Clear-cutting: Forrest Griffin takes down Rampage Jackson to win UFC Light Heavy Title

I still can't believe the judges scored that for Forrest. I had Rampage taking rounds 1, 4, and 5, with Forrest taking round 2 easily and round being a tossup. But even if we give Forrest round 3, it's still Rampage 3-2. At the very least, it couldn't have been a unanimous decision. All in all, kind of a disappointing effort by Rampage (though his leg seemed busted) - he never really pushed the action for any extended period of time.

Sorry - I had round 3 being the tossup

It was a good fight... I didn't think Forrest did enough to win the belt, but it was a pretty close fight. The best fight of the night was Koscheck vs Lytle.... Lytle's head was bleeding so bad it was almost as if he was painting the canvas for 2 rounds. At the end of the fight Koscheck's blonde hair was actually orange because of all of Lytle's blood that was in it. And even though Lytle lost a lot of blood in the last two rounds, he still ended the round with some nice shots that almost knocked Koscheck out.
As always, this UFC card did not disappoint... it provided many interesting fights and was well worth the money spent on the PPV

The amount of blood lost by Lytle was pretty incredible. Part of me thinks the fight should have been stopped, but at the same time, Lytle was still going pretty hard. Koscheck laid off for a bit - I don't know if it was because he was tired, or if he just didn't want Lytle losing any more blood.

that was a great fight. Glad Forrest won

Forrest clearly won the fight. Jackson is clearly a stiff and it showed. Nice job Forrest!! The judges had it closer than I thought.

the judges were horrible. jackson won the first, fourth, AND the fifth round with a messed up knee.

Rampage won that fight. I had him winning rounds 1,3,4, & 5 being a toss up. Forest didn't do enough to win that title. All he did as have a couple of good leg kicks & & an attempted submission which he got slammed out of in that 2nd round. Other than that he ran & did very little...certainly not enought to be chmap. But even w/ that being said Rampage didn't look like himself in that fight at all. He wasn't agressive enough & seemed to want to just throw 3-4 punch flurries & thats it. He didn't hunt forest down & beat his dumb hick ass in the ground like he does everybody else he's pounded out. forest is a tough guy no question but he isn't better than Rampage. & it's a disgrace that forest won that fiht in the manner that he did....& thats was by the judges ingnorance & Rampage's complacency. To be honest I think Rampage took forest too lightly & in MMA you can't take ANYBODY lightly even if your the better fighter which Ramoage clearly is. Forest will lose the rematch badly the next go a round....Guarnteed!!!

The UFC finally got their Ultimate Fighter poster boy his belt, even if it was on a bullshit decision. Bottom line, Rampage won that fight. Here's why:
1. He's the champ. You have to clearly and decisively beat the champ to take any belt in combat sports boxing, Jeet Kun do, Muy Thai or MMA.

2. In MMA, DAMAGE is king. More activity and octagon control aren't enough to take a belt. You gotta do more damage. And Rampage did way more damage...no question about it. A first round knockdown...a massive gash opened up over Griffin's eye in the fourth, and two solid takedowns. Griffin's only takedown came after the vicious leg kick and he couldn't even capitalize, despite being on top of Rampage for the entire round.

3. Enough about the triangle. It was an ATTEMPT. It was not successful. Moreover and most importantly, Rampage stood fully upright from his knees, bearing the weight of a 205 pound man and body slammed him WHILE IN A TRIANGLE! I've watched a ton of MMA over the past 12 years or more and I've rarely if ever seen that kind of strength. Only Rampage does shit like that, like when he body slammed Ricardo Arona from a similar position.

Listen, I think the world of Griffin. His victory submitting Shogun Rua was incredible and lifted him into the circle of MMA's elite fighters. But he did not win that fight, nor should he be wearing that belt.

When are people going to give Rampage his credit! The UFC has "under-promoted" him from day one. He K.O.d Lidell to take the belt and still didn't get credit. For Christ sake, the UFC still promotes Chuck more heavily that Rampage even when Rampage had the belt. He takes down Dan Henderson, who one fight previously had demolished Wanderlei Silva and still gets no love. Now this B.S. with Griffin and Joe Rogan spending the entire night praising Griffin. For God's sake, Rogan didn't even say a thing about Rampage's ability to stand and slam Forest from within a triangle. How can an MMA ring analyst not comment on that incredible display of strength and leverage.

Last night was a joke.

I completely disagree with those that believe that Rampage won – I scored the fight on a napkin as each round went by, and, in the end, I had Forrest up by one. That being said, it would not have totally surprised me, if someone scored it a draw – however, there is no way Rampage was ahead.

As you can see above, I had Jackson winning by one point. If all this chatter tells us anything, it's that we WILL see a rematch...hopefully better promoted than this fight on a holiday weekend no less.

Yeah, a re-match would be real nice... this was a much better fight than Rampage vs. Iceman.

OHHHH! COME ON! 2 JUDGES GIVING THE FIRST ROUND TO FOREST, THE ROUND HE GOT KNOCKED DOWN ON AND EVEN HIMSELF AGREES TO LOSING. I CALL B.S. SHIENANIGANS. HONESTLY I CAN UNDERSTAND PEOPLE BEING A FOREST FAN AND THAT THE FIGHT WAS CLOSE, BUT THAT WAS THE WORST JUDGING I'VE EVER SEEN. YOU NEED A LOT MORE TO TAKE A BELT. SHENANIGANS

Look, I am a Forrest AND Rampage fan, but that does not change what I saw... and, in the end, I saw Forrest win. Was it a beat-down? No. Nonetheless, Forrest won - mostly by working hard and out-fighting Rampage.