Filed under: Fighting, MMA Media Watch, UFC, Strikeforce

To watch mixed martial arts now, to witness the slick productions, screaming fans and dynamic fighters, it's hard to believe how far and how fast the sport has come in a single decade.

"If you would've come to me in 1999, and said there's going to be this new sport emerging, and by 2009 it's going to be where it is right now, I would have told you that would be an extremely unlikely and impressive achievement," said Robert Thompson, a noted pop culture expert and professor of Television and Popular Culture at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.

As metaphors go, the one that describes the state of MMA as the '00s began is almost too perfect to believe. Because as the calendar turned the page to the year 2000, the sport lay injured and ignored in a Louisiana hospital bed, a victim of its own hand.

During Decade of '00s, MMA Went From Debacle Debut to Miracle Growth originally appeared on MMA Fighting on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 11:44:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Jardine knocked Liddell down in the second round, and repeatedly landed scoring punches through the third round in a bout fought throughout in a stand-up striking position at Anaheim’s Honda Center.

“It feels like I won the belt,” said Jardine, a near 4-1 underdog.

Less than four months after losing his title in a first-round knockout loss to Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Liddell, 37, dismissed pre-fight questions that age was getting the better of him.

While he surged at Jardine, 31, with explosive attacks that won him the first round on all three judges’ scorecards — “I was seeing stars the whole first round,” Jardine said — Liddell was decked by Jardine early in the second round. Jardine tried to finish off Liddell like Jackson did, but the former champion regained his senses far quicker than the last fight.

Jardine began bleeding from swelling outside his right eye later in the round, but Liddell couldn’t do more than stagger him, while the underdog rallied by belting Liddell in the head and jaw with sharp lefts.

As the open assault by Jardine continued, most in the crowd implored Liddell to unleash his old explosiveness.

Instead, Jardine tacked on two more hard lefts, and Liddell tried and missed a last-second back-kick, looking up almost hopelessly at an expired clock.

When the decision was announced — judge Marcos Rosales gave Liddell a 29-28 edge, but Cecil Peoples and Richard Bertrand awarded Jardine victory by the same scores — newly signed UFC fighter and longtime PRIDE Fighting Championships former champion Wanderlei Silva shook his head in disapproval.

Liddell was supposed to clinch a long-awaited date with Silva in December if he could beat Jardine, a lesser known and less popular fighter. Now, UFC President Dana White has to decide what to do with Silva, and Liddell has to contemplate his future.

Earlier, Forrest Griffin’s surprising victory over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (16-3) displayed the elements that make the sport so charming to its growing fan base: hard fighting, a punching exchange, elbow throwing, blood and a decisive rear naked chokehold.

Only 15 seconds remained in the fight when the bloodied Griffin (15-4) produced the decisive chokehold while positioned atop his opponent’s back, ending a compelling battle in former PRIDE Fighting Championship star Rua’s UFC debut.

“I was checking the clock because I was tired,” Griffin said in the Octagon after his victory. “It wasn’t a real good choke but fatigue is a son of a [gun].”

“I ain’t that great, but I’ll fight anyone,” Griffin said as current UFC light-heavyweight champion Jackson of Irvine looked on from the crowd.

In a clash of top welterweight contenders, Jon Fitch dealt Diego Sanchez (19-2) his second consecutive loss by split decision. Fitch (20-2) proved the stronger fighter, maintaining a dominant top wrestling position for the most of the bout.

Light-heavyweight Lyoto Machida, who holds mixed martial arts victories over former UFC champions Rich Franklin and B.J. Penn in other organizations, improved to 11-0 with a unanimous decision over former PRIDE Fighting Championships fighter Kazuhiro Nakamura (11-7) of Japan.

© admin for MMA Coverage, 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

Jardine chopped away at the “Iceman’s” legs for the duration of the bout, and floored the ex-champion with a right hand in the second frame before taking a split decision. “Kicking is my thing,” declared Jardine, who upped his record to 13-3-1. The loss for Liddell marked the first time in his career that he has dropped consecutive contests. Judges Cecil Peoples and Richard Bertrand saw the contest 29-28 for Jardine, while Marcos Rosales gave two rounds to Liddell. On the undercard, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua was supposed to be the PRIDE import that would tear through the UFC. Somebody forgot to tell Forrest Griffin.Griffin, the light heavyweight winner of the first season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” dominated the Chute Boxe star for 14 minutes before putting him away with a rear-naked choke with 15 seconds remaining in the final period.

Fighting with a deep cut above his right eye from an elbow in the second round, Griffin outwrestled and overpowered his way past the Brazilian before finishing the exhausted fighter.

“Fatigue is a son of a b—-” said Griffin, now 15-4-0. “Nothing fancy there.”

Rua dropped to 16-3 with the defeat, his first since suffering a horrific arm injury in the opening minutes of his bout with Mark Coleman nearly two years ago.

Jon Fitch won his fourteenth consecutive bout in a hard-fought split decision win over Diego Sanchez. Fitch improved to 15-2-0 with 1 NC in the close fight that saw Fitch dominate position from the top while defending Sanchez’s submission attempts.

