MMA News Thread

[Shogun Locc]

Josh Koscheck wouldn’t mind fighting BJ Penn

LAS VEGAS – UFC president Dana White is almost resigned to the fact that his lightweight champion, B.J. Penn, is going to leave the division to chase the welterweight belt.

White has long urged Penn to resist the tendency to jump from the division and concentrate on cleaning out the 155-pound division. After Penn's recent one-sided victories over Joe "Daddy" Stevenson and Sean Sherk, though, White doesn't have a challenger on the horizon who can keep Penn from abandoning the division.

White doesn't realize that perhaps, indeed, he does have a challenger who can hold Penn's interest at 155 and who could fight on even terms for five rounds with the gifted Hawaiian.

Josh Koscheck, the former NCAA Division I wrestling champion who has become one of the world's top welterweights, will meet Chris Lytle on Saturday in one of the key undercard bouts at UFC 86 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.

A win would move Koscheck another step closer to a second shot at a UFC title. But instead of it being a rematch with St. Pierre, it could just be that Koscheck might get his crack at Penn.

Koscheck was discussing his desire for another shot at a world title, but said he didn't feel an overwhelming desire to defeat Georges St. Pierre, the reigning champion and a man who throttled him at UFC 74.

"I just want to be a world champion, whether it be at 155, 170, 185, wherever," Koscheck said. "I believe I have a lot of fights left in me. With my work ethic and the training partners I have and the coaches I have, I believe some day that dream is going to come true."

Koscheck has been fighting as a welterweight since he turned professional in 2004. He won the 174-pound NCAA Division I title in 2001 and has a lean body which would seem to preclude a drop to 155.

Koscheck, though, has long had to cut weight and said it wouldn't be out of the question that he could move to lightweight. If the carrot at the end of the stick was a title bout against Penn, his friend and a man many consider the most physically gifted mixed martial artist in the world, Koscheck wouldn't hesitate to say yes.

"You never know," he said, beaming, when confronted about his ability to make the lightweight limit of 155 pounds. "If people would want to see me fight B.J. Penn at 155 for the title, because there is really nobody there for him to fight, I'd do it."

Koscheck said he "loves B.J. Penn to death" and revealed that he once served as Penn's wrestling coach. Koscheck said Penn contacted him prior to his UFC 48, when Penn was moving up to challenge Matt Hughes for the welterweight belt on Jan. 31, 2004.

Penn needed to work on his wrestling because Hughes was a powerful wrestler, so he reached out to Koscheck, who had been one of the collegiate game's most dominant performers.

That, however, wouldn't stop him from signing to fight Penn for the belt if White were to offer him the chance.

"I know B.J. very well, but business is business," Koscheck said. "We're friends, but at the end of the day, it's about making money together. If the fans would want to see it, I'd suck it up and I'd live that life to where I'd do whatever I have to do to make 155."

The bout could turn out to be one of the biggest of 2009, but Koscheck has the not so insignificant task of getting past Lytle on Saturday.

He bluntly said he's never seen Lytle fight, nor has he watched one of his tapes. Nevertheless, Koscheck is confident of victory.

He was thrashed by St. Pierre at UFC 74 and was outwrestled badly. He learned in that fight how little he really knew about mixed martial arts fighting.

"In a straight wrestling match, I'd kick Georges' ass, I really believe that," Koscheck said. "But mixed martial arts is different. You have to be ready for his hands. You have to be ready for his feet, his knees. It's a lot different. It's way different. They're totally opposite. Wrestling is only one dimension of the 10 that create mixed martial arts. You can be successful in one area, but nowadays, that's not enough."

And so Koscheck, who despite the beating he took from St. Pierre is still ranked among the top five at welterweight in all major ratings, including MMA Weekly and Sherdog.com, made it a point to become more complete.

It wasn't hard, he said, because of the talent surrounding him at the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, Calif.

Among his training partners were top 10-ranked fighters such as Jon Fitch, Mike Swick, Jake Shields and Josh Thomson. Each brought something different to the game and Koscheck said he's made it a point to try to take from each of their styles.

Gaining that kind of experience, he said, will help him convert from a wrestler who fights MMA into a truly versatile mixed martial artist.

"Before, I was just a wrestler or, I'd throw punches and then shoot," Koscheck said. "I wouldn't call what I was doing (before) mixed martial arts. I'd call it wrestling and setting up your punches to be able to shoot. Now, after that fight, I understood how Georges put everything together.

"He's become a real mixed martial arts. One of the things I've been focusing on to put my jiu-jitsu with my wrestling, my wrestling with my striking, so I could become a more complete fighter."

If he completes that transition, Koscheck would be a prime candidate for a lightweight title bout with Penn. White is resigned to having Penn face the winner of the St. Pierre-Fitch bout, which will be at UFC 87, sometime later this year.

But Penn has said more than once that he'll go where the fights are best and that even if he goes back to welterweight for a fight, it doesn't mean he's abandoning lightweight.

That would be a dream for Koscheck, who said he simply wants a chance to be able to put a belt around his waist.

"What are you in this business for, to make money and to win a title," Koscheck said. "Usually, they go hand in hand. A fight with B.J. would be like a dream for me."

 

[Shogun Locc]

Griffin Confident Going into UFC 86
videolink: http://www.sherdog.com/videos/videos.asp?v_id=1675
Mike Sloan spoke with UFC welterweight contender Tyson Griffin, who takes to the Octagon Saturday night at UFC 86 to confront American Top Team grappler Marcus Aurelio.

 

[Shogun Locc]

UFC 86: MARCUS AURELIO EXPECTING A TOUGH FIGHT

Marcus "Maximus" Aurelio looks to improve his Ultimate Fighting Championship record to 3-1 when he steps into the Octagon against Xtreme Couture trained Tyson Griffin at UFC 86. And the Brazilian born jiu-jitsu black belt expects a hard-fought bout.

"It's going to be an exciting fight," said the American Top Team fighter. "It's going to be two guys hungry for a victory, and two guys looking to knock someone out or submit somebody.

"I think he must be ready to fight against me and any situation, like me. I'm ready to wrestle with him. I'm ready to strike if I need it. From the beginning of the fight I'm going to look for a submission or a knockout. I'm not going to stop. I think he's going to come the same way. He's going to come ready and it will be a great fight."

Aurelio recognizes what a win over Griffin could do for his status within the most stacked division in mixed martial arts, the lightweights.

"It was a great opportunity for me to prove that I'm stepping toward the belt. That's the chance I need, a Tyson Griffin," said Aurelio. "He's got a big name in the UFC. I want to fight against the best guys there. And Tyson Griffin is one of the guys... He's a big step. In the UFC, he's a big step. He has a couple of fights and a couple of wins. He's got a big name."

Aurelio's confident that his American Top Team training will translate to victory. "I'm feeling great. I've been training for like ten weeks. I think more than that," commented Aurelio. "My cardio is great. My conditioning is great. My skills have gotten better, so I'm feeling great."

