{"id":1991,"date":"2008-09-07T13:05:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-07T17:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=1991"},"modified":"2008-09-07T13:05:00","modified_gmt":"2008-09-07T17:05:00","slug":"ufc-88-sugar-over-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=1991","title":{"rendered":"UFC 88: Sugar Over Ice"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Before we get to the fight that shocked the world, let’s take a look at the other results of UFC 88:<\/p>\n

<\/span>Nate Marquardt<\/strong> won by TKO<\/span> in round one<\/span> over Martin Kampmann<\/span>. Marquardt<\/span> landed a shot in the early going that got Kampmann<\/span> in touble and then he simply stayed on top of him landing shot after shot until Kampmann<\/span> could take no more. I thought this would be a tougher fight. Marquardt<\/span> is just rock solid and showed ring smarts by not getting over-excited and continuing to mix up his punches. I look forward to Marquardt’s next fight <\/span>whoever his opponent may be.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Dan Henderson<\/strong> won<\/span> a unanimous decision<\/span> over Rousimar Palhares<\/span>. <\/span>Henderson<\/span> surprised me by winning so easily. He came in with a game plan that worked<\/span> and to his credit he stuck with it. His plan was to keep the fight standing up<\/span> and avoid going to the mat with Palhares<\/span> at all costs. It didn’t make for a very exciting fight<\/span>, but it did get Henderson<\/span> the win<\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Rich Franklin won<\/span> via TKO <\/span>in the third over Matt Hamill<\/span>. Franklin <\/span>was just too ring savy. I really thought that he’d have more trouble in defeating Hamill<\/span> due to Hamill’s strength<\/span> and great wrestling ability<\/span>. Franklin<\/span> was able to keep Hamill<\/span> at bay by mixing his hard kicks<\/span> with punches in bunches<\/span>. Franklin <\/span>looked to be in danger of losing via a stoppage due to a deep cut by his eye, but before that could happen in was able to put Hamill<\/span> down with a hard leg kick to the liver to end the fight.<\/p>\n

“Sugar” Rashad Evans knocked out Chuck “the Ice Man” Liddell <\/span>with a single punch<\/span> in the second round<\/span>! Yeah, I was as shocked as you… maybe more so. I didn’t see Evans<\/span> winning that fight, and if he did somehow find a way to win, I wouldn’t have guessed it would have been by knockout. Sure, I know that anyone can be knocked out by the right punch<\/span>, but I just didn’t see it happening. Evans<\/span> fought a smart fight<\/span>. He didn’t waste his time [despite being a superior wrestler<\/span>] in trying to take down Liddell<\/span>. Instead he bobbed and weaved and made Liddell<\/span> miss. As Evans’ gained confidence<\/span>, he stayed in front of Liddell <\/span>for longer [though still brief] periods of time and threw shots of his own. And each time as he would dance away he’d add a little something to irritate Liddell<\/span>. He knew what he was doing. Evans<\/span> wanted Liddell <\/span>to come in so intent on knocking him out, that he’d leave himself open. And that’s what Liddell<\/span> did. He missed an uppercut<\/span> and Evans<\/span> landed one on his chin. Instant knockout. Evans <\/span>now has a shot at Forest Griffin<\/span> for the title<\/span> and Liddell <\/span>must contemplate his next move.<\/p>\n

Some folks are calling for Liddell<\/span> to retire. He’s lost three of his last four fights<\/span> [to Rampage Jackson, Keith Jardine<\/span> and now Rashad Evans<\/span>]. Although he looked good <\/span>in his win over Wanderlei Silva<\/span>, many will say that Liddell<\/span> just doesn’t have it anymore. I disagree.<\/p>\n

Anyone who can mix it up<\/span> with Silva<\/span> still has it. But that’s what Liddell<\/span> has to do, He has to mix it up. In his losses to Rampage, Jardine <\/span>and Evans<\/span>, he was pretty much one dimensional. He went in looking to trade punches<\/span> with Rampage<\/span> and Jardine<\/span>, no doubt thinking that he could knock them out before they got to him. I really don’t believe that he respected Evans<\/span> punching power and probably thought that Evans<\/span> would want to rely on his wrestling skills. In all three fights, he was wrong. Rampage<\/span> landed first and knocked him out. Jardine<\/span> rocked him and then went on to win a decision. Evans<\/span> caught him with one shot dead on the button. How different would those fights have been if Liddell<\/span> had fought like he fought against Silva<\/span>? Remember the surprise when Liddell <\/span>repeatedly took Silva <\/span>down? How many times did he try that against Rampage? Jardine? Evans?<\/span> Liddell<\/span> has excellent wrestling skills, good jiu-jitsu<\/span> and we know he can strike<\/span>. Maybe he should try combining all three in his next fight.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span>
<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before we get to the fight that shocked the world, let’s take a look at the other results of UFC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mma"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1991\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}