The fight card will draw the curtain on a successful year for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. And with an undercard that features Antonio "Minotauro" Nogueira vs. Frank Mir and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs. Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva, UFC 92 promises to be a slam-bang affair.
The main event, though, seems to be the most intriguing. Griffin won the light heavyweight championship in the debut season of the Ultimate Fighter while Evans won the heavyweight division of the Ultimate Fighter 2. It will be interesting to see both Ultimate Fighter champions go head to head in such a stacked and talent-laden weight class.
Forrest Griffin has been on a roll as of late, racking up three straight wins since his disappointing loss to Keith Jardine in UFC 66. In talking about that particular loss, “disappointing” seems to be an understatement. After he got TKO’d by Jardine in the first round, a visibly distraught Griffin sat in his corner crying, and walked away from Joe Rogan’s attempt to interview him. Moments later, he appeared on cam and said, “I’ll be back,” before walking out of the Octagon. He fulfilled that promise by defeating Hector Ramirez by unanimous decision, submitting Mauricio “Shogan” Rua via rear naked choke, and capturing the UFC light heavyweight belt at the expense of Quinton Jackson
Evans parades a flawless record. He holds notable wins against Stephan Bonnar and Michael Bisping, but his most impressive win to date was his crushing knockout of perennial crowd favorite Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell. In that fight, Liddell seemed to have forgotten to use his other tools and instead relied too much on his vaunted right hand. This is not a knock on Evans, however, as he showed that he has one-shot power in his fists and his stand up game is often underrated.
Match up wise, the well-rounded Griffin will have to utilize to the hilt his height and reach advantage in the stand-up, lest he be hit with Evans’ sledgehammer right that knocked Liddell out cold. Evans is a superb wrestler and Griffin’s workmanlike grappling skills will certainly come in handy. Look for Griffin to throw a lot of leg kicks – perhaps his most instrumental weapon -- that incidentally played a huge part in his win over Rampage Jackson.
Evans on the other hand, might want to take advantage of his strength and superb wrestling skills. If he decides to go toe-to-toe, he will need to find a way to go inside to overcome Griffin’s height and reach advantage. There is a good chance, however, that Evans will look to take the fight to Griffin, utilize the clinch, and go for the takedowns.
Regardless of both fighters’ strengths and weaknesses, and the fight odds notwithstanding, it’s a virtual tossup. What’s exciting about Mixed Martial Arts is that its fighters never seem to run out of surprises. The strong grapplers suddenly come out of nowhere and knock people out, and the powerful strikers exhibit a brilliant ground game.
And for the fans, the best thing about surprises is that they often come last.
