MMA: Jackson Wants it Back
Written by playerpress.com, Tuesday March 10 2009
UFC 96 was an event where the participants could keep their passports locked away at home. After trips to Ireland and England the combatants got to mix it up in the heartland of the USA, Columbus, OH. In fact, even some locals got to be in on the action.
The main event was Quinton Jackson going against Keith Jardine. For Jackson this was his second bout since losing his light heavyweight title. Jackson wants his belt back and Jardine has made a reputation by stopping guys from achieving their title hopes. Something had to give. In the first round Jackson started fast and staggered Jardine, but the Dean of Mean managed to keep his wits about him and stayed out of serious trouble. Repeatedly the fighters clinched and Jardine used the referee’s separations to score shots. Call it dirty boxing if you will, but he probably got his best work in as the clinches were being ended.
In the second round Jardine threw punches from unorthodox angles and it was apparent that he was trying to confuse Rampage. Jackson shook off the strategy by dropping Jardine with a vicious punch. He took advantage of Jardine being prone to dish out punishment that was duly noted on the scorecards. To his credit the Dean of Mean got back to his feet and went back to work.
With many people feeling that Jardine had taken the first round and Jackson scored the second, the third was determined to be the decider. Jackson took the initiative by dropping Jardine twice. Although Jardine recovered both times, the second came at the round’s end and probably sealed his fate.
Jackson won the match by unanimous decision and celebrated by shouting “I want my belt back.”
Local boy Matt “The Hammer” Hamill was on the undercard going up against Mark Munoz. Hamill is deaf and has become a fan favorite even outside of his hometown of Columbus. His light heavyweight bout ended in the first round when he delivered a withering kick that KO’d Munoz. Hamill followed his kick to the head with some canvas work that caused the ref to end the bout at the 3:39 mark. Munoz had to have a brace attached to his neck before exiting the ring under his own power.
The opening bout saw former NCAA All-American wrestler Gray Maynard extend his record to 8-0-1. The Michigan St alum won a unanimous decision over Jim Miller.
In the co-main event heavyweight Shane Carwin remained undefeated by stopping Gabriel Gonzaga by TKO at the 1:09 mark of the first round.
Another Ohio native, Matt Brown also scored a first round TKO in his win over Pete Sell. A steady barrage of fists, knees and kicks had Sell out on his feet. Only intestinal fortitude kept him upright as he became a punching bag for Brown prior to the ref stopping the carnage.
The strangest match of the night was the lightweight bout between Shane Nelson and Aaron Riley. Maybe the ref was preoccupied with all of the concern over fighting in hockey, but he pulled the plug way too soon stopping the bout only 44 seconds into the action. Riley was down, but seemed to be managing to regain his feet when the TKO was awarded. A startled Nelson apologized to the fans as acceptance of the win and Riley hoped he would get another shot with a ref who was willing to let the contestants fight.
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A very informative article,I was not able to watch the fight between Jackson and Jardine.You kept up the suspense until the end, I liked the piece. After the fight Jardine's face must have looked like a sardine.Jardine the sardine, catchy is it not? Maybe you can answer me this, I just wrote my first article here on the PlayerPress and I don't see it on any of the pages of the new articles written. WHY IS THAT?