Fifty Greatest Fights in UFC History Part 4/5

20- Sam Stout split decision Spencer Fisher (UFC 58)
This fight saw the explosive return of the lightweight division in the UFC after a two year absence. Fisher took the fight on short notice, filling in for the injured Kenny Florian, but no one would have known from the effort he put in. The fight was a back and forth battle between two heavy hitters, but it was Stout’s crisper striking that saw him take a razor thin split decision. The two would headline a UFC Fight Night in 2007 with Fisher winning in another war.

19- Bas Rutten KO (14:43) Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (UFC 18)
The long awaited Octagon debut of ‘El Guapo’ Bas Rutten nearly didn’t go as planned as Tsuyoshi Kohsaka repeatedly took Bas down in the early goings of their fight. The feared kickboxer, who was hyped as having been able to knock opponents in Pancrase out with palm strikes (closed fist strikes were illegal in Pancrase) showed a hole in his game with his inability to stop the takedown. Bas played his guard well and took any punishment that was dealt out to him. After the 12 minute regular period, Kohsaka was ahead on points and it appeared that Rutten had three minutes to finish ‘TK’ in order for his Octagon debut to be a successful one. Rutten punished Kohsaka in the final three minutes, kicking his legs and body as well as landing heavy right hands before finishing TK with a barrage against the cage.

18- Jens Pulver majority decision BJ Penn (UFC 35)
The fight that really put the Lightweight division on the map. The first fight between rivals BJ Penn and Jens Pulver was a war. Penn was the new phenom having dominated Din Thomas and Caol Uno already in the UFC and few gave reigning champion Pulver a chance. It was all Penn in the opening two rounds as he took Pulver down and took him to school on the ground. At the end of the second round, Penn secured an armbar but Pulver was literally saved by the buzzer. After that it was all Pulver as he stuffed Penn’s takedowns and battered him standing up. The fight went the full five rounds, but Pulver retained his title. It would take Penn another six years to capture the Lightweight title (in the meantime he moved up and choked out Matt Hughes for the welterweight title).

17- Frankie Edgar unanimous decision Tyson Griffin (UFC 67)
Another Lightweight fight makes it into the top 20 and this one pitted two young prospects with excellent wrestling against one another. Edgar had the better wrestling, but Griffin had the more complete game. The cardio and pace each could set was dead even and it was at an electrifying level. Edgar controlled much of the fight with his superior wrestling, but Griffin was able to light him up when he could keep it on his feet and used some excellent escapes which created some of the best ground transitions ever seen in the UFC. Griffin sunk in a deep knee bar at the end of the 3rd round which he held for a good 30 seconds as Edgar gutted it out and took a close decision due to time spent on top.

16- Shonie Carter knockout (3rd) Matt Serra (UFC 31)
The spinning backfist fight and a night that Jiu Jitsu expert and future UFC Welterweight champion Matt Serra will never forget. After dominating Carter on the ground for the majority of the fight, Carter caught Serra with a spinning backfist that knocked him out in the final seconds of the fight. Serra had gone from submission attempt to submission attempt to submission attempt for the full three rounds and was clearly ahead on points at the time of the stoppage, but Carters experience, submission defence and unorthodox style saw him over the line with one of the most memorable finishes in UFC history.

15- Royce Gracie submission (0:57) Ken Shamrock (UFC 1)
The first high paced grappling match in the UFC. The first time two future UFC Hall of Famers fought each other in the UFC. Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock were head and shoulders ahead of everyone in the first UFC tournament, but drew one another in the semi finals after winning their opening two matches quickly earlier in the night. Gracie immediately shot in and a scramble ensued and went on for nearly a minute before Gracie sunk in a sleeve choke after taking Shamrocks back and forced a tap-out. These two would dominate the early parts of UFC history with Royce winning UFC 1, 2 and 4 and Ken becoming the first UFC Heavyweight champion after winning the vacant title against Dan Severn at UFC 6. Gracie and Shamrock fought again, going to a draw in a dull 35 minute fight at UFC 5 which was fought entirely in Gracie’s guard.

