I have never really been into UFC myself. I have a butt load of friends who love it. I even know some fighters too. They offer me tickets all the time, but I never take them. The one thing I do like about it though is that it is real. I think WWE has some real competition now though. I don't see them making it much longer. Anyways here are the results from last nights fight.
By NICK MEYER • FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER
Cheick Kongo vs. Mustapha Al-Turk
The Frenchman Kongo is…well, he basically looks like some kind of cyborg, and he fights like one, too. But his ground game is suspect and Al-Turk, a British submission specialist who was born in Beirut, Lebanon, will test him there.
Al-Turk is rocked by a straight punch from Kongo and beckons Kongo to the ground with him but he refuses to follow.
He comes in and clinches while Kongo gets in some solid shots.
An inadvertent Al-Turk knee catches Kongo in the, ahem, nether regions, and the fight is stopped as Kongo winces in pain. This is an unfortunate side effect of close quarters combat but usually fighters manage to walk it off. Kongo doesn’t seem to be recovering too well, however.
Al-Turk misses haymaker and shoots in for a single leg takedown. He stays with it and tries to dig out the leg.
After some more tussling, Kongo returns the favor and throws a knee that lands in the groin area of Al-Turk.
“I hope that was an accident,” says referee Steve Mazzagatti.
Kongo has some history in this department, as he got in some questionable low blows against Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic in their past fight.
Al-Turk continues and Kongo lands a straight shot and then bails to ground.
Kongo leans in and gets into Al-Turk’s guard before raining a flurry of elbows.
He follows it up with hammer fists and opens up big cut above the right eye of Al-Turk. Al-Turk can’t defend himself, and Mazzagatti calls the fight at 4:37 of the first round.
A solid, workmanlike performance by Kongo in this one as he inches closer to a future title shot.
Wanderlei Silva vs. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson
This is the fight everyone’s been waiting for, even though there isn’t a title on the line. This fight, between two former PRIDE Fighting legends (Japan’s now-defunct answer to the UFC) is for, well, pride.
The UFC is full of manufactured drama that borders on the level of WWE-style hype at times, but there is a strong, healthy dislike between these two light heavyweights.
Silva won both of their earlier fights but Jackson is a vastly improved fighter since their last bout in 2004. Silva is just 5-5 in his last ten fights but he still is one of the most feared fighters in the world.
Both fighters look calm and businesslike tonight, and this has the potential to be one of the best fights in UFC history, at least the UFC hopes so in order to boost future DVD sales. Too bad this one will only be three rounds maximum.
Wanderlei wiggles the gloves like usual, the staredown goes off without a hitch, and the atmosphere is now officially electric.
No glove touching in this one and Rampage leads with a massive haymaker that maybe grazes Silva a bit.
Silva lands one of his trademark rapid-fire, not-so-technical punch combos that still manage to be quite effective yet again.
Silva has landed three leg kicks thus far and Jackson will need to check them or he might suffer the same fate he did against Forrest Griffin.
Silva throws in a right leg kick that was the most brutal of the bunch so far.
Rampage throws another big blow and knocks Silva back.
Jackson then lands a solid jab.
Silva comes back with a jab as does Jackson.
Jackson ducks and uncorks a massive, lightning-fast left hook that lands square on the left side of Silva’s chin, and the Brazilian crumples straight to the mat before Jackson rushes in and lands a three quick punches on his downed opponent just to be on the safe side.
The fight doctors rush in and this one is “allllllllllllll ovvvverr!” as announcer Mike Goldberg exclaims. Jackson finally has his revenge and a brutal highlight-reel knockout to match the ones Silva gave him in 2003 and 2004.
“One punch put him completely to sleep,” says color analyst Joe Rogan.
“Last time I fought him it wasn’t right,” says Jackson. “I came to England with the Wolf’s Lair (his new training camp), got my wolf on, and now it’s right. Rampage is back!”
A title shot should be coming soon, perhaps against the winner of Evans-Griffin.
The fight ended at 3:21 of the first round, and Silva appears to be okay.
Other Results at UFC 92
Pat Berry defeated Dan Evenson at 2:36 of the first round after a knee injury from low kicks forced Evenson to quit.
Brad Blackburn defeated Ryo Chonan by a score of 29-28 on all judges’ cards.
Matt Hamill defeated Reese Andy at 2:19 of round two by TKO after taking Andy’s back and raining punches.
Antoni Hardonk defeated Mike Wessel by TKO after gaining full mount and landing multiple punches.
Yushin Okami defeated Dean Lister by a score of 30-27 on all judges’ scorecards.
Mike Massenzio vs. C.B. Dollaway
Two former Division I wrestlers who faced each other in college (with Dollaway, the former Ultimate Fighter runner-up, coming out on top) will go at it in this middleweight bout.