"I'm ready. I'm ready to go. I'm going to make people excited watching the fight."

 

[Shogun Locc]

Elite XC seeks Las Vegas promoters license

EliteXC may be headed to Las Vegas.

The company has filed for a promoters license in Nevada, Keith Kizer, executive director of the Nevada State Athletics Commission (NSAC), said in a recent chat with the Las Vegas Sun.

Promoters must get a license to hold sanctioned fights in the state. Kizer said granting the license would likely be discussed at a commission meeting in the nex 45 days.

“I know they really want to do a show in Nevada,” Kizer said. “I think they would do well here.”

Las Vegas is home to the UFC corporate headquarters.

The UFC routinely sells out venues on the Strip. However, with the exception of two Pride shows in late 2006 and early 2007, rival promotions have not ventured into the city that bills itself as the “Fight Capital of the World.”

In the chat, Kizer also said it’s likely that today’s UFC 86 will be one of the top five MMA gates in Nevada history. That would mean Zuffa is set to earn at least $3.3 million with tonight’s live attendance. The number one MMA gate in the state remains Liddell-Ortiz II at $5.3 million.

It would be tough to break that record in Mandalay Bay. The MGM Grand — site of the top gate — holds more than 2,000 more people than Mandalay.

 

[Shogun Locc]

Griffin, Jackson, Guillard and Miller earn $60K UFC 86 bonuses

Forrest Griffin, Quinton Jackson, Melvin Guillard and Cole Miller each earned $60,000 "fight night" bonuses for their performances at UFC 86.

UFC 86 took place Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas and aired live on pay per view. The bonus amounts represented an increase of $10,000 over the $50,000 payouts for winners from June's UFC 85 event.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) confirmed the bonuses with sources close to the winning fighters.

New light-heavyweight champion Griffin and Jackson were given Fight of the Night honors for their 25-minute main event battle.

Griffin used a steady dose of leg kicks and jabs to frustrate his opponent throughout the fight. Jackson countered valiantly and visibly rocked Griffin on several occasions. In the end, Jackson's promise of a definitive ending to the bout went unfulfilled, and Griffin took Jackson's belt with a unanimous decision victory.

Guillard, in his first fight back in the UFC since dropping two straight bouts in 2007, took home the evening's Knockout of the Night award.

Despite being the only knockout of the evening, the bout was nevertheless deserving of the honors. Guillard caught Dennis Siver early with a stiff right hand from which Siver never fully recovered. After Guillard wrestled free of a near-arm bar shortly after, Guillard again rocked Siver with a right hand, then caught the German once again on the way to the canvas. A quick flurry of shots followed, and referee Herb Dean called a halt to the action just 36 seconds into the first round.

Miller, a 24-year-old "TUF 5" veteran, battled through adversity with Jorge Gurgel to earn Submission of the Night honors.

In a rousing, back-and-forth battle, Miller forced a Gurgel tap just 12 seconds from the end of a fight that Miller seemed on his way to losing. With the victory, the American Top Team fighter moves to 3-1 in the octagon. The preliminary fight, not seen on pay-per-view, can be viewed free of charge on UFC.com.

 

[Shogun Locc]

Sam Stout vs. Paul Kelly at UFC 89

Sam Stout (13-4-1 MMA, 2-3 UFC) has agreed to meet Paul Kelly (6-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) at UFC 89, an event that takes place Oct. 18 at The NIA Arena in Birmingham, England.

TKOXtreme.com first reported the bout on Saturday.

Kelly, an undefeated veteran of the British fight scene, will fight in his home country on a UFC card for the second time.

The Canadian Stout will look to push his UFC record to .500 with a win in October. He most recently suffered a close split-decision loss to Rich Clementi in April at the UFC's first-ever Canadian show. Stout, a veteran of the TKO organization, has also suffered UFC losses to Spencer Fisher and Kenny Florian and owns victories over Per Eklund and Fisher.

Kelly, meanwhile, will look to keep his undefeated streak alive. After posting a perfect 6-0 record with six stoppages (with five in the first round), Kelly debuted with the UFC at its January show in Newcastle, England. There, he defeated fellow Brit Paul Taylor via unanimous decision.

 

[Shogun Locc]

New champ Josh Thomson searches for new challenges

Riding a six-fight win streak and holding the Strikeforce U.S. lightweight championship belt, Josh "The Punk" Thomson (15-2) still entered the June 27 "Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Thomson" event a decided 3-to-1 underdog against his longtime training partner and Strikeforce world lightweight champion Gilbert "El Nino" Melendez.

The San Jose, Calif. native defied the odds and defeated Melendez decisively, winning a unanimous decision by scores of 50-45 on all three judges' cards.

Thomson discussed the bout while a guest on a recent edition of TAGG Radio (www.taggradio.com), the official radio partner of MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com).

“All the pressure was on [Melendez] to win,” Thomson said. "Really, there was no pressure on me to win this fight. Every round he lost, it became more and more pressure on him."

And as every round went by, Thomson seemed more relaxed, as he gradually pulled away en route to a lopsided decision victory.

"We just focused on not giving [Melendez] a steady target to hit," the American Kickboxing Academy fighter explained. "I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t standing in front of him because he's got a heavy right hand. I have trained with him several times, and he is good about landing that thing."

Besides being a statistical underdog to his top-10-ranked opponent, Thomson also entered the bout with a well-documented shoulder injury. Although still not fully healed, the shoulder didn't seem to bother Thomson one bit.

"My shoulder is as good as it could be, I guess," Thomson said. "I don't think it will ever be 100 percent. But when you are fighting, you don't feel the things you normally feel when you are training."

Thomson battered his opponent with a diverse attack of knees, elbows, kicks, takedowns and punches throughout the 25-minute fight. The new Strikeforce world lightweight champion said that keeping Melendez guessing with a wide variety of offensive attacks was the key to his victory.

"I used every little weapon I could to beat him," the 29-year-old said. "If I didn't threaten him with every little thing I had, there was no way I was going to win that fight."

One weapon "The Punk" used decisively to beat his opponent was kicks. Thomson statistically dominated his opponent in kicks by a staggering 69-to-1 margin, and consistently used a front kick to push Melendez out of striking range.

"That's the one thing you learn about people when you train with them," Thomson explained. "Gil never wore shin guards in training because he never kicks. I knew he didn't use kicks, so that is one weapon I needed to use to keep him at bay, keep him away."

Now that he has solidified himself at the top of the food chain in the 155-pound division, Thomson is speculating that there may be a wide variety of potential opponents for his next fight. He has had a long running feud with former Strikeforce middleweight champion Frank Shamrock, and he made no bones about wanting to meet him in the cage despite the weight difference.

"Who knows, maybe I will fight Frank (Shamrock) next," Thomson said. "For me, that's something I don't mind doing. Obviously, he does though."