14- Matt Lindland majority decision Phil Baroni (UFC 34)
The other fight between these two  was even better then the UFC 41 rematch. This one was fought on the preliminaries of UFC 34 and was an all-out war that was fought at a higher tempo and was alco closer then their rematch. In this fight Lindland again repeatedly took Baroni to the mat and was able to improve his position and do damage, but his stand-up back then was awful and Baroni rocked and dropped him whenever they stood up only for Lindland to get a clinch and then a takedown. After splitting the first two rounds, Lindland was having his way with Baroni again in the final round until a foul cost him a point and the fighters were stood back up. Baroni then looked like he had stolen the fight by nearly knocking Lindland out in the final seconds, but the judges saw differently with two of them scoring every round to Lindland and the other judge scoring it a draw (2-1 Lindland before the point deduction).

13- Forrest Griffin unanimous decision Rampage Jackson (UFC 86)
The controversial decision in MMA history. This fight is like the Sugar Ray Leonard vs Marvin Hagler Middleweight title fight for MMA. The Ultimate Fighter 7 coaches fought out a five round war for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship and the decision still gets argued about to this day. Griffin pushed the pace in round one only for Rampage to drop him and come close to finishing him at the end of the round. Griffin dominated round two, hurting Rampage with a leg kick and then getting on top and mounting him. Round three was very close as again Forrest worked at an enormous pace, but Rampage scored with the heavier blows. Round four saw Rampage get a takedown and land some shots from on top, only for Forrest to come close with a triangle before the champion slammed his way out of it. The final round was again very close as Forrest continued to push the pace and Rampage picked the cleaner shots. I personally scored the fight a draw (10-9, 8-10, 10-9, 10-9, 9-10) but all three judges scored it for Griffin who became the first Ultimate Fighter Winner (excluding Matt Serra) to win a world championship.

12- Matt Hughes knockout (3rd) BJ Penn (UFC 63)
After being choked out in less then a round in their UFC 45 meeting, Hughes had revenge on his mind. The only trouble was BJ Penn is an absolute freak and even though he was filling in for an injured Georges St Pierre on five weeks notice, he came prepared to take his title back. Penn outboxed Hughes in the first round while showing cat like balance to avoid being taken down. In the 2nd round Hughes finally got Penn on his back, only to be caught in a triangle choke and an armbar that he barely made it out of. Penn seemingly blew his gas tank trying to finish Hughes in the 2nd round and Hughes began to land heavily standing up in the 3rd. Hughes took the weakened Penn to the ground and held him in a crucifix while landing clean shots on Penns head which forced the referee to stop the fight. It was an incredible comeback from Hughes and is probably his career defining victory. I would still like to see this rivalry become a trilogy and I’m sure there’s plenty of others who’d like to see these two fight again.

11- Diego Sanchez split decision Clay Guida (TUF9 Finale)
The last fight to take place in the Octagon makes it nearly into the top ten. After a staredown that almost put the Rampage-Wanderlei fights to shame (almost), both men exploded as the opening round started exchanging wild blows. Sanchez began scoring with heavy combinations before Guida took him to the mat. Sanchez escaped and dropped Guida moments later with a head kick that looked to have finished the fight. Guida showed the heart and determination that has made him a fan favourite and saw out the round. Rounds two and three saw Guida completing takedowns, but spending all his time defending submissions or trying to keep Diego on his back. The fight went the full three rounds at a pace that the Lightweights seemed to produce time and again and Sanchez’s work from the bottom gave him the split decision.

