UFC 96: A Meaningless Main Event but Decent Main Card
Published by Jim Genia on March 7th, 2009 in Current Events

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UFC 96 returns to Columbus, Ohio for another installment of “Squeezing Pay-Per-View Dollars Out of Viewers Any Way Possible” – but while the main event of Quinton “Rampage” Jackson versus Keith Jardine lacks any meaning whatsoever for the light-heavyweight division in which these men reside (ex-champ Jackson is destined for another title shot; TUF 1 veteran Jardine will have to walk on water and raise the dead to get a crack at teammate Rashad Evans’ belt), the rest of the main card is, well, pretty decent.

In the lone heavyweight match-up of the night, former title contender Gabriel Gonzaga and big puncher Shane Carwin will do their best to breath some life into what has traditionally been an anemic weight class for the organization. Will Gonzaga’s black belt-level jiu-jitsu and sometimes decapitating kicks spell doom for the man taking a huge step up in competition? Or will Carwin overwhelm him with the twin anvils he calls fists? Does it even matter? The division needs marquee-worthy stars, and an impressive performance by either (or both) of them could mean a headliner bout down the road against Randy Couture or dual champs Frank Mir or Brock Lesnar. With that in mind, it’s doubtful Gonzaga and Carwin will lay on each other for the decision.
Pete “Drago” Sell may be settling into his new home among the welterweights, but one thing about the big-punching Matt Serra-trained black belt will never change: he will fight his heart out and emerge the bloody victor, or he’ll get carried off the battlefield on his shield. Theoretically, Drago should have little trouble with TUF 7 veteran Matt Brown, who’s nowhere near as capable on the ground.
Mark Munoz fought twice in the WEC before the promotion’s 205-pound weight class disappeared, so now he gets to take on Matt Hamill in the Octagon – which could very well be seen as a punishment for some insult to the gods. How so? TUF 3 veteran Hamill should have no problem nullifying Munoz’s wrestling (which is Munoz’s strong point), and as Hamill has faced far tougher competition in Michael Bisping, Rich Franklin, Reese Andy and Tim Boetsch, the deaf wrestler’s experience will be too much for Munoz to overcome – all of which should translate into solid beating for the UFC rookie.
With his wrestling credentials, TUF 5 competitor Gray Maynard is an expert at imitating a blanket, as evidenced by his performances against almost everyone he’s faced in the UFC thus far. Jim Miller, however, has enough wrestling mixed with jiu-jitsu mixed with raw aggression to imitate… whatever the opposite of a blanket is. Remember Miller’s three-round destructions of French judoka David Baron and up-and-comer Matt Wiman? Picture the same result for Maynard, who, by bout’s end, should be frayed and unraveling (Get it? He’s a blanket?).
And what of the meaningless main event? Will the focused, sane Rampage show up to take “The Dean of Mean’s” head off? After Jackson’s UFC 92 KO win over the legendary Wanderlei Silva, the answer to that one is probably “yeah”. Rampage by knockout.