Another possible match-up that lies inside Thomson's weight class is with Jorge Masvidal, who has won two straight bouts in Strikeforce.

"I never cared for him," Thomson said of Masvidal. "He is kind of a mouthy little [expletive]."

One last option for the new champion is a potential cross-promotional bout with EliteXC 160-pound champion K.J. Noons. Although Thomson feels that he may have little to gain by defeating Noons, he admits that stylistically the combatants would provide fireworks for the fans.

"I think it would be a great fight," Thomson said. "I think we would put on a great show."

Thomson doesn't know who we will be facing next, but has heard rumors that he is slotted in the main event of the September Strikeforce show at the Playboy Mansion.

"I was telling myself if I won this fight, I wouldn't fight at the Playboy Mansion," Thomson joked. "Just so I could enjoy the fights and the scenery."

Regardless of whom he faces next, Thomson wants to stay active this year while defending his new championship.

"I really want to get in three fights this year. If I can fight on Sept. 19, and then of course they have the show in San Jose in November, if I can get that fight as well, that will be great."

 

[Shogun Locc]

Legal Counsel for the New Jersey Athletic Control Board releases statement about passage of new weight classes

Nick Lembo, the counsel for the New Jersey Athletic Control Board and one of the chief principles involved in writing the unified rules of mixed martial arts, issued a statement Sunday afternoon to address the recent passage of new rules by the Association of Boxing Commissioners in Montreal earlier this week.

We are re-printing Lembo’s entire statement below in this post, but to summarize, Lembo states the following:

He does not feel the name of the ABC is appropriate any longer, because it completely neglects MMA in its title.
It’s up to each jurisdiction to go back and approve the ABC’s recommended changes.
Unless each jurisdiction adopts the recommended changes, the concept of unified rules will basically evaporate.
He does not approve process in which the new rules were adopted.
He approves of a lot of the changes, just not the additional weight classes.
He is concerned about some of the extremes taking place in MMA in regards to weight cutting, but he doesn’t believe creating more classes necessarily addresses the problem.
Why is this important? Because Lembo is one of the main people responsible today for the unified rules that currently exist in the sport. For him to speak out against weight classes and the due process used to change rules, speaks volumes.

Below is Mr. Lembo’s statement in its entirety:

“It should be noted that the ABC meeting with regard to the unified rules are merely suggestions to the membership.

“The ABC should clarify its bylaws and its formal name since MMA is such a growing sport that it intends to address.

“Each jurisdiction must go back and individually adopt the changes and amendments.

“The document, with regard to professional mixed martial arts, has some items which would alter the longstanding unified rules developed in New
Jersey.

“Unless each jurisdiction adopts them, we will no longer have unified rules.

“Unified rules, in my opinion, are crucial to the growth of MMA.

“When New Jersey first drafted and later passed the unified rules, several months of meetings were held and observations were made at
events.

“These meetings included discussions with medical staff, promoters, matchmakers, managers, fighters, fight officials, media and fans.

“We also got the approval of other jurisdictions in advance in order to ensure a unified document.

“I fully support the clarifications and explanations of the existing unified rules in the new document.

“I do also support the rule deletions and smothering addition.

“However, I have decided that I do not support the weight class changes.

“With regard to weight classes, Nevada, California and Florida were not represented at the meeting.

“Further, very minimal discussion was held on the topic. I did not hear medical evidence to support the rule changes as Mr. Garcia and I had
requested. I did not see any thoughts or comments from promoters or fighters.

“I also know that Ohio has concerns with regard to changing the weight classes.

“Major MMA jurisdctions like Nevada, California, Ohio, Florida, Quebec and New Jersey need to have an involved role when contemplating serious
MMA rule changes.

“Unless everyone is on board, the ridiculous result would be having different weight classes in different jurisdictions for the same
fighters in the same sport.

“Changing weight classes is a substantial change that needs further discussion and exploration, in my opinion.

“There needs to be more discussion and involvement of more parties prior to contemplating such a drastic rule change.

“I am not convinced that weight classes are a crucial problem within the sport and I am not yet sure that the addition of so many more weight
classes is warranted.

“I am concerned about unhealthy weight cutting but I do not think that simply adding more classes solves that.

“Any drastic changes to the unified rules need to be carefully contemplated.

“If I was going to explore an area to possibly overhaul in the current rule set, it would be the scoring system. That, in my mind, warrants attention. That concerns me much more than the current weight classes.

“The weight classes will not be proposed for change in New Jersey at this time.

“Nick Lembo, NJSACB”

 

[Shogun Locc]

UFC unlikely to adopt new weight classes; White says "Big John" is new enemy

LAS VEGAS – When the Ultimate Fighting Championship started as a made-for-pay-per-view event in 1993, it was a learn-as-you-go proposition since nobody knew what to expect.

Over the past few years, in attempting to turn whatever it started out as being to a legitimate sport with unified rules and commission regulation, there have been a new set of growing pains. The more popular the sport gets, the more controversies there seems to be regarding judging criteria, referee stoppages and rule interpretations.

Last week, when the Association of Boxing Commissions came up with changes to the unified rules at its Montreal convention, among the many people who had no idea any of this was coming was UFC President Dana White.

"There's going to be a fight," said White when talking about new rules being implemented. "And you know I don't roll over easily."

White unequivocally said they have no intention of changing or adding to the company's current five current weight classes: Lightweight (155-pound maximum); welterweight (170); middleweight (185); light heavyweight (205) and heavyweight (265).

The new unified rules include an ill-thought-out 14 different weight classes, particularly the addition of 215 and 225 pound divisions, which makes little sense with the dearth of quality heavyweights from 205 to 265 pounds to begin with.

"No, we're not following that," he said.

The commissions said that the promotions have the option of doing whatever weight classes they want. But doing so would create an inconsistent sport.

It becomes an interesting game because from Day 1 after taking over the promotion in 2001, Zuffa has attempted to become regulated and fight under commission rules that would be universally recognized.

There were many officials in the previous UFC ownership that weren't thrilled with some of the rules, in particular banning of knee strikes on the ground, that the New Jersey State Athletic Control board implemented in 2000. Those rules have been used as the framework in most new states that have since regulated the sport. But commission regulation, both of which they agreed and didn't agree with, was a necessary evil in the big picture of the sport's survival.

With these new changes, including a ban on putting hands over the mouth or nose, but legalizing the straight up-and-down elbow strikes that had been banned, White believes he's got a new enemy. And it's a referee who at one time was the longest-lasting fixture in the company.

"It's John McCarthy," White said. "He doesn't want to be a referee anymore. Now he wants to change the rules. And he's announcing for Affliction." McCarthy, who retired as a ref last year to join The Fight Network, a Canadian cable station, spoke at the commission meetings, where many commissions, including New Jersey, will interpret blows to the back of the head as being a straight line down the center of the head and the illegal zone would be one inch on either side. However, in California, commission head Armando Garcia said their interpretation of the illegal zone is everything behind the ears.

