The long awaited Rampage Jackson vs. Rashad Evans match is now history. Rashad Evans backed up his trash talking with a win at UFC 114 over Quinton Jackson. The battle of TUF 10 coaches ended with Evans winning via unanimous decision. While the fight may not have lived up to the hype, it could go down as one of the most successful draws in UFC history.
Rashad Evans did a lot of talking on TUF 10 and coming into the fight. A loss would have been devastating, playing into Rampage Jackson’s claims about Rashad Evans being overrated. Other than a close scare in the third round, Rashad Evans dominated all three rounds against Rampage. Rashad Evans is hardly overrated, with wins now against three former UFC light heavyweight champions.
[adinserter block=”2″]Rashad Evans looked to be in the best shape of his life coming into the fight. UFC fans saw a very focused and disciplined Rashad Evans on the UFC 114 Countdown. Evans Olympic style training and intense sparring obviously paid off. Regardless of how you feel about Rashad Evans, there is no denying his commitment to being the best professional athlete he can be.
The win immediately propels Rashad Evans back into the UFC light heavyweight title picture. UFC president Dana White declared that the winner of the Rampage Jackson vs. Rashad Evans fight would receive the next title shot at UFC light heavyweight champion Shogun Rua. Looking at an early timeline, I would expect the fight to be scheduled for September or October. Rashad took 4 ½ months between this fight and his last fight against Thiago Silva. A little time off is well deserved for the new number one contender.
[adinserter block=”1″]For Rampage Jackson, it is back to the drawing board. Unlike in the past, I don’t think anyone can question Rampage Jackson’s commitment coming into the fight. He dropped a lot of weight and looked to be in the best shape of his life throughout the Countdown to UFC 114 show. Rampage will immediately begin a press tour for the A-Team movie. Rampage will be back in a big arena next Monday night when he is a Guest Host on WWE RAW.
Early estimates are that UFC 114 was a monster success. My gut feeling is that we haven’t seen the last of Rashad Evans vs. Rampage Jackson in the UFC.
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we will probably see this fight again in 2011. it was a little slow and disappointing. i thought rampage should have finished evans off when he had him hurt, but whatever. i look forward to seeing what will happen in a rematch.
UFC 114: Much Ado About Nothing
I got to see the much anticipated UFC fight between Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson and 'Sugar' Rashad Evans and I must say, I was very underwhelmed and it wasn't just because the result didn't go the way I hoped it was because it was just such a letdown of a main event. All the talk was about Rampage and was he fully committed due to the fact he had been promoting the A-Team movie. The hype shows garnered some more interest as the two came across as really not liking each other but for me, when it game to the fight it was just a letdown.
Early in the fight, Evans caught Jackson with a punch and rocked him, Rampage recovered from this but then the fight was pretty un-eventful. From the middle of the final round onwards, I thought Rampage was going to finish Evans but alas, the big man couldn't finish the job and Evans won a unanimous decision which was odd as I'd of give Rampage the final round.
In his post fight interview, Jackson he had trained hard but apologised for not being good enough and he wants a rematch, this is what I think should happen and if Evans can beat him a second time then full props to him.
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The other fight I got to see from the card was the UK's own Michael Bisping against Dan Miller, I had not seen Miller fight before and all I think about when I see Bisping fight is the deverstating loss to Dan Henderson at UFC 100. Bisping won this fight via a decision which was right but Bisping wasn't over impressive.
.-= Stuart Rodgers´s last blog ..Dragon Gate USA: Open the Untouchable Gate – Best Card of 2009? (Spoiler alert) By Shaun Nichols =-.
yes i knew he'd win 🙂