See Also:

Part 3 (30-21)

Part 2 (40-31)

Part 1 (50-41)

Fifty Greatest Fights in UFC History Part 1/5

With the UFC running their top 100 fights of all-time in celebration of the UFC 100 card next weekend (and doing such a shit job with some of the fights they selected), I thought I’d go to a certain amount of effort and come up with what I believe is the best 50 fights in UFC history. I’ve gone over and watched plenty of old fights in the past two weeks which is one of the reasons I’ve made few updates on the site in recent times and I hope I haven’t left anything too obvious out. I’ll be doing this over the next five days with five posts, enjoy:

50- Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson unanimous decision Dan Henderson (UFC 75)
Sure, not the most action packed fight of all-time but given it’s historical significance as well as the back and forth battle between the two I feel it deserves a place in my 50 even if it comes at 50. This was the long awaited mega fight all UFC and PRIDE fans had been waiting for between the UFC 205lb champion and the PRIDE 205lb champion, except that it got less attention because it wasn’t Liddell vs Silva. Rampage had knocked out Liddell at UFC 71 and Henderson KO’d Wanderlei at PRIDE 33 setting up what ended up being a very underrated fight. Henderson controlled early with his wrestling but after Rampage had an answer for Henderson’s takedown game the two became locked in a very even battle that Rampage came on top of due to superior conditioning.

49- Eugene Jackson knockout (2nd) Royce Alger (UFC 21)
A wild slugfest from the dark ages with Middleweight journeyman Jackson scoring a dramatic one punch knockout over a tiring Alger in the early part of the 2nd round. Alger was a well credentialed wrestler who scored numerous takedowns in the early goings of the fight, even advancing his position and doing damage which was unheard of for wrestlers of that age. Alger suffered from the typical lack of long term conditioning that top wrestlers had back then, and Jackson began escaping and landing shots. After a wild first round of takedowns, escapes and heavy punches being thrown, Jackson ended things quickly in the 2nd round.

48- Tito Ortiz split decision Forrest Griffin (UFC 59)
A fight that the UFC would like it’s fans to forget is the one where Tito Ortiz, the former golden boy of the UFC who Dana White hates, edged out one of their poster boys Forrest Griffin by split decision. It was Tito’s comeback after a period off contract with the UFC and his opponent was the ever popular TUF1 champion Forrest Griffin who was 2-0 since winning the show. Ortiz quickly attempted to show Griffin he was out of his league, scoring a takedown and landing with heavy elbows for the majority of the first round that rocked and bloodied Griffin. Griffin somehow survived the onslaught and began opening up on his feet in the 2nd round, scoring with rapid punches although Ortiz was landing some solid straight shots back on Forrest. With the crowd on Forrest’s side going into the third, he again tried outworking a tiring Tito but the two traded evenly with Forrest again scoring more and Tito landing the harder shots. A late takedown from Ortiz looked like it could be enough, but Forrest escaped and the fight went to the judges where Tito scored an unpopular (I actually thought he won) split decision victory.

47- Phillip Miller submission (2nd) Mark Weir (UFC 40)
If you have never seen this fight, it’s a war that could have easily been higher if anyone, anywhere knew who either of these two were. Mark Weir was coming off the quickest KO in UFC history over Eugene Jackson while Miller was a solid wrestler who lay and prayed his way to victory on the same card. The fight was back and forth with Miller scoring repeated takedowns only for Weir to escape and rock Miller with shots. In the 2nd round, Miller seemed to be out but again scored a takedown and dramatically took Weirs back and sunk in the choke for the victory. Miller would retire not long after with a 16-0 record including a 2-0 run in the UFC.

46- Don Frye submission (2:14) Gary Goodridge (UFC 8.)
The tournament billed as ‘David vs Goliath’ pitted such a matchup in the Final with 210lb Don Frye taking on 260lb Gary Goodridge. It was the first UFC event of both men and both men had an easy run to the final, winning their two previous fights of the evening in under a minute for Frye and just over six minutes for Goodridge. The fight was quick, but violent as both men traded heavy shots with Goodridge scoring a brief takedown before they returned to the feet and traded some more. After a scramble, Frye ended up on top in a good position and began landing heavy shots on Goodridge who quickly tapped out, giving Frye the UFC 8 tournament championship.

