UFC 86: Jackson vs Griffin
July 5th Las Vegas, Nevada
www.ufc.com

Forrest Griffin d. Quinton Jackson via Unanimous Decision after Round 5.

Jackson, the reigning champ of the 205lb division, is coming off his first title defense, a 5 round war with Dan Henderson that unified the UFC and PRIDE FC championships back at UFC 75 last year. Griffin, the Ultimate Fighter Season 1 winner is coming off of the biggest win of his career, a Submission win over Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua at UFC 76 last year. After a few months of retooling their 205lb division and completely refilling the depth, the both of them were used to serve as coaches on the recently completed Season 7 of The Ultimate Figher reality show. Now that the show is over, they can get back to what they do best and just fight baby........and in their case brawl.

Round 1. Griffin becomes the aggressor and the tone is set for the rest of the fight as he complements the more patient Jackson, who prefers to unload power shots when an oppertunity presents itself... which it did. The key moment in the round occured during an exchange when Jackson knocked Griffin down with an uppercut. Big flurries throughout the round, great action and the crowd loves it.
Round 2. Griffin starts the round with some leg kicks, and while pivoting Jackson's leg wobbles. Griffin sees the oppertunity and rushes in a locks in a guillotine as he gets the fight to the ground. The rest of the round was all Griffin, as he went from half guard, to side control and finishing the round in mount. Continuously working with punches and elbows, not too damaging but effective still. Griffin also worked for an Americana, but was unsucsessful at finishing the fight.
Round 3. The pace slowed considerably, as both fighters stayed on the feet. Again keeping with the trend, Griffin was the aggressor throwing more often, and Jackson was the more patient fighter waiting to throw some power shots. Griffin went back to the leg kicks on Jackson's left leg. Pretty much an even round.
Round 4. Pace picks up and they exchange in the center of the octagon. The two clinch, and hit the fence than the ground as Jackson falls on top. Forrest works for and gets a triangle locked in. Jackson has seen this before and stands up in the position and goes for a patented slam. At the last moment, Griffin releases the hold to avoid the major brunt of the damage, recovering full guard after the two hit the ground. Griffin is now cut above his eye. Not much ground and pound from Jackson, Griffin uses an opening to attempt an omoplata that forces Jackson to abandon the position and get back to his feet where they exchange again.
Round 5. Before the round Jackson's corner tells him that Griffin is winning the fight and he needs to win this round. Back to a slow pace for this final round. Griffin again regains the aggressor role. Not much action as in earlier rounds. Jackson waits too long to open up, and before you know it the fight has gone to the judges.

What a fun fight to watch, Griffin has quickly become a top quality fighter. He and Jackson both love to brawl and they were made for each other in terms of matching fights. Hopefully Jackson's knee ends up being alright so we can see a rematch, hopefully on Super Bowl Sunday in February. Until then, the 205lb division can sort itself out as new blood is entering.......specifically 185lb Middleweight champion Anderson Silva, and the small heavyweight, Brandon Vera. Contender matches have been made that include Chuck Liddell vs Rashad Evans (UFC 88) and Wanderlei Silva vs Thiago Silva (UFC 90?? late October), and the elusive Lyoto Machida is in need of a fight. Will be interesting to see this division work itself out in the coming months.

Patrick Cote d. Ricardo Almeida via Split Decision after Round 3.

Total dissappointment. This fight did not live up to the billing as a possible #1 contender's match. The first round was the best round in terms of finding a winner, yet ironically the loser of the fight, Almeida won it with his superior ground game. Early on he jumped guard and forced the fight to the ground. From there he used rubber guard to hold Cote down, but he escaped to the feet. I dont remember seeing him throw a punch before Almeida took him down with a double leg takedown. Almeida stood up and finished the round with some good punches and elbows to the downed Canadian. Rounds 2 and 3, Cote controlled the fight on the feet, where most of the time Almeida looked lost. For all the hype and co-main event status, this fight failed at helping to determine a #1 contender for an apparently dried up middleweight division.

Joe Stevenson d. Gleison Tibau via Submission (Guillotine Choke) in Round 2.

Interesting fight, unfortunate turn of events for Tibau. The fight starts quickly and Stevenson ends up with a guillotine after a brief moment against the fence. Tibau escapes the hold and scrambles to the feet. Tibau drags Stevenson to the mat where he gets back to his feet throwing punches. Stevenson then wound up on top position. Tibau swings his left leg over Joe's head and locks in an omoplata (shoulder lock, usually used to transition into better positions). With about 2 minutes left in the round, he unsucsessfully tries to improve to a fight ending hold, but Joe defends well and is stuck in the position until the round ends. Tibau looks confident heading into round 2. He gets Stevenson to the mat, where Joe pops out again. Tibau this time lands a double leg takedown into side control. From here he transitioned from mount, and while trying to lock in a slick triangle choke, he is bucked off and Joe gets to his feet. Now moving back towards the center of the mat, he shoots in again, but this time Joe is ready and waiting with a guillotine choke. Unfortunate ending for Tibau, too many chances at the same trick.

Josh Koscheck d. Chris Lytle via Unanimous Decision after Round 3.

