Overall a pretty good UFC event. Definitely above average.

Chuck Liddell kicked Tito’s ass pretty much the entire fight, until it was finally stopped in the 3rd round.

The biggest upset of the night was probably fan favorite Forrest Griffin was knocked out in the 1st round by Keith Jardine. Griffin is known for his ability to take a beating, but evidently Jardine found the right spot to knock Forrest’s lights out for a couple of seconds, Forrest ended up on the ground and Keith Jardine took advantage of the opportunity to land a few more punches to the dome before the referree stepped in to stop the fight. I’m not sure where this leaves Forrest now, I know eventually he needs to fight Tito Ortiz again, but I don’t know if he deserves it yet. I think possibly they should let Jardine fight Tito? Who knows, I’m not sure who that would leave for Chuck Liddell to fight, but they could give him a few months off, see what happens with Quinton Jackson and Marvin Eastman, as well as Rashad Evans, before they decide who Chuck should fight next.

Chris Leban was left unconscious by Canadian Jason MacDonald in the first round by a nasty guillotine choke.

Andrei Arlovski scored a TKO victory over Marcio Cruz.. i was hoping for Cruz to win it.. oh well..

and unfortunately, Michael Bisping won.. i was really hoping he would get his ass kicked, but it wasn’t to be.. he needs to be knocked down a step or two though..

Yeah I know, nobody cares about other peoples picks. But I want mine down “on paper” anyway, so I’m posting them..

In the Chuck Liddell/Tito Ortiz rematch, I would like to see Liddell win, in fact, I’d like to see him catch Tito with a knee when Tito shoots in.. but something is telling me that Tito Ortiz might actually win this fight. Championships have been changing a lot in the UFC, and all Tito needs is 1 good takedown and he could control the fight.

Forrest Griffin -vs- Keith Jardine, uggh.. i dunno, someone by decision?.. nah, hell, Jardine KO round 1..

Andrei Arlovski -vs- Marcio “Pe De Pano” Cruz, I’ll go with Cruz by submission.

Jason McDonald -vs- Chris Leben, ahh hell, probably I’ll be wrong but I’ll guess McDonald to win by sub..

I’m also going out on a limb to say Eric Schafer will KO Michael Bisping.. if so, it will be an upset.. I don’t think Schafer has ever had a KO before. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking on my part, but I’d like to see Bisping get knocked on his ass.

As for the undercard fights, I’m hoping for Tony DeSouza, Carmelo Marrero, and, well, i’d probably like to see Rory Singer win, but it wont happen. Yushin Okami by something.

For years there have been people that believed in a Sports Illustrated curse, there have been many times that whoever was on the Sports Illustrated cover, would get hurt soon thereafter, or go into a slump, or be defeated, etc…

So this year we’ve been seeing the Ultimate Fighting Championships “UFC All Access” shows on SpikeTV. A few months ago the show profiled Rich Franklin, he was UFC Middleweight Champion at the time, but was destroyed in his next fight against Anderson Silva. Then, in November we see them profile Matt Hughes, UFC Welterweight Champion, but he was dominated in his next fight to Georges St. Pierre.

Is there a curse? Hell no, of course not. Well, maybe with Sports Illustrated, but not the Ultimate Fighting Championship TV show… heh..

Is this just a year for the UFC championships to change? could be.. we’ll see Saturday night.

Ok, I’ve been being lazy again and not writing much, but it’s hard to write about every single thing that’s happening these days with the UFC and MMA in general. December has been full of surprises for MMA fans, and it’s looking like we’ll get to see some fights that are long overdue. The UFC has been buying up other small fight shows, such as WFA and WEC, and purchasing fighter contracts also.

It was announced a few days ago that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson has signed, and will be fighting Marvin Eastman at UFC 67.

The latest big news is that the UFC is expected to announce that they’ve signed CroCop and Heath Herring to contracts. The rumors right now are that Herring will be fighting Jake O’Brien on the January UFC Fight Night event, and that CroCop will likely fight on the UFC 67 card in February.

2007 is shaping up to be a huge year for the sport.

He was facing up to 10 years in prison for allegedly kicking down the apartment door “by accident” and attacking some dude that was inside. From the stand, Jason Miller said “”I wasn’t trying to hurt that guy… there is no way I was trying to hurt that guy.”

Miller said after kicking in the door, the dude rushed him like a football tackle, and used his high school wrestling skills to takedown Jason Miller.

It sounds like Mayhem got tackled into a futon and had to fight his way out.  Miller said he was stuck inside the futon and homeboy was “jamming all of his shoulder meat into my face and covered up my nose and my mouth. I couldn’t breath at all … in a normal situation … you’re not inside of a futon.” “.. lol

So what did Mayhem do? He bit homeboys arm.

