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UFC 130: Does Rampage Jackson Have Any Desire to Be Elite in the UFC?

It seems that Quinton Jackson has no desire to be an elite MMA fighter anymore. He said in a recent interview that he is simply now fighting for the money and wants to move on to acting as soon as that pays him more. That’s fine, because if he is…

First of all, if Quinton really has no desire left to be an MMA fighter, then who wants to pay to see him fight? As soon as I heard that the third Gray Maynard-Frankie Edgar fight had been called off, my stomach sank because I knew that Rampage-Matt Hamill would now be the main event that we would all be stuck with.

I personally feel that Jackson will dispatch of Hamill fairly easily at the MGM Grand Garden Arena at UFC 130, May 28. What is unfortunate is the fact that he has such major talent, yet he forever seems like he does not care and chooses to squander it. I will give two glaring examples that will illustrate my point.

First of all, look at how he coached on The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) in his two appearances. He was subpar, and I am being nice by putting it that way. On season 10 he coached heavyweight fighters, and he chose to pick Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson first?! That move made me scratch my head.

Then he seemed to care little about training his fighters and molding them into future mixed martial arts champions—and that is why he was on the show. He was also there to promote a fight with Rashad Evans that was supposed to take place after TUF in Jackson’s hometown of Memphis. Rampage would have drawn a great crowd in support of him.

Instead he took an acting role in the A-Team movie and decided to make the UFC and his fans wait. That was a mistake in my opinion, especially from a guy that still pretended to care about MMA at that point.

Secondly, Rampage clearly does not have a desire to be an elite mixed martial artist or regain his title because of the fact that he is never in shape to fight these days.

He admitted that when he was slated to fight Forrest Griffin and defend his UFC light heavyweight title in the summer of 2008, he had been playing video games and eating pizza and was horribly out of shape before his training camp. He still nearly won that fight! After having his lead leg battered badly, he was able to finish the fight and nearly win it.

On the Prime Time show to promote his fight with Rashad Evans, Jackson made it a point to say he was training harder than he had in his life. Come to find out it was because he showed up to his camp at 252 pounds and was slated to fight a top fighter, Rashad Evans, at 205 a mere two months and change later. He was able to blitz Rashad in the third and may have put him away had he possessed the cardio conditioning to do so.

I used to be a huge Rampage Jackson fan. I have paid to see him on pay-per-view, and I paid to go watch him in Ohio for UFC 96, but if he no longer cares about fighting, the sport in general or his fans, then I find it hard to want to support him. How can we care about Quinton’s career if he doesn’t care himself?

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MMA Live 1 London: Jon Jones and 8 Reasons To Watch MMA Live 1 Parisyan vs. Ford

Next to UFC 129 in Toronto, the largest MMA event in Ontario is coming up on Thursday May 19th. Jones Entertainment Group is proud to present MMA Live 1: London, which will headline mixed martial arts veteran and colourful Karo “The Heat” Parisyan vs. …

Next to UFC 129 in Toronto, the largest MMA event in Ontario is coming up on Thursday May 19th.

Jones Entertainment Group is proud to present MMA Live 1: London, which will headline mixed martial arts veteran and colourful Karo “The Heat” Parisyan vs. one of Canada’s top welterweight fighters, Edmonton native Ryan “The Real Deal” Ford.

The event will take place at the 9,000-people capacity John Labatt Centre (JLC) in London, Ontario and will have a traveling MMA Expo featuring an appearance by Jon “Bones” Jones during the day of the fights.

Here are the top 10 reasons to get to London to check it out.

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With Edgar & Maynard Out With Injures, UFC Lightweight Division On Hold Again

During Monday’s media call, UFC President Dana White announced that the upcoming title re-match between UFC lightweight champ Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard was being pulled from the upcoming, May 28, UFC 130 card due to injuries to both fighters.
So the entire UFC lightweight division must wait once again for this title rematch to play […]

So the entire UFC lightweight division must wait once again for this title rematch to play itself out.

Originally, WEC lightweight champ Anthony Pettis was to have met the winner of the first title bout between Edgar vs. Maynard which took place on Jan. 1 at UFC 125, in a WEC-UFC title unification bout. With both men fighting to a draw, the UFC rebooked both men for UFC 130 and Pettis took a fight against Clay Guida rather than waiting.

During the media call UFC President Dana White said he expected both fighters to be out for about six to eight weeks, with their title rematch taking place sometime in August or September.

While its good to see that fans won’t miss out on an exciting rematch between Edgar vs. Maynard, it extends the length of time fans have to wait to see some new blood fight for the title. The UFC lightweight division is already very tough with fighters being cut after just one loss, delaying the progression of the top fighters only makes things more frustrating for fans and fighters at 155 pounds.

