said they were outraged, that Rampage won the fight and that the judges stole it for Griffin.

From the crowd's reaction, it certainly sounded like the majority of the fans in attendance at the Mandalay Bay thought Rampage won as well. And yes, my own scorecard gave it to Rampage (I gave Forrest the second, 10-8, but all four other rounds to Rampage, 10-9.)

So does that make it a terrible decision? I don't think so. Judging in mixed martial arts is fairly subjective, and I can certainly understand how a judge could have seen it for Griffin.

Online commentators were fairly split. MMA Mania gave it to Jackson. MMA Junkie scored it 48-47 for Jackson. Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports scored it 48-46 Griffin; Dave Meltzer and Dave Doyle of Yahoo both scored it a 47-47 draw. Bloody Elbow scored it a draw. Jim Murphy of the Savage Science blog scored it 48-47 for Griffin.

I agree with the fans who think Rampage won. But some of the fans I've heard from -- the ones who think the judges should be fired for stealing the fight for Griffin -- need to get over themselves.

UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson lost his title to Forrest Griffin by unanimous decision in one of the all-time great fights in UFC history tonight at UFC 86 in Las Vegas.

It was a classic slugfest in which both fighters gave out and received punishment. Rampage got off to a tremendous start in the first round with a brutal uppercut, while Griffin dominated the second. On my scorecard Rampage got the better of the last three rounds and won the fight, but all three judges disagreed with me.

The key to the fight was the way Griffin hurt Rampage's knee with a big leg kick in the second round. That hindered Rampage the rest of the night.

Welcome to the FanHouse live blog of UFC 86, where we'll provide live, round-by-round coverage of all of tonight's fights, culminating with the main event between Rampage Jackson and Forrest Griffin.

The show has started and the live blog is underway below.

This is the video that will air just before tonight's UFC 86 main event:

Forrest Griffin explains his strategy for taking on light heavyweight champion Quinton "Rampage "Jackson: "My feet are quicker than his. I think I have better feet. With my length and good footwork I can stay away from his power. I want to stay on the outside. Kick him, punch him, run."

I think that is the right game plan, especially considering how good Rampage is in the clinch. But I would also add that I think Griffin could have some success on the ground. Rampage hasn't submitted anyone with a jiujitsu move in more than seven years, and in UFC he's not allowed to use knees to the head on the ground, which were one of his favorite techniques in Pride.

That's not to say I think Griffin will win this fight on the ground; my pick is Rampage. But Griffin doesn't necessarily have to stay on his feet to win this fight.

UFC President Dana White appeared this week on Dan LeBatard's radio show, ostensibly to promote UFC 86. But thanks to LeBatard's persistent questioning, they spent more time discussing Kimbo Slice than they spent discussing Quinton Rampage Jackson or Forrest Griffin.

White was clearly annoyed that he even needed to discuss Kimbo, and he repeated his assertion that his own lightweight champion, B.J. Penn, could defeat Kimbo. White said he would like to arrange a Penn-Kimbo fight, "So I can start watching him on YouTube again. ... I want to banish this guy back to YouTube. That's where he belongs. He belongs on YouTube."

In other news, White acknowledged that UFC's heavyweight division is in a rebuilding phase, but he said the reason he hasn't signed Fedor Emelianenko is that Fedor doesn't want to fight any high-quality fighters.