45- Matt Hughes submission (1st) Frank Trigg (UFC 45)
The not quite as attractive older sister of that hot girl everyone’s always talking about, but one you’d fuck nonetheless if you had the chance (although I wouldn’t fuck any girl that looked anything like Matt Hughes or Frank Trigg). The first fight was surely not as memorable as the epic rematch (although the ending was one of the most memorable), but it was still a great fight. The fight was a four minute scramble in which both men took top position on a number of occasions and although little damage was done, it was an awesme display of grappling. Hughes ended up taking Triggs back and as Trigg stood up to defend, sunk in a mid-air rear naked choke pulling Trigg on top of him as he tapped out.

44- Pedro Rizzo knockout (2nd) Josh Barnett (UFC 30)
It’s very rare you get a good heavyweight slugfest that goes for more then a few minutes, but top heavyweight contenders Pedro Rizzo and Josh Barnett put on a show at UFC 30. Despite Rizzo’s feared striking ability, Barnett was more then happy to stand with him and was doing well in the first round. Rizzo was having trouble timing Barnett’s odd style combined with his size advantage but midway through the first he began timing Barnett and the two started scoring heavily in the exchanges. Rizzo started scoring with leg kicks which were slowing Barnett down visibly in the 2nd round and then after stunning him with a right hand, he finished the job with a bigger right seconds later. It would be Barnett who would go on to defeat Randy Couture however as Rizzo fell short in his two attempts at the title.

43- Tyson Griffin split decision Clay Guida (UFC 72)
Two of the UFC’s most exciting current day fighters battled in Ireland at UFC 72 and as expected won fight of the night. Both guys set an electrifying pace that didn’t back off for the entire three rounds. It was a back and forth fight with Griffin doing better on the feet and Guida scoring more takedowns and getting the better positions. At one point Guida took Griffin’s back but was dropped on his face as he attempted to sink in the choke. The decision went to Griffin although many people feel Guida was robbed.

42- Forrest Griffin submission (3rd) Mauricio Shogun (UFC 76)
The 2005 PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix champion Mauricio Shogun’s UFC debut was spoiled by Forrest Griffin in an exciting battle which mostly took place on the ground. Expected to walk through the ‘reality TV star’ Shogun seemed a step behind the entire fight and despite opening two huge gashes on Griffin’s face in the opening round, Griffin’s pace was too much for Shogun. After a close first round, Griffin upped the tempo and left Shogun tired and battered at the end of the 2nd round and basically doing all that he could to survive. After battering Shogun in the third round, Forrest finished off Shogun, who at the time was considered the top Light Heavyweight in the world, with seconds remaining in the final round.

 41- Robbie Lawler unanimous decision Chris Lytle (UFC 45)
The comeback for Robbie Lawler after his first loss was also the beginning of the long time UFC career of Chris Lytle who in losing earned another chance in the organisation. Lawler took the fight to the ground early in the first where he dealt out considerable damage while avoiding numerous submission attempts from Lytle. After a slow 2nd round, the fight exploded with one of the most memorable final rounds in UFC history with a wild stand-up exchange taking place for the majority of the round. Lawler took away any doubt in the decision by dropping Lytle (only for Lytle to applaud as he fell to his back) in what was the first of many memorable fights for Lytle in the UFC.

40-31 tomorrow…..

Sanchez edges Guida in war at TUF9 Finale

In what has to be the fight of the year in MMA so far for 2009, TUF1 Middleweight champion Diego ‘Nightmare’ Sanchez scored a split decision over Clay Guida in the main event of The Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale. Both guys seemed eager to start the fight, with Sanchez staring Guida down during his walk to the Octagon and the fighters engaging in one of the most intense staredowns during the referee’s final instructions. That eagerness boilt over as both men opened with a huge flurry that lasted a good 20 seconds with Sanchez rocking Guida against the cage. The two traded heavy strikes for the opening minute of the first round with Sanchez’s ever improving stand-up skills allowing him to tattoo Guida with a variety of clean shots, one of which knocked Guida’s mouthpiece out. Guida then scored a takedown and began working his top game that has earnt him victories over Mac Danzig and Nate Diaz in his recent outings. Sanchez worked his way back to his feet and after a brief respite to replace Guida’s mouthguard, Sanchez again took the upper hand dropping Guida heavily with a head kick. Somehow Guida wasn’t unconscious when he hit the ground, and he rises before Sanchez can finish him. Sanchez went to work with his hands landing more hard shots that appeared to have broken Guida’s nose before getting a takedown of his own and landing several shots from on top before the buzzer sounded.

