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On wednesday Rampage was apparently admitted to a hospital for a 72 hour observation period, merely one day after posting his $25,000 bail. He reportedly paid his bail went home and started acting up, a couple of friends flagged down a passing police car and requestd assistance rearding Rampage. He was said to be helpful and respectful to the police.

I really hope that Rampage can get back to his old ways and start to make amends for his crazy driving earlier this week, if he really is having mental issues I hope him the best. On the same note one of the drivers that he hit earlier this week is said to be a pregnant woman that is apparently claiming damages afer being rushed to hospital, the others are reportedly relatively untouched.

Well guys if you dont aready know about this story I hate to be the one to break it to you but our beloved ex-UFC LHW champion Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson has been arrested, and rightfully so most would say. TMZ broke the article with an exclusive along with images of the event. Turns out our howling Chuck destroyer has probably ruined any chance of a Grffin rematch along with most of his UFC prospects by getting involved in one of the more bizarre celebrity arrests of all time.

Rampage was apparently seen to hit two cars on Freeway 55 and then sped off with police in pursuit of him, no quite content with settling for a mere felny of hit and run and evading arrest he began to drive on the centre divie of the freeway, when off the freeway he mounted the curb forcing pedestrians to jump out of the way. Rampage then proceeded to drive the wrong way on a ‘crowded’ street and then back onto the sidewalk for another GTA style drive.

At some point in all of this mess one of his front tyres burst and he carried on regardless leaving his rim all shredded at th end of the chase. When Quinton finally arrived at his destination he stopped his car and was arrested while his truck was searched. No charges of DUI or possession have been mentioned by police as of yet and he is said to be in a hospital leaving us to wonder if this was a mental health related rampage, sorry no pun intended.

My best wishes are currently with Rampage and I truly hope that whatever caused him to do thisdoesnt ruin his career or life but at the same time I think we should all be hoping that everyone involved in this case are ok and unharmed. There have currently not been any injuries or casualities listed as a result of his driving which is a great relief to myself, and should be to you to. We dont currently know what possessed him to do this but Im sure time will tell. Lets just hope he gets the help he needs, or on the flip side gets the punishment he deserves.

So I was really looking forward to this weekend, we would get to see the current LHW, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson come back after a 9 month (YES NINE WHOLE MONTHS) break from fighting to film the latest season of The Ultimate Fighter. Not only would we be priviledged to watch Rampage at the top of his game but also to see him fight a ‘fan favourite’ in Forrest Griffin, a fighter that has come on leaps and bounds since, funnily enough, winning the original series of The Ultimate Fighter.

Now the two fighters styles’ looked set to give a great match up with fireworks galore, the first round certainly gave everyone what they expected when Rampage took Forrest to the ground with an almighty upper-cut that would have shaken anyone, Rampage failing to fully utilise this opportunity went to the ground with him and laid plenty of close hits from Griffin’s guard pretty much for the rest of the round.

Second round saw Griffin brutalise Rampages left (lead) leg with some heavy thigh and knee kicks, a couple of minutes in he took Rampage down and proceeded to lay and pray for the duration of the round, not fully making use of Rampages severely weakened lead leg. Round three four and five were all fairly low key with Griffin unable to truely damage Rampage further, he began checking those nasty kicks, and Rampage able to land only a few heavy hitting punces and combinations.

 The last three rounds were close, no doubt about it, but most would give Rampage the third round for his takedown of Griffin and much better stand up game, the same could be said for the fifth which saw mainly a standing exchange where I thought Rampage was winning, only slightly but winning one the less.

So in all Rampage clearly took the first and third round (first could have been deemed a 10-8 to rampage for his manhandling of Griffin), I would even give the fifth to Rampage though this is debatable and open for discussion, Griffin definitely took the second round with a good round of leg kicks and a takedown / lay’n'pray tactic it could have been a 10-8 round for Griffin in the second. The fourth and fifth rounds are debatable on who was coming out on top, if anything it would have been a draw in thee two rounds.

Rampage : 10-8-10-9-9 = 46
Griffin:       8-10-9- 9-9 = 45

Now I know I am not exactly qualified to score bouts but one of the judges gave the first round to Griffin, I have not heard or seen anyone agree with this judgement and most are in agreement that it should have been a 10-8 round for Rampage. At worst Rampage should have lost by 1 point, at best won by 2 points, realistically considering all aspects of the fight he won by 1 point, how did a judge have Griffin win with a score of 49-46? The judges are beyond me.

