...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Although both Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Lyoto Machida felt an immediate rematch may be in order following the split decision result of their bout at UFC 123 on Saturday, UFC President Dana White says the fight warranted no immediate rematch.
When asked at the post-fight press conference whether an immediate rematch was necessary, White was clear.
"No," he said. "As far as I'm concerned, and apparently, as far as the judges are concerned, Rampage won that fight."
For White, based on the way MMA fights are scored under the Unified Rules, Rampage won and there's not any controversy about it.
I call 'em like I see 'em," White said. "Rampage Jackson won two rounds. It's a three-round fight. You won two of them, he won one of them. You're the winner."
But what is next for either fighter has not yet been decided, and it will likely remain undetermined until a few more fights take place in early 2011.
Penick's Analysis: I don't think the immediate rematch is necessarily warranted, nor do I think it's something a ton of fans will line up to see after the way the first two rounds went down on Saturday night, so I was glad to hear White say that he doesn't think it's needed either. I'd much rather see Rampage against the winner of one of the two main light heavyweight fights coming to UFC 126, and I think the UFC will choose which of those winners to put against Jackson based on how those fights play out.
DON'T GO YET... WE SUGGEST THESE MMATORCH ARTICLES, TOO!
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.