And that was just the first round…..

Guida came out for the 2nd round like nothing had happened and put Sanchez on his back early and began to control him from on top. Sanchez was just as aggressive from his back, throwing hard elbows that landed frequently as Guida appeared more interested in controlling Diego then doing damage. Sanchez was also busy with submission attempts, looking for the kimura on more then one occasion although Guida’s defence was tight. The fighters exchange strikes on the ground at the end of the round with Sanchez landing a series of elbows that cut Guida’s forehead open before the buzzer. Sanchez scored early in the third with strikes as Guida attempted to land punches to set up a takedown. Midway through the round Guida shoots in for a takedown which fails an Sanchez tries to capitilise by taking his back. Guida defends and Sanchez ends up on bottom but with a rear (?) naked choke locked in as he is still half around Guida’s back. Guida escapes again and looks to capitilise but Sanchez keeps him busy defending submission attempts as the fight ends and the debate about who won begins.

While Sanchez did the most damage by far, Guida was successful in controlling where the fight went for most of it. I scored a 10-8 round for Sanchez in the first and thought the 2nd and 3rd could go either way (I wouldn’t argue with a 10-9 in the first either) giving Guida the 2nd and Sanchez the 3rd. The judges were split with 29-28 Guida and 29-28/29-27 for Sanchez giving him the split decision and likely a shot at the winner of Florian-Penn at UFC 101. It truly was one of the best fights I’ve seen in MMA and both fighters stock rose significantly from the fight.

In the Ultimate Fighter Finals it was a UK clean sweep with Ross Pearson edging Andre Winner in the Lightweight Final and James Wilks choking out DeMarques Johnson in the opening round of the Welterweight final. Also on the card, Chris Lytle survived a scary first round in which he was dropped to score a unanimous decision over Kevin Burns and TUF2 Welterweight Joe Stevenson showed an improved overall game decisioning TUF5 Lightweight champion Nate Diaz.

TUF9 Finale

The Ultimate Fighter 9 “US vs UK” concludes tomorrow with the usual final card featuring the final bouts as part of the main card. There was a lot of hype around this season being the best yet, I don’t quite agree with it to be honest. While some of the tension between the two teams was good, the rivalry with the coaches wasn’t up there with some of the other seasons and the antics in the house were pretty tame I thought. I was sort of waiting for someone big to happen in the house for the entire show and nothing happened.

The finals pit DeMarques Johnson (US) against James Wilkes (UK) in the Welterweight division and in the Lightweight division Andre Winner and Ross Pearson of team UK do battle. I think Johnson will have too much experience for Wilks, who seems a little green at this stage. As much as I didn’t like Johnson (or anyone from team US), he probably had the most well rounded game in the house and Wilks showed some weaknesses in his game in his two fights against Lester. The all UK Lightweight final should be a cracker and I’m really not sure who to pick. I’m going with Winner to win on points in what could be fight of the night (if the main event doesn’t live up to expectations).