I think there should be a rematch pretty fucking quick to make up for this controversy as a champ should be soundly BEATEN over the course of the fight, not just in one round, to lose his belt, this is not what was seen on Saturday.

P.S before you ask I didnt really have a massive favourite going into this fight, I love watching both of these guys fight and hope they are still fighting for years to come, I just hate things that arent fair.

Just yesterday (Thursday 3rd July 2008) the Association of Boxing Commissions voted in a revision to the unified ruleset of MMA. Over 40 commissions were in attendance an voted many changes in, one glaring ommission of the commissions was the Nevada State Athletic and Californian State Athletic commissions. The majority of attendees voted positively for the following revised rules:

1. Extended explanation of the back of the head no-strike area to explain it is one inch either side of the area down between the crown of the head towrds the spine. This creates a 2-3 inch exact area that referees can look for instead of having a vague generalisation of back of the head.
2. Withdrawn the no downward elbow strikes on a downed opponent, elbow strikes are now completely illegal in all circumstances where the strike is not aimed at an illegal area, such as groin or back of head etc.
3. Smothering the mouth and nose of a fighter with the intention to restrict breathing has now been deemed illegal, this does not include those chokes and submissions that rely on a forearm or leg covering the face.

Weight classes have had a bit of a mix up with fourteen official male weight classes ranging from the 105lbs flyweight division increasing upwards in increments of roughly 10lbs. The way they have been set is slightly different in some cases also, Welterweight is now classed as 165-175lbs and Light Heavy Weight is now 205-225. The new weight class categorisation could mean more weight class jumping by fighters that are borderline on a particular weight.

Big John McCarthy was a strong proponent of these new revised rules and played a large part of lobbying the Athletic commissions and bring public attention to the intention to change the rules, however he was originally pushing for the addition of a rule allowing knees to the head of a downed opponent which was not passed. McCarthy stated that this would reduce the ’stalemate’ situation that canoccur between some wrestling styled fighters when on the ground, if knees to the head were allowed we would see less situations where two fighters were locked on the ground unable or unwilling to do anything proactive.

Well there you have it, new rules and regulations, what these changes do to the sport we love is yet to be seen and only time will tell but I think the extra explanation of some key rules will be much needed and will prevent different referees making such different calls in different situations. Lets hope these all change the game for the better for both the viewers / fans and also make things safer for the fighter.

First off I would like to apologise for the lack of new videos in the past month or two, I will be adding lots more very soon. With that out the way I would like to send out a HUGE boatload of thanks to the MMA gods for providing a few solid weeks of great MMA which is more than anyone can ask for really. UFC 84 turned out to be awesome and I loved most of the fights, who wouldnt enjoy a current champ stompig in convincing fashion an ex champ that tested positive for steroid use ( I dont wanna get into whether he was innocent or not, just he tested pos!!), even with a great fight card with a few surprising fights we now have EliteXC to look forward to at the weekend.

 Kimbo Slice is a fave fighter of mine, I love the street brawler turned pro story, and I cant wait to see him up against another fave fighter of mine in James Thompson, not only is Thompson a fellow brit but he is also a stomping stand up brawler so this should be a great fight. I dont know much about Gina Carano other than shehas a somewhat impressive string of wins (so fa at least) and is hot as fuck, I would seriously give my left nut for a night with her (not my right one though, I couldnt live without righty).

Iam unsure of how to feel about seeing her and Young going at it as women fighting is a strange subject for me, I love women and the female form, cant help but feel a bit funny about two very beautiful women doing their best to ruin each others faces. Amongst the other brawlers on the card are Giant Silva, Nick Diaz, Jake Shields and Robbie Lawler. I dont know how anyone could not be very excited about the whole card put on by Mr Shaw and his up and coming promotion

 Not only do we have EliteXC to look forward to at the weekend but the weekend after we have Bisping going toe to toe with….. wait for it ….. another ground specialist…………

……….

Seriously, this is for you Joe Siva, sort out Bisping and feed him a couple of brawlers damnit. Bisping is an outstanding kickboxer with a very good defensive ground game, if you feed him ground specialist all the time he will look dull as he is unlikely to pull off a sub and is likely to get sat on for the duration. I know Leben would have been an excellent matchup for him but in his predicament it was never gonna happen, anyone who knows anything about getting visa in te UK could have told you that, if Bisping and Leben are available I think this fight should still happen as it would be a firework filled night of action that could lead Bisping to Rich Franklin if he were to win. Enough Bisping love for one post.