McCarthy will also be doing commentary for the July 19 Affliction pay-per-view event, a promotion that White has declared war on, to the extent of running a free show on Spike TV head-to-head featuring middleweight champ Anderson Silva.

Whatever the rules are, there needs to be consistency because companies run shows in different states with the same fighters, and being penalized in the middle of a fight for what was perfectly legal in the last fight isn't fair to anyone.

Among other things White talked about in an impromptu post-press conference mini-conference is a late-October Chicago debut for a pay-per-view show and plans for a Boston debut in November. The former is closer to being finalized than the latter, as Massachusetts still has to finalize regulation of the sport.

He also has 2009 goals of running in places like the Philippines, where he said UFC is on the equivalent of a major network and doing phenomenal television ratings, as well as Germany, Brazil and Dubai. Some shows would be smaller in stature from the type of pay-per-view level shows people are used to.

"When I was spending four hours on Thursday at press conferences, Lorenzo (Fertitta) was in the office kicking ass," said White, who noted new UFC CEO Fertitta's key role is in expanding UFC internationally.

White also noted meeting this past week with lightweight champion B.J. Penn, who is intent on challenging welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre, provided St. Pierre gets past Jon Fitch on Aug. 9 in Minneapolis.

The light heavyweight division was thrown into a state of flux with Forrest Griffin's win Saturday night. There was much talk about Quinton Jackson getting a rematch, which White didn't rule out. There are also people like Lyoto Machida, Chuck Liddell, Wanderlei Silva and Anderson Silva who are potentially in the mix.

 

[B-Buzz]

Among other things White talked about in an impromptu post-press conference mini-conference is a late-October Chicago debut for a pay-per-view show

FUCK YA!

And those new weight classes are dumb as hell.

 

[naner12]

FUCK YA!

And those new weight classes are dumb as hell.

I wouldn't mind the weight classes that much if MMA was stacked with good fighters from all over the world. This would thin out divisions like crazy if it plays out. Fighters are already far too spread out with being stuck fighting for one organization .. if you introduce 14 weight classes with no cross promotion between organizations it's gonna be shitty.

 

[Shogun Locc]

UFC 86 Fallout: Possible Protest, Rematch

Although Quinton Jackson (Pictures) lost his UFC light heavyweight title Saturday to Forrest Griffin (Pictures) in a grueling 25-minute bout, his camp is ready to keep fighting.

Jackson's coach, Juanito Ibarra, plans to protest the unanimous decision with the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

"We got robbed," Ibarra told Sherdog.com Sunday afternoon. "We won the majority of the fight."

Judges Adalaide Byrd and Nelson Hamilton scored the bout 48-46 for Griffin, while Roy Silbert turned in a 49-46 tally for Griffin.

It's extremely unlikely that a protest would change the outcome of the fight. Ibarra isn't hopeful in that regard, but less than 24 hours after his fighter had lost in the UFC for the first time, the coach seemed determined to learn exactly how the fight was scored.

He was baffled that Byrd and Silbert gave Griffin a 10-9 advantage in the first round, during which Jackson dropped the challenger. In Ibarra's view, the knockdown warranted a 10-8 round in Jackson's favor. He believes Jackson won the third and fourth rounds on 10-9 scores, though he said Griffin deserved a 10-8 second round and a 10-9 fifth. That comes out to a 47-46 win for Jackson.

"You have to beat the champion," Ibarra asserted more than once.

Randy Couture (Pictures), a coach and training partner of Griffin, gave a slight edge to the new champion.

"I thought that it was a very, very close fight," Couture said. "I thought that it was three rounds to two [for Griffin]. I thought that Quinton did enough to win two of the rounds clearly. I thought they may have been able to give Quinton a 10-8 round in the first round with the knockdown and then the second round you could have given Forrest a 10-8 round.

"And it could have went the other way. If one or two rounds went the other way, it could have been three rounds to two for Quinton. It was that close."

Strategies and execution

Couture's concern before the bout was a reasonable one: that when hit, a brawler at-heart like Griffin would resort to brawling.

"He has always wanted to bang," Couture said. "From the Bonnar fight on, just a brawler. That's what he thinks is exciting. That's the way he likes to fight. But at some point he realized that's not always the wisest choice, especially with a guy who hits as hard as Quinton."

The plan was to stay on the outside, use angles and footwork, work a long jab, a long hook and then finish with a kick. The kicks, as it turned out, did major damage, hobbling Jackson in the second round and changing the course of the fight.

Griffin did venture inside a few times, however, and paid for it. He took an uppercut in the first round that floored him and was cut over the eye in the fourth. Ibarra wanted Jackson to lure Griffin into more exchanges.

"I wanted Rampage to stay in the middle of the cage and make Forrest fight him," Ibarra said. "I think Rampage would have knocked him out, or hurt him and grounded and pounded him."

Griffin fought a smart fight, though. He never stayed inside for long. Instead, he chipped away and kept moving, occasionally stopping to drop a heavy kick into Jackson's lead leg.

"I thought Rampage needed to use his speed more," Ibarra said. "That's what was so disappointing in the fifth round: There was no speed, no combinations. Forrest is so long, you have to beat him to the punch. You have to be the first to set up that jab."

Ibarra also felt Jackson should have thrown more body shots. But make no mistake, even though he believes Rampage could have performed better, Ibarra is certain that he performed well enough to keep the belt.

Couture had little criticism of Griffin's execution, though the fighter didn't hesitate to critique himself.

"I'm happy with the way things turned out," Griffin said at the postfight news conference, "but there's a lot of stuff I planned on doing that I didn't do, a lot of things I worked on that didn't work out."

Wrestling, for one.

"Wrestling is something that we've worked on a lot since the Jardine fight," Couture said. "That was the one piece of the arsenal that [Griffin] was missing, and I think everybody knew that after some of the submissions he had in other fights that his ground skills were good. Everybody knows that he's a brawler and that his striking is formidable. He had no transition skills at all, so there was never a threat. … It's something we worked a lot on, but he didn't have to do that much last night."

Griffin was having success striking from the outside, but Jackson's wrestling skill and punching power also deterred him from wrestling more.

"He's got that one-punch power," Griffin told UFC.com on why he didn't work more from the clinch. "And a couple of times he hit me in the head or hit me in the shoulder, and it could have been a knockout. So I kind of pushed off and rested."

Possible deciding factors

After hurting Griffin in the first, Jackson planned to put him away in the second round.

"That's when I was fixing to go for it," Jackson said at the postfight presser. "He threw me a whammy. He hurt my leg. That's what messed me up."

Couture agreed: "I think the leg kicks hampered Quinton's mobility enough that he wasn't able to close that gap and get that inside range where he's very, very effective and very explosive."

