By Brett Okamoto

ESPN.com

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The UFC has granted Quinton Jackson’s request to fight in Japan in February.

The former light heavyweight champion will meet Ryan Bader at UFC 144. UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta confirmed the matchup to ESPN.com.

READ MORE via The UFC has granted Quinton Jackson’s request to fight in Japan in February – ESPN.

Mark Bocek vs. Joe Brammer
John Howard vs. Dennis Hallman
**Brian Stann vs. Rodney Wallace
Jon Madsen vs. Justin Wrenn
**Darrill Schoonover vs. James McSweeney
Marcus Jones vs. Matt Mitrione
Frank Edgar vs. Matt Veach
**KIMBO SLICE vs. HOUSTON ALEXANDER
Matt Hamill vs. Jon Jones

** Rodney Wallace’s nickname is “Shonuff The Master” — so, I’m picking him to win.

** Darrill Schoonover has been called back to military duty (he was in the Army for 4 years already) and he’ll be leaving for duty again soon after his fight.

** WAR KIMBO, ALL DAY SON.

Overall, a great show. Chris Lytle is a bad man. He’s never been knocked out in 49 fights, but came damn close to being KTFO in round 1 after an uppercut from Kevin Burns made his legs like jello for a second, but was relieved when the bell sounded to end the round. Lytle looked around to gather his senses for a couple of seconds, went to his corner and came back out in the 2nd round ready for more war. Dude was slinging haymakers from both sides, landing gnarly body shots with his right. Both dudes continued to slug it out, with Lytle being the aggressor for the rest of the fight, constantly moving forward and cutting Kevin Burns open for a bloody mess.

Clay Guida seriously needs to cut his hair, as much as it is awesome. I know it gives him character and makes him look like a Geico Caveman, but still, it has to mess up his peripheral vision. I would even say there is a chance he could’ve seen that kick coming at his head in round 1 that knocked him on his ass, but maybe not. Anyway, great fight, and Diego is gonna be a top contender for a long time.

Congratulations to the Ultimate Fighter season 9 lightweight and welterweight winners, Ross Pearson and James Wilks, both from Team UK on the show. Pearson won a decision against his teammate Andre Winner, and James Wilks looked very impressive in his 1st round submission victory against Team USA favorite DeMarques Johnson.

Frank Lester fought on the undercard, and I had $10 on him to win. He got submitted by Nick Osipczak, and they didn’t show it on air.

Now I’m looking forward to TUF Season 10 with Kimbo. And who the hell is the 7′ footer in the commercials standing behind Rampage and Rashad?

Official Results:
Shane Nelson defeats Aaron Riley by TKO round one.
Brandon Vera defeats Michael Patt by TKO (leg kicks) round two.
Jason Brilz defeats Tim Boetsch by unanimous decision.
Kendall Grove defeats Jason Day by TKO round one.
Tamdan McCrory defeats Ryan Madigan by TKO round one.
Gray Maynard defeats Jim Miller by unanimous decision.
Matt Hamill defeats Mark Munoz by KO (head kick) round one.
Matt Brown defeats Pete Sell by TKO (many punches) round one.
Shane Carwin defeats Gabriel Gonzaga by TKO round one.
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson defeats Keith Jardine by unanimous decision.

I was busy and totally forgot about WEC earlier this week, oh well…here are my picks for tonights UFC 96.

Aaron Riley by KO or decision over Shane Nelson.
Brandon Vera by decision over Michael Patt.
Tim Boetsch by hammerstrike over Jason Brilz.
Kendall Grove by submission (RNC) over Jason Day. Or a decision.
Tamdan McCrory by submission over Ryan Madigan.
Jim Miller by TKO over Gray Maynard.
Matt Hamill by TKO over Mark Munoz.
Matt Brown by decision over Pete Sell.
Gabriel Gonzaga by submission over Shane Carwin.
Keith Jardine upset TKO over Rampage Jackson.

A lot of people were expecting this to be the best UFC show ever, and the fight card certainly had some great match-ups.

Ryo Chonan vs. Brad Blackburn – Brad Blackburn won via decision

Dan Evensen vs. Pat Barry – Pat Barry won via TKO from kicks to the leg.

Matt Hamill vs. Reese Andy – Matt Hamill won via TKO from punches.

Antoni Hardonk vs. Mike Wessel – Hardonk won via TKO from punches.

Yushin Okami vs. Dean Lister – Okami won via decision.

Cheick Kongo vs. Mustafa Al-Turk – Cheick Kongo won via TKO from punches.

Wanderlei Silva vs. Quinton Rampage Jackson – Rampage won via KTFO out of Wanderlei.

CB Dollaway vs. Mike Massenzio – CB Dollaway won via TKO, but he got rocked early on and then it damn sure looked like he started to tap from a guillotine but the referee didn’t see it. I’ll need to see a .gif or replay.

Frank Mir vs. Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira – Wow, total domination by Francisco Mir. TKO’d Nogueira in round 2.

Rashad Evans vs. Forrest Griffin – Rashad Evans won via TKO in round 3.

I was browsing through Blockbuster today, and saw a DVD on the wall called Confessions Of A Pit Fighter. Quinton Jackson is in it. Oh and also Flavor Flav is in it. I rented it.

“In the pit fight game, you learn quick that no bell is gonna save you” – one of the opening lines.

So far, it looks like a bad version of Never Back Down, which was already bad enough. But this movie is about gangsters pit fighting, instead of high school kids pit fighting. If you want to know how low-budget the movie is, one of the gangstas in the movie is wearin a Penn State football jersey, and the “Penn” is blurred out, I suppose because they didn’t want to pay royalties or whatever. Look for the scene where a gangsta falls out of a window.

