MMA fans were buzzing last week about a potential Rampage Jackson vs. Rashad Evans rematch. Well there was one MMA fan who wasn’t excited and unfortunately for UFC fans he is the only fan that matters. Dana White squashed the fight and has no desire to see a rematch.
I love the candid opinions Dana White offers to reporters but sometimes I feel as if he is a little too honest. If the UFC ever goes back to Rampage Jackson vs. Rashad Evans 2 Dana White is going to look a bit silly pumping up a fight that he is now openly mocking in the press. White told USA Today that he has no desire to see a rematch because in his opinion, the first one sucked.
“Talking’s fun before the fight, but if you do all this talking and then you go in there and don’t fight, who wants to see that (crap) again?” White told USA TODAY. “Rampage-Rashad, the (freaking) snoozefest? I don’t want to see that (freaking) fight again.”
[adinserter block=”2″]Personally I think he is dead on. I was in the minority when most MMA fans got excited about the potential for a Rashad Evans vs. Rampage Jackson rematch. I agree 100% with the president that the first fight was boring and their styles just don’t mesh well for an exciting fight. Rashad knows he can outwrestle Rampage so his likely game plan is to ground the big man and smother him with ground and pound for three rounds. I can’t blame him. Of course there is the chance that Rampage could catch him as he did in the third round of their first fight, but it took two and a half rounds before there was an even a hint of a grudge match taking place.
From a business standpoint the UFC prez may take a little heat. What the first fight didn’t deliver in the octagon, delivered in the buy rates. The months of trash talking between Rampage and Rashad paid off to the tune of over 1 million buys for the fight. The 1,050,000 buys tied UFC 114 with UFC 66 for second of all time in UFC PPV buy rates and only slightly behind the 1.6 million buys for UFC 100 which still holds the record.
[adinserter block=”1″]While I agree with Dana White, Matt Hamill vs. Rampage Jackson doesn’t make sense based on White’s analysis of the first fight. Hamill is another wrestler who will likely employ the same exact strategy that Evans used in his UFC 114 fight against Rampage. The styles here don’t make for an exciting fight on paper. However, with a strong companion lineup I would guess that UFC 130 will do pretty well although not even close to what an Evans vs. Rampage rematch would bring.
The irony here is that there is a strong chance that Evans and Rampage will rematch at some point in 2011. Dana White has already said that Rampage would be in line for a UFC light heavyweight title match if he beats Hamill. If Shogun Rua beats Jon Jones, a Rampage vs. Rua or Rua vs. Rashad Evans championship match would likely be next in the cards. If one of those guys beats Rua, the other is probably getting the first title shot.
However, if Jones beats Rua, Evans has said that he would move out of the division thus taking a rematch completely off the table indefinitely.
UFC: Ultimate Fighter Season 10 Jackson vs. Evans – Heavyweights DVD set
UFC 123 Quinton Rampage Jackson Walkout T-Shirt
Order the UFC Undisputed 2010 video game for all consoles on Amazon.com.
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