Jackson also said he probably had "a little cage rust" after not fighting since September 2007. However, it had been just as long since Griffin last competed. Couture pointed to Griffin's size -- "We saw that as a big advantage in this fight" -- and his aggression as helping him get the nod.

"I think in the third, fourth and fifth rounds, Forrest carried the aggression in the fight," Couture said. "He was pushing the pace of the fight, controlling the tempo of the fight. Even the times when they were on the ground, Rampage wasn't able to damage Forrest. Forrest was able to scramble and get back up. He had the one nice submission attempt with the triangle. I think that [aggression] was the biggest difference."

Jackson said Griffin didn't hurt him on the ground either. Ibarra echoed that statement and added that Griffin's offense, including his submission attempts, should not have trumped the work Jackson did with his hands.

Ibarra on rematch: I got it

The unanimous decision for Griffin was greeted with cheers and some boos. Exhausted after the biggest win of his career, a significant upset that had made him a UFC champion, the 29-year-old thanked the audience at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

More boos followed -- the inevitable result, no doubt, of any close decision.

"Hey," Griffin responded. "What the hell? What? What? Are you kidding me? Come on."

He acknowledged that the fight was close.

"And I don't want to because he hits too f---ing hard," Griffin said, "but I think we're going to have to do that again."

In the Octagon after his loss, Jackson seemed to admit defeat. "He just whooped my ass," Rampage said, but later, at the postfight presser, his perspective had changed.

"I feel like I won the fight," he said. "When I think about it, and my cornermen and other people who watched it, they thought he won the second and maybe the last round. And I won the rest."

Despite changing his opinion, Jackson remained respectful.

"I didn't want to leave it up to the judges," Jackson said. "But you know what? I didn't think Forrest could hang with me. I said if Forrest gets past the third round, he'll gain my respect and I respect him. And if I ever fight him again, I'm gonna respect the hell out of him with my right hand."

According to Ibarra, there is no "if" concerning a rematch.

"I got it. I got it. I'm not waiting. Next fight," said the coach, who explained that he approached UFC President Dana White and co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta in the Octagon about making a rematch. "I asked for it, immediately, in the cage, and Forrest agreed. The rematch is going to go like I first thought. Forrest is going to try to do more, and next time he's gonna get beat."

Said Couture: "It could be the next big trilogy in the weight class. It was a terrific fight, a back-and-forth battle, and that's the kind of fight people want to see again."

Given some time to ponder another bout with Jackson, Griffin wasn't backing down. Besides, he doesn't exactly envision an easy run as the UFC light heavyweight titleholder.

"I'm not a feared guy, but the thing is, I'm going to fight you for 25 minutes," he said. "Whoever you are, anybody at 205, I'm not going to break. I'm not going to quit. It's the same s--- I always say. I'm not … you look at the champions. Anderson Silva: terrifying. B.J. Penn (Pictures): terrifying. Every other champion but me is pretty terrifying. I'm just a dude trying to put it together. But the one thing I've got is I'm going to fight you to the end, like a dog. And other than the third round [against Jackson], where I decided just to kind of hangout, lay on my back there, I feel like I did that. And next time, I'll bring it better."

 

[Shogun Locc]

Griffin vs. Liddell could be a huge year-end fight for UFC

Forrest Griffin is in the midst of a history-making run through the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

The ex-cop turned ultimate fighter followed up a brilliant performance against Mauricio Rua at UFC 76 with a unanimous-decision win over Quinton Jackson to claim the UFC light heavyweight title at Saturday's UFC 86 event in Las Vegas. Some fans questioned whether Griffin even deserved the title shot, but it's hard to have doubts now about Griffin's evolution from reality show star to world-class fighter.

Griffin is quickly becoming one of the best big-fight mixed martial artists in the sport, unfazed by the pressure that comes with fighting at the highest level. He's now beaten the men who most experts considered the world's two best fighters at 205 pounds. Griffin has to be ranked as one of the sport's top 10 pound-for-pound fighters, and while a rematch with Jackson certainly makes sense, an even bigger fight might be in his immediate future.

A Griffin versus Chuck Liddell match-up has always been an intriguing fight, and with Griffin now holding the title, this is the year to make it happen.

The fight would unfold in a similar fashion to the Griffin-Jackson battle since Liddell's stock-in-trade is to stand and fire. "Rampage" was content to stay on his feet and look for openings to land against Griffin. He hit Griffin plenty of times, just not enough to finish him. Liddell's punching power could be a difference maker.

"The Iceman" is still the biggest draw in the UFC, while Griffin has always been a fan favorite. The fight would be a huge main event, and regardless of who won, Jackson would be up next. A Griffin victory would deliver the necessary rematch, while a Liddell win would set up the inevitable third installment of Liddell-Jackson.

The first order of business for Liddell, though, is to beat Rashad Evans at UFC 88 Sept. 6 in Atlanta. If that happens, the blockbuster fight between Liddell and Griffin would teacher versus student. Griffin fought on Team Liddell during that first defining season of "The Ultimate Fighter."

 

[Shogun Locc]

COTE TO GET TITLE SHOT

Patrick Cote defeated Ricardo Almeida Saturday night at UFC 86 from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas moving himself into title contention to vie for the Ultimate Fighting Championship's middleweight crown currently held by Anderson Silva.

Cote has become known for his toughness and punching power, but the hard hitting Canadian was unable to finish Almeida, winning by split decision. "I will knock everyone out who wants to trade with me. I will knockout every striker who tries to trade with me, Cote told MMAWeekly. "It was the match up. Sometimes the match up is like that."


"I did not want to play the Jiu-Jitsu game with this guy. This guy is world class in Jiu-Jitsu. He's one of the best in the world," commented Cote.


"I was fighting one of the best Jiu-Jitsu guys in the world. This guy was no joke. My game plan was to sprawl and brawl and footwork. And I did exactly what I wanted to do. I showed that I've improved a lot on my wrestling and my ground game. I escaped from four guillotines. My wrestling was good. He took me down, but I was able to get back up. He won the first round, but after that I think I won... I did exactly what I wanted to do and I won."


UFC president Dana White stated in the UFC 86 pre-fight press conference that the winner of the Patrick Cote and Ricardo Almeida bout would receive a title shot against the winner of Anderson Silva and Yushin Okami planned for later this year.


Asked about White's comments, Cote said, "I'm ready for anybody. I ain't scared of anybody in my weight class. But I will believe it when I sign the contract."


Cote spoke with MMAWeekly after his bout, but before the post-fight press conference. White assured to the media during the post-fight presser that Cote would indeed get a shot at the UFC middleweight title.


White admitted that the Cote and Almeida fight was "boring," but maintained that Cote would get an opportunity to fight for the belt to the media during the post-fight press conference. "Sometimes when you have two guys who are really, really good fight each other that's what happens. Especially when you have two guys with different game plans," said the UFC president. "One wants to keep it standing. One wants to go to the ground. And that's what happened tonight with those two."


"He's getting a title shot," reiterated White.

