UFC 96 Answers Several Questions, Asks Others

As with so many other UFC events, some of the more pressing questions about some up and coming fighters were answered on Saturday night.  Likewise, however, there were more questions that were raised, all at the same time, to be answered at a future date.  The night began with some excellent displays on the undercard and ended with a vicious three-round war that saw Quinton “Rampage” Jackson earn a title shot against Rashad Evans by beating his stable-mate, Keith Jardine.

Questions Answered

Shane Carwin looked outstanding in his quick knockout win over one of the more well-rounded heavyweights in the world, Gabriel Gonzaga.  Not many fighters have world-class jiu-jitsu and the stand-up game to head kick Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic to sleep, but Gonzaga does, and Carwin put him to sleep with a short right hand early in the fight.  Even more impressively, he survived some tough spots early on, eating a good shot or two from the hard-hitting Gonzaga and even being taken down, with Gonzaga getting to half-guard at one point.  Carwin is getting very close to a title shot, and looks like he will deserve it when that time comes.

Gray Maynard has continued to rise in the lightweight division, and depending on the timing involved, will be right in the title picture when BJ Penn gets back in the cage and settles business with Kenny Florian.  Undefeated in his career with seven wins to his name, Gray has now beaten Frankie Edgar, Rich Clementi and Jim Miller and is probably ready for a step up in competition against the likes of Nate Diaz, Clay Guida, Sean Sherk or new lightweight Diego Sanchez.  Maynard’s boxing against Miller, who has a slick ground game, was very impressive.  Not many fighters in MMA take advantage of body shots as well as Maynard did.

One question that was answered was, “have we seen the last of Kendall Grove in the UFC for awhile?”  The answer was an emphatic “no”, as Grove put away Jason Day with a beautiful right hand and some follow up elbows early in their fight.  It was nice to see Grove truly take advantage of his outstanding reach in this one.  It would be even nicer to see Grove put on a streak so we could see “Da Spyda” versus Anderson “The Spider” Silva.  You can’t have two guys in the same division with the same insect-based moniker!  This fight has to happen, folks.  Whoever loses can be “The Fly”…or “Da Fly”, as it were.

New Questions

First of all, where does Gabriel Gonzaga go from here?  Of the fighters in the title picture (which is quite muddled, as expected when two guys are carrying around heavyweight title belts at the same time), he’s only faced Randy Couture, so he’s eligible for a title shot if he can just put the wins together.  Unfortunately, despite his skills, he is now very far back in line in the heavyweight division, having lost three of his last five fights, all by TKO.  It’s hard to say what Gonzaga needs to do- he poses a great skill set and excellent athleticism for a man of his size.  Hopefully, “Napao” can turn it around soon.

Another question that is not exactly new, but “renewed”- will Quinton Jackson ever check a leg kick?  Granted, Keith Jardine is incredibly hard to time, and mixes his leg kicks up really well in combinations while rushing forward, but Rampage will be facing leg kick after leg kick in each of his future fights until he can show opponents that he will defend against them.  In his fight against Jardine, it didn’t matter, but could it come into play in a five-round fight against a much quicker opponent like Rashad Evans?  We’ll see.

by Jon Hartley for Fightmania.com

Tags: Clay Guida, Diego Sanchez, Frankie Edgar, Gabriel Gonzaga, Gray Maynard, Keith Jardine, Kenny Florian, Nate Diaz, Quinton Jackson, Randy Couture, Rashad Evans, Sean Sherk, Shane Carwin, UFC