Welcome once again to a series of bold predictions for the fastest growing sport in all the land: Human Cock Fighting!…. I mean Mixed Martial Arts!… I mean the UFC! On Saturday night, September 6th, UFC 88: Breakthrough hits the deep south at Phillips Arena in da’ dirty ATL, Hot-Lanta, Atlanta, Georgia. Without a title fight to draw in the superfluous fans, Dana White and matchmaker Joe Silva have thrown together a competitive card of interesting or more or less random match-ups in the Light-Heavyweight, Middleweight, and Welterweight categories. “Uncle Fester” Dana White won’t have to worry though because the UFC’s “golden boy” for the better part of the past decade, Chuck Liddell, is in the main event and right underneath him, not in a gay way, is another top fan favorite in the forever-being former Middleweight champion Rich Franklin.
There are some other noteworthy and potentially very exciting fights like Nate Marquardt vs. Martin Kampmann and Dan Henderson vs. Rousimar Palhares, but this world is rough and if you’re going to make it you gotta be tough and/or make decisions like “article word count length” so I will stick to the Liddell/Evans and Franklin/Hamill fights.
Rich Franklin vs. Matt Hamill (205)
In the world of 185, Middleweight, division, Rich “Ace” Franklin is about as big of a name as one can get. He was a marketing poster boy (literally) for the UFC appearing in Xyience commercials and so forth. Franklin’s stellar record of only 3 losses, two of them to current UFC Middleweight champion Anderson Silva and one loss to top Light-Heavyweight star Lyoto Machida, against his wildly impressive 23 victories with 12 by TKO/KO, 9 by submission and two by decision all speaks for itself. But this fight is not at 185, it is at 205. Franklin has fought several matches at 205, but the majority of his career is at the lower weight class. Franklin is jumping into an already stacked Light-Heavyweight division, but with two completely one-sided losses against Anderson Silva means that Franklin needs to at least try and delve into new territory.
This expansionist rigor for Franklin will be hindered by young The Ultimate Fighter alum Matt Hamill. “The Hammer” Hamill has shown several attributes in his ever so short career in the UFC: heavy hands, relentless takedowns, and a will to win. Matt was the heart and soul story coming out of the third season of TUF since he is deaf which did not stop him in the least from being a prolific collegiate wrestler (three time NCAA Division III National Champion). He was Tito Ortiz’s first pick for his team and he was Ortiz’s favorite pupil. His time on TUF was cut short by an injury, but came back with a vengeance in his professional career by pulling together 4 victories and 1 loss to fellow TUF season 3 alum/champion Michael Bisping, which if you watched that fight (something the judges didn’t) you would clearly know that Hamill won that fight so he should be 5-0 in the UFC. Nevertheless, Hamill is a big man-child at 205 with some of the best takedowns in all of MMA.
Rich Franklin is venturing into a heavier weight class for two reasons: 1. after devastating losses against the current 185 champion Anderson Silva it will be a hard sell to get him in that cage for a third, especially anytime soon; 2. Rich Franklin cuts a huge amount of weight to make 185 and there is no way he is making 170 so it is 205 for him. But who wins it? I say the easy pick is Franklin. Nothing against Hamill, but size, experience, technique and ability will all be check marks in Franklin’s column over his. Rich Franklin is a veteran in the cage where as Hamill is not. Franklin has great cardio and we have seen time and time again that Hamill will gas; that does not mean Matt Hamill gives up because he doesn’t, case-in-point the Tim Boetsch fight. Hamill looked exhausted, but he did not give an inch and eventually TKOed Boetsch for his fourth victory, but that will not likely happen with Franklin. Rich will continue to pour on faster and more precise and comparative in strength striking that will wear on Matt Hamill.
As far as the ground game, Hamill can take Rich Franklin down, but once they are there it will be more likely Franklin’s experience that can still continue the tide in his favor. Hamill no doubt is a great wrestler, but he has yet to show a true understanding of how to finish a fight from there. I see “Ace” controlling the fight standing which will hurt Hamill, slow him and then from there “Ace” will not need to worry about the onslaught of takedowns. But who knows? This is MMA, right? Hamill could come out there like a house on fire and slam that Jim Carrey look-a-like to the ground and hold him there until the judges declare victory by lay n’ pray. I think that is fairly unlikely. No matter what people (I’m looking at you Matt Lindland) say about Rich Franklin, no one can deny that he hasn’t gone into that cage and wrecked some fighters so badly that he changed them as human beings forever (I’m looking at you Evan Tanner, David Loiseau and Nate Quarry). He can bring the punishment and I think he will again in Georgia.