Sanchez, who dropped to 17-2-0 with the loss, came close to finishing Fitch twice in the final period with a tight guillotine and a triangle-choke.

Fitch, who represents American Kickboxing Academy, was awarded the hotly-contested duel with tallies of 30-27 and 29-28.

Brazilian Ryoto Machida out-hustled PRIDE mainstay Kazuhiro Nakamura for three rounds before getting the unanimous decision nod. All three judges scored the bout 30-27 for Machida.

The elusive Machida, who stayed undefeated in 11 bouts, consistently beat his Japanese opponent to the punch and dominated from the clinch with elbows and knees to the mid-section. Nakamura, now 11-7-0, did little in the bout in terms of offense in his first trip to the Octagon.

In an entertaining, back-and-fourth ground battle, Tyson Griffin bested Thiago Tavares by unanimous decision after three hard-fought rounds.

Griffin, 10-1-0, played the role of escape artist through much of the bout, successfully sliding out of a torrent of submissions from the Brazilian Top Team lightweight, who fell to 13-1-0 with the loss.

Two judges scored the fight 29-28, while a third awarded all three frames to Griffin.

© admin for MMA Coverage, 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

Instead, Jardine will go from losing a lower-tier bout to the chance to redeem himself against the biggest name in mixed martial arts — Chuck Liddell– in tonight’s featured fight at UFC 76 in Anaheim, Calif.

After that loss, “I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Jardine said. “And honestly, when I got the call I thought, ‘Oh, I am being joked with.’ I thought it was a joke and I didn’t believe it right away.”

Jardine (12-4-1) isn’t the only fighter trying to make amends tonight. Liddell (20-4) was knocked out in the first round of his last bout by the right hand of Quinton“Rampage” Jackson.

Liddell hasn’t made any excuses since the loss, saying Jackson simply had the better fight. He watched a tape of the bout a few times to pick up any mistakes and then put it away for good.

“Right after it happened, I wanted another shot at it the next day,” Liddell said. “Dwelling on losses is never healthy and worrying about what happened last time is not going to help you this time.”

Welterweight Diego Sanchez (19-1) was undefeated before barely putting up a fight in a loss to Josh Koscheck in UFC 69. He will fight for the first time since the crushing loss, taking on Jon Fitch (18-2-1). Forrest Griffin (14-4) will battle former Pride fighter Mauricio“Shogun” Rua (16-2), who is making his much-anticipated UFC debut.

But it’s Jardine’s reputation that needs the most work tonight. He said he wasn’t excited for his fight against Alexander, leading to his poor showing.

“In my heart, I believe I win that fight 99 times out of 100,” Jardine said. “But that’s the beauty of the sport. With little gloves, anything can happen.”

© admin for MMA Coverage, 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

He’s quiet but deadly.

Even during conversations with the relentless media Liddell maintains his poise.

Can he keep that poise on Saturday when he finds himself in the Octagon against Keith “The Dean of Mean” Jardine (12-3-1) at the Honda Center for UFC 76 in Anaheim, California? It’s a match that could test even a Shaolin monk.

A few months ago, in May, the hard knuckles of Liddell tasted Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s fists and found him looking up instead of looking down. The topsy-turvy world of MMA had struck again.

Not to worry. The former poster boy for Ultimate Fighting Championship still has a large throng of followers and promises to return to the throne as light heavyweight champion someday soon.

The first step toward regaining the world title begins through New Mexico’s cactus tough Jardine who’s chasing his own demons too. The bearded warrior was next in line for a shot at fighting for the light heavyweight title after punching out the durable Forrest Griffin.

Then he fought Houston Alexander and doesn’t remember much about that fight that occurred on May 26.

“I lost focus for a second and got caught,” Jardine said of the knockout loss. “I was fighting a guy I never heard of.”

Jardine won’t face that problem in this instance. Most of the MMA world can recite the history of Liddell and has seen the Mohawk haircut he sports in commercials, television shows and inside the Octagon.

“I’m just excited,” says Jardine honestly.

Jardine and Liddell were supposed to fight each other but for the UFC light heavyweight title, but somehow both were tripped up, or shall we say ripped up by hard-hitting fighters who are fairly new to MMA fans who booed both of those outcomes.

Now Jackson has the world championship and the winner of UFC 76 called “Knockout” will face the former Pride FC warrior who recently scraped out a decision over Dan “Hollywood” Henderson to grab the Pride FC title as well.

The ever-calm Liddell refuses to alibi his way out of the reasons why he lost to Jackson last May. It’s not his way.

“He (Jackson) had a good fight and I didn’t,” says Liddell (20-4) speaking his words clearly. “I shouldn’t have gone in there if I wasn’t ready to fight.”

It was Liddell’s second loss to Jackson who beat him four years ago in Japan during an open tournament. Few expected a repeat but a counter-right hand found its mark on the Iceman’s chin and down he went.

“You win some you lose some,” says Liddell soberly.

Also on the fight card will be Diego Sanchez who recently experienced the first loss in his pro career last April. He now faces Jon Fitch a fighter from Indiana who hasn’t lost in 14 fights spanning almost five years.

© admin for MMA Coverage, 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: