UFC 86

The Ultimate Fighting Championship wanted to hit the late-spring/early-summer running hard and fast, and finish strong in the late summer before slowing things down. Hey, that's kind of like a fight in and of itself.

April started things off. The first week of April saw a free live Fight Night on SpikeTV that was pretty damn good. The third week of April saw the much-anticipated rematch between Matt Serra and Georges St-Pierre (any relation? egads!) for the welterweight (170-pound) championship, which GSP reclaimed. Sure, we had to wait a month until the end of May to see 84, in which BJ Penn out-jabbed Sean Sherk before finishing him with a badass knee and barrage of punches to retain his lightweight (155-pound) title, and Wanderlei Silva showed he was still all about the hard KO, but then we got 85 two weeks later - a somewhat weak card, through no fault of its own, as Chuck Liddell took a hamstring injury that knocked him out, but hey, Mike Bisping fought, only a month and a couple weeks after his 185-pound debut at April's event, and that was awesome. Two weeks after that, The Ultimate Finale for season seven of The Ultimate Fighter, then another two weeks and UFC 85 this past Saturday. Two weeks from now? Another live Fight Night, with Anderson Silva's move up to the 205-pound division. Two weeks after that, the first week of August, comes GSP's first title defense against Jon Fitch, with a really, really strong card.

Despite looking like a weak card, UFC 86 really delivered. There weren't many fights on there I wanted to watch, but it was all worth it for the main event alone, even if the other fights had sucked. Forrest Griffin, the original Ultimate Fighter, versus the light-heavyweight (205-pound) champion, Rampage Jackson. Yes please? This is one of those fights. I mean, look back - in April, GSP vs. Serra, I doubt there were many people really expecting Serra to come out on top there (and if they were, they're fucking delusional). In May, the likelihood of Sean Sherk beating BJ Penn was mostly on Penn showing up in shit shape. Or, also in May, Tito Ortiz would have had to bring his A+ game to beat Lyoto Machida, and he hasn't had an A+ game in some time. But Griffin vs. Rampage, wow. We have Rampage, undoubtedly at the top of his game, even given his impressive career, and we have Griffin, also at the top of his game, a guy who started as nothing more but a crazy brawler akin to a Norse Berserker, but has diversified and improved, regardless of win or loss.

So, yeah, it was one of those fights: one of those fights where both guys are so damn good, it's incredibly hard to follow or gauge or rate the fight. How was it? It was incredible. Fuck the Wanderlei Silva vs. Chuck Liddell fight from December, which gets great hype despite sucking hard. Griffin-Rampage was hyped up as sure to be a great fight, not hyped up as a powerhouse-brawl sure to end in a knockout (which, for the record, Silva-Liddell did not end in). Griffin-Rampage didn't even need hype - anyone who was a fan of either, and I'm sure most viewers were and are fans of both, knew exactly what to expect.

The fight went five rounds. Rampage blasted Forrest with an uppercut late in the first round, but couldn't end it. Forrest blasted Rampage with leg kicks throughout the first round, and hard in the beginning of the second, straight to his leading left knee, and dropped the champion, and even though Forrest eventually had a full mount on him, he couldn't finish it. Rampage is tough, and hey, I don't think Forrest trains too hard in the full mount - I could be wrong, totally, but he probably doesn't expect to get there too often. He also probably trained primarily stand-up against Rampage, because he probably didn't want to be on the ground with Rampage anyway. I sure as hell wouldn't be - he outwrestled Dan Henderson in their titlefight.

The fight went five rounds, all action, no lulls, not a single fucking clinch-hug against the cage like in the Tim Sylvia-Brandon Vera fight, and no takedowns followed by gentle rubbing like most Rashad Evans fights tend to go. It went a hard, full, five rounds, a close fight that, honestly, probably could have gone either way at any moment. And those fights are the best.

Who won? Forrest did. The original Ultimate Fighter who really did help to solidify the resurgence of the UFC, he won the light-heavyweight championship. Talk about homegrown talent. Talk about legitimacy. And talk about deserving. The fight was close, but in the end, it was Forrest pushing the pace, and for whatever reason, it was Forrest keeping Rampage on the rebound for the most part, controlling the octagon, and scoring the most hits.