Dollaway lands a solid right body kick. Massenzio comes in and Dollaway wraps his hands around him, landing some knees before whiffing and falling to the mat.
Dollaway gets rocked by a right and stumbles around looking to get his bearings.
Massenzio takes advantage and gets a fairly deep guillotine as Dollaway almost appears to tap. Dollaway manages to work his way out, however. He works his way to the top position and Massenzio pulls guard.
Dollaway passes guard and takes side control while going for a mount. He gets it and works his way forward before going for elbows.
Massenzio tries to roll out and gets flattened out, and now he’s in deep trouble.
Dollaway peppers him with looping punches that look almost casual, as he knows he has this fight locked up. Massenzio can’t defend himself while laying face down on the mat.
“The Doberman” takes this one at 3:01 in the first round, showing marked improvement in the ground game after compared with his back-to-back losses on The Ultimate Fighter to Amir Sadollah by arm-bar.
Dollaway appears to have a lot of potential but he’ll need to clean up a few aspects of his game before he can become a serious contender.
Interim Heavyweight Title Bout: Frank Mir vs. Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira
Current UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar makes an appearance and tells Goldberg and Rogan he’s rooting for Mir to win the interim title so he can have a rematch with the man who gave him his only UFC loss.
Nogueira is the favorite in this match but fortunes cans shift quickly in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and both fighters are among the elite grapplers in the world with the ability to win by submission in the blink of an eye.
The interim belt is up for grabs because Nogueira holds it after beating Tim Sylvia in a period during which the champion at the time, Randy Couture, was in a contract dispute with the UFC.
Now, the belt will be unified as the winner of tonight’s bout will take on Lesnar at a future date.
Mir comes out to “Hate Me Now” by Nas looking focused and Nogueira comes out to “Gimme Shelter” by the Rolling Stones, looking relaxed as usual.
Both fighters have overcome tremendous odds to become two of the best fighters in the world. Mir was hit by a car at 50 mph on his motorcycle in 2004 and suffered a badly broken leg while Nogeuira was run over by a truck as a child and suffered damage to his lungs and liver.
Mir comes out fighting southpaw after the fighters and the former Ultimate Fighter TV show coaches refuse to touch gloves.
Mir throws a head kick that is checked by Nogueira.
He then lands a straight right and goes in for the takedown.
Nogueira lands a solid punch from his back.
Mir walks away from Nogueira as he lays on his back and tries to turn the fight into a ground war as predicted. Mir wants to keep this fight standing against Nogueira, who trains boxing with the Cuban national team.
Mir looks much quicker than in the past and he is the more aggressive of the two fighters. He’s also in perhaps the best shape of his career and he’s putting together solid punch and kick combinations.
Mir sneaks in a right uppercut that just catches Nogueira a bit.
Nogueira is rocked and goes down before inviting Mir to the ground and successfully defending Mir’s punches.
Mir lands another right uppercut off of a combination and adds a knee in a clinch.
Nogeuria lands a straight right jab but he doesn’t look very energetic tonight.
At the end of the first round, Mir rocks Nogueira with a big right hand.
“That is the definition of a 10-8 round right there,” says Goldberg. Nogeuira appears to be sleepwalking through this one.
Round two
Mir continues to throw a dizzying array of combinations, pushing the pace of the fight despite not landing many of them.
Mir ducks and lands a powerful left hook, then comes back with an even more devastating left hook to knock down Nogueira. He pounces on him and the punches come fast and furious. Nogueira stumbles to his feet, surprised that he has finally been knocked out for the first time in his legendary career. It appears as if the attrition of fighting for so many years has caught to Nogueira much like what the crowd saw from Wanderlei Silva earlier tonight.
Mir points at Lesnar in the crowd and it appears as if the UFC now has itself a big-time rematch to peddle. Mir looked better than ever before in this fight, his confidence finally restored from the devastating broken leg injury.
“If I was a betting man, I wasn’t on Mir’s side tonight,” says the emotional Mir.
Mir predicts that Lesnar won’t get out of the first round in their rematch, and Lesnar flashes a sly grin to the camera.
The Mir win came 1:54 in the second round for those scoring at home.
Rashad Evans vs. Forrest Griffin
The former Spartan Evans, winner of The Ultimate Fighter TV show’s second season, will take on Griffin, winner of the show’s first season, for right to be called the Light Heavyweight Champion of the World.
Some interesting fight stats: Griffin has landed 72% of his leg kicks in his career while Evans’ wrestling skills have allowed him to succeed on 60% of his takedown attempts.
Evans has also never attempted a submission in his career, specializing in the ground-and-pound game and boxing.
