Just My Thoughts: What Event Are We Watching?
“Rampage”
Mike Sloan Feb 2, 2007
A few days back I was able to quickly chat with Quinton Jackson (Pictures) via cell phone about his UFC
debut this weekend. It’s a monumental occasion for “Rampage”
because it marks the first time he’ll compete in a big-time event
since his contract with PRIDE expired.
Naturally the live crowd will be much smaller than the ones he grew used to fighting in Japan, but none of that seems to faze Jackson one bit.
“It’s cool that I’m coming into the UFC cage,” he said. “But I just
look at it like another fight, man. It ain’t no thing to me; I just
do what I do.”
Jackson fights Las Vegan Marvin Eastman (Pictures) in one of the co-featured bouts of the evening. The fight itself is a rematch of a torrid battle the two had back in June 2000 in King of the Cage. It was Eastman’s pro debut and Jackson’s third bout. Since that night, the duo’s careers have tapered off in different directions.
“Man, I don’t even think about that fight to be honest,” Rampage said matter-of-factly. “I don’t really know much about that cat. I mean he cool and all and I ain’t got nothing against him, but it don’t matter. It’s just another fight. I think I’ve seen a few, maybe four of his fights since ours. I really don’t know too much about him.”
Jackson knows that this fight, his first inside the Octagon, is one of the most important of his career, yet he shrugs that notion off. “Rampage” has always had a cool demeanor about how he looked at his fights, but the chain-wearing warrior seems content.
“To me it’s just another opportunity for me to do what I love,” he replied. “I’m not worried about winning or losing; I just know I got to do what I do best. None of that stuff bothers me because I know what I need to do inside that cage. I’m a cage fighter and the fans love it.”
One of the main reasons, if not the main reason, why Jackson was signed by the UFC (actually, the UFC just bought out Rampage’s WFA contract and are keeping that intact; once that contract ends, he can sign a new official UFC contract, according to Jackson) is to set up the coveted rematch with light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell (Pictures).
“I keep getting asked about that,” he sighed with a chuckle. “It’s cool. It’s really not a fight I am interested in but ya know, it’s a good payday. I like that about the fight, but I really don’t care if I fight (Chuck) again or not. Like I said, man, it don’t matter to me and it don’t matter who I fight. Just as long as I keep getting paid, I’m happy.”
Quadros is in the Herd
Early Thursday morning while I was stuck in the usual Las Vegas gridlock traffic, I was listening to the Colin Cowherd show on ESPN Radio. It’s a show I listen to every single morning as its entertaining, informative, witty, etc. At the end of his daily “Spanning the Globe” segment, Colin brought on one Stephen Quadros, a former boss and long-time friend of mine, to discuss this weekend’s huge MMA events.
The comical aspect of the few minutes “The Fight Professor” was on was the fact that Cowherd seemed to only want to discuss the UFC as it’s more popular. Well, Quadros kept pumping up this weekend’s IFL show in Houston. Obviously since Quadros is a commentator for the IFL, why would he try and promote and discuss a rival organization? So Quadros continued to promote the IFL card.
Either way, I chuckled heartily as Cowherd kept trying to talk about UFC 67 but since Quadros wouldn’t stop about the IFL, “Spanning” … ran out of time without more than two sentences about UFC 67. It was simple, funny and priceless.
A jigsaw quandary
I’m still a bit puzzled as to what event we’ll all be watching come Saturday night. The three featured fighters on the bill became famous in PRIDE. There is no Tito-Ken fight or previews to a Ken-Tito fight. There is no crazy talk about tickets selling for thousands on EBay. The main event is not a rematch. Is this really a UFC card?
UFC 67 Predictions
Anderson Silva vs. Travis Lutter (Pictures): Lutter makes it interesting for a little while until Silva catches him with a straight right. From there the knees, fists and feet come from everywhere and Lutter is rescued by the ref. Silva late first round TKO.
Mirko Filipovic (Pictures) vs. Eddie Sanchez: Nothing would be more hilarious than for Sanchez to absolutely ruin Zuffa’s dreams of a “Cro Cop” fantasyland. Too bad that won’t happen because Sanchez won’t last to see the three-minute mark of the first.
Quinton Jackson (Pictures) vs. Marvin Eastman (Pictures): Neither man has been the same since their first battle back in King of the Cage. Should be a good scrap but “Rampage” will prevail. My bet is a second round stoppage.
John Halverson vs. Roger Huerta (Pictures): Good fight. Good match-up. My pick is Huerta on points.
Patrick Cote (Pictures) vs. Scott Smith: Smith is an all around better striker. Plus he has those crazy sniper serial killer eyes that can pierce Teflon. Should be one hell of a battle and I’m going with the crazy man with a unanimous decision. Poor Cote can’t seem to buy a win in the UFC for some reason.
Terry Martin (Pictures) vs. Jorge Rivera (Pictures): Rivera’s good but not great. Martin is still learning. Martin hits harder and will take out Rivera sometime in the second at the latest.
Tyson Griffin (Pictures) vs. Frank Edgar: Whichever fighter doesn’t lose this bout will be the winner. My choice is Griffin by second round submission, probably rear-naked choke.
Ryoto Machida (Pictures) vs. Sam Hoger (Pictures): The man who every loves to hate, Hoger, will pull off the upset! He will out hustle and out point the highly touted Machida. Trust me on this one!
Diego Saraiva (Pictures) vs. Dustin Hazelett (Pictures): Not too wild about this one though it will probably wind up being entertaining. My pick is Hazelett by decision.
