He may not have been able to get the finish but Quinton “Rampage” Jackson made easy work of Matt Hamill in the main event of today’s UFC 130.
Jackson completely nullified Hamill’s wrestling game with the former Ultimate Fighter contestant going an embarrassing zero from seventeen in takedown attempts over the course of the three round bout.
Rampage’s striking was clearly too much for Hamill, which resulted from Hamill having to shoot for takedowns without the appropriate set-up.
Rampage hurt Hamill on several occasions but could not find the final blow. Nevertheless he earned a shutout, unanimous victory from the judges.
Prior to the airing of the UFC 130 pay-per-view, UFC president, Dana White stated that if Rampage was successful tonight and came out of the bout unscathed he would be first in line to meet Jon Jones for the light heavyweight title later this year.
Rampage did however admit that he had suffered a fractured hand in training prior to this bout, so we will wait and see whether or not that will rule him out of the possible title fight.
In the co-main event, former UFC heavyweight champion, Frank Mir proved he was too big and too strong for Roy “Big Country” Nelson as he cruised to a wide unanimous decision victory.
Despite Nelson’s trademark big belly, the size difference between the two was clear from the outset. Mir controlled Nelson in the clinch and peppered his face with hard knees at will. He was also able to score takedowns whenever he pleased for the duration of the bout.
The punishment Nelson accrued quickly zapped his gas tank and stamped out any possible chance Nelson had in the bout.
The win moves Mir into an interesting position as he clearly still has the skills to compete with the elite in the heavyweight division. With the very top of the division locked up with upcoming bouts at the moment, Mir may have to resort to waiting it out until the divisional picture clears up or stay active against one of the divisions up and comers such as Brendan Schaub or another of tonight’s victors in Travis Browne.
Brian Stann continued his dramatic assent up the middleweight rankings with a clinical destruction of the highly touted, Jorge Santiago. Santiago was making his return to the UFC after spending a few years outside the company racking up wins over some impressive names. In that time he had worked his way into many of the MMA blogosphere’s top ten lists, but it was Stann, not Santiago, that looked like a member of the division’s elite.
After dropping Santiago in the first round with a left, Stann finished it off in the second with his right. Catching him on the temple, Santiago crumpled to the mat and was quickly stopped by a violent barrage from Stann.
This performance coupled with Stann’s incredible (and highly marketable) military background should see him get fast tracked to contender status in the UFC pretty quickly.
In the event’s other big heavyweight fight, six foot, seven inches tall, Travis Browne met six foot, 11 inches tall Stefan Struve. Struve looked to be getting the best of it early but was hit by a Browne superman punch towards the end of the first round, while he was also in the air.
The effect was brutal as Struve fell out of the air like he had been shot and landed unconscious on the mat.
Ricky Story continued his rise up the welterweight ranks as he decisioned former title contender, Thiago Alves. Story used his wrestling attack to stifle Alves in the first two rounds but had a scare in the third as Alves came back with some brutal punches and knees.
He had racked up enough an advantage early in the fight though and was given unanimous scorecards of 29-28 for his efforts.
In preliminary action, Demetrious Johnson scored a highly disputed unanimous decision over Miguel Torres. For my money, Torres got the better of the fight’s ground work and should have earned himself two rounds at the very least.
Tim Boetsch made his middleweight debut a successful one with a controlling decision win over The Ultimate Fighter 3 middleweight winner, Kendall Grove.
Gleison Tibau made me eat my words against Rafaello Oliveira as he changed up his top control centred game to knock down and then submit the jiu-jitsu black belt, Oliveira.
Michael McDonald took a split decision win over the very game Chris Cariaso in a bantamweight bout while Renan Barao improved his impressive record to 26-1 with a unanimous decision win over Cole Escovedo.
Finally at the post-fight press conference, UFC management handed out $70,000 bonuses to four fighters.
Fight of the Night – Brian Stann and Jorge Santiago
KO of the Night – Travis Browne
Submission of the Night – Gleison Tibau
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