A Look At Liddell vs. Jackson 2

By Sean McClure

When I heard that Quinton "Rampage" Jackson was going to be facing the heavy handed UFC light heavyweight champion, I was indescribably excited. Chuck Liddell may have one of the worst haircuts in the history of MMA, but man does he hit hard. Jackson is no slouch either in that department plus he's a freakishly large human being. Quinton is only 6'1", but his personality makes his muscles seem bigger than they really are. Check that, his head high power bombs that slam his opponents heads on the canvas achieve that.

Chuck Liddell is a knockout fan's dream as we all know. His stone hands provide chin lullabies for his opponents to sleep by on a monthly basis. Chuck is also another fighter who seems larger in stature than he really is because of his reputation. Chuck is probably the scariest 6'2" fighter in MMA today. Even though Chuck is just one inch taller than Jackson, it really doesn't seem like that when they face off. Jackson is a stout 205 pounder and as I said before, he just seems bigger than his opponents. Watch this fight and when they face off in the middle of the Octagon tell me I'm wrong.

Quinton Jackson represents the last, lingering loss that Chuck has not gotten his sweet revenge for. This is a tremendous opportunity to do just that and a very important fight for the current champion's MMA legacy. If he beats Quinton Jackson, then he is truly the greatest light-heavyweight MMA fighter of this generation. On the flip side, if he loses Chuck may lose some of his status in the fickle fan's eyes. Someone wise said that, "you are only as good as your last fight", and that repeatedly holds true today in mixed martial arts. If Jackson wins then he is the new casual fan favorite and Chuck will most certainly be demoted to the "over-rated" column in the hardcore fan forums.

Jackson is a relative unknown to the UFC television fan base as was Anderson Silva before he beat Rich Franklin, but Silva was given the luxury of a relatively easy fight when he faced and defeated a talented, yet less technical, TUF star, Chris Leben. Quinton did not have this same courtesy, tailor-made for his style lead-in that Silva got. He was tasked with defeating a true MMA veteran, Marvin Eastman on his first UFC PPV. It was a fight that served only to remove the ring rust from the former Pride superstar and announce his arrival. Hopefully new UFC fans took notice because he could very well be the next light heavyweight champion.

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