LONG LIVE MMA

Only 4 more days to go till another great UFC event and I cant wait, well I can because I have to but I am excited. It has been a long time since wehave seen Sean ‘The Roidshark’ Sherk fight due to his positive drug test last year and I just hope that at this stage in his career the shark can keep up with the significantly younger fighter that is BJ ‘the prodigy’ Penn. If BJ comes into the fight with a decent amount of cardio and sean isnt as rusty as some think this could actually turn out to be a good fight, not one im hugely looking forward to but its a title fight so should be decent. Id put money on the quicker and moreexciting BJ Penn.

 Now I can see fight of the night going to a possible classic matchup in Wanderlei ‘the axe murderer’ Silva versus ‘the Dean of Mean’ Keith Jardine, both of these fighters were able to take, previous UFC LHW champion, Chuck ‘the Iceman’ Liddell the distance in a fight, something nobody previous to these two had done for over 5years. We know both fighters love to scrap it out and this should be a frantic fight full of fireworks and probably will end in a KO in the second round, I predict Wanderlei to come out with the win. Whoever wins this will definitely be one to watch.

Another fight of interest is another ex-UFC champion in the form of Tito Ortiz taking on the up and comer Lyoto Machida, even with the potential star power we have going here, Ortiz is not exactly well known for his excting fight style, he is a well accomplished wrestler with good stand up but ultimately a smotherer on the ground. Machida is also more of the calculated game plan fighter rather than an explosive attacker, both fighters will be taking their time and looking for a weakness as both have great defensive games. I just hope this fight doesnt go the distance as these two fighters could do with an impressive win to build up their stock as celebrities, especially Ortiz who is planning on jumping ship to another organisation.

There are many other great fighters on this card such as Rameau Sokoudjou Vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura, Wilson Gouveia Vs. Goran Reljic  and Jon Koppenhaver Vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida and it definitely has the potential to be a memorable night of UFC action, I just hope that the fights with the potential to drag on dont and we get to see some great new talent that has been the saviour of some of the more recent UFC events.

First off, I am a huge Michael Bisping fan, maybe because Im a Brit myself but more to do with the fact he gets a very bad press on the forums and is given not half the credit he deserves. I would just like to say to those sherdoggers and roElite noobs that Bisping IS a force at MW he will get a title shot and will surprise a lot of people along the way. Anybody that gave McCarthy half a chance in that fight was just dreaming. Bisping needs a good fighter next to cement his career, Im thinking a Rich Franklin matchup could be a good fight for both of them.

 With my rant about absolute fucking morons on online MMA forums over withlets talk Serra vs St.Pierre, gotta say this wasnt the disappointment a lot of headliners have turned out to be recently. St. Pierre impressed me right from the beginning with his total octagon domination of Serra, I think this fight really shows that Serra doesnt have all the tools to hang with a fighter like St. Pierre. Maybe he has the right tools to get a quick knockout but he needs to hone his skills in other areas of his game to compete on Pierre’s level, in my opinion.

 Franklin vs Lutter was a great fight, defnitely one of the highlights of my night, I love Franklin an his style, but most of all I like the sportsmanship of the guy. Franklin has always been a class act in defeat as well as victory and this was no different, kudos to Lutter for stepping in the ring with the ex champ but maybe next time he should get that cardio work in a bit more. Lutter surprise me once or twice especially when he nearly had Franklin’s arm, god knows how Rich ever got out of that one, but in the end the lack of cardio was his downfall.

All in all I enjoyed the main events in this UFC but thought Bisping should have been given a much more credible opponent but hey I will watch his fights whether it is against chumps like McCarthy or champs like Franklin / Silva (could happen in the future)

Well I know its been a long time but I plan on coming on here more often now I got some issues out the way. I was reading Michael Bisping’s blog earlier as he is set to fight Charles McCarthy. As per usual both fighters have had their fair share of words in the press, probably as it is McCarthy’s last chance at making it as an MMA fighter in the UFC. Now I imagine that McCarthy started the shit talk as he needs this to be a fight eagrely watched by many otherwise they could forget his terrible fighting past, McCarthy hasnt even fought for 16months, but mud slinging is a bad idea especially by one so under-qualified such as McCarthy.

