UFC 96

[earl]

Anybody see this? Rampage beats Jardine and Carwin KOs Gonzaga.

I was impressed by Jardine, I thought he was going to sleep (I still think he might have had Rampage had 5 rounds). He handled it better than I thought he would, but this sets up Rampage v. Evans so that'll be fun.

Carwin is a man. I didn't know what to make of this fight, but thought Gonzaga had the edge due to his ground game. Carwin throws a short right, it certainly looked like it had 60-70% on it at most, but it dropped Gonzaga like a ton of bricks. I hope this guy is as good as he looked here, because I'm holding out for somebody to lay a beating on Lesnar.

[cdif911]

pretty good fights, first round ko's all around, then a nice long main event (though I wish it were 5 rounds)

[ChampKind]

I was impressed by Jardine too, but I think he was gassed at the end of the 3rd.  If that round goes 5, he gets knocked out.  However, if he fights that last minute of the 3rd like Rampage did, maybe he ekes out a split decision.  But then if that happens, we don't get the awesome trash talk between Rampage and Rashad at the end of the fight.

I liked the card a lot - lots of good fights and explosive finishes, including a referee controversy and Mark Munoz's head almost being separated from his body.  I think the problem with this card though was that all the fighters were too likable - it was part to build up partisan support for one side over the other, so it may have hurt the fight's overall marketability.  Throw in the lack of a title fight, and this was probably one of the UFC's lowest selling cards in the past year or so.  But that's just my hunch.

But yeah, good fights.