Another night and another UFC in the books. Overall, I thought this was a great PPV card and pretty much every fight was worth watching. We got to see seven of nine fights, and unfortunately we missed the James Irvin vs Thiago Silva fight because it seems Irvin suffered a pretty nasty knee injury trying to stop from being thrown. Anyways, on to the recap.
- Chuck Liddell vs Quinton Jackson A good fight and I’m pleased with the outcome. Chuck fought his game plan and fought exactly how he fights most of his opponents. The punch that dropped Chuck is normally a punch that most fighters miss and Chuck capitalized on. Chuck landed the left hook body shot and started to move backwards when Quinton threw the bomb that connected on Chucks chin. Nine times out of ten in the past, that punch normally would have missed Chuck as he was falling back and the Iceman would have retaliated with his signature overhand right that normally knocks his opponent out. We’ve all seen it time and time again.
Not this time however. Jackson is a very skilled fighter and his standup game and movement have improved dramatically since teaming up with training Juanito Ibarra about 14 months ago. There really isn’t much to be said about this fight; it ended quickly and we all saw what happened. Everyone except for Chuck who wasn’t quite sure what happened to him after he woke up under ref Big Jon McCarthy.
- Quinton Jackson vs Dan Henderson will be a very interesting fight and I’ve got to give it some thought before I comment on it; I’m just very glad that Henderson has signed with the UFC. Chuck Liddell now has some interesting decisions to make regarding his MMA future. Is Chuck going to battle back in a now “stacked” light heavyweight division against the likes of Hendo, Shogun, Rampge etc…? And if we are going to see a Liddell vs Jackson 3 matchup, isn’t it safe to say that Rampage is at least somewhat in the Icemans head now, just like the Iceman is all over Tito Ortiz’s big melon?
- Karo Parisyan vs Josh Burkman - I really enjoyed this fight and thought it lived up to its billing. Karo pressed the action and brought the “heat” and you can see Burkman start to tire very quickly early in the second round. Karo is a top 10 fighter in my book and he displayed that again last night. I really like Burkman as well, but I still think he wasn’t ready for someone like Karo and needed at least 1 more, probably 2 more fights before he fought someone on Parisyan’s level.
- Keith Jardine vs Houston Alexander - Man, oh man. One of the craziest, nastiest fights we’ve seen in the Octagon. Houston Alexander looks like a guy who picked up his fighting style while defending himself in a prison somewhere and he took all that agression out on Jardine. I can’t remember ever seeing a fight in which someone was litterally lifted off of there feet from an uppercut. It happened to Jardine not once, but twice. Alexender landed at least a dozen clean full-power shots to Jardines head and I’m surprised Jardine lasted as long as he did.
- Ivan Salaverry vs Terry Martin - Terry Martin looked very good in this fight and surprised me by wanted to take Salaverry down. Martin packs some heavy hands just like his doppleganger Mike Tyson and most would have thought Martin wanted to stand and bang. I have a feeling Martin was worried about the reach difference and decided to try some ground and pound. It was an unfortunate ended, as Salaverry was rattled from being slammed on his head. Looked like a little “ring-rust” to me and only fighting once in the past 2 years will do that to you.
- Kalib Starnes vs Chris Leben - This fight did nothing to excite me and I thought was pretty boring from the outset. There was a decent amount of action but I didn’t think anything special happened. I’m glad Leben lost and I hope the UFC finally lets him take his mouth and sloppy technique somewhere else.
The next six weeks are going to be very busy for the UFC and us MMA fans, so everyone should sit back and just enjoy the ride.
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Tags: UFC, MMA, UFC 71, Chuck Liddell, Quinton Jackson
(via MMA HQ - Mixed Martial Arts News and Analysis)