UFC 71- Liddell vs Rampage

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Apparently Rampage won't be getting his second "warm-up" fight that he wanted...

I know this is quite a ways off(May 26) but it is pretty big news....

 

its a bit quick

Rampage himself said he wasnt up for it...so itll be interesting to see whats going to happen

 

I assume Dana White doesn't want to take a chance like Pride did with Wanderlei Silva and have him lose prior to the big fight, twice in the case of Silva. Dana, the UFC and Pride lost a lot of money on the failed Liddel vs. Silva card.

 

hopefully rampage can fight like his old self again. he needs that groove back to beat liddell again. he didn't look as polished as his pride days in his ufc debut, despite his KO win.

i wanna see rampage body slam liddell like he did to arona

 

Honestly I woulda rooted for Chuck like 6 months ago cuz I really wanted to see Chuck avenge an unanswered loss heading into my fantasy match against Wanderlei Silva. But Silva's seems to be drained shot. I really don't mind the his loss to Cro-cop cuz he moved up in weight before he acclimated to it. My big problem is that Silva seemed to have sustained more damage than he let on.

This may get confusing but... I think the Silva's fight with Henderson shoulda been before his fight with Cro-cop. Had Silva fought Henderson and lost then I woulda definitely known he wasn't at Chuck's level. Had he won it woulda been a great warm-up with some good promotional potential since Dan's an American fighter.

But that never happened instead Silva lost to Cro-cop who seemed to have drained Silva shot IMO. I mean Cro-cop is a natural heavyweight IMO it was not a shock Silva was dropped. My surprise is that Pride let him take the fight knowing that there was money to be made in the fantasy match up against Chuck.

Oh well whatever... Fast Forward a few months. Silva's ready to get back on the promotional horse by fighting Dan Henderson. There's enuf history to generate legitimate interest but Silva is heavily favored by being a weight class above. OOPS! Henderson whips Silva. WHAT A WAR! as a fan I loved it cuz it was a great fight but part of me regrets the fact that Henderson's win now makes a undisputed light heavyweight title match less likely in the near future.

IMO Silva is shot and Liddell is racing against the clock before he is too old to fight. A 2nd and/or 3rd Liddell v. Rampage fight will be interesting but it won't consolidate the division like a Chuck vs. Silva fight. If Chuck wins against Rampage he might have little incentive to fight Henderson or whoever beats Henderson in the meantime cuz Chuck's is getting old.

On the other hand if Rampage won there would at least be calls for a rubber match between Chuck and Rampage. Regardless who would win they would be considered the #1 light heavyweight. By then Henderson would prove he was the real deal against Silva or other light heavyweights. Or Silva would win the his rubber match against Henderson and with that make it profitable for a UFC/Pride showdown, especially since Silva has history w/ Rampage.

For the sake of the sport I kinda want Rampage to win because he's younger and has more room to grow. If he wins and because he has more years to build on he could consolidate the light heavyweight division.

 

chucks what, bout 37?

Randys 43. he looks pretty polished, and did just fine. I bet chucks got a few more years left in him.

 

chuck's got a lot of injuries and lives pretty hard, though.

personally, i think he's really just waiting for an opponent who makes him step it up. that's why he keeps talking about fedor and cro cop - from what i can tell, he'd rather lose the best fight of his life than not have it.

maybe rampage can push him hard enough. we'll see. if he brings it... could be spectacular.

i think it's more likely that chuck will fight shogun than that he'll fight wandy - something is seriously wrong with wandy, and he has to fix that before we can see the fight we want to see. shogun's on a roll, though, and doesn't fall into the "205lb wrestler" category like everybody else chuck has fought for... years.

 

Yea but Randy lives a clean lifestyle, Chuck lives like a frat boy....

Anyways Rampage has signed a 4 fight contract(to replace his old one that had 1 fight left) so if he loses he will still have a chance to come back and if he wins he cant take the belt and leave...good news all around.

 

Honestly I think comparing anyone to Couture is a mistake. Couture's a freak, most athletes burnout before 35, Couture's the EXCEPTION NOT THE RULE.

Don't get me wrong Chuck's a beast. Just can't see him going on as long or as strong as Couture, if only cuz his fighting style is sustains more injuries. Trading punches is not the best way stave off sustained and cumulative damage from fighting.

 

Rampage saying he wanted a few warm up fights was nothing more than showing courtesy to Liddell and the UFC. There has been no downhill trend in his game and he is coming from pride, which is just a higher level of competition than the ufc offers. Liddell was pretty much destroyed in his last meeting with Jackson. And while I will agree with everyone that Liddell is a much stronger more complete fighter now than he was then, so is Jackson. It is indeed going to be a tough one to call, both are great, but I think the smart money is on Rampage. Should the Iceman get the win I will be far from dissapointed, but I won't be surprised if he loses.

 

I don't know. Chuck was totally dominated in his first fight with Randy and look what happened in the next two. He's an old school tough guy who's a great counter puncher with a good sprawl. All he needs is one good punch......

 

Absolutely however I think a lot of his knockouts come from his sprawl...meaning when his opponent goes for the takedown he just unloads on them.

Tito was actually getting the better of him on their feet when he wasn't going for the takedown or allowing himself to get backed into the fence...

 

Tito's not the only one who appeared to get the better of Chuck standing up.

Unfortunately, they all ate a right hand that knocks em out. His counterpunch right cross is MEAN.

 

Absolutely true, he does have power in that right hand that can level the playing field...as well as his opponent

 

Randy beat him by relying on the clinch. Chuck was able to avoid the clinch in the later fights. Rampage beat Chuck by being better at just about everything. He stuffed Chuck's takedown attempts. He controlled him on the ground. And he outstruck him on his feet. So yeah, he'll need to have improved a lot if he's going to beat Rampage.

"One good punch" could work, just like it could work for almost anyone in almost any fight.

 

Chuck will bang him.

 

not if rampage fought the same way he did the night he beat him.

 

Remember though, their first fight was in a ring. Chuck is a master at using the cage, plus he does really well with his antigrappling strategy. I'm not saying Rampage can't win or that Chuck is invincible, I just hope Dana White knows what he's doing here...

 

He does, he has a stacked 205 division now and can now afford to bring in "new" guys to fight Chuck....

As to his anti-grappling, it works but I'm not so sure Rampage is going to go for a takedown....if he watched the Tito-Chuck rematch then he knows that Tito actually did surprisingly well except when he went for the takedown...every time he did he ended up eating a flurry of punches.

 

Honestly, you could see Tito's shots coming from across the cage. However, I hope Rampage does bang it out with Chuck. it would be more exciting that way.