Evans does a bear crawl into the octagon™ (for those of you planning to build one in your backyards, beware that the term is trademarked), a nod to his wrestling roots. “Sugar” looks relaxed as he does a little dance on the mat.
Griffin, perhaps the hairiest (and toughest?) man in the UFC, looks businesslike as usual.
Evans throws a lunging punch and ducks in. He’s very cautious as usual as he backs out, and Griffin throws a sweeping high kick that looks impressive but misses.
Evans narrowly misses on what could have been a replay of his knockout over Chuck Liddell.
Griffin has landed a couple of solid leg kicks, his specialty.
Evans responds with a swift leg kick of his own. He dodges a shot and lands a lunging right on Griffin.
Griffin lands a lunging left hand and both fighters look aggressive and confident.
If Evans can get his timing down, he might be able to land a knockout shot. He’s teeing it up, that’s for sure.
Griffin lands another leg kick but Evans lands one in response.
Griffin lands yet another leg kick that staggers Rashad much like what Griffin did to Jackson.
There’s about a minute left in the first round and this one is pretty even so far.
Rashad throws a jab-hook combo as the second part connects. Time is running down in the round as Griffin goes for another leg kick that doesn’t quite have the same impact as the previous ones.
Evans has checked several high kicks in this fight. Thus far, this fight has been a purist’s dream and an even match.
ROUND 2
Evans loses track of his location as he backs up and accidentally runs into the cage before slipping but Griffin is too far away to take advantage.
Evans catches Griffin with a close jab and Griffin blocks another big one a bit later.
Forrest lands a solid right and adds a leg kick. Forrest is looking quicker than ever in this one and they’re both swinging for the fences now.
Rashad backs up a bit, stares at Griffin, and flashes a big smile.
But Griffin looks a bit stronger right now and is winning on points in this round. Perhaps Evans needs to fall back on his wrestling skills to change the momentum a bit in this one.
Evans lands a solid, hard right.
The two fighters touch gloves after an inadvertent low blow to Griffin.
Evans lands another solid right as Griffin goes for a huge head kick that is again checked.
Evans continues to put his faith in his boxing skills. He checks a low leg kick from Griffin and then lets his guard down before getting drilled with a right in the face to end the round. The fight docs are going to work on a small cut in above Evans’ left eye.
ROUND 3
Griffin continues to throw a barrage of leg kicks.
But Griffin throws one too many and Rashad catches a kick before blasting Griffin with the vaunted “Superman” punch.
He pounces and goes all out in an effort to finish off Griffin but Forrest manages to keep him at bay after eating some solid punches.
Evans is looking to pass guard as the crowd chants “Forrest! Forrest!”
Perhaps we will finally see whether or not Evans’ jiu-jitsu game is championship level tonight.
Griffin continues to throw a barrage of leg kicks.
But Griffin throws one too many and Rashad catches a kick before blasting Griffin with the vaunted “Superman” punch.
He pounces and goes all out in an effort to finish off Griffin but Forrest manages to keep him at bay after eating some solid punches.
Evans is looking to pass guard as the crowd chants “Forrest! Forrest!”
Perhaps we will finally see whether or not Evans’ jiu-jitsu game is championship level tonight.
Griffin appears to be a bit tired but he’s working several submission attempts.
Evans is undaunted and he wades in further. Evans postures up and gets behind his punches full force, landing right after right as Griffin’s head bounces off the mat.
The referee has no choice but stop the action as Griffin appears to tap, and with that, former Michigan State Spartan Rashad Evans is your new UFC Light Heavyweight Champion.
“How does that sound?” asks Joe Rogan.
“It sounds real good, man,” replies Evans. “It was a great fight and it took a while for me to get warmed up, but I got there.”
It appears as if no one will underestimate Evans, a slight underdog coming into the fight, again, at least not in the near future. Evans moves to a nearly unprecedented 18-0-1 in his MMA career.
Evans was asked about his thoughts as he attempted to finish the downed Griffin.
“He kept smiling, so I didn’t know if he was hurt or not. They kept letting me hit him so I just said ‘Alright.’”
The soft-spoken Evans is gracious in victory and wishes his mom a happy birthday.
Griffin seems okay as he pops up and stands in for an interview on camera about the last moments of the fight.
“I was flailing, no tapping done at that point, it was just his punches giving my body motion,” says Griffin with his typical brand of self-deprecating humor.
“I remember waking up like ‘It’s okay, Forrest, then I was like yep, it kind of sucks, actually.”
The time of Evans’ win was 2:46 in the third round.
