Fail: UFC Judges

It’s been quiet around here for the past few weeks. But just when you start to have faith in people’s judgment, someone fucks it up. This past weekend, I went to go watch UFC 86: Jackson vs. Griffin, a fight that I knew would be an extremely interesting matchup. Although, with the media portraying this thing like David vs. Goliath, I had my initial worries.

Forrest Griffin is basically like frikkin’ Spiderman or Hillary Clinton. The dude will not die. He will bleed his ass off, get destroyed w/ right hands, powerslams, and combos, fall, smile, and get back up. So everyone knew going into the fight that Rampage was gonna catch his ass more than a couple of times to keep his ass down, and of course…Griffin would fall down and SOMEHOW get back up. It was clear, if Griffin was gonna win, he’d have to chop Rampage down piece by piece and take alot of punishment in the process. And that’s exactly what happened, Griffin’s performance was extremely impressive. He kept moving, he chopped away and severely damaged Jackson’s left leg, and survived massive right hands to the temple and even got his ass powerbombed.

But that was just it. Griffin survived. He didn’t knock Jackson down once and although he hurt his leg in round 1 and dominated round 2, tha’s pretty much all Forrest Griffin did that night. Rampage landed some killer head shots, got the knockdowns and the slams and survived (those damn leg shots) himself. Although his performance wasn’t at all like it’s been in the past, Rampage held his own as well against an opponent who, as far as I’m concerned, can bleed his ass off, but cannot die. So when the fight went to a decision, we all knew the following facts:

1. Rampage came in the champion ; Griffin the Challenger
2. In the 5 Round bout, Griffin won round 2, hands down, and pretty much round 5 (maybe)
3. Rampage didn’t dominate as everyone predicted
4. Griffin survived massive blows to the face (somehow)

“…by unanimous decision, your winner aaaaaaaaaaaaand…”

Silence in the sports bar….

“…..NEW Light Heavyweight Champion, Forrest Griffin!”

WTF? Since when did surviving against a menacing monster in a title match earn you Championship Gold? And the last time I checked, you had to beat a champion to become a champion. As Rampage said:

“I feel like if you’re the champ, somebody got to beat the champ. But it was unanimous. I’m not a judge.”

Rampage was visibly disappointed, and even Griffin himself shrugged his shoulders like “WTF? Tha’s retarded!” Many’ll quote Rampage’s remarks from the post fight interview where he said “I mean he just basically whooped my ass!” as proof that Griffin earned that belt, but tha’s Rampage. He’s not afraid to eat his words and take his hat off the victor (regardless of circumstance) all in the name of sportsmanship.

We all know Griffin is a crybaby. I don’t mean that w/ any disrespect, I like the kid ALOT. But when he wins, he cries, screams, runs around, and rolls on the ground. When Forrest won on Saturday, he was quiet as all hell. The UFC judges are on crack. This fight was a Cinderella story, a David vs. Goliath, and if the fight went to decision, they knew that it was gonna be handed to Griffin. The story just sounds too phenomenal on paper. Just read any review online about that damn fight. They’ll call it the greatest fight in the history of the UFC and gas it up like that. It was a good, solid fight, but no all-time classic.

The UFC rules and scoring system are ass, and although it’s the top-dog of the MMA (in the US at least), the system is grossly inconsistent. These are the same judges who called Rampage’s fight with Liddell almost immediately after Rampage rocked Chuck w/ the right hand, but let Chris Lytle bleed his ASS off for over 3 minutes that same night. The human body only has so much blood. Peep the picture on the left. Yes, tha’s ALL his blood on the floor, and yes, there was alot more in the ring than that picture can show.

Sidenote: Ya boy Chris Lytle was a G for that, he clearly didn’t have a healthy amount blood in his body to function, and was still landing combinations on Koscheck who made the mistake of tryina go easy on his bloodied opponent. Lytle definitely earned Badass of the Week runner-up for that.

Although I was rooting for Rampage to win the fight, I really like and admire Griffin’s tenacity. I just hate to see fighters win off some bullshit. At least he had the good sense to know that it was crock of B.S. So congrats (kinda) to Forrest Griffin. I didn’t want him to win it this way, but if there’s a rematch he has alot more to prove and show. Either way you look at it, Griffin was the night’s big winner, and as for the UFC Judges: FAIL.