 Bisping as usual was his cassy self until the shit talk started, and pretty well behaved after, generally keeping quiet short of pointing out a few home truths for McCarthy to take in. I know as well as the next guy that Bisping’s last two fights have been less than stellar but dont forget these fights were a a higher weight class where Bisping was generally out weighted and under strengthed yet still did not get finished by a much improved Matt Hamill and the next heavyweight champ Rashad Evans. If Bisping’s fighter record isnt enough to put the willies up McCarthy maybe his improvements in his striking speed and fitness ow he has dropped down a weight class.

 I think due to the occurrences in his las two fights many have written off Bisping as a potential force at Middleweight but I find this highly short sighted and a bit of a crime to be honest. I think Bisping will effortlessly work his way uptoa title shot by the end of this year or early next year, whether he could stand the brutality of an Anderson Silva or the incredible groundwork of a Dan Henderson is still yet to be seen.

Yesterday, Thursday 28th February 2008, CBS TV network and ProElite Inc announced a deal that will air ProElite’s MMA events on a major Network TV station. This announcement comes after the hugely popular EliteXC promoted event in Miami on the 16th February which received over 500,000 viewers on Showtime, the headliner of this event was Kimbo Slice vs David ‘Tank’ Abbott.

Kimbo is due to headline the first event to be aired on CBS in April even though he has mentioned a fight with Ken Shamrock in June. It is actually possible that Kimbo would appear in twice in this time but it wouldnt show great management if he was to fight 3 times in 5 months as it would perhaps not give him enough time to properly prepare.

 It is more likely that Kimbo’s next fight will be against another ‘record filler’ opponent that is unlikely to beat Kimbo such as his previous fights against the likes of Bo Cantrell and Ray Mercer.

EltieXC is apparetly maintaining their prior contract with Showtime to show events on that channel, this will mean that ProElite Inc has 2 major TV channels airing their events, presumably CBS for the big events and Showtime for the others. Either way this is definitely a step in the right direction for MMA as a whole, maybe it will also bring in more marketing opportunities for merchandising and increased fighter pays, we can but hope.

I dont think anyone who has taken an interest in MMA over the past few years could be oblivious to Randy Couture’s recent problems with the contract Zuffa, the UFC’s owners, has him pinned down to. Basically his contract has him tied down to a non-compete clause that states he cannot promote, sign or fight for any organisation other than the UFC while he still has fights left on his contract.

It has recently become clear that Randy has signed a deal with Mark Cuban’s HDNet channel so that he may one day be able to fight with Fedor Emelianenko, the worlds #1 ranked Heavyweight MMA fighter. This contract is apparently only to come into action once Randy is out of his current UFC contract, even though it does not mean he will fight while still under UFC contract it is still putting Randy in breach of his UFC contract. Confused yet? The complications havent even begun yet.

Randy has always claimed that he is only interested in one more fight with Fedor while he is still the UFC heavyweight champ and while Fedor has his world leading mixed martial arts fight record. While I understand Randy’s predicament I do feel a champion should fight the fights he has agreed to compete in, which would have meant only 2 more fights. With only 2 fights left on his contract since his last MMA showing he could have easily been out of his UFC contract and preparing for the Fedor fight today, this leaves the question why he would go the litigious route and hope to Lawyer his way to Fedor.

I like many others feel a champ should fight his fights and allow others the opportunity that was given to him, a chance to take the championship belt, without this he has put the UFC in a very difficcult position of having to hold a fight for the “interim” belt. I am sure that Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira would have preferred to win his belt from the current heavyweight champ not the ex-champ, Tim Sylvia, Nog has even gone as far as to ask for the same chance that Randy was afforded not that long ago yet Randy is sticking to his guns and refusing to fight the fights he had agreed upon.

I do totally agree with some of what Randy is trying to accomplish here, he is clearly campaigning against the unfair non-compete clauses that have plagued UFC contracts for too long now, Randy would like to see fairer contracts for fighters and for them to be better looked after in the way of pay for fights and such. I still feel there would have been a better way to do this, such as fight his last fights. Fighting his contractual fights would have drummed up much more business for his supposed Fedor fight and made it seem like he is a true champ instead of a pretender who is ducking some great talent that is in the UFC right now.

Either way it happens I hope that this dispute is sorted very soon and that Randy is released from his contract soon as the current situation is not any good for him, UFC or the fans who just want to see him and Fedor go at it, especially before Randy’s age gets the better of him.