I think in striking Rampage keeps himself vulnerable when he’s on defense. He covers up like Tito some times. Some one can take advantage of him in striking but apparently he hits really hard. We don’t know what will happen to him against Forrest in a rematch. Forrest is busier and did better against Jackson than Liddell and Wanderlei.

Grappling or wrestling, probably not. His defensive skills on his back in really bad positions was kind of impressive against Dan Henderson and Griffin. The 2nd round against Griffin was Rampage in survival mode.

via submission? Maybe that’s the key but Jackson will tell you that he got jui-jitsu. It would be really interesting to see what happens if he tightens up that aspect of his game.

With that said, I think Herb Dean did a great job in stopping Big Nog from receiving any further damage. He could barely intelligently defend himself standing up from Mir’s crisp striking.

48 strikes?? I thought that stoppage was really late.

And there’s there the Evans-Griffin stoppage, which wasn’t so bad but the referee could have ended that a little earlier. Continuous concussive blows can come back to haunt a fighter, look no further than many retired NFL dealing with many physical ailments.

The ref for the Jackson-Silva bout also did a good job for recognizing that Silva’s body checked out on impact and attempting to shove an andrenaline-fueled Rampage off Wanderlei’s limp body. All shots afters the left hook were unnecessary.

If you really think about it, that left hook put a major dent in Wanderlei’s career and Chuck Liddell’s career.