The UFC holds its first of two July events this Saturday night in Las Vegas with their UFC 88: Jackson vs Griffin event. The Pay-Per-View event packs a very solid fight card and is headlined by what should be an excellent UFC Light Heavyweight title fight. So, let’s get started…
Main Card
Quinton Jackson vs Forrest Griffin - I’m really not sure where to start with this fight, other than to say that I’m very excited about this matchup. Quinton always puts on a good show and Forrest always puts on a good show; that combination and only mean good things for MMA fans.
The UFC is currently enthralled with hyping the fact that Forrest Griffin is coming off a victory over Mauricio Rua and the fact that Rua is the last person to defeat Jackson. In my mind, the two have nothing to do with each other and the UFC should hype Forrest on his own credentials directly. While Forrest is not superior at any one technical aspect of fighter he undeniably has the one thing a fighter cannot lear: heart. Heart is a term that is thrown around losing these days, but it is something that Forrest Griffin embodies. Now, I don’t want to down play Forrest’s striking power and skill as well as his ground skills, but to me thats not what is important to his game. What keeps Forrest in fights and what gives him a chance against people like Quinton Jackson is his heart.
All that being said, I’m picking Quinton Jackson to win this fight. Quinton’s striking skills, power, and timing are all better than Griffin’s thanks to his time training with Juanito Ibarra. Jackson has a better wrestling game as well, but I don’t expect much of this fight to take place on the mat. For all his flamboyant charades and one-liners, Jackson knows how to dial-in and get prepared for a fight and he’ll be ready to take on Griffin. If Jackson can avoid taking damage from Forrest’s knees and leg kicks and work his jab effectively I think he controls this fight from start to finish.
Winner: Quinton Jackson
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Here are the official fighter salaries for last week’s Strikeforce: Melendez vs Thompson event.
- Gilbert Melendez - $50,000
- Josh Thompson - $35,000
- Bobby Southworth - $25,000
- Billy Evangelista - $14,000
- Nam Phan - $10,000
- Raymond Daniels - $10,000
- Jeremiah Metcalf - $8,500
- Eric Lawson - $8,000
- Chris Cariaso - $6,000
- Anthony Figueroa - $5,000
- Elaina Maxwell - $4,000
- Jesse Gillespie - $3,500
- Brian Caraway - $3,000
- Alvin Cacdac - $3,000
- Bobby Stack - $3,000
- Jose Palacios - $3,000
- Cyrillo Padilha - $2,500
- Travis Johnson - $2,000
- Jesse Jones - $2,000
- Jorge Interiano - $1,500
- Miesha Tate - $1,500
- Alexandre Trivino - $1,500
- Eric Jacob - $1,000
- Anthony Ruiz - $200
The total disclosed fighter payout was $203,000 with a live gate of roughly $355,000. Anthony Ruiz reported received the majority of his purse in advance which explains his small salary.
In Team UFC’s Number 1 Suckup’s latest “Mailbag” column, the aforementioned writer says UFC President Dana White is:
thinking of leaving a welterweight division in the WEC and moving the WEC’s 185-pound and 205-pound fighters to the UFC.
Dropping the WEC’s two highest weight classes and moving the fighters over to the UFC’s ranks is a very interesting idea. While White has long maintained that the WEC and UFC are two separate entities, he has also maintained that the WEC will highlight the lighter weightclass fighters.
When Zuffa purchased the WEC they immediately dropped the 255 lb. limit heavyweight division and the UFC purchased several of the fighters contracts. Where Zuffa to put the WEC on a further diet, the UFC could pick up some much needed help in the middleweight division.
Fighters like Chael Sonnen, Paulo Filho, and Bryan Baker would make excellent additions and instantly give the UFC two new fighters would could contend for the title against Anderson Silva. The deeper UFC light heavyweight division would look to pickup Doug Marshall, Brian Stann, Steve Cantwell and Mark Munoz. While none of these fighters would realistically be top contenders right away, they could provide much needed matchup potential for existing UFC fighters down the road.
Personally, I think it would be a great move on the UFC’s part and the WEC wouldn’t miss the two weightlcasses in the least. What do you think? Good idea or bad?
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UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre has been nominated in the “Best Fighter” category for this year’s ESPY awards by ESPN.
Everyone reading this post right now needs to head over to the ESPY voting site and vote for GSP. Seriously, stop what you are doing and do it right now. If you don’t, I don’t ever want you visiting this site again because you don’t deserve it.
Here’s the clip from UFC.com
On July 20th, UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre will attempt to become the first mixed martial artist to win an ESPN ESPY award, as he has been nominated for the ‘Best Fighter’ award following a 12 month period that has seen him decision Josh Koscheck, submit Matt Hughes, and TKO Matt Serra to regain his 170-pound crown.
St-Pierre’s competitors in the ‘Best Fighter’ category include boxers Joe Calzaghe, Holly Holm, Floyd Mayweather Jr., and Kelly Pavlik. To vote for St-Pierre, visit www.espys.tv.
The award show airs on ESPN on Sunday, July 20th at 9pm ET.
It appears “he’s out of the UFC” doesn’t always mean the same thing when it comes from the lips of Dana White.
Jesse Taylor and C.B. Dollaway are expected to fight at the upcoming UFC Fight Night 14 on July 19.
Taylor, you may remember, originally made the finals of The Ultimate Fighter 7 but was kicked “out of the finale, and out of the UFC” by Dana White after some disorderly conduct following the end of taping for the show. Taylor was removed from the finale which ultimately led to C.B Dollaway getting another shot at facing eventually TUF 7 winner Amir Sadollah in the finals.
It appears that Taylor is a new man as Dana White is allowing the fighter back into the promotion. That, or the UFC is so desperate to fill the UFN 14 fight card at last minute that they need any fighter they can get. UFC Fight Night 14 was hastily put together in the last few weeks as a free SpikeTV event to go up against the initial Affliction: Banned Pay-Per-View event. Either way, it appears that, for the time being, all sins have been forgiven and Taylor will get his shot of “UFC glory.”
Rumors are currently circulating that former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin will move back up to the light heavyweight division and fight Matt Hamill at UFC 88 this September.
Franklin last fought at light heavyweight back in 2005 when he defeated Ken Shamrock at the original Ultimate Fighter Finale. Franklin has struggled lately in the middleweight division solely because of the complete domination of current middleweight champion Anderson Silva. Two of Franklin’s last five fights have been losses to Silva and another was a close victory over Yushin Okami where he nearly lost by armbar in the third round.
With his inability to get past Anderson Silva, Franklin’s options are limited in the middleweight division and a move up to light heavyweight will create some new matchup opportunities. Matt Hamill has spent his whole MMA career fighting for the UFC and currently holds a 4-1 record. His only loss came against Michael Bisping at UFC 75 in a fight that 99% of fight fans agree Hamill truly won. Most recently Hamill defeated Tim Boetsch via TKO at UFC Fight Night 13.
UFC 88 is currently scheduled for September 6 in Atlanta, GA and will be headlined by Chuck Liddell vs Rashad Evans.
June 30th, 2008 | by Dr J
Last week we reported that Antonio Silva would fight Sergei Kharitonov on the next CBS-EliteXC Saturday Night Fights event.
Instead, it appears that Silva will fight Justin Eilers. Sam Caplan from FiveOuncesofPain.com first reported the news and Eilers’ manager Monte Cox confirmed the news. Jared Shaw, EliteXC vice president, indicated the fight will most likely still be for the EliteXC heavyweight title but the fight might be broadcast on the Showtime portion of the fight card instead of televised on CBS.
