We’re now only a few days away from UFC 130, featuring a main event between former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Quinton Jackson and perennial contender Matt Hamill. The bout was originally a lead-in to the third and likely final fight between Frank Edgar and Gray Maynard, but was bumped up to main event status when both Maynard and Edgar pulled out due to injury.
Since then, Jackson-Hamill has received a rather lukewarm response from a large section of the MMA fanbase, who seem to decry the fight as uninteresting or boring. And I have to tell you, fans and friends… I’m just not seeing it. And I think everyone needs to stop complaining about this fight.
I understand some of the hesitation regarding this fight, sure. Even as a big fan of both Jackson and Hamill, I can admit that this fight isn’t as high-value or as eagerly anticipated as the original UFC 130 main event. That was a huge fight that got pulled, and so of course I can understand why people are a bit upset about it. But that’s pretty much where the mutual understanding ends and the confusion begins.
Why does everyone think this fight is going to suck or be boring? I just don’t get it. I know why some people think it’ll be an uneventful fight…but those people are wrong. Don’t believe me? Allow me to dissect the cynics’ main arguments as I perceive them. We’ll start with something I see all the time: Matt Hamill is a boring fighter.
To which I say: what Matt Hamill have you been watching? Certainly not the one that’s in the UFC.
Sure, Matt Hamill is a wrestling-based fighter. Sure, wrestling-based fighters have some degree of stigma attached to them, however inadvertently, based on their perceived penchant for going to boring decisions. But Matt Hamill is not that type of fighter, he’s never been that type of fighter, and leading into this fight with Jackson, I have no earthly idea why so many people take him as that type of fighter.
The results speak for themselves: Matt Hamill has fought 11 times in the UFC and only lost twice. He’s faced some very tough challenges in that time: Michael Bisping, Rich Franklin, Mark Munoz, Jon Jones, and more. He’s currently on a five-fight win-streak with two stoppages, two decisions, and one DQ. The fact that Matt Hamill has been to a decision in his two most-recent fights shouldn’t overshadow the fact that he’s finished a majority of his fights, with six (T)KOs throughout his career. And to top it all off, all six of those (T)KOs occurred in either the first or second round.
Granted, many people still have a problem with Matt Hamill “beating” Jon Jones by Disqualification. But the situation is as cut-and-dry as they come: Jon Jones destroyed Matt Hamill, and then he got a little too excited and started throwing some illegal elbows. To those that still hold this win against Matt Hamill, my response is very simple: Jon Jones may have destroyed Matt Hamill, but Jon Jones destroys everybody. Get over it.
Other than Matt Hamill being a boring fighter, another common criticism I’ve heard surrounding this match is that Quinton Jackson just doesn’t want to fight anymore. And while that’s a critique that’s not without some merit, it’s frankly being grossly over-blown.
It’s true that Quinton Jackson appears to be heading towards the end of his fighting career. It’s true that he’s stated in multiple interviews that he’s not Randy Couture and doesn’t envision himself competing past the age of 40. It’s even true that Jackson hasn’t looked too impressive in his two most-recent outings.
All of that is true, but so is this: Matt Hamill has lit a fire under Quinton Jackson, and with the ring rust now more or less shaken off, Jackson can get back to doing what he does best: putting on great fights.
Let’s not forget that before his recent two-fight dry-spell, Jackson had delivered some awesome fights in the UFC. Let’s not forget that Quinton Jackson is a former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, and was the man that dethroned Chuck Liddell. Let’s not forget that despite all his flaws, Jackson remains a very popular and marketable star. Quinton Jackson, taken solely by himself, is a worthy main event star.
At the end of the day, it’s not easy being a realist and an optimist at the same time, but I’d like to consider myself both. This is one of those rare times where both the realist in me and the optimist in me are in agreement. Realistically, this fight has a better chance of being a quality main event than an underwhelming mismatch: you’ve got a very hungry Matt Hamill facing a Quinton Jackson that wants to put him in his place. And if these two bring out the best in each other (and that’s the optimist talking), we’re going to get a fantastic fight. So stop worrying, and most importantly… stop complaining.
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