It takes two to tango in the ballroom, same number required to finish inside the octagon. Before Quinton “Rampage” Jackson gets showered with more “tough love” regarding another decision win, this time over Matt Hamill last Satu…
It takes two to tango in the ballroom, same number required to finish inside the octagon.
Before Quinton “Rampage” Jackson gets showered with more “tough love” regarding another decision win, this time over Matt Hamill last Saturday night–as if a decision victory comes in cheap nowadays and any fighter who fails to finish is unworthy of respect–here are the factors going for and against the much coveted F.
The factors going for the the stoppage are attributed to the party intending to finish (in a perfect MMA world, it should be both contending fighters), of course. For this article, he shall be called “predator.”
Conversely, the factors going against the finish are ascribed to the survivor, whom I shall call “prey.”
Needless to mention, we know that all fighters assume the dual and opposite roles of prey and predator each time they step inside the octagon.
After coming up short in an excellent opportunity against Quinton Jackson, Matt Hamill now has to go back to the drawing board to try to break into the exclusive club that is the UFC’s light heavyweight contenders.The loss ended a five-fight winning…
After coming up short in an excellent opportunity against Quinton Jackson, Matt Hamill now has to go back to the drawing board to try to break into the exclusive club that is the UFC’s light heavyweight contenders.
The loss ended a five-fight winning streak for Hamill, but that included his disqualification win over Jon Jones.
Despite his wrestling background, Hamill came nowhere near being able to take Jackson down with his double leg.
Hamill may be subjected to the title of gatekeeper from now on, but here are some opponents that he could have the chance to get back on track against in his next fight.
UFC 130 delivered a few special moments, including a tremendous knock out (Superman Punch) of Stefan Struve by Travis Browne and a great Memorial Day Weekend Win for Brian Stann who KO’d Jorge Santiago in.
UFC 130 delivered a few special moments, including a tremendous knock out (Superman Punch) of Stefan Struve by Travis Browne and a great Memorial Day Weekend Win for Brian Stann who KO’d Jorge Santiago in the 2nd round. The fights also offered some interesting news bits… like that we should all take better notice of Rick Story as he earned a 6th win to his fight streak in the Welterweight division. And even though Frank Mir clearly dominated Roy Nelson in their 3 rounds, it was still Mir who suffered a broken jaw and was off to the hospital while Nelson joyfully blamed Dan Hardy for his poor “british wrestling” that may have lost him the fight. Lastly, we heard pending the outcome of his hand injury that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson will receive the title-shot against Jon Jones.
And with the fight card’s culmination we also see that despite any injuries and losses suffered, all the fighters still managed to get out to their after parties and have a good time.
Saturday night’s main event saw Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson put on a formidable clinic when it comes to the classic “sprawl’n’brawl” fight tactic. Matt Hamill seemed to throw away his chance at competing on the higher end of…
Saturday night’s main event saw Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson put on a formidable clinic when it comes to the classic “sprawl’n’brawl” fight tactic.
Matt Hamill seemed to throw away his chance at competing on the higher end of UFC events with a poor display. He was completely outclassed by Jackson despite the former UFC light heavy weight Champion’s claims of sporting a fractured left hand.
Depending on the severity of the injury, UFC president Dana White has claimed it will be Jackson who will get the honour of being Jon ‘Bones’ Jones first opponent for a title defense.
Jones is well known for his unorthodox style within most facets of MMA. ‘Bones’ demonstrated wild wrestling techniques in his bout against Stephan Bonnar, a freak submission against Jake O’Brien and massive confidence in his striking ability when securing his title in his destruction of Muay-thai machine—Shogun Rua.
Rampage’s game plan was no shock to anyone who has watched the knockout merchant’s development over the years in the sport. If the Memphis native receives an opportunity to face Jon Jones it is very possible he will use a similar disposition.
If one criticism came from Jones’ picking apart of Rua, it was that he seemed to be gassed, although not nearly to the extent of his opponent, toward the end of his fight. A harsh critique in my view yet still an important one to note.
In Jackson’s last outing versus Rashad Evans, he didn’t seem to be at the races at all for the first two rounds, but still finished the fight the stronger of the two. Evans deservedly won the bout on decision.
