Rampage and Rashad stare-down at UFC 96

This wrap up comes a little late but the show still deserves its due publicity so here we go.

The main event featured one of the most anticipated grudge matches in UFC history. Rampage has had a problem with Rashad Evans ever since he fought Rampage’s teammate Hector Ramirez back in 2004. Ramirez suffered an injury in a fight the day before and basically fought Evans on one leg. Rampage felt Rashad did a little too much showboating in the fight and let him know about it when Rashad approached him after the fight about training with him. The bad blood started there and continued after Rampage beat Rashad’s teammate Keith Jardine at UFC 96 and continued into The Ultimate Fighter show.

They surrounded the main event with some decent fights but nothing extremely noteworthy. Let’s take a closer look at how things hashed out.

John Hathaway vs. Diego Sanchez

This was Sanchez’ return to the welterweight division after achieving some success in the lightweight division with wins over Joe Stevenson and Clay Guida before being dominated by BJ Penn. This was a fight where Sanchez had a lot to lose and very little to gain. Hathaway was undefeated and had previous success against strong wrestlers so he matched up well with Diego. The first round saw Hathaway connect on some solid strikes and drop Diego like a sack of bricks. Diego never seemed to fully recover after that. It was a good fight to start the show as both guys stayed busy for the length of the fight but Hathaway dominated Diego in every regard and picked up the unanimous decision to remain undefeated. I felt like Diego’s best option was to remain in the LW division. It remains to be seen what his next move will be.

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Jason Brilz

This is the fight we got when Forrest Griffin was forced to pull out with an injury and in terms of the fight itself we as fans were certainly rewarded. We just weren’t pleased with the decision. Brilz is a wrestler, Nogueira a jiu jitsu ace with solid boxing. Not far into the fight we saw the boxer being out-boxed by the wrestler as Brilz was landing shots on Nogueira at will and had the Brazilian seeing stars on numerous occasions throughout the fight. Brilz was also able to secure quite a few takedowns and it looked as if he might submit Nogueira with a guillotine choke at one point. One thing Nogueira was able to do was sweep Brilz when they did go to the ground. For the life of me I can’t see how someone would score the fight for Nogueira but that’s why they say to never let the fight go to the judges and Brilz certainly had his chance to finish Nog early but just didn’t pursue for some reason.

Todd Duffee vs. Mike Russow

Duffee had a lot of hype going into the fight and is a physical specimen and Russow looked umm… soft to say the least. The first round saw Duffee teeing off on Russow and landing numerous hard punches but Russow just wouldn’t go down. Russow’s best chance in the fight was getting it to the mat and through the first two rounds when Russow was unable to do that it seemed like it would be a matter of time before Duffee knocked him out or just ended up getting the decision. Halfway through the third round Russow landed a miracle punch that put Duffee’s lights out. It was seriously one of the strangest fights I’ve seen. Russow was just getting dominated and didn’t even look like he belonged in the same cage with Duffee and then BAM! just like that it was over and Russow was the winner. The best part of the fight occurred after Duffee was knocked out- Russow dives in to finish him off and it looked like he realized Duffee was on dream street and as the ref comes in to pull Russow off, he delivers this little baby hammer fist to Duffee’s face that sent all of us into laughter every time it was replayed. It was definitely the highlight of the night for me. Very odd fight to say the least.

Melvin Guillard vs. Waylon Lowe

This fight was shown because time allowed for it and I’m glad it was. Lowe comes out looking strong as does Guillard and then Guillard lands a vicious knee to Lowe’s body that buckled him and sent him to the mat. The fight was over but Guillard managed to get one more punch in to the back of Lowes head as he was doubled over before the ref could pull him away.

Michael Bisping vs. Dan Miller

In no way, shape, or form should this fight ever be considered as a co-main event. I realize Forrest pulled out and they had to do something, but these guys just didn’t deliver. Bisping spent the length of the fight delivering pitter patter punches to Miller and we saw Miller never attempt a takedown throughout the first two rounds despite jiu jitsu being the strongest part of his game and striking being the strongest part of Bispings game. It really was one of the worst gameplans I’ve seen on the part of Dan Miller. After three rounds of dancing around, Bisping picks up the unanimous decision.

Rashad Evans vs. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson

This fight had absolutely no chance of living up to the hype but even I didn’t think it would be as bad as it was. We saw Rashad dance around and stay out of Rampage’s reach and continually press Rampage against the cage and attempt takedowns. That was basically the fight. At one point Rampage rocked Rashad and attempted to finish him off. Rashad scrambled to his feet and Rampage just lets him dance around and recover. Rashad takes the decision in a lackluster main event.

Overall the event was decent. Compared to other UFC PPV shows it was just about average. Rampage had been out of the game for a while and his fight camp basically turned into a weight loss camp and he just didn’t fight with his usual killer instinct. We did get to see a hot WW prospect in John Hathaway dominate a former top WW and were also treated to the miracle comeback of Mike Russow and a highway robbery of a decision in the Nogueira/Brilz fight. It’s not an event that I’d rush out and buy on DVD when it’s released but certainly one that I wouldn’t mind re-watching at some point.