 

[Shogun Locc]

Cro Cop withdraws from DREAM 5; schedules surgery

Former PRIDE and UFC heavyweight Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic has withdrawn from the July 21 DREAM card due to a bum elbow and a mishandling of opponents according to his official blog.

From the Croat:

Unfortunately I have some bad news– I won’t be fighting at DREAM 5 at all. I was about to face Jerome LeBanner but he decided to fight in K1 against [Semmy] Schilt. Mighty Mo was the alternative and I accepted this challenge, but unfortunately Mighty Mo pulled off from the fight. I was ready to face Mo, but maybe this scenario wasn’t that bad for me at all…

Cro Cop hasn’t competed since DREAM 1 back in March after being fed Tatsuya Mizuno in his much ballyhooed debut. He was penciled in to face Jerome LeBanner at DREAM 4, until it was switched to a bizarre grappling match against Ralek Gracie - pushing the LeBanner fight to DREAM 5 on the 21.

Now that looks like it won’t happen either and judging from his tone, Filipovic sounds like he could use the reprieve.

I’ve been having problems with my right elbow for years and the injury got even worse over last 6 months. I’m already receiving a proper treatment but the recovery won’t happen over night. The second problem is a knee injury, something that troubles me for quite a while. I had difficulties using my kicks and over last few weeks I focused more on boxing and grappling. I really wanted to fight on July 21 and I was even ignoring doctor’s suggestions, but now I’ve reached the point from which I can’t continue with my normal training regiment due to my injuries.
Filipovic is scheduled for arthroscopy Monday morning and will not be able to perform any sort of MMA training for at least 2-3 weeks. He’s currently eying a September return and is gunning for current Strikeforce champion Alistair Overeem who has accused the Croation of ducking him on more than one occasion.
No official statement has been made from DREAM officials on how this will affect the July 21 card but be sure to stay tuned as this story continues to unfold

 

[Shogun Locc]

WEC 35 fight card to feature three title fights

When: Friday, Aug 3, 2008
Where: Hard Rock Hotel; Las Vegas, NV
Watch: VERSUS at 9 p.m. ET

Here’s the latest on WEC 35:

Main Card

Carlos Condit vs. Hiromitsu Miura (Welterweight Title Fight)
Brian Stann vs. Steve Cantwell (Light Heavyweight Title Fight)
Jamie Varner vs. Marcus Hicks (Lightweight Title Fight)
Brian Bowles vs. Damacio Page
Josh Grispi vs. Micah Miller
Undercard

Brock Larson vs. Carlo Prater
Blas Avena vs. Dave Terrel
Cub Swanson vs. Hiroyuki Takaya
Alex Karalexis vs. Todd Moore
Mike Budnik vs. Greg McIntyre
Scott Jorgensen vs. Kenji Osawa

 

[heyzel]

Local Evans Ultimate Fighting Champion

July 6, 2008

AUGUSTA, GA---

Forrest Griffin's friends and family are re-watching the fight that made him a star Saturday night. "We just were standing there throwing punches and moving and I mean, I could have been in the ring with him," says his mother Kathryn Danielson.

"There was no doubt he was gonna win," says Griffin's friend Lucas Rakofsky. "I knew he'd win, but I was still really nervous because with mixed martial arts you can never predict anything," says his stepfather Byron Danielson.

Forrest helped to make Ultimate Fighting more mainstream when he won Spike TV's The Ultimate Fighter back in 2005. News 12 was there when he watched the premiere of his show in January of 2005, and again months later when he won the live finale.

"It's the truest of sports, you know, and it was the first sport there ever was," said Forrest in 2005. Forrest's brother, Lief was also along back in 2005. "He gave me about five-thousand t-shirts." Flash forward to today. "Does he bring you anything cooler now, or is it still just t-shirts?" Katie asks. "Still t-shirts," answers Lief.

Forrest graduated from Evans High School in 1997. There he played football. His family and friends say his drive and determination got him where he is today.

"In football up at Evans, he was usually the first one on the field and the last one off," says Kathy. "He set his goal for something and he wasn't going to be denied it," says friend Matt Crunk.

Kathy talked to Forrest late Saturday night, just as he was getting stitches at the emergency room. She said he was pretty shocked himself.

"It happened Mom, that's it. I did it. And he was very very happy," said his mother, Kathy proudly.

 

[heyzel]

Success turns Inland apparel company TapouT into a force in the world of mixed martia

By LOU HIRSH
The Press-Enterprise

An otherwise nondescript industrial plaza off Interstate 215 in Grand Terrace is actually ground zero for TapouT, a fast-growing commercial force in the self-described "InYaFace" counterculture world of mixed martial arts.

Its loyal fan base of millions buy and wear the company's branded fashions and accessories, sporting dark and edgy symbols with snakes, bats and flames -- and some rabid followers even have TapouT tattoos. The company's conference room, done up in shades of black, dark reds and browns, sports a chandelier made of plastic skulls.

Its following is such that TapouT now enjoys the trappings of celebrity, including its own TV show, Hollywood-agency representation and product licensing that goes beyond fight gear. There will soon be TapouT bottled water and energy drinks, and it's also considering lending its name to youth bedroom furniture.


Stan Lim/The Press-Enterprise
Dan Caldwell, one of three partners of TapouT, says the company has turned down several offers of licensing agreements. “We won’t attach our name to something that our audience wouldn’t use or wear,” he said.
"It's very cool -- we're looking at what would be sort of a caged bed," said Dan Caldwell, one of the company's founders, who goes by the name Punkass.

What started out in a small apartment in San Bernardino in the late 1990s now gobbles up space in its beehive of a headquarters, where it makes and markets its branded shirts, caps, workout gear and accessories for shipment to more than 6,000 stores around the world.

The privately held company reports that sales surpassed $25 million last year and are on track to hit $100 million this year. TapouT is now a major sponsor of fight events and reality shows produced for the cable network Spike TV by Ultimate Fighting Championship -- a Las Vegas-based promoter better known as UFC.

TapouT also has its own popular reality show on the Versus cable network, starting its second season in late July, in which the TapouT Crew -- company leaders Mask, Punkass and Skyskrape, who use only those names in public venues and media interviews -- take to the road in a tricked-out bus, scouting the country for new mixed martial arts stars to sponsor in competitions.

All three of the lead crew are trained in the sport, which combines boxing with elements of traditional Asian and South American martial arts. And the tough and edgy attitude exuded by the TapouT brand is not fake; Mask and Punkass both grew up in the harsh neighborhoods around 18th Street in San Bernardino.

Passion Into Profits

In a recent interview, Caldwell said the company had a hard time turning passion into profits. Started by Mask, whose real name is Charles Lewis Jr., and Caldwell in 1997, TapouT originally sold only on the Web and had reached sales of about $29,000 by 1999.

"We were basically just pouring the money back into the business to buy new inventory," Caldwell said.



