One December 27, 2008 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Los Vegas the UFC will end the year with its biggest event to date, UFC 93: The Ultimate 2008, Forrest Griffin will defend his title against “Sugar” Rashad Evans. Antonio “Minotauro” Nogueira takes on former heavyweight champion, Frank Mir for the Interim World Heavyweight Champion. Two of top light heavyweights go toe-to-toe when Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva battles former light heavyweight champion, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. Anyone of these fights would normally be the headliner at any other event.
Forrest Griffin vs. Rashad Evans
The light heavyweight champion and the original Ultimate fighter Forest Griffin(16-4) will have his first title defense since winning the title from Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. The man that will be challenging for the title will be the second season winner of the ultimate fighter and undefeated “Sugar” Rashad Evans(16-4-1) who is coming off a knockout victory Chuck “the Iceman” Liddell. This fight is a complete toss up when it comes to picking a winner; Forrest has the advantage in his chin and will keep pressing the action and try to keep it exciting. Evans is also a “mini version” of Rampage, meaning they have the alto of the same skill set but Evens is not quite as large. Evans has better hands and take downs then Forest but then again so has everyone else he has faced. This fight will be leaning toward Griffin only because Forrest has proven he can beat this skill set however saying Evans is going to lose is hard to say because I say that every fight and he surprise me every time.
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Frank Mir
The Interim World Heavyweight Champion Antonio “Minotauro” Nogueira (31-4-1) will be looking to defend intern title and have his shot at the real Heavyweight Champion, Brock Lesner. Frank Mir who gave the current champion his only professional loss would like another shot at the title he once had. This is another hard one to call but if I had to pick I would take Mir. Nogueira and Mir both have world class ju jitsu but I would have to give the stand up to Mir and we have seen Nogueira get hurt on his feet and have to rely on his ground skill to win. The winner will be fighting Lesner next to unify the heavyweight titles.
I have a personal thing about this match. Why do we say interim? It was an interim title until Couture returned. Now that he has returned and lost his title how com this is not a number one contender match? Please fill free to explain.
Wanderlei Silva vs. Quinton Jackson
Wanderlei “The Axe Murder” Silva (32-8-1) will be having his 3rd fight since his return to the UFC. This match is all about which Silva shows up is it the one that Chuck Liddell confuse and was able to be on all night or will it be the one that destroy Keith Jardine. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (28-7) is coming back after his loss to Forest Griffin and surly will not want to make it two losses in a row. Out of the other 2 big fights of the night I will have to say this is the one that could be most interesting. This could be the number one contender match to see who will get the next shot at Griffin.
CB Dollaway vs. Mike Massenzio
This is not a fight I would normally say anything about but for some reason I am not a CB Dollaway (8-2) fan and I really don’t know a lot about Mike Massenzio (11-2). However, CB Dollaway is an ultimate fighter alumnus and will be a feature fighter soon if he can pull together some wins. CB asks for an arm bar constantly if he corrects that while training for the fight it should be a good fight.
Other fights
Cheick Kongo (22-4-1)
Vs.
Mustapha Al-Turk (6-3)
Yushin Okami (23-4)
Vs.
Dean Lister (11-5)
Antoni Hardonk (7-4)
Vs.
Mark Burch (9-2)
Matt Hamill (6-1)
Vs.
Reese Andy (7-2)
Ryo Chonan (14-8)
Vs.
Brad Blackburn (13-9-1)
Dan Evensen (10-3)
Vs.
Pat Barry (3-0)
Stats via ufc.com