Chuck Liddell vs. Rashad Evans (205)
Everyone knows who Chuck Liddell is. Everyone? EVERYONE!
Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell is the most famous UFC and/or MMA fighter out there. Even with the “internet sensation” Kimbo “prison Muslim beard” Slice, Chuck is still more famous… and more credible. He has been the UFC Light-Heavyweight champion on numerous occasions, but that is not even the draw: people like seeing him knockout other dudes. It is just a fact. A fact like George Washington had wooden teeth, like Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player ever and like how Elisha Cuthbert, Kelli Garner, Kristen Bell, Sophia Bush and I are all going to get married and live on top of a mountain together. The people of the world love watching that mohawked, head tattoo kanji having, San Luis Obispo lunatic drill guys in the jaw. The majority of Chuck’s career are highlight reel KOs like Kevin Randleman, Renato Sobral 2x, Randy Couture 2x, Alistair Overeem and then there are more.
The one big critique on Chuck Liddell’s career (similar to Rich Franklin) is that he was hand fed fighters from the UFC’s matchmakers. Liddell is a striker with a great takedown defense and the UFC, in all its wisdom, pairs him time and time again against wrestlers who have no stand-up. All fights start on their feet so he has the advantage. A wrestler/submission grappler has to get Chuck on his back for them to have the advantage, but that is easier said then done when he is pitching haymakers at their head and back pedaling at the same time. Chuck is a side stepper and likes to use his reach to sniper in his shots by keeping his opponents at the end of his punches so they never get the chance to get inside, once they do they have to deal with his wrestling which is pretty much the epitome of that “anti-jiu-jitsu” that Frank Shamrock always vomited from his Ralph Macchio look-a-like mouth.
I’m pretty much spelling out the doom for Rashad “Sugar” Evans and that is because he is another wrestler with nothing special stand-up. I know he head-kicked Sean Salmon into death – I say “into death” because “head-kicked to death” sounds like he hit with numerous head-kicks which he didn’t, it was one and done and Sean Salmon was dead… that is a zombie that rose from the dead that is now parading around as Sean Salmon. Outside of that one instance, Evans is gunshy with his proliferation of striking shots. He takes too long to get up the nerve to throw a punch or a kick or even go for a takedown. He is fairly timid. Again, I know he beat Lambert pretty badly, but seriously watch the fights. He doesn’t commit in the cage. He lets way too much time pass in between punches which is either a lack of confidence in his “stuff” or he is tired. He is not a grand strategist counter-puncher, he is just not producing. I know I have no experience in MMA/Boxing, but I can tell you one thing: you cannot wait for your opponent to knock themselves out (I’m looking at you Gray Maynard and, again, Matt Lindland)… you have to knock them out.
So is this a cake walk for Chuck? Kind of. In comparison to the other opponents he has had recently (Wanderlei Silva, Quinton Jackson) this will be a cake walk. The only thing that could make this not a cake walk is for Rashad to come out wild with takedowns. I’m saying 100% commit football tackles on Chuck like he needs to get a 1000 of them. Chuck has a great chin and Rashad is not that great at striking so he will not KO Chuck. He especially will not catch Chuck with that head-kick, which was a result of Sean Salmon not being that good of a fighter because he just sat there and waited for the kick to kill him. Rashad needs to do what no other wrestler has done and to continually put Chuck on his back and hold him there. Rashad has great great wrestling, but I just do not see it happening. Fighters like Randy Couture and Quinton Jackson took down Chuck a lot, but they also out struck “The Iceman” in those fights and I do not see Rashad’s lack of experience doing that.
I see two victories (Chuck & Rich, a new sitcom starting this fall on the CW) for Dana White’s “golden boys”. Chuck’s victory will lead him to a probable title shot and Rich’s will lead to another reboot in his confidence after his two near death experiences with Anderson Silva. Grow a pair, watch the fights, they should entertain.
