Jardine Poses an Intriguing Challenge for Rampage

It is sad that, no matter what the outcome in Saturday night’s fight with the underrated Keith Jardine, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson will not get the credit he deserves for competing with him.  Too many have already written off Jardine, especially due to his notorious knockout losses against the explosive Houston Alexander and the downright animal Wanderlei Silva.

It’s understandable, in a way.  Once you’ve seen a fighter on his back and unconscious like Jardine was against Silva (or, in all fairness, like Silva was against Rampage recently), a lot of the mystique is gone.  While mixed martial arts as a sport has gained a lot of ground and its fans have become more refined and intelligent, there still is a palpable amount of “who’s the bigger badass” thinking before a big fight.  For this reason, a quick (and arguably more fluky) loss like Jardine’s against Alexander or Silva is valued more than a loss like Rampage’s against Forrest Griffin, even though Griffin outperformed Rampage for a longer stretch than the brief period of time where Jardine was outperformed by Alexander.

However, you can bet that Rampage is not taking this fight lightly, and fans shouldn’t, either.  Want a reason why Jardine poses a serious threat in this one?  First of all, factor in that he seems tailor made to frustrate Rampage.  Jardine’s strategy against the less-explosive (but very powerful) Chuck Liddell reads similarly to Griffin’s strategy against Rampage: throw leg kicks, keep your distance, “ugly” the fight up a bit.

That’s right; one of the things that has helped Jardine reach the level of success he has- his willingness to do whatever it takes to win- has also probably reduced his fan base and the level of hype his fights generate.  After all, it hasn’t taken fellow light heavyweight Lyoto Machida this long to get into the title picture for nothing.  Fans are usually interested in finishers, not game-planners.

Make no mistake about it, though: none of this will matter on Saturday night.  On Saturday night, Rampage will have to stand in there with a guy who will not give in a single inch, and will have to have the resolve to either put him away or outperform him over what could be a very grueling fifteen minutes.  Many have oversimplified this fight to fight a certain formula, saying that if Rampage doesn’t get the early finish, Jardine leg kicks his way to a decision.  However, both men have proven that a fifteen minute fight is no deterrence.  Also, a couple of knockout losses aside, both men have proven that they can take some pretty serious punishment without giving up.  Jardine may have been put away a couple of times, but if you don’t physically send him out of consciousness, he will keep coming.

For sure, Jardine’s leg kicks pose a serious problem to Rampage.  Rampage has good boxing skills (great by MMA standards) but has never seemed exceedingly comfortable with the kicking aspects of MMA striking.  There is a zero percent chance that this fact will escape Jardine as he goes into the fight Saturday night.  After all, Greg Jackson’s camp is known for their game-planning, and you can bet that the plan for Saturday night does not end with Rampage bouncing around on fresh legs that evening.

Like with any good fight, there are questions within the larger question.  Sure, we wonder who will win, but the other questions will be just as, if not more, interesting.  What happens when Jardine takes a solid shot from one of the division’s hardest punchers?  Will Rampage finally check some low kicks?  Is Rampage going to pressure Jardine, like Alexander and Silva did, and if so, how will Jardine respond?  Will Rampage take advantage of his seldom-used wrestling skills to take this one to the ground?

One thing’s for sure: whoever wins this one will have definitely earned it.

by Jon Hartley for Fightmania.com

Tags: Chuck Liddell, Forrest Griffin, Houston Alexander, Keith Jardine, Lyoto Machida, Wanderlei Silva