The main card has some interesting non-TUF fights with a pivotal battle in the lightweight division between Diego Sanchez and Clay Guida headlining the card. This fight provides us with the clear next contender behind Florian and Penn in my opinion. Maybe Gray Maynard is up there, but I think with Sanchez’s success at welterweight and Guida’s resume as well as the performance he showed in losing to Huerta that the winner of this fight should get the next crack. I think Sanchez has the better finishing skills out of the two, but Guida’s wrestling, pace and cardio could make the fight very interesting. Sanchez has dealt with fighters like Guida before and seeing how he doesn’t have to deal with the strength of a 170lber in this fight, I think he won’t be as troubled by the wrestling skills of Guida. Plus Sanchez is known to set a pretty high pace himself and also has great cardio. The x-factor here is the weight cut for Sanchez, if it effects him Guida will just outwork him. I think it won’t, especially since this is the second time he’s cut this far now and I think Sanchez will prevail by unanimous decision or late stoppage.

The other interesting fight on the card sees the two men who most recently lost to Guida and Sanchez doing battle. Nate Diaz fights Joe Stevenson in a battle of former TUF champions and one both men can’t really afford to lose. Diaz had a strong run of victories post TUF but stumbled in his chance to join the elite against Clay Guida at UFC 94. Stevenson struggled a bit post TUF before winning enough straight fights to earn himself a shot at BJ Penn’s title. Penn made light work of Stevenson which has started a run of bad results for ‘Daddy’ as he is going into this fight with back to back losses against Kenny Florian and Diego Sanchez. Both guys have great grappling skills, but Diaz’s stand-up is much crisper and provided Stevenson can’t take him down at will I think Diaz will batter him on their feet and maybe even score a stoppage late in the fight.

UFC Updates: Evans vs Machida (not Rampage)

Just thought I’d post something different seeing how there’s limited action over the coming weeks until the K-1 event at the end of March. A few big fights have been announced over the last few weeks. I’ve beek keeping a MMA schedule on the main page (when I get around to updating it anyway) so if you want to see who’s on what card that’s coming up this might be a good place to check out.

Evans to fight Machida, not Rampage
That’s right, like I said Rampage fighting three times in a little over five months was too much especially considering one of those was a hard fought fight with Keith Jardine who is a strong, powerful bastard. Machida will instead get his shot in probably the least exciting fight for a UFC title since the Pat Miletich reign at Welterweight. This fight could be very boring, but then again I’ve been wanting to see what it takes to beat one of these guys for a while so at least that’ll satisfy that bit of curiosity for me, that and the fact that Rampage will likely tear apart whoever wins this fight.

TUF 9 Finale features Sanchez-Guida and Diaz-Stevenson
The two main fights apart from the Finals for TUF 9 will feature another round robin of lightweight clashes. After Nate Diaz and Clay Guida beat Josh Neer and Mac Danzig respectively, Diaz fought Guida and Danzig took on in bouts following. The same has happened again with Guida and Diaz, who will meet Sanchez and Stevenson in respective bouts. The Guida-Sanchez fight has serious implications with the winner probably next in line to battle BJ Penn (or Kenny Florian) as both guys have been in good form and are on winning streaks. Diaz and Stevenson should be another good test for Diaz and one that I think he’ll pass. The big thing will be whether or not he can finish ‘Daddy’ because he’ll deserve serious props if he does.

Coleman to face Bonnar at UFC 100
UFC 100 features a hall of fame member in what will be a sad showing as he’ll likely lose to one of the UFC’s average Light Heavyweights. Former UFC and PRIDE Heavyweight Champion Mark ‘The Hammer’ Coleman will take on TUF1 Runner-up Stephan Bonnar at UFC 100. Bonnar should win this fight on conditioning alone as Coleman struggles to fight for more then two minutes without being short of breath.