Anyway, the jury found him NOT GUILTY. It sounds like he was rightfully defending himself. I think the apartment belonged to his girlfriend. Miller said he was returning home from a night of partying and didn’t have the key to the door.. so he kicked it in.. heh..

I’m not sure if the dude inside was banging Mayhem’s girlfriend or not, but whatever..

Bid on a conversation with Rich Franklin. American-Fighter is auctioning off a 10 minute conversation/interview on eBay.

I just predicted it the other way around. Damn, all my picks lost tonight.. oh well, I went with the underdogs, I guess that happens sometimes.

That’s the rumors right now.. Quinton Jackson, Ivan Salaverry, Jason Miller, Urijah Faber, Rob McCullough, Heath Herring.

 AWESOME.

UFC bought 30 fighter contracts from the dead WFA organization this weekend, including those of Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, who defeated Chuck Liddell at a Pride event in Japan a few years ago. If so, it’s about time that Chuck got a chance to avenge that loss. This would be a great addition to the UFC roster.

From what I understand, UFC plans has purchased a few other organizations and will promote other brands under the company umbrella.. This would be sweet if it means more exposure for more fighters.

i’m only picking for a handful of fights though..

Shonie Carter -vs- Marcus Davis – I dunno, I’m gonna have to go with Shonie to win, simply for entertainment value. I suppose Marcus Davis could KO Shonie if the fight stays standing up. Shonie Carter seems to slippery to be submitted by Davis. My pick is Shonie by sub.

Drew Fickett -vs- Karo Parysian – damn, should be a good fight. I’m leaning towards Karo by sub.

Jeff Joslin -vs- Josh Koschek – WAR JOSLIN! I put a few dollars on Joslin to win, he’s definitely the underdog in this fight, but I’m hoping for an upset. Joslin by submission. Round 2.

Diego Sanchez -vs- Joe Riggs – Hmmm, for some reason, I’ve never been a fan of Joe Riggs at all, and I picked Diego to win the first TUF show as soon as I saw him being crazy with his meditation and everything. But… now I’m hoping to see Riggs win. He suffered the loss of a daughter earlier this year, I can only imagine how terrible that must be. Also, Diego is undefeated and it wouldn’t hurt for him to be knocked down a peg. My pick: JOE RIGGS round 1 KO (knee).

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Jason Von Flue was stopped by a cut at 43 seconds into the 1st round. Cung Le landed a vicious knee that opened up a nasty cut above Von Flue’s right eye, and the referee or doctor stopped the fight.

I was hoping to see Jason win this fight, but Cung Le is so far looking every bit as talented as some people say he is. He has looked impressive in his few MMA fights.

Also tonight, Paul Buentello defeated big man Ruben “Warpath” Villareal via 2nd round TKO (corner stoppage).

Bobby Southworth of “The Ultimate Fighter” fame won a decision victory over veteran Vernon “Tiger” White.

Several other well-known fighters won also, such as Josh Thompson, Daniel Puder, Duane “Bang” Ludwig defeated Tony Fryklund, Eugene Jackson defeated Ronald Jhun.

 

How cool is this? It’s a Dan Henderson “baseball card” but of course, it highlights his wrestling career. The card is from 1998 and the back of the card says:

“After college at Arizona State, Dan became a Greco-Roman specialist and has the honor of making two Olympic teams and representing American in the world’s greatest sports showcase. Dan also has placed high in a number of international competitions, all at 187.5 pounds. He finished seventh in the 1997 Greco-Roman World Championships.”

damn, thats an upset.. Trigg was a pretty big underdog I think, but he scored an upset tonight with whats being described as a dominant 2nd round TKO over Jason Miller. This is the first time Jason “Mayhem” Miller has lost in Hawaii, after 8 wins in a row.

I gotta say though, I’m kind of happy Trigg won.. not so much that he won THIS fight, because I’m a Mayhem fan (along with like 12 billion myspace peeps). I would have preferred Trigg got his ass whooped this fight, and beat someone else soon, but oh well, what can ya do? At least Trigg gained some “MMA street cred” back by whoopin on Mayhem. Maybe it will put him back on the path to being a top contender in his weight class. Wait, he is a top contender. Duh, he just won Mayhem’s belt! Just the fact that he was able to surving Miller’s grappling is impressive.

I didn’t see the fight, and it just ended minutes ago. As far as I know, ICON does not provide any way to see their fights except to be there in person. I couldn’t find a Pay-per-view or Internet stream. I’m anxious to hear more details of the fight, but I’m going to bed now.. it’s late.

and anyway, war Mayhem next time.