As promised by yours truly, we saw a nice group of exciting fights with the exception of a few duds. Here are some of the highlights:
Quinton Jackson Defeated Keith Jardine: Unanimous Decision
In a pretty good back and forth fight, Rampage grabs victory from the jaws of an either/way decision with a left hook with 10 seconds remaining, sending Jardine to the mat.No real fireworks in this one, but both guys came to fight. The highlight of this fight may have been the pre-fight stare down..and then the trash talking between Rampage and Keith Jardine's best Friend and Light Heavyweight belt holder Rashad Evans.... These two are set to square off in May for the title. That is if Rampage accepts the fight on short notice. With Frank Mir's knee injury, the Brock Lestnar/Mir fight was pushed to July (UFC 100) and They need to push up Rashad's title defence to the May Show. Pencil in May and July for great shed fight nights...UFC 100 is set to be the biggest card of all time ( Let's not buy into this just yet ) ...with both the the heavyweight title and the welterweight title on the line ..G(rease)SP vs. Tiago "Pitbull" Alves also
Gabriel Gonzaga Knock out cold by Shane Carwin Shane Carwin
The Hype rolls on with Shane Carwin (the only fighter in the world who wears bigger gloves that Brock Lestner...4XL) getting rocked early, then dropping Gonzaga with a short right hand. Carwin actually works a full time job as an mechanical engineer and only trains part time, so the sky is the limit as he makes fighting his full time Career. This dude has to cut about 20 lbs to make the 265 heavyweight limit and may have the second best one-punch knock out power in the world... I'd still take Fedor any day.. Can't wait to see Lestner/Carwin...that is if Lestner can get by Mir...who looked unstoppable against Nogera a few months ago..Matt Hamill Destroys Mark Munoz with a vicious head kick
This was, in my opinion, the fight of the night...with shed favorite Matt "the hammer" Hamill dominating Mark Munoz from the opening bell until he landed a crazy head kick that crumpled the former NCAA D1 Champ..Good to see the Hammer continue to improve his game...he even out wrestled Munoz...but on the down side... Hamill still fights like the terminator...walking straight at his opponent with his hands down, chin up, and reaching for all his shots...the guys at the top of the 205 division will eat him up until he adds some D to his game. I would have thought that The Rich Franklin fight would have showed hamill that he needs to change it up a bit...but I didn't see anything different from him...well except for that crushing, lead-pipe shin to Munoz's Face! Hope that guy is ok..looked like Rogen and Goldberg were dancing the 2 step to distract us from the fact that they had a stretcher and EMTs called in.
The dud(s) of the night
1) The number one dud of the night was the Brandon Vera Mike Patt fight. As predicted, this was a gimme fight for Vera...who really needed a win to justify his spot in the UFC. They paid him a lot of money and he hasn't looked good at all since dropping from heavyweight. This was clearly a fight that was put together so Goldberg could ramble on about Vera's Mui Tai skills and the fact that he is now a dedicated fighter and "back"... I'm not buying what they're selling here. Patt looked 35 lbs overweight and out of his league...it felt like the intercontinental championship was on the line and Tito Santana was gonna run out from the dressing room at any moment. I was huge Vera Fan when he was fighting at heavyweight...although he can make the cut to 205, his skills seem to translate better at heavy...preying on bigger, slower guys.. The jury is still out on Vera butd I don't think they can just keep feeding him Mike Pratts for long before everyone else notices.2) The Refs: Normally I think the refs do a pretty goob job in the UFC...but as the volume of shows increases, we see more new, inexperienced faces wearing the obligatory black polo and rubber gloves. A non televised fight with Shane Nelson was stopped way to early and the Matt Brown / Pete Sell fight was halted at one point when Sell was in deep trouble, then the ref let the action continue when he saw Sell was ok to continue? What the F? There are no standing eight counts in MMA...then the ref let the fight go on so long that Matt Brown felt bad having to smash Sell in the face any more.....Bring Back Big John McCarthy!! Let him clean this mess up.
3) Gray Maynard Vs. Jim Miller: I was somewhat proven wrong with this one with Gray Keeping the fight standing mostly, but he still fought for the W...not to finish...he had many opportunities to finish this fight, but instead opted to step out, circle, check the clock, throw a jab, step out, circle, check the clock... Gray could win 100 fights in a row, but won't make a main card until he's willing to risk it all and throw down.
That's it from your friendly Shed26 Fight Night correspondent....
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