HAVEN'T WE ALL LEARNED BY NOW?:
EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED IN MMA!
UFC 88's in the books. Big thanks to my "Pops" for opening up his home to us. Despite some difficulty getting the fight ordered via Verizon Fios, we ended up having a great time.
First off, here's my take on the Lidell upset:
I am not a big Liddell fan; I'm not a "hater" by any means, but I've never felt that he is as good as everyone was led to believe during his dominating years of the champ of the UFC's LHW division. Indeed, if you go back and look at who he fought, not that many of the guys he was fighting were all that great. At that time, I think many of the best LHs were over in PRIDE FC. He did actually go over to Pride and he smashed a few dudes, but he got smashed back by some of them (Jackson beat him in PRIDE before coming over and KOing Chuck in the UFC).
Sure he's a great fighter and he'd pound the living you-know-what outta me, but I've always felt that the best way to beat him is to get in there and throw with him. It's not that you necessarily want to stand toe-to-toe with the guy...actually, I take that back, that's exactly what you want to do! What you don't want to do is stay on the outside and trade with him or, worse yet, try to wrestle with him and fall victim to what has made him great: his sprawl n' brawl tactics.. You'll note that two of his three recent losses came when guys got on the inside and countered him (Jackson with the big hook and now Evans with the overhand right). Anyhow, tonight I actually felt bad for him and what with all the nipple tweaking and what-not coming from Evans, I was hoping the KO would have been dished out to Evans instead. Well, I am calling for Evans vs. Machida now that Thiago Silva has been scratched from his bout with Machida due to injury. We'll just have to see what the undefeated Evans does next or, rather, who they'll offer him to fight.
By the way, Liddell isn't retiring, I just like yellow journalism.
The rest of the card proved to provide a solid night of entertainment other than the lucklaster showing from Hamill who looked lackadaisical against Rich Franklin after the first round. The Pahlares/Hendo fight was pretty entertaining despite some stalling here and there.
Here are all the results:
Rashad Evans defeats Chuck Liddell via KO Round 2
Rich Franklin defeats Matt Hamill via TKO Round 3
Dan Henderson defeats Rousimar Palhares via Unanimous Decision
Nate Marquardt defeats Martin Kampmann via TKO (Strikes) Round 1
Dong Hyun Kim defeats Matt Brown via Split Decision
Kurt Pellegrino defeats Thiago Tavares via unanimous decision
Tim Boetsch defeats Mike Patt via TKO (Strikes) Round 1
Jason MacDonald defeats Jason Lambert via Submission (Rear Naked Choke) Round 2
Ryo Chonan defeats Roan Carneiro via Split Decision
FROM SHERDOG:
Saturday, September 06, 2008
By Joe Hall
Rashad Evans knocked Chuck Liddell cold Saturday at UFC 88 in Atlanta.
The shocking finish came at 1:51 of the second round. Liddell had backed his opponent into the cage, where the future UFC Hall of Famer loaded the right hand that has made him one of the few millionaire mixed martial artists.
Evans, an undefeated 28-year-old who has been fighting for roughly four years, flashed a jab that he followed quickly with an overhand right. At that precise moment, Liddell was throwing an uppercut. Evans’ punch landed first, and it landed on Liddell’s chin.
Liddell dropped instantly, and there was no doubt that the fight was over. He lay face-first on the canvas until referee Herb Dean (Pictures) rolled him over.
The fighters had covered plenty of ground during the first five minutes. They circled, pursued, were pursued, punched occasionally. It wasn’t a period worth replaying. Evans was elusive, but Liddell won the round.
Early in the second, Liddell seemed to get what he wanted: an exchange. Neither man connected with anything damaging, but Evans came out of it with the look of someone who had stood in the pocket with Liddell and more than survived there. Soon Evans was scoring with a left hook, and Liddell was closing in, thinking perhaps that Evans was falling into his game plan. The final exchange followed, leaving Liddell on the ground for several minutes before he was up and moving about again.
“The strategy is going straight for the horns,” said Evans, whose trainer, Greg Jackson, also engineered Keith Jardine (Pictures)’s September 2007 win over Liddell. “You can’t beat Chuck Liddell thinking you’re gonna take him down all day. That’s the way to get knocked out and that’s the way to get tired. I wanted to go straight at him with his own game.”
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By the way, Rashad wore a shirt with the mugshot of Bill Gates:
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