Rising star Koscheck vs long time vet Lytle that could go a long ways into determining a possible contender for late in 2009. Round 1 was somewhat slow, Kos controlled the fight from guard for most of the round throwing a few good elbows. Round 2 the aggression kicked in and he started rolling. Lytle's defense for takedowns is a guillotine attempt, which cause Kos just a little irritation. After popping out of the hold, Kos throws more hard elbows to Lytle's head and opens up some old scar tissue on his forehead and above his right eye. As more and more elbows land, Lytle's head begins to drain and everytime his head moves there is a blood spot to be seen as if his head was a paint brush. Koscheck is unloading as the bell tolls. Round 3 is more of the same. As Kos goes for a takedown Lytle defends with a guillotine, unsucsessful, the fight turns to Kos' favor again. The wrestler again throws more elbows and Lytle is a bloody mess once more. After a short lull in the action the fight is stood up and Lytle is wobbly but not broken. The round ends, and a clear winner has prevailed.

Tyson Griffin d. Marcus Aurelio via Unanimous Decision after Round 3.

Great match making here, this fight could help determine a #1 contender for BJ Penn, who's next fight could be for the Welterweight title than a return to this division. Griffin has been in some battles since joining the UFC, while Aurelio's last 2 wins have come against lesser quality opponents. Round 1 was a feeling out process with Griffin landing the more effective strikes. Griffin begins opening up his striking in Round 2 and Aurelio isnt liking whats going on. After some knees and elbows during a clinch on the fence, Griffin gets a takedown on Marcus. Aurelio quickly sweeps the leg and winds up with Griffin's back. After defending well, Griffin winds up in Aurelio's guard avoiding a triangle and omoplata attempt before the round ended. Round 3 was more of the same on the feet, Griffin landed alot more effective strikes and controlled the action while avoiding takedown attempts. After avoiding a couple of takedowns, Griffin shoots in and gets one of his own. Aurelio was unsuccsessful in looking for submissions and too little is too late.

Melvin Guillard d. Dennis Siver via Knock Out (Punches) in Round 1.

Melvin came storming out and dropped Siver with a punch, Siver recovered and attempted an armbar to keep Melvin from landing ground and pound. Melvin backed away and let Siver get up. 20 seconds later he dropped him again with a combination finishing the fight 36 seconds into the round.

Unaired Prelim Results
Gabriel Gonzaga d. Justin McCully via Submission (Kimura) in Round 1. Leg kicks were the key factor, Gonzaga dropped him with a leg kick to the back of the knee and used smooth transitions to improve to side control and locked in the hold.
Cole Miller d. Jorge Gurgel via Submission (Triangle Choke) in Round 3. Very fast paced fight, can be seen on UFC.com's main page for free viewing.
Justin Buchholz d. Corey Hill via Submission (Rear Naked Choke) in Round 2. Sounded like a good scrap, did not see it.

UFC's Post Event Bonuses, all 4 received an additional $60,000:
Fight of the Night: Forrest Griffin vs Quinton Jackson
KO of the Night: Melvin Guillard
Submission of the Night: Cole Miller

Overall UFC 86 was pretty good. There were some dominating performances and some really close fights. Tyson Griffin and Forrest Griffin were the most impressive. Rampage was on, too bad about the possible knee injury though. As discussed earlier, the 205lb division is deep already, and only getting better with its recent additions. Koscheck WOULD be a fan favorite if he fought aggressive more often. His potential is for real. The biggest problem from this show was the Cote / Almeida fight not living up to its possible #1 contender's fight marquee. The 185lb division needs to be overhauled. After Anderson's 205lb debut he should drop back down to fight Yushin Okami than move up for good because there is no legit contenders at this time.

MMA Future Outlook........July 19th doubleheader.
Affliction: Banned, pay per view featuring the main event of #1 ranked heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko vs Tim Sylvia, Andrei Arlovski vs Ben Rothwell, and Josh Barnett vs Pedro Rizzo in a Heavyweight loaded PPV. There is also a 1 hour show on FSN preceeding it featuring Vitor Belfort vs Terry Martin and Aleksander Emelianenko vs Paul Buentello.
UFC Fight Night, Spike TV featuring the main event of #1 ranked middleweight making his 205lb debut, Anderson Silva vs James Irvin, Hermes Franca vs Frankie Edgar, and Brandon Vera vs Reese Andy. In total there will be 6 fights shown.
Get your TIVO and make it a long night of MMA.

NCshvDavid running down fools | 07/06/08, 08:55 PM

my scores? i dont really do that because the 10-9 system sucks for mma. id judge the entire fight and the decisions on the ppv i agreed with although i may have made cote/almeida a draw simply because of the status of their fight as a #1 contender fight after okami/silva

Head Kick KO | 07/06/08, 10:08 PM

Good blog, cant wait until the 19th

Hank Hill | 07/07/08, 04:43 AM

on my "cards" forrest won because of the 10-8 second, however I agree with head kick, it sucks for mma

The Prodigy is Bill Brasky | 07/07/08, 10:01 AM

Nice rundown.

--- Original Blog written By HEAD KICK KO.

all crdit due him, as always.