On Saturday Night, the long awaited, much anticipated UFC Light Heavyweight Title fight between champion Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson and the challenger, Forrest Griffin, goes down and the Mandalay Bay, in beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada.
Both of these fighters have not been in the Octagon since September of 2007, so with the obvious ring rust aside, let’s take a look at what each guy needs to do to be victorious.
For Griffin, he will have to impose his legendary pace on Rampage and do his best to tire out the champion. Forrest is a cardio machine and is relentless with his offense, as was evidenced in his bout vs Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua. Forrest needs to use his reach and keep Rampage at bay, pick the champ apart with precise strikes and go for broke.
We all know he can take a beating so if this fight does go to the ground, he’ll have to make sure he gets Rampage’s back and sink in a rear naked choke.
For Rampage, his submisison defence and awareness on the ground will have to be at an all time high. If we look back at his bout vs Henderson, we got to see how intelligent Rampage is on the ground by being aware of his surroundings and using the cage to reverse the position.
In the standup realm, Rampage will need to do what he does best…win every exchange with his powerful hooks and straight bombs. He also has exceptional takedowns and his ground and pound is ruthless.
Once he gets on top, he drives his hips to the mat, forcing all of his weight on top of his opponents making it very difficult to reverse the position.
Based on what I have seen from both of these guys, my money is on Rampage to remain the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion.
