UFC 96 – Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs. Keith Jardine Play By Play
I wasn’t able to see this show live so this is delayed play by play.
1. Gray Maynard vs. Jim Miller
Miller was trying for the takedown and in doing so took some uppercuts which bloodied his nose. Miller is landing with some leg kicks, but Maynard is getting the better of the battle with the hands.
Miller was doing a better job early in the round, but Maynard was busting him up later in the round. Miller’s face looks bad with a cut over his left eye.
Even though the crowd is a bit restless, this is a pretty good fight. Maynard’s hands look really good, though I don’t like how he keeps himself open after throwing his right hand. He’s got good movement, but he doesn’t cover up quickly enough after throwing his right. A good counter puncher is going to catch him. Maynard took Miller down and Miller tried a submission, but Maynard slipped out of it. Being that he was down, you would’ve thought Miller would be more aggressive, but I just think he didn’t want to be hit anymore.
Winner: Gray Maynard by way of unanimous decision
2. Matt Hamill vs. Mark Munoz
Munoz didn’t seem very comfortable with Hamill’s reach and just looked off balanced on his feet. He’d switch from righty to lefty and instead of trying to block Hamill’s punches, he’d try to duck out of them and get hit. Later in the first, Hamill threw a high kick and Munoz ducked right into it. He was knocked out from the kick, but on his way to falling down, his head hit his knee. Then Hamill got three more punches in. Munoz was unconscious.
Winner: Matt Hammil by way of 1st round TKO
Frank Mir says that he wants to push the Lesnar fight to July 11th because of a knee injury. That’s fine and Dandy if I didn’t just buy a ticket to UFC 98. It looks like Rashad Evans vs. either Rampage or Lyoto Machida will replace that fight. Let’s just say that it’s not a great trade-off.
Brock Lesnar and a pregnant Sable are in the crowd. Brock looks huge.
3. Pete Sell vs. Matt Brown
What a weird fight this was. Brown had Sell out quickly with a kick and a right/left and it looked like the ref was going to stop it. He then told them to continue and Brown put Sell down again and was just punching him in the face. Sell wasn’t defending himself. The Brown looked at the ref as if to ask him why it wasn’t yet stopped. Sell fell backwards either because he was dizzy or he tried to pull guard and Brown punched him in the face again and it was finally stopped.
Winner: Matt Brown by way of 1st round TKO
4. Kendall Grove vs. Jason Day
Grove looked a little gun shy early on and just let loose with a right hand that knocked Day out. Grove followed up with elbows before it was stopped. Day is out of it big time.
Winner: Kendall Grove by way of 1st round TKO
After the fight, Grove did his digging the grave routine and with Day out of it, it looked pretty classless.
5. Shane Carwin vs. Gabriel Gonzaga
This is the fight I’ve been looking most forward to from this card. I want to see if Carwin is for real.
Gonzaga hit Carwin right on the head and buckled him. And then he was able to take him down. Carwin got up, threw a jab that landed and then knocked Gonzaga out with a right hand. Amazing.
Winner: Shane Carwin by way of 1st round TKO
It was a short right hand that landed perfectly on the chin. I guess he’s for real.
6. Tamdan McCrory vs. Ryan Madigan
Tamdan McCrory got on top of Madigan and just ground and pounded him.
Winner: Tamdan McCrory by way of 1st round TKO
7. Keith Jardine vs. Rampage Jackson
Jardine’s awkward stand-up made the round odd. He seemed to want to sit there and be a bit more methodical with the leg kicks and punches, but then he started to get on his horse. Rampage just stalked him and would punch him if he caught him. I think Jardine may respect Rampage’s power a bit too much. Rampage looked as good as he could with Jardine’s herky jerky movement.
Rampage knocked Jardine down with a nasty left hook, but Jardine made it up. Jardine punted Rampage right in the balls. His foot was right between his legs. Jardine rocked Rampage a bit late in the round and that might’ve swayed the round a bit. Could be an even round now. Well, it could’ve, except that Rampage scored a few right hands with twenty seconds left. That would’ve made my call.
I thought the round was pretty even until the last minute of the round. Rampage started to pick apart a very tired Jardine. He knocked him back on his butt in the final 10 seconds with a straight right and left hook.
Winner: Rampage Jackson by way of unanimous decision
I knew I shouldn’t listen to Big D. Never again.
That sets up Rampage vs. Rashad Evans as the main event of UFC 98. They went nose to nose in the octagon and Rampage got underneath his skin. It started as more show, and Rashad let it become serious. Rampage saw that and decided to tone it down a bit and they shook hands.
That was an excellent way to end the show.
The live show ended early and they showed Brandon Vera beating a very over-matched Mike Patt. Jason Brillz beat Tim Boetsch by decision.
This was a really good card and you should see it if you didn’t get the chance.