TapouT enjoys the trappings of celebrity, including its own TV show, Hollywood-agency representation, and product licensing.
Things started to change about five years ago, as TapouT rode the cresting wave of popularity for mixed martial arts spawned largely by UFC competitions on cable TV, and later bolstered by its own reality show. Since 2006, TapouT has been selling its products through a growing roster of national retailers including Tilly's, Hot Topic, Champs, Pacific Sunwear and Dillard's.

Like the fighters it sponsors, TapouT has become a business force to be reckoned with, and major corporate players have taken notice. A pivotal time for the company was last autumn, when it brought aboard Marc Kreiner, a former record industry executive who oversaw disco-era hits by artists including Chic and Evelyn "Champagne" King, to serve as president in charge of daily operations.

Shortly afterward, PEMGroup, a private equity firm that manages $1.5 billion in assets, extended a multimillion-dollar credit line to the company. About the same time, TapouT became a client of CAA Sports, a division of Los Angeles-based Creative Artists Agency, which also represents LeBron James, David Beckham, Oscar de la Hoya and Peyton and Eli Manning.

Last year TapouT acquired Hitman, a Huntington Beach company that also makes clothing and accessories tied to the mixed martial arts lifestyle. Caldwell said the company is looking into other potential acquisitions, and also at other licensing deals.

"But we've turned down a lot of things," he said of licensing offers that have come the company's way as its profile has risen. "We won't attach our name to something that our audience wouldn't use or wear."

Sheer numbers suggest that TapouT is in fertile ground for more years of growth.

According to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, a Washington-based trade group, there were 6.9 million U.S. participants in all kinds of martial arts in 2007, compared with 6.2 million in 2000. While the overall U.S. wholesale value of sports equipment and apparel rose 3 percent in 2007 from the prior year, the martial arts category was up 12 percent -- from $280 million in 2006 sales to $314 million last year.



Stan Lim/The Press-Enterprise
What started out in a small apartment in San Bernardino in the late 1990s now gobbles up space in its beehive of a headquarters, where it makes and markets its branded shirts, caps, workout gear and accessories for shipment to more than 6,000 stores around the world.
Get in Shape

Association spokesman Mike May said televised mixed martial arts has apparently helped raise awareness of the sport as a way to get in shape, similar to the way in which boxing generated sales of punching bags, gloves and other protective gear to those training across several sports.

"The mixed martial arts has sort of fed off the popularity of boxing," May said.

UFC President Dana White said the sport's popularity has risen dramatically, particularly among 18- to 34-year-old males, since it hooked up with the cable TV networks.

In an interview, White said since 2001, his company has gone from employing three people to 100. It has 180 fighters under contract and produces 60 hours of cable programming per week.

In its early days, live UFC arena events were lucky to make about $100,000 in a night from a sparse crowd. "Now we are selling out arenas, and the take can be $4 million or $5 million at the gate," White said.

According to ratings tracker Nielsen, UFC's own "The Ultimate Fighter" reality show on Spike draws 2 million viewers per airing, and its live events on that network draw 4 million to 5 million, making them among the largest audiences in basic cable.

When CBS recently aired a Saturday night showcase for Elite XC, a competing mixed martial arts league, it drew more than 6 million viewers and more than tripled the network's usual audience in the male 18-34 group.

Even with its popular hard-core, edgy attitude ("Bad for the Sport" is another of the company's trademarked catchphrases), TapouT's operators contend that mixed martial arts organizers in the past six years have gone a long way to fix its long-held reputation of being a brutal bloodsport. Organizations such as UFC, Caldwell said, have instituted sanctioning standards, fight rules and protective gear requirements that help minimize injuries without diluting the action.

Story continues below

Stan Lim/The Press-Enterprise
The privately held company reports that sales surpassed $25 million last year and are on track to hit $100 million this year.
He noted the sport has its roots in ancient Greece, and said there could be considerably more growth ahead for the locally based company, especially because the international market is "virtually untapped" and mixed martial arts overall continues to rise in popularity around the world.

"For someone who doesn't know baseball or doesn't know basketball, you have to explain the rules to them," he said. "Everybody knows what fighting is."

The crew has come a long way from the days before TapouT, when the founders worked in local security jobs -- Lewis for the San Bernardino school district and Caldwell for the San Manuel Indian casino.

"To say that our lives have changed would be a major understatement," Caldwell said.

 

[heyzel]

UFC still going through growing pains

By Dave Meltzer, Yahoo! Sports


LAS VEGAS – When the Ultimate Fighting Championship started as a made-for-pay-per-view event in 1993, it was a learn-as-you-go proposition since nobody knew what to expect.

Over the past few years, in attempting to turn whatever it started out as being to a legitimate sport with unified rules and commission regulation, there have been a new set of growing pains. The more popular the sport gets, the more controversies there seems to be regarding judging criteria, referee stoppages and rule interpretations.

Last week, when the Association of Boxing Commissions came up with changes to the unified rules at its Montreal convention, among the many people who had no idea any of this was coming was UFC President Dana White.

“There’s going to be a fight,” said White when talking about new rules being implemented. “And you know I don’t roll over easily.”

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White unequivocally said they have no intention of changing or adding to the company’s current five current weight classes: Lightweight (155-pound maximum); welterweight (170); middleweight (185); light heavyweight (205) and heavyweight (265).

The new unified rules include an ill-thought-out 14 different weight classes, particularly the addition of 215 and 225 pound divisions, which makes little sense with the dearth of quality heavyweights from 205 to 265 pounds to begin with.

“No, we’re not following that,” he said.

The commissions said that the promotions have the option of doing whatever weight classes they want. But doing so would create an inconsistent sport.

It becomes an interesting game because from Day 1 after taking over the promotion in 2001, Zuffa has attempted to become regulated and fight under commission rules that would be universally recognized.

There were many officials in the previous UFC ownership that weren’t thrilled with some of the rules, in particular banning of knee strikes on the ground, that the New Jersey State Athletic Control board implemented in 2000. Those rules have been used as the framework in most new states that have since regulated the sport. But commission regulation, both of which they agreed and didn’t agree with, was a necessary evil in the big picture of the sport’s survival.

With these new changes, including a ban on putting hands over the mouth or nose, but legalizing the straight up-and-down elbow strikes that had been banned, White believes he’s got a new enemy. And it’s a referee who at one time was the longest-lasting fixture in the company.

“It’s John McCarthy,” White said. “He doesn’t want to be a referee anymore, now he wants to change the rules. And he’s announcing for Affliction.” McCarthy, who retired as a ref last year to join The Fight Network, a Canadian cable station, spoke at the commission meetings, where many commissions, including New Jersey, will interpret blows to the back of the head as being a straight line down the center of the head and the illegal zone would be one inch on either side. However, in California, commission head Armando Garcia said their interpretation of the illegal zone is everything behind the ears.