Also, after many years of watching thousands of movies, I’ve figured out a couple of rules when renting movies. Those rules are:

1. If Armand Assante is in the movie, it gonna sucks. He will also seem like the same character he played in whatever other movies he was in.
2. If Rampage Jackson and Flavor Flav are in the movie, I’ll probably rent it.

…Read More After The Jump (Spoilers included)

Read the rest of this entry »

According to TMZ.com

The Orange County District Attorney has charged Rampage with one felony count of evading while driving recklessly, one felony count of evading a peace officer, three misdemeanor counts of hit and run, and one misdemeanor reckless driving. You’ll recall Rampage was driving a monster truck with a huge image of himself plastered on the side (always a bad move when you’re evading police) when he allegedly struck two cars on a freeway, hit another car on a surface street and sent pedestrians scurrying for their lives.

If convicted he’ll face three years in prison.

Now, shock of shocks. He was NOT charged with DUI. And, a few days after the incident, a pregnant woman in the car he hit on the freeway lost her baby, but Rampage was not charged for that after an investigation revealed that the miscarriage was unrelated to the accident.

Rampage Jackson's Tire

The shredded tires were first listed on Craigslist, but last time I checked they had removed the listing. It’s now on eBay and open for bids! Click Here to see the auction.

Rampage Jackson was arrested this afternoon, as posted earlier. Here are some updated photos from TMZ.com:

Rampage Jackson Arrested

Rampage Jackson Arrested

RAMPAGE WENT ON A RAMPAGE!

The Daily Pilot (a Newport Beach & Costa Mesa newspaper) is reporting that former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton Rampage Jackson led police on a chase where he crashed into 3 cars before he finally stopped. Here is the article from The Daily Pilot:

Police: “Rampage” goes on one

Driver hits at least three cars during chase that begins on 55 freeway and ends with arrest on Balboa Peninsula.

By Joseph Serna

Updated: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 3:24 PM PDT

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, former light heavyweight champion of the Ultimate Fighter Championships, was arrested on suspicion of felony evading, hit-and-run and reckless driving Tuesday after he allegedly led police on a pursuit from Costa Mesa to Newport Beach, police said.

Jackson, the driver of a lifted, gray pick-up truck left crashed cars, shredded tires and sparks in his wake this afternoon when he led police on a short pursuit from the southbound 55 freeway exit onto Newport Boulevard where he hit at least three cars, police said.

The driver hit two cars at 19th Street and Newport Boulevard, then drove away at about 1:13 p.m., Lt. Paul Dondero said.  A Costa Mesa police officer saw the driver southbound approaching 17th Street and tried to pull him over, police said. There, he hit at least one more car before continuing to run, now heading south toward the Balboa Peninsula, Dondero said. Some time after that, the truck blew a tire but continued to drive on its rims, Dondero said.

Jackson eventually gave up, pulled over and was arrested, police said. The whole chase lasted about five minutes, Dondero said.

More details to come

…”of the world” as he wants to be known. Forrest Griffin outpaced Quinton Rampage Jackson to win a 5 round decision. Rampage was very humble in defeat, admitting that he got his “ass whupped” by Forrest. The judges scores were 48-46 twice and 49-46 for Griffin. Forrest used his handspeed to his advantage, as well as good leg kicks that hurt Jackson, but Forrest sometimes found himself in too close with Rampage, and was in danger of being caught by a Rampage Jackson combination full of uppercuts and hooks. With the win, Forrest Griffin improves to 16-4 and Quinton Jackson falls to 28-7.

In other results from the night:
Patrick Cote defeats Ricardo Almeida by split decision
Joe Stevenson defeats Gleison Tibau by guillotine choke (2nd round)
Josh Koscheck defeats Chris Lytle by unanimous decision (a bloody ass fight)
Tyson Griffin defeats Marcus Aurelio by unanimous decision
Gabriel Gonzaga defeats Justin McCully by kimura (1st round)
Cole Miller defeats Jorge Gurgel by triangle choke (3rd round)
Melvin Guillard defeats Dennis Siver by KO (1st round, 36 seconds)
Justin Buchholz defeats Corey Hill by rear naked choke (2nd round)

Rampage should stick with beating people up, he kinda sucks as a rapper. Probably better than I could do, but that’s not saying much. Word.

Current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is scheduled to be a guest on the Jimmy Kimmel Live late-night talk show tonight on the ABC network. Check it out. Oh yeah and sign up on our MMA Forums.

Great show, and going into the night, I was conflicted about who I wanted to win for some fights. I’m a Lyoto Machida fan, and while I’ve never really been a Tito Ortiz fan, part of me was hoping to see him win just for the controversy it could’ve caused with Dana White. However, I also didn’t really want to see Machida lose, but anyway. That fight went about how I expected it would. I got excited when it looked like Tito was going to get that triangle choke in the 3rd round, but Machida escaped perfectly. I’ve also heard people comparing Lyoto Machida’s performance to Kalib Starnes. WTF? In no way was that a Starnes. Machida is ninja, whether he’s exciting or not. (No, it wasn’t an exciting fight overall). Maybe Tito can go to EliteXC now and fight Frank Shamrock, that would be nice.

Wanderlei Silva destroyed Keith Jardine. Damn. The Axe Murderer is back. Who’s next? Will we see a Silva/Liddell rematch? Will Silva ever fight Rampage again? or will Wanderlei drop to 185lbs as a lot of people suspect he will do? That is the match-up that should happen. Wanderlei vs. Anderson Silva. I’d pay double to see that fight.

BJ Penn was able to get the daily requirement of blood in his diet from Sean Sherk. BJ kicked Sherk’s ass throughout the whole fight, and afterwards ran over to wipe blood from Sherks face, then licked his hand. The winner of Kenny Florian vs. Roger Huerta needs to fight Sean Sherk next.