After a controversial decision loss and a police chase that left the MMA community scratching their heads, should Quinton Jackson take a step back away from the spotlight for a little while? I like the guy as a fighter; he shows a ton of heart and he doesn’t give up, but his antics outside of the cage are getting stranger each week. For example, this is what Jackson said to Fighter’s Only Magazine about the man who beat him via decision at UFC 86.

“But now, I don’t respect him as a man. Because if it was me, I would have said, ‘I have to give him a rematch right away, to remove all doubt’.

“I’m a man and when you fight it’s all about honour. I’m not angry at him or anything, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve lost respect for him as a man.”

Does Jackson deserve a rematch right now? Better yet, will he even get past the Orange County court case against him without any consequences? He certainly can’t fight anyone from prison and any time away from training will only make things harder when he does get back into the cage. Would it be best to even allow him to fight Griffin again immediately? I’m siding with Joe Silva and Dana White by allowing him to fight Mauricio Rua, Griffin’s opponent prior his bout with Jackson on July 5th, before getting a chance to avenge his loss.

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You can see the detailed breakdown here.

Griffin
Total Shots Landed: 113
Takedowns: 1
Submission Attempts:3

Jackson
Total shots landed : 73
Takedowns: 1
Submission Attempts: 0

Winner via FightMetric: Jackson, but the fight should have been declared a 47-47 draw.

Notes: Jackson landed 33 power head shots while Griffin landed 27. Griffin beat Jackson out in every other overall category except body jabs (15 to 10).

This is why objectivity isn’t the answer for MMA.

I didn’t expect Quinton Jackson’s trainer to admit any fault after his loss to Forrest Griffin at UFC 86. I expect the usual “he was injured” or “Griffin was on drugs” response from Ibarra. But, this takes the cake. Ibarra plans to appeal the UFC 86 judges decision in hopes to overturn the decision and take back the belt. He told Sherdog that he got robbed on Sunday and he hopes to learn exactly how the bout was scored. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

At the end of the bout, Jackson admitted that Griffin beat him. The NSAC judges scored the fight as they saw fit from their cage-side perspective. I personally agreed that Griffin won even after I thought Jackson was going to easily knock him out in a couple rounds.

So, Juanito Ibarra, go back to boxing. Go back to fighters who can take a knee to halt the action. Go back to the “sweet science” of standup with too many weight classes and not enough talent. Get away from MMA because you’re a nuisance.

Nobody said it would be easy. From the initial season of The Ultimate Fighter emerged a tall and goofy fighter who looked barely older than the childhood pictures of his youthful self. Dan Severn taught him that recognized MMA fighters were big time. Keith Jardine showed that he could be brought down. But better yet, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua proved that Forrest Griffin learned how to hang with the best in the world. And with that win over Shogun came a shot at the title against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at UFC 86.

Griffin has the heart and the training to make many other fighters look weak. He doesn’t quit. He doesn’t let a little blood stop the fight. He doesn’t stop after a rounds of trading heavy punches. Forget about tapping too. Forrest Griffin wants to win. And on Saturday night, he did. Forrest Griffin executed a gameplan at UFC 86 to become the next light-heavyweight champion even after taking similar shots from Jackson that probably would have dropped many other fighters for good. While Quinton Jackson rightfully took the belt from Chuck Liddell at UFC 71 last year, and regardless of what people might say, Griffin did the same to Jackson this year.

Losers can’t make excuses forever. Although Jackson admitted that Griffin “whooped his ass”, I don’t expect his outspoken trainer, Juanito Ibarra, to say silent for long. But many make excuses for Shogun after his loss to Griffin via rear naked choke last November as well. His leg was injured. He wasn’t in shape. He shouldn’t have fought. But excuses are useless in a sport where you only get one chance. You better be ready or you better choose another profession. Griffin certainly didn’t let anything get in the way of his quest for the light heavyweight belt on Saturday Night. With leg kicks that proved that Jackson wasn’t an invincible standup fighter to ground control that did enough to keep the ex-champion from doing anything offensively in the second round of their five round brawl, Griffin knew what had to be done and he did it with his goofy, yet respectful, style.