McCarthy will also be doing commentary for the July 19 Affliction pay-per-view event, a promotion that White has declared war on, to the extent of running a free show on Spike TV head-to-head featuring middleweight champ Anderson Silva.

Whatever the rules are, there needs to be consistency because companies run shows in different states with the same fighters, and being penalized in the middle of a fight for what was perfectly legal in the last fight isn’t fair to anyone.

Among other things White talked about in an impromptu post-press conference mini-conference is a late-October Chicago debut for a pay-per-view show and plans for a Boston debut in November. The former is closer to being finalized than the latter, as Massachusetts still has to finalize regulation of the sport.

He also has 2009 goals of running in places like the Philippines, where he said UFC is on the equivalent of a major network and doing phenomenal television ratings, as well as Germany, Brazil and Dubai. Some shows would be smaller in stature from the type of pay-per-view level shows people are used to.

“When I was spending four hours on Thursday at press conferences, Lorenzo (Fertitta) was in the office kicking ass,” said White, who noted new UFC CEO Fertitta’s key role is in expanding UFC internationally.

White also noted meeting this past week with lightweight champion B.J. Penn, who is intent on challenging welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre, provided St. Pierre gets past Jon Fitch on Aug. 9 in Minneapolis.

The light heavyweight division was thrown into a state of flux with Forrest Griffin’s win Saturday night. There was much talk about Quinton Jackson getting a rematch, which White didn’t rule out. There are also people like Lyoto Machida, Chuck Liddell, Wanderlei Silva and Anderson Silva who are potentially in the mix.

 

[heyzel]

Griffin’s ascent hand-in-hand with UFC

By Kevin Iole,



LAS VEGAS – Only weeks after accepting an offer to appear on a new reality television series, Forrest Griffin had second thoughts. He didn’t show up for the first day of filming for The Ultimate Fighter, the UFC owners’ last-ditch effort to save the company.

UFC was mired in $44 million of debt and close to going under. UFC president Dana White and owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta gambled that the reality series would introduce the sport to a skeptical public.

“I called him and begged him to please get to Las Vegas,” White said of Griffin, who went on to win the first season by defeating Stephan Bonnar in the finale in one of the epic bouts in UFC history.

And on Saturday, Griffin validated his decision to turn his back on a police career and become a full-time fighter by edging Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in a back-and-forth battle to win the UFC light heavyweight title.

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“It’s great to win, but the only thing that sucks is that I’ll have to fight Quinton again,” the irreverent Griffin said after thrilling a sellout crowd of 11,172 with the unanimous decision victory.

Both men paid a heavy price for their battle, which earned them an additional $60,000 bonus for the Fight of the Night and what may turn out to be the Fight of the Year. Griffin had a deep gash over his right eye that needed stitches to close, while Jackson needed trainer Juanito Ibarra’s assistance to navigate a couple of steps as the result of repeated kicks to the left shin from Griffin.

The crowd Saturday was roaring from the moment Griffin appeared on the video screens and rarely quieted during a fight in which the combatants exchanged punches, elbows, kicks and slams in a brutally physical bout.

It is less than five years since the day when UFC chairman Lorenzo Fertitta, frustrated by the mounting debts, called White and asked him to try to sell the company. After a couple of days, White met Fertitta in his office and told him he could get $3 million for it.

Only three years earlier, the Fertittas and White had paid $2 million to acquire the UFC from SEG.

“I told Dana I wanted to go home and sleep on it, because I don’t like to make rash decisions,” Lorenzo Fertitta said. “I woke up early the next morning, around 6 o’clock, and called Dana and said, ‘I’m not willing to give up. I still believe in this thing.’ We’ll make this thing work yet.”

Shortly thereafter, the trio came up with the idea of The Ultimate Fighter.

“That was our Trojan horse to get onto TV,” White said.

And Griffin made the decision pay off, winning over legions of fans with his dry wit, an “aw shucks” personality and ability to absorb tremendous amounts of punishment and keep on going.

Jackson delivered plenty of punishment on Saturday, knocking Griffin down twice in a fast first round. A crushing right uppercut floored Griffin, just as Jackson had done to Chuck Liddell when he won the title last year at UFC 71.

But Griffin, who cried in the cage after a loss to Keith Jardine at UFC 66, managed to stand in to everything Jackson threw at him.

“Every (expletive) punch hurt,” Griffin said. “A lot.”

He doled out his fair share of pain, as well, however. He kept firing low kicks at Jackson’s left leg, which began to bother him late in the first round.

After a pair of kicks in the second, Jackson collapsed in a heap and spent most of the round flat on his back. That put a huge dent in Jackson’s plan, because he had intended to try to go for the stoppage in the second.

“I started picking it up and I was going to go for it, go for the gusto, because I didn’t want him to get out of the second round,” Jackson said. “That’s when I was going to go for it. He kicked me in the leg and hurt my leg and that’s what messed me up.”

Jackson could barely get up to go back to the stool after the second, but he fought brilliantly in what turned out to be the critical third round.

Griffin circled and moved much of the round and Jackson was unable to catch him and land a decisive blow.

That round was probably the one that gave Griffin the championship, because all three judges scored it for him. It was a round the Jackson side thought belonged in its column. “How can Quinton not win that fight?” Ibarra said. “You had to give him the first, third and fourth. If you give (Griffin) the third, man, I don’t know how you can do that.

“Rampage brought it to him and you have to take the fight away from the champion. He did not take that fight from Rampage.”

Few men in the world could have taken it from him on Saturday, but Griffin is one of those. In his last outing, he upset Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 76, submitting the man then regarded by many as one of the two three pound-for-pound fighters in the world.

In his next bout, he beat Jackson, who had seemed to establish himself as the world’s finest 205-pounder after convincing wins over Liddell and ex-PRIDE champion Dan Henderson.

For years, as White touted The Ultimate Fighter as a great breeding ground, he was criticized by many for overhyping it. Matt Serra came off the reality show to win the welterweight title earlier, but Serra already had an impressive UFC record before he went onto the show.

Griffin was a virtual unknown when he finally agreed to appear on the series. His win on Saturday, and the September victory over Rua, validated the series.

And Saturday’s raucous, lively crowd seemed to validate the sport’s growth. It’s not noisier, or more enthusiastic, at an NBA Finals game.

Lorenzo Fertitta could hardly believe what he was seeing on Saturday. He remembered back to the dark days when the end of the UFC was near and had difficulty believing that only about four years later things had changed so dramatically.

“Surreal is absolutely a great way to explain things,” Fertitta said. “We were struggling so badly. One of the interesting things, and we predicted this, was that if we ever made it and became truly big, everybody would say, ‘The UFC was an overnight success.’ We all laughed about it. There was some tough sledding there.

“People have short memories. It was a long, hard haul and it was a lot of tough times. I want to say I always believed it would be what it was tonight, but I had no idea what the magnitude could become. But there’s no doubt, this was an amazing night for this sport.”