That isn’t to say that the UFC isn’t aware of the situation, and even tried to rectify it by asking Pettis if he’d fight Maynard in the main event of UFC 130. Edgar was the first to turn up injured, so for several days Pettis thought he’d be meeting Maynard but those expectations were short lived as “The Bully” would turn up injured just days later.

“They were going to have me fight Maynard on that card. I said yes to that deal right away. I guess it turns out that it’s not going to happen. I’m back to fighting Guida,” Pettis told HeavyMMA.com. “It sucks that he got injured, because it kinda puts the whole lightweight division back on standstill. ”

This will have put the UFC lightweight title on hold for eight to nine months before a champion is crowned. Now the issue coming out of this title rematch are any injuries suffered by the champion. A serious injuries could potentially keep the title out of reach for a year or more.

UFC heavyweight champ Can Velasquez is a perfect example, having undergone shoulder surgery after his title win over Brock Lesnar. It will be a year before he steps back into the Octagon to meet the winner of Lesnar vs. Junior dos Santos.

One possible solution to keep fighters, and fans happy, might be to offer fighters held up by the title backlog, would be to offer them a shot at the Strikeforce title and its champion Gilbert Melendez. The issue over the UFC title certainly serves as ammunition to back the cross-over of fighters between the promotions.

It might also serve as another reason for keeping the Strikeforce promotion alive, keeping championship bouts open for issues just like this one.

Pablo Garza, UFC Featherweight, Grateful He Didn’t Hang ‘Em Up

UFC featherweight Pablo Garza’s Octagon career is off to a blazing start—two finishes in two appearances in the last five months earned him $159,000 in bonuses for Knockout and Submission of the Night performances—yet just a year ago,…

His first UFC bout came last December, where a flying knee disposed of Fredson Paixao in the organization’s first ever 145-pound contest to the tune of $30,000.

At UFC 129, in the opening fight of the night, he secured a first-round flying triangle choke to pocket the largest submission bonus in UFC history, pulling in $129,000. Despite all in the initial success, the 27-year-old is still uncomfortable splurging on a $300 Playstation 3.

“The first bonus with training and trying to be a full-time fighter, I basically paid off a lot of bills I had in collections and did all that,” Garza told Bleacher Report. “Just got financially settled. Paid off a bunch of stuff. As for this bonus, I’m going to save it. Invest it or something.”

“The Scarecrow” never dreamed of fighting in the UFC like many of the competitors stepping in the cage today. He didn’t wrestle in high school, and his only competitive background came as a point guard at Jamestown College.

But three years ago, he began boxing with a friend. Then a month later, he followed his friend into mixed martial arts, where within the year, his current gym, Academy of Combat Arts, formed.

“Last year, in January, I told myself I was done—I couldn’t do it anymore. I had too many bills and stuff I had to do,” said the three-year veteran. “Me and my coach and I had a long talk and he convinced me, just give it one more year, and in that year, if nothing comes of it, then you know what? Hang it up if you want.”

Garza stuck with it, and within two weeks of an exhibition bout defeat to Michael Johnson on The Ultimate Fighter season 12 airing, he submitted to Zhang Tie Quan in the WEC for the first loss of his professional career. Still, the reason he was fighting was more or less because people kept saying, “You’re pretty good at it. You might as well keep doing it.”

He listened. Then came his back-to-back victories in the Octagon, which have transformed the kickboxing instructor from the University of North Dakota into a fast-rising UFC prospect.

“I think [featherweights] have [taken notice], but with that being said, there’s so much more that I need to be working on,” he said. “The competition is extremely deep especially now with Kenny Florian going down to ’45 and Tyson Griffin going to ’45. The competition now is going to be really intense.”

Garza discovered the natural scrappiness he brings to the cage years ago when facing bullying due to being one of few Mexican-Americans in North Dakota throughout junior high and high school. Once he found martial arts in his mid-20’s, he taught and trained while doing factory work producing windmill blades and bartending on the side to get by.

His pursuit to hit the big stages of professional prizefighting like the UFC from his small-town life wasn’t easy, but despite the tough competition awaiting him in the Octagon, Garza admits, “It’s a lot easier now for me.”

Danny Acosta is the lead writer at FIGHT! Magazine. Follow him on twitter.com/acostaislegend

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UFC 130 Fight Card: Without Gray Maynard and Frankie Edgar, Everyone Loses out

Now that both Gray Maynard and Frankie Edgar are out of UFC 130 due to injury, the whole lightweight division has been set back.Not only that, but everyone involved loses. The UFC, fans, pay-per-view numbers—everyone.The rematch and third install…

Now that both Gray Maynard and Frankie Edgar are out of UFC 130 due to injury, the whole lightweight division has been set back.

