Bleacher Report’s Bryan Levick:Today the realization that UFC 130 has lost its extremely exciting and much anticipated main event has probably began to sunk in. No one would have thought that a third fight between UFC Lightweight Champion Frankie Edg…
Bleacher Report’s Bryan Levick:
Today the realization that UFC 130 has lost its extremely exciting and much anticipated main event has probably began to sunk in. No one would have thought that a third fight between UFC Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar and UFC No. 1 Lightweight Contender Gray Maynard would spark so much interest.
Yet that is exactly what happened in the early hours of January 2, not too long after Edgar and Maynard put on a thrilling back and forth affair that encompassed the entire 25 minutes allotted to them for their main event matchup. Once the judges’ scorecards were read and a draw was determined, UFC President Dana White made the decision within an hour or two to have Maynard and Edgar square off one more time.
With Edgar-Maynard leading the way, the main card was shaping up pretty nicely. Rampage Jackson was set to face Thiago Silva, but Silva was suspended and Matt Hamill stepped up to face the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. Two heavyweights with backgrounds in both Las Vegas and grappling will meet up as Roy Nelson fights former UFC heavyweight Champion Frank Mir.
And so on and so forth, the wheels keep spinning. With just under three weeks and having both Maynard & Edgar injured, the UFC was forced to scrap the fight altogether and bump the Hamill-Rampage fight to the main-event slot.
So that leaves me with the task of trying to drum up some serious interest in the remaining bouts on the main pay-per-view portion of the card. Let’s take a look at some highlight videos and try and get the blood flowing in anticipation of these fights.
The brand new main event of UFC 130, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs. Matt “The Hammer” Hamill, might have some heavy shoes to fill with Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard sidelined, but even with no title being on the line for UFC 130, the card still packs e…
The brand new main event of UFC 130, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs. Matt “The Hammer” Hamill, might have some heavy shoes to fill with Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard sidelined, but even with no title being on the line for UFC 130, the card still packs enough of a punch to create some intrigue.
On paper, it would seem that Hamill is in an uphill battle against a tough legend of the sport and former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, but Rampage can still be defeated by any percentage of fighters, and Hamill is no exception.
The question now is, can Hamill hand Rampage defeat in what is arguably the biggest fight of his career?
Edgar and Maynard are sharing a shelf right now, and it’ll be close to the end of the estimated six-to-eight-week time of rehabilitation before we hear about whether the rematch of the UFC’s first main event (and “Fight of The Night” bonus winner, and title fight, and “Fight of The Year” candidate) of the calendar year 2011 will headline the upcoming UFC 133 card or the UFC 135 card that is slated to have Matt Hughes-Diego Sanchez on it, but for now, it’s Hamill and Rampage we’re all taking about.
Without further ado, it’s time to go to schoolhere are five of the reasons why Hamill WILL upset Rampage in about two weeks.
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…
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 going to treat the UFC like this, then I have no desire to help pay his salary anymore.
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?
Today the realization that UFC 130 has lost its extremely exciting and much anticipated main event has probably began to sunk in. No one would have thought that a third fight between UFC Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar and UFC No. 1 Lightweight Cont…
Today the realization that UFC 130 has lost its extremely exciting and much anticipated main event has probably began to sunk in. No one would have thought that a third fight between UFC Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar and UFC No. 1 Lightweight Contender Gray Maynard would spark so much interest.
Yet that is exactly what happened in the early hours of January 2, not too long after Edgar and Maynard put on a thrilling back and forth affair that encompassed the entire 25 minutes allotted to them for their main event matchup. Once the judges’ scorecards were read and a draw was determined, UFC President Dana White made the decision within an hour or two to have Maynard and Edgar square off one more time.
With Edgar-Maynard leading the way, the main card was shaping up pretty nicely. Rampage Jackson was set to face Thiago Silva, but Silva was suspended and Matt Hamill stepped up to face the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. Two heavyweights with backgrounds in both Las Vegas and grappling will meet up as Roy Nelson fights former UFC heavyweight Champion Frank Mir.
And so on and so forth, the wheels keep spinning. With just under three weeks and having both Maynard & Edgar injured, the UFC was forced to scrap the fight altogether and bump the Hamill-Rampage fight to the main-event slot.
So that leaves me with the task of trying to drum up some serious interest in the remaining bouts on the main pay-per-view portion of the card. Let’s take a look at some highlight videos and try and get the blood flowing in anticipation of these fights.
By now I’m sure we have heard the big news. At UFC 130 former Light Heavyweight Champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson will meet Matt “The Hammer” Hamill, in what will be the new main event. Both of these fighters co…
Filed under: UFC, NewsInjuries have sidelined both Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard, forcing the cancellation of UFC 130’s main event fight, MMA Fighting has learned.
UFC president Dana White confirmed to MMA Fighting that both fighters are out.
Injuries have sidelined both Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard, forcing the cancellation of UFC 130‘s main event fight, MMA Fighting has learned.
UFC president Dana White confirmed to MMA Fighting that both fighters are out.
According to sources with knowledge of the situation, Edgar had the more serious injury of the two, suffering two broken ribs during training, while Maynard suffered a knee injury.
It seems that 
Injuries have sidelined both