Hit me up at www.myspace.com/sherdogsloan.
Naturally the live crowd will be much smaller than the ones he grew used to fighting in Japan, but none of that seems to faze Jackson one bit.
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Jackson fights Las Vegan Marvin Eastman (Pictures) in one of the co-featured bouts of the evening. The fight itself is a rematch of a torrid battle the two had back in June 2000 in King of the Cage. It was Eastman’s pro debut and Jackson’s third bout. Since that night, the duo’s careers have tapered off in different directions.
“Rampage” eventually became one of the sport’s biggest stars and
locked horns with the best competition in the world. Eastman
struggled to maintain credibility and always had to work a
full-time job, which prevented him from training at 100 percent. At
the time of their first encounter, Eastman was hailed as a
promising contender who would create a frenzy in the sport. But now
he’s simply an opponent.
“Man, I don’t even think about that fight to be honest,” Rampage said matter-of-factly. “I don’t really know much about that cat. I mean he cool and all and I ain’t got nothing against him, but it don’t matter. It’s just another fight. I think I’ve seen a few, maybe four of his fights since ours. I really don’t know too much about him.”
Jackson knows that this fight, his first inside the Octagon, is one of the most important of his career, yet he shrugs that notion off. “Rampage” has always had a cool demeanor about how he looked at his fights, but the chain-wearing warrior seems content.
“To me it’s just another opportunity for me to do what I love,” he replied. “I’m not worried about winning or losing; I just know I got to do what I do best. None of that stuff bothers me because I know what I need to do inside that cage. I’m a cage fighter and the fans love it.”
One of the main reasons, if not the main reason, why Jackson was signed by the UFC (actually, the UFC just bought out Rampage’s WFA contract and are keeping that intact; once that contract ends, he can sign a new official UFC contract, according to Jackson) is to set up the coveted rematch with light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell (Pictures).
“I keep getting asked about that,” he sighed with a chuckle. “It’s cool. It’s really not a fight I am interested in but ya know, it’s a good payday. I like that about the fight, but I really don’t care if I fight (Chuck) again or not. Like I said, man, it don’t matter to me and it don’t matter who I fight. Just as long as I keep getting paid, I’m happy.”
Quadros is in the Herd
Early Thursday morning while I was stuck in the usual Las Vegas gridlock traffic, I was listening to the Colin Cowherd show on ESPN Radio. It’s a show I listen to every single morning as its entertaining, informative, witty, etc. At the end of his daily “Spanning the Globe” segment, Colin brought on one Stephen Quadros, a former boss and long-time friend of mine, to discuss this weekend’s huge MMA events.
The comical aspect of the few minutes “The Fight Professor” was on was the fact that Cowherd seemed to only want to discuss the UFC as it’s more popular. Well, Quadros kept pumping up this weekend’s IFL show in Houston. Obviously since Quadros is a commentator for the IFL, why would he try and promote and discuss a rival organization? So Quadros continued to promote the IFL card.
Either way, I chuckled heartily as Cowherd kept trying to talk about UFC 67 but since Quadros wouldn’t stop about the IFL, “Spanning” … ran out of time without more than two sentences about UFC 67. It was simple, funny and priceless.
A jigsaw quandary
I’m still a bit puzzled as to what event we’ll all be watching come Saturday night. The three featured fighters on the bill became famous in PRIDE. There is no Tito-Ken fight or previews to a Ken-Tito fight. There is no crazy talk about tickets selling for thousands on EBay. The main event is not a rematch. Is this really a UFC card?
UFC 67 Predictions
Anderson Silva vs. Travis Lutter (Pictures): Lutter makes it interesting for a little while until Silva catches him with a straight right. From there the knees, fists and feet come from everywhere and Lutter is rescued by the ref. Silva late first round TKO.
Mirko Filipovic (Pictures) vs. Eddie Sanchez: Nothing would be more hilarious than for Sanchez to absolutely ruin Zuffa’s dreams of a “Cro Cop” fantasyland. Too bad that won’t happen because Sanchez won’t last to see the three-minute mark of the first.
Quinton Jackson (Pictures) vs. Marvin Eastman (Pictures): Neither man has been the same since their first battle back in King of the Cage. Should be a good scrap but “Rampage” will prevail. My bet is a second round stoppage.
John Halverson vs. Roger Huerta (Pictures): Good fight. Good match-up. My pick is Huerta on points.
Patrick Cote (Pictures) vs. Scott Smith: Smith is an all around better striker. Plus he has those crazy sniper serial killer eyes that can pierce Teflon. Should be one hell of a battle and I’m going with the crazy man with a unanimous decision. Poor Cote can’t seem to buy a win in the UFC for some reason.
Terry Martin (Pictures) vs. Jorge Rivera (Pictures): Rivera’s good but not great. Martin is still learning. Martin hits harder and will take out Rivera sometime in the second at the latest.
Tyson Griffin (Pictures) vs. Frank Edgar: Whichever fighter doesn’t lose this bout will be the winner. My choice is Griffin by second round submission, probably rear-naked choke.
Ryoto Machida (Pictures) vs. Sam Hoger (Pictures): The man who every loves to hate, Hoger, will pull off the upset! He will out hustle and out point the highly touted Machida. Trust me on this one!
Diego Saraiva (Pictures) vs. Dustin Hazelett (Pictures): Not too wild about this one though it will probably wind up being entertaining. My pick is Hazelett by decision.
Hit me up at www.myspace.com/sherdogsloan.