Not only that, but everyone involved loses. The UFC, fans, pay-per-view numbers—everyone.

The rematch and third installment of the Edgar/Maynard series was supposed to take place at UFC 130. Now, neither fighter will get the chance to settle the debate as to who really is the UFC lightweight champion.

The UFC loses out in a huge way. Both the UFC and pay-per-view numbers go down hand-in-hand with this lost from the card. Now, instead of promoting the lightweight championship, they promote a less-sexy matchup in Quinton “Rampage” Jackson versus Matt Hamill.

Are people really going to pay to see that? Only a hardcore MMA follower will. Is that really worth the money? A main event with almost no implications?

The biggest thing that could result from that fight would be Rampage losing, which would send him down the light heavyweight ladder. He can’t even earn a title shot, seeing as Jon Jones isn’t fighting until the end of the year, and his next opponent is almost assuredly Rashad Evans.

The fans want an end to this debate. Is Maynard the real UFC lightweight champion? Or is it Edgar? This question has been going on since they announced their UFC 125 bout. As fans we want a definitive champion, and a draw in the championship fight doesn’t give you that definitive answer.

Not only that, but again, how many fans are willing to pay the price to watch this card? Especially with a good—and free—undercard.

The lightweight division is hurt the most from this. Pettis has already waited long enough for his title shot after beating Ben Henderson at WEC 53 and becoming the last WEC lightweight champion.

Now on top of Pettis, you have top lightweight fighters like Melvin Guillard and Jim Miller, contenders who now have to wait even longer for their title shot.

UFC 130 is still a pretty good card, but no one wins from having the top fight being pulled. Not one single person.

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UFC 130 Fight Card: Did It Go from Awesome to Awful With Loss of Main Event?

UFC 130 lost its main event earlier today when it was announced that both Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard had sustained injuries. MMA Junkie is reporting that the pair will both be out for six to eight weeks and the match could be re-booked for either a…

Jeremy Botter at Heavy.com added an interesting twist to the storyline when he reported that the UFC asked Anthony Pettis if he would be interested in accepting the bout with Maynard. He eagerly agreed only to lose out on the opportunity when Maynard himself sustained an injury.

Pettis will remain in his originally scheduled fight opposite Clay Guida—that fight is serving as the main event for the TUF 13 Finale show which is set to take place June 4.

That leaves UFC 130 without a proper headliner thus forcing the UFC to promote the “Rampage” Jackson vs. Matt Hamill fight to lead billing while Frank Mir vs. Roy Nelson will serve as the co-main.

While Edgar vs. Maynard III does not carry with the same PPV gravitas of a Brock Lesnar anchored card, their come-to-blows match was much anticipated following their epic clash at UFC 125. It anchored what many were branding a very “stacked” fight card.

Beyond Rampage vs. Hamill and Mir vs. Nelson, it featured intriguing bouts like maturing heavyweight Stefan Struve taking on Travis Browne, the UFC return of Jorge Santiago vs. All-American Brian Stann and welterweight stud Thiago Alves vs. a very game challenger in Rick Story.

It is amazing what the loss of one fight, all be it the main event, can do to the dynamic of a card.

Will people still shell out their hard-earned dollars to see UFC 130 in its revamped form? How will Rampage vs. Hamill sit with fans that aren’t already committed to buying every event?

The last time Rampage headlined a fight card—when it didn’t involved Rashad Evans—was at UFC 123 when he took on Lyoto Machida. That card was anchored with B.J. Penn vs. Matt Hughes III and did a respectable 600K PPV buys.

Before that, it was UFC 96 when Rampage picked up a decision win over Keith Jardine and Shane Carwin waxed Gabriel Gonzaga. That fight card brought in a meager 350K PPV buys. It is imperative that the UFC starts hyping up the laurels of Rampage, along with the dueling heavyweights, although Rampage hasn’t always been reliable to properly market a fight.

Mir vs. Nelson is a fairly compelling co-main event (for namesake alone) even though there are no immediate implications to the heavyweight title picture. Mir was involved in one of the worst performing PPVs of all time when he took in Mirko “Cro Cop” at UFC 119, but overall Mir is a solid draw.

While UFC 130 will likely not do great numbers at the box office, don’t sleep on this event. Some of the best events are the ones that people end up passing on.

Let’s just hope that the UFC can get Rampage, Mir and Nelson out in full force and talking up the value of this event because they have some of the best mouths the sport has to offer.

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