UFC 92 thoughts

[Repugnant Abomination]

Rampage vs Wandy

Like most, I was concerned with where Rampage's head was: dropping the belt to Forest, his mental meltdown, changing camps, and two previous knockouts to Silva made me doubt his psyche. I thought Wand simply had his number.

I was wrong.

A lot has already been made of Wand's slopping boxing, so I won't dwell too much on it. I think the reason Rampage won this fight is that his boxing has improved a tremendous amount; his short, crisp punches are the perfect counter to Wand's wide, wild punching style.

Outside of that though I think there were several factors working against Wand. I'll probably get flamed for some of this, but it's what I think, so take it as you will. For one, Wand is undersized for lhw. In his Pride days, like it or not, he beat up on a lot of fighters who were even smaller than him; less physically imposing at the very least. I honestly believe he was taking steroids too, since they didn't test for it in Japan, and that played a big part in it. He was physically more imposing than a lot of his competition, and it allowed him to fight so aggressively, basically bullying other fighters. I really don't want to diminish Wand's accomplishments though. 6 years on top a a huge accomplishment no matter what, and he did beat some very skilled fighters who weren't undersized, but I think the quality of his competition wasn't always consistently high.

Now that he's fighting in the UFC where he is a bit smaller than his opponents and doesn't have the same roid rage going for him, he is falling prey to superior technique. Obviously I can't prove Wand was taking steroids, but I think it's a reasonable assumption.

At this point I think Wand still has a place in the UFC, despite the losses piling up. I think he's taken too much damage and is too far into his career to really change his style and make a serious run for the belt, but there are compelling fights for him, and he could be the perfect gate keeper for the division.

As for Rampage, I'm really impressed with his growth. Unlike Silva, he's evolved as a fighter. I think he'll be the champ again in 09 and hold on to the belt for a while.

Mir vs Nog

This was just as epic as Couture beating Chuck in their first fight. Nobody thought Mir could beat Nog, not even Mir. Like Couture, I don't think anyone predicted Mir out striking Nog. But what impressed me most was the intelligence Mir fought with. How many fights have we seen where a fighter rocks his opponent and then drops down into his guard and his opponent recovers? Mir would knock Nog down, flurry to see if he could finish him, then seeing he couldn't, wisely stood back up. Why can't more fighters do that?

Nog, for as great as he is, is clearly on the decline - he's just taken too much damage. Sometimes I have to remind myself that he's only 32 given how his face looks. And I don't want to take away from Mir's performance, because it was great, but Nog isn't the same. I still think he's a top 5 heavyweight, and would probably beat Lesnar and maybe Couture right now, but his best days are behind him. If Fedor is the greatest HW of all time though than Nog is #2 for the foreseeable future.

I predict Mir will beat Lesnar in their rematch and I look forward to him defending the belt and building his legacy. After how much personal tragedy he had to endure I can't help but be happy for him.

Forest vs Rashad

I thought Forest would be too big for Rashad, but I was wrong. Rashad seems to have that same smoothness that Anderson does when he fights - it's almost as if he's dancing out there, gliding from one punch to the next. After being skeptical of him for a long time I can finally say that he is definitely the real deal. I think he's a smart fighter too and will continue to round out his game, instead of being happy where he's at and complacent.

Forest is still a high quality fighter. The problem with him is that he isn't great at anything. Even if he does make another run and capture the belt I have a difficult time seeing him ever defending it for a long period of times like a Hughes or a Wandy. With that said, I think he can potentially be champion again if he keeps developing. He's a nice, big lhw, he fights smart and he has enormous heart. Also, other lhw's need to take note of how effective he is with those leg kicks. We all saw what Sakuraba did to Royce.

Well, that's about it. I'm really looking forward to mma in 09. Thanks for reading.

Oh, and just in case you're wondering, I'm picking gsp over penn. Hopefully Penn will drop back down to 155 afterwards and own the division for a long, long time.