Now I only started to get into the UFC at about 65, and I haven't watched any of the Ultimate Fighter series so I never really bought into the whole Forrest Griffin thing. I know he beat Shogun, but that Jardine fight kept lingering in my head. So I was a bit surprised when Forrest was made the #1 contender.
After the first round, I thought it was going to be a mismatch, with a predictable Rampage win. Then in the second Griffin looked to injure and dominate Rampage and I thought he might be able to take advantage to pick up the upset. Follow with three rounds that I thought probably could have gone either way and Forrest picks up the decision to become the New light heavyweight champion. Obviously the UFC will cash in on a rematch in the near future I think.
Kudos to Forrest and his team for a great game plan and execution.
Anderson Silva to debut as a light heavyweight in a fortnight. Looking forward to that.
Not a very exciting show overall. In fact, I barely remember anything other than Josh Koscheck's blood-dyed hair, Joe Stevenson's sudden and beautiful guillotine, and the first two round of the the main event.
The most interesting things to come out of this show are what will happen next. Tyson Griffin is surely on his way to a title shot within the eext year. Apparently Patrick Cote is too. Rampage obviously deserves the immediate title shot, but I'm guessing that if Chuck Liddell dominates Rashad Evans, he will get the title shot against Forrest for the New Year's show. "TUF winner defends the title against his former coach" sounds like the fight UFC has been drooling to promote since TUF began. That's fine with me though, because then we might get Rampage/Wanderlei again and in a cage. It's more likely that Machida will face one of those guys instead though, because I'm pretty sure UFC is desperate to find somebody to knock him out. Too bad neither of them will. What we should be seeing is Forrest/Lyoto for the title, Rampage/Chuck 3 for the next shot, and Wanderlei/somebody just for fun.
Lloyd: When I met Mary, I got that old fashioned romantic feeling, where I'd do anything to bone her. Harry: That's a special feeling.
Wanderlei/Rampage and Machida/Thiago Silva sound like pretty good bouts for the November PPV. I agree that Chuck/Forrest for NYE is a natural provided Chuck beats Rashad Evans, and Chuck/Forrest will draw HUGE money for the UFC. Though the rumour mill was also predicting a St. Pierre/Penn superfight in December, so I'm not sure Dana White would want to put two major headliner bouts like that on the same card. Plus, isn't Nogueira/Mir set for December's PPV as well after the next Ultimate Fighter season?
Patrick Cote doesn't deserve a shot after that pathetic fight. Have him fight, say, Thales Leites, and the winner of that one gets the next crack at Anderson. Isn't Silva already tentatively set to fight Yushin Okami in October or November anyway?
“How is it that I am a good actor? What I do is I... pretend to be the person I’m portraying. You’re confused. Case in point: in Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson comes to me and says ‘I would like you to be Gandalf the Wizard,’ and I said ‘You are aware that I am not really a wizard?’ and Peter Jackson said ‘I would like you to use your acting skills to portray a wizard for the duration of the show.’ So I said ‘Okay’ and then I said to myself ‘Mmm.. How do I do that?’ And this is what I did: I imagined that I was a wizard, and then I pretended, and acted, in that way on the stage. How did I know what to say? The words were written down for me in a script. How did I know where to stand? People told me where to stand." -- Sir Ian McKellen, Extras
Originally posted by Big BadWanderlei/Rampage and Machida/Thiago Silva sound like pretty good bouts for the November PPV. I agree that Chuck/Forrest for NYE is a natural provided Chuck beats Rashad Evans, and Chuck/Forrest will draw HUGE money for the UFC. Though the rumour mill was also predicting a St. Pierre/Penn superfight in December, so I'm not sure Dana White would want to put two major headliner bouts like that on the same card. Plus, isn't Nogueira/Mir set for December's PPV as well after the next Ultimate Fighter season?
Patrick Cote doesn't deserve a shot after that pathetic fight. Have him fight, say, Thales Leites, and the winner of that one gets the next crack at Anderson. Isn't Silva already tentatively set to fight Yushin Okami in October or November anyway?
Though Penn/St. Pierre would be the more interesting fight, I'd think Forrest/Chuck would draw much better. If they go that route, everything else is probably going to moved to accommodate it.
Nog/Mir does not sound like a very effective draw. Mir hasn't been a name in a long time, and Nog has never been one to American fans. They should just use it as the main event of the TUF finale show instead. That way tons of people will see how amazing Nog is and will pay to see his next title defense.
Okami is indeed getting the next shot at the MW belt, and Cote has been slotted to be after that. That'll be a long wait though, so he'll probably get an relatively easy fight in the meantime. I'd rather see him fight Bisping in a fast-tracked #1 contenders match, but mostly because I want to increase my chances of seeing Silva give Bisping the Rich Franklin treatment in the near future.
(edited by samoflange on 8.7.08 1529) Lloyd: When I met Mary, I got that old fashioned romantic feeling, where I'd do anything to bone her. Harry: That's a special feeling.
While Liddell-Forrest would be a marketable fight, I think that the Rampage-Forrest rematch probably draws as well, if not more, than it. Add in the possibility of a trilogy, a la Chuck-Randy, and I think UFC is leaving a lot of money on the table here.
Figting a replacement fighter after Rashid Evans (No, NOT Rashad Evans) was arrested for a parole violation related to a conviction on residential burglary charges. SO, he fights a big old dude named Vince Lucero.