Post UFC 94 Thoughts

Georges St Pierre TKO4 BJ Penn
There’s a fair bit to talk about with this fight. Number one is the greasing accusations against St Pierre. BJ Penn’s camp has put in a formal complaint about St Pierre (I’m just going to refer to him as GSP from now on to save time) using vaseline on his back so he’d be harder to control and would be able to slip out of guard easier. The CSAC went off at one of GSP’s cornermen about rubbing vaseline on the back of his neck. From the video of this, it’s clear that GSP’s corner did this by accident and it’s also clear that it was a minimal amount of vaseline. Everyone needs to relax about this and not let it spoil what was a great moment in MMA. GSP was the better fighter and anyone trying to bring up the grease thing against him is either a massive BJ Penn fan who can’t handle him losing or a massive GSP hater who wants to use anything against him they can. A bit of vaseline (that was wiped off by the commission guys after it was put on his back) isn’t going to change the result of a one sided TKO to a win for Penn. People are making out that GSP won because of the grease and not because he was the better fighter.
On GSP’s performance, wow! His wrestling seems to be on another level from everyone else’s in MMA right now. His guard passing seems to get better with every fight and his boxing is also very good. It’s going to take something special to defeat GSP anytime soon. GSP made Penn fight his fight when he was fresh and then when he tired he took Penn to the ground where he was meant to have the advantage and started beating him there. I honestly think GSP is the top pound for pound fighter in the sport right now. People still hold the Matt Serra loss over him but at least he avenged it. He’s beaten every man he’s ever faced and he’s been facing top fighters since his 4th pro fight! While I think Anderson Silva would beat GSP if he moved up to challenge the Middleweight king, I’m talking pound for pound here and I think, especially with his recent form, GSP has overtaken Silva with this win.
Despite how good it was watching GSP perform like that I do feel for BJ Penn and I think it may be the end of him more mentally then physically. He’s always given off the impression that believed he could beat any man out there regardless of size and now that GSP has beaten him he may just lose the motivation. Penn probably would have beaten most of the 170lbers out there and I’d back him over a few of the middleweight in the UFC if he fought them, but against the bigger fighters he’ll always fail against the top guys. Still, he’s one tough son of a bitch and anyone ripping on him for not answering the 5th round is a fucking moron. No other man at 170lbs or below would have taken that sort of punishment for as long as Penn did, the fact that he lasted until the end of the 4th round showed that Penn is as tough as they come.

Undercards
Machida was impressive but I still have question marks over how he will perform against a good boxer. Right now I’d pick both Rampage and Rashad Evans over Machida because I think they would keep the fight standing and catch Machida as he tried to ‘run’ after he ‘hits.’ The guys he’s been beating haven’t been good crisp stand-up fighters and I think Machida will be exploited for his unorthodox ways when he fights a good MMA boxer.
Jon Jones was impressive and he’ll serve to remind me not to pick against a guy on the main card if I haven’t seen him before. I didn’t know about his wrestling credentials and I should have done my homework on him before ruling him out. Bonnar fought well for a guy who hasn’t fought for 18 months, hopefully he’s back in the cage sooner rather then later. Parisyan falls under the same category in that he looked like shit because he hasn’t been fighting much, he needs to get back in the cage ASAP. Guida moved into the lightweight elite with his win and should Penn vacate his belt, Guida could be one of the guys in contention for the fight. Jon Fitch also bounced back from his loss to GSP at UFC 87 with a decision win over Akihiro Gono.

Angry Match Maker

Georges St Pierre vs Thiago Alves/BJ Penn vs Kenny Florian
Surely I need not explain these choices.

Karo Parisyan vs Jon Fitch
Both guys were coming off losses heading into last weekends card and both bounced back with decision victories. Both guys were considered the top contenders this time last year before Parisyan was knocked out by Thiago Alves while Fitch got his shot against GSP and was beaten up for five rounds. This fight definately would help fill up any main card on an upcoming UFC.

Clay Guida vs Jim Miller/Gray Maynard
Miller and Maynard are scheduled to fight at UFC 96 and the winner of that fight joins Guida in the second tier UFC lightweights behind Penn, Florian and Sherk. A fight between the winner of that fight and Guida could determine the next number one contender and, like Parisyan-Fitch, would be a solid addition to the main card of any card.

Jon Jones vs Matt Hammill
This fight would really show us how good Jones’ wrestling is because thats the only place Hammill is going to test anyone anytime soon. While it might not have PPV main card appeal, it’d be an interesting fight on the main card of a fight night card or as a preliminary or swing bout.