UFC 92: The Ultimate 2008 Final Thoughts
Upset of the Night-Frank Mir over Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Many thought a Nogueira win was a foregone conclusion but Nogueira suddenly looked about ten years older in this fight and Mir came out in the best shape of his life.
Now Nogueira has to hope he doesn’t go the way of a battered NFL running back, as he has the potential to fall right off the map. It will be interesting to see if he can come back and make another run at the heavyweight title or if he will begin to fade away.
Fight of the Night-Evans’ win over Griffin. This fight didn’t receive nearly the attention that the Wanderlei Silva-Quinton Jackson fight did going in despite being a title fight, in part because many fans thought that Evans and Griffin weren’t title-worthy.
But both fighters looked remarkably quick, confident, and well-prepared in what could be called one of the best UFC fights of all-time when people look back on it in a year or so. Griffin’s kicks are now almost Lyoto Machida-quality while Evans has perhaps the quickest hands in the sport.
Knockout of the Night: Jackson’s devastating left hook on Silva. It wasn’t quite as brutal as the knees Silva knocked Jackson out with in their first two fights but it probably felt just as sweet for Jackson.
Best Possible Future Match-up as a Result of UFC 92: Lesnar-Mir II will be intriguing to say the least, especially considering how good Mir looked.
But a possible Rashad Evans-Quinton Jackson fight could be an absolute classic and a showcase for perhaps the two quickest fighters and best boxers in the UFC. It would be a landmark fight,showing off the evolution of the elite athletes that now populate what just might be the fastest-growing sport in the world.
And with that, it’s time to sign off for the night. The Detroit Lions may be farther away from a Super Bowl Title than any franchise in NFL history, but at least one title is coming back to Michigan thanks to Evans, who should receive a hero’s welcome in East Lansing.
Take care and goodnight now.
Ex-Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Extreme Cagefighting participant Justin Levens, 28, and his wife, Sarah McLean-Levens, 25, were found shot to death in their Laguna Niguel condominium Wednesday and law enforcement officials have described preliminarily as a murder-suicide, numerous news agencies are reporting.
1. The Titans move back into the top spot after crushing the Browns, who beat the #2 Giants, who lost again this week to the Eagles. They also clinched their division, but they weren't the only ones.
2. The Giants also clinched their division, despite a loss to the Eagles. The Cowboys loss gave them all the cushion they needed, and now they can almost coast into the postseason, especially if they clinch a bye next week.
3. No one was able to beat the Cowboys since the return of Tony Romo, until the Steelers stopped them by coming back from a 10 point deficit halfway through the 4th quarter. Huge win for the Steelers.
4. Their MNF victory over the Bucs definitely made a statement in the NFC South and gave them a little breathing room. However, the Bucs still have the tiebreakers if the Panthers stumble, so they can't afford a letdown.
5. Their defense is getting it done for them once again. Only 10 points allowed against the Redskins, and the rookie-laden offense is getting in the mix as well. Joe Flacco is even better than advertised.
6. In any other division in the AFC, the Colts would be the favorites to win it right now, with the way they're playing despite Joseph Addai's weekly injury/collapse. Thanks to the Titans, they're only fighting for a wild card. But they'll get it.
7. They got worked over by the Panthers quite a bit on MNF, but this is still a good team, and despite the 38 points scored on them, it's still a pretty good defense. It should be a great game next week against the Falcons.
8. Their collapse in the 4th quarter against the Steelers was stupefying. Aside from the last 8 minutes of that game, they were the better team. But Tony Romo's propensity to fail in clutch situations is becoming far too prominent.
9. Matt Ryan is so good, I believe most of the country was shocked when the Falcons had the ball with 5 minutes left and didn't score to take the lead. One of the few times he hasn't been able to pull it off.
10. Another team that clinched a division title on Sunday, the Cardinals won their division for the first time since 1975, and their first time ever in Arizona. Congratulations to them on the great improvement.
28. They played the Patriots reasonably well, but still manages to squeak out the loss. That's the sign of a truly bad football team, when they can take a nearly guaranteed win and make it a loss.
29. Another week, another loss. This time, it was to the Cardinals. They need to win 2 out of the last 3 for Jim Haslett to keep his job. Sorry, coach, I just don't see it. But good luck anyway!
30. Not a lot of shaking up the bottom 5, since they all lost anyway. The Chiefs lost to the Broncos, who could become the worst team in a long time to clinch a division in week 15 with a win next week.
31. After getting smoked by the Colts, the Bengals only need one more loss to finish the season 0-8 on the road. Not as impressive as the Lions possibly going 0-16, but impressive nonetheless.
0-16 WATCH: The dream is alive and well, with the Lions escaping from a perilous near-victory against the Vikings. Looks like the Saints want to play football again, so the biggest worry might now be the Packers.
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