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I know a lot of people didn’t agree with the judges decision to award Forrest Griffin the light heavyweight belt on Saturday night, and I didn’t think he was going to be able to pull it off, but he did.

Here’s the video.

I scored it:
R1: 10-9 Jackson
R2: 10-8 Griffin
R3: 10-9 Griffin
R4: 10-9 Jackson
R5: 10-9 Griffin

48-46 Griffin. A lot of people seem to be saying that the second round wasn’t a 10-8, but you I can easily see why the judges gave Griffin two points in the around; Jackson didn’t do anything. The final three rounds were a toss up, but I though Griffin did more considering he had damaged Jackson’s leading leg and was able to attack and pull back while Jackson was forced to counter-punch. I will say that Jackson did a great job of staying alive even though he was limited. Thoughts?

Watch Patrick Cote somehow get the decision win over Ricardo Almeida here.

As for Joe Steveson, he was up against a much larger and potentially dangerous (to BJ Penn, at least) Gleison Tibau. He got lucky in this fight!

I don’t see either fighter going too far, unfortunately. Cote doesn’t have any ground game to compete with anyone else in his division and Stevenson already go destroyed by BJ Penn once. We’ll see what Joe Silva and Dana White have in store for them.

That is what Foxsports.com calls this picture of Chris Lytle after being pounded by Josh Koscheck at UFC 86.

But will this fight mean anything more than a win for Koscheck? He can’t beat St. Pierre and his style is kinda on the boring side. Let’s hope he can use his improved standup during his next fight. He opened a cut, but he wasn’t impressive at UFC 86.

There was a time when I thought that Forrest and Rampage were going to give us one of the most exciting fights of the year, as the result of an incredibly matchup. The more I think about it, the more I watch their tape and the more I think about the way that this matchup actually looks, the more aware I am that this is not going to be the war that everyone thinks it is.

Forrest Griffin believes he can go into a clinch and beat Rampage the same way that Shogun did. He believes that he’s going to use his lanky build and his muay thai to beat Rampage the way that he believes that Rampage can be beaten. Forrest thinks that he can out-finesse Rampage and bob and weave and work from the clinch.

Forrest Griffin is delusional.

About halfway through the Countdown to UFC 86, Juanito Ibarra reminded me of something that had been eating at me: Rampage is not the same fighter that lost to Wanderlei and Shogun. Rampage has had no trouble translating his game to the cage.

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Amir Sodollah is The Ultimate Fighter and now it is time for the coaches to battle. This Saturday in Las Vegas Light Heavyweight Champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson will step into the octagon to fight the real ultimate fighter in Forrest Griffin. These two were tapped to be the coaches for 7^th season of the UFC’s hit reality show because of their outgoing character, but many believe that the show was a let down and the two coaches weren’t as flamboyant as expected. Let down or not, the fight between the two promises to be the complete opposite. This is MMAOpinion’s UFC 86 preview.

Some say that this fight card is sub par to the ones that we will see in 2008. I am not sure that it is. In almost every fight there is some sort of story or style that can make it interesting.

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin

It is no question that these two will stand and bang. This is going to be one exciting fight! Rampage is known as Chuck’s kryptonite. He is the man that dethroned the face of the UFC in Chuck Liddell. He is known for his slams as much as his flare outside of the cage. Rampage is all about the money and one sure way to rack up the bucks is to keep that belt around his waist. However one former Georgia Bulldog has another thing on his mind. Forrest Griffin will be looking to out work and utilize his game plan to perfection against the champ. Forrest has been on an amazing journey since being laughed at in the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter. Not only was he one of the most liked fighters from that season; he also helped put the sport on the map with his legendary fight with Stephan Bonnar. Forrest has showed that he has the huge heart and mental toughness to be champ. Now it is time for him to prove that he belongs atop this division with the big dawgs. This fight has fight of the night written all over it!

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