If Rampage managed to stuff the take downs of the explosive Jones, there is no doubt it would have a serious impact on the engine of the young champion. However, I think most people believe that Jackson would find it hard to have the same rate of success as he did against Hamill, stuffing all seventeen of his take down attempts.
This would leave the fight to be decided on the feet, somewhere Jackson is at his most comfortable. Jones too is no slouch in this department, but with Rampage able to pick apart Matt Hamill with only one good hand, you would have to give the edge to the Tennessee man.
Then again a similar mistake was made by a lot of analysts before Jones’ last bout against Rua.
I believe that Jones’ unorthodox style leaves openings for Jackson to exploit, especially if his coveted left hand is ready to fire on all cylinders.
One thing is for sure, the UFC will have to pick a substantial venue if the match is to go ahead as a lot of fans want to see this fight. A defense will cement Jones’ place as the 205 king and also as one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world, while a title shot could awaken the sleeping beast that is Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.
At various times in his UFC career, Matt Hamill’s wrestling has been described by UFC personalities as elite, Olympic-level, and world-class. Among his wrestling achievements are a gold medal, and two national wrestling championships. After…
At various times in his UFC career, Matt Hamill‘s wrestling has been described by UFC personalities as elite, Olympic-level, and world-class. Among his wrestling achievements are a gold medal, and two national wrestling championships. After watching Quinton Jackson easily stuff all of Hamill’s takedown attempts, it’s safe to say his abilities as a wrestler were overrated.
But if you’ve been paying any attention, you’ll know that they always were overrated.
Matt Hamill was a Division III wrestling champion. It’s not like he was ever the best wrestler in his weight class, or even the third best.
There are two whole bigger and better divisions above Division III.
Matt Hamill may not even be a national-level wrestler, let alone a world-class one.
Hamill never wrestled at the Olympics.
He wrestled and won his medals at the Deaflympics. That’s a far smaller pool of talent in America, let alone the rest of the world where resources spent on handicapped athletes are far more limited.
Not to take away from what Hamill has achieved as a wrestler and MMA fighter, but his credentials simply don’t stack up as elite or world class, and to say so is simply lying.
In that respect, UFC promoters and personalities like Joe Rogan should take some of the blame for hyping up Matt Hamill as this elite wrestler who could possibly beat Rampage Jackson.
But as promoters and hype generators, this is their job.
It’s not their job to point out that even if Hamill’s wrestling was on that elite level, Jackson has already held his own against elite wrestlers in the past, like Kevin Randleman, Dan Henderson, and Matt Lindland.
In this case, the UFC threw us a bone and told us as much anyway.
It takes about 5 seconds to run a Google search and find Matt Hamill’s Wikipedia entry.
Any MMA fans who were shocked or disappointed in Hamill’s efforts have only themselves to blame for being lazy and getting themselves overhyped over a match where the final outcome of victory and defeat was about as predictable as they come.
UFC 130 Results See Tim Boetsch Make A Big Statement At 185 PoundsTim Boetsch has saved his mixed martial arts career by moving down to 185 pounds. He dominated Kendall Grove at UFC 130 en route to his first victory at middleweight. He has the potentia…
UFC 130 Results See Tim Boetsch Make A Big Statement At 185 Pounds
Tim Boetsch has saved his mixed martial arts career by moving down to 185 pounds. He dominated Kendall Grove at UFC 130 en route to his first victory at middleweight. He has the potential to be a force for a long time to come as a result of the weight cut.
The former 5150 Combat League light heavyweight champion could have stayed at 205 pounds in UFC, but he would have found himself dragging on preliminary cards for a long time.
Instead, he will be a force to be reckoned with in a division that features a number of really great fighters, led by Anderson Silva. While Boetsch is not at that level, he has the potential to be a contender in the very near future.
Against Grove, Boetsch was dominant. He showed excellent stand up and striking. He got takedowns at will. He was too big and strong for Grove to do anything with on the ground.
That loss to Phil Davis at UFC 123 was the best possible thing that could have happened to Boetsch. He now knows where his future is in mixed martial arts. He made a strong impression in his first fight at middleweight and should get a much better opponent his next time out.
He wasn’t big enough or strong enough to compete with the guys at light heavyweight, as Davis clearly showed, but at middleweight he is right at home. This fight was the beginning of bigger and better things to come for Boetsch in UFC.