Forrest fought the perfect fight and slightly edged an uninspired Rampage. I don’t know what the deal was yesterday, but let’s hope this isn’t the Rampage we’ll be seeing from here on.

I think there’s a couple things at play here. 1) The dude just lost a close fight that most people, and most importantly he thought he should have walked through. That has to be a huge letdown. 2) I really think the booing and villain role he’s played in the Liddell and Griffin fights has taken a toll on him.

I like Rampage, I picked him to win in convincing fashion.
He looked bad…really bad. He seemed disinterested in the fight and to me it didn’t look like he had a gameplan at all. Perhaps he believed all the hype and figured that with 1-2 punches Griffin would just fall down and things would magically work themselves out.
Last night the Rampage fighting was not the fighter I’m a fan of and the calls from my more casual friends last night ribbing me on Rampage’s loss really stung.
With that performance I really don’t see how he deserves an instant rematch.

Along with his acceptance of this decision loss you can consider Juanito’s ever present whispers of 09 being the year of Rampage and the UFC’s lack of promotion for Rampage if you feel like compiling a conspiracy theory.
I’ve certainly seen shakier foundations for other ideas.

To ma rampage wasn’t active enough. Rarely did I see him try to peel off combinations of 3 punches or more. Maybe he overtrained or had too much ring rust. Hell, I thought he was finished after the second round, so I can’t really call his heart into question.

Rampage said he felt like he won the fight in the post fight interview with on ESPN…pointed out that he dropped Forrest…hit me with alot more power shots…and that Forrest did absolutely nothing to him on the ground during the 2nd round…was it me…or did Forrest run more than Lyoto Machida?

I wanted Rampage to win too, but look… strategy beat brawling.

People said all along that the only way Forrest could win was on points, and he did. And I have NO idea how anyone could say that the second round wasn’t 10-8… Two minutes of Forrest treating Rampage like a kayak.

I think Page is kicking himself in the ass. I am positive he did not train 100% and he Juanito and his team totaly over looked forest in this fight ,Juanito and Rampage can say whatever they want they thought this fight would be a cake walk and a easy W in the books for Rampage. Even though I thought Rampage Won the fight he did not look like the same fighter that fought Dan Henderson and Chuck.To think about it Juanito leading up to the Forest fight was talking about who he thought would get a shot after the Forest fight at the belt and he said on Beatdown radio that he was scouting Machida becasue he thought he would be next. He has said many times how Rampage wanted to fight Wand again after this fight was over,to avenge the 2 losses. You should never think like that going into a fight .Rampage was not 100% ready for this fight and it showed he had about 50% of the cardio he had in the Henderson fight and thats on him and his trainer Juanito and his team, Shit leadinig up to the fight on the ultimate fighter every one who saw pics of him could not belive he let himself get so out of shape like he did. I really think he just over looked Forest and is now pissed for doing so ?

What are you talking about?

He said he under-estimated Forrest, he said the kick took a lot out of him and he said he thought he still should have won based on points. Where you expecting a a temper tantrum?

One of the things that I think people like about Rampage is his ‘get along’ attitude. He does his best and doesn’t get bent out of shape from things outside his influence. I think he handles it maturely—‘Hey, it sucks but it happens. I’m not done, I’ll be back’.

In short—relax! :)

I didn’t read all that into Rampage’s behavior. I saw it like this…

Rampage is well known to be a really good guy. I’ve worked with he and Juanito Ibarra on two past MMA promotions and have been impressed at how down to earth and cool he is. He’s not the guy walking into the ring howling with the chain around his neck. That’s showbiz. He actually downplays his life as a fighter and doesn’t buy into all the hype. It’s not B.S. that he’s a devout Christian and family man. It’s legit.

I personally think he was very dissappointed by the decision. I also think that he has a ton of respect for Forest and pretty much all of his opponents. So I see his lackluster response as simply being a humble guy with integrity who didn’t want to sour the evening by acting like most of the other dumb ass young athletes today who need it to be all about themselves, all the time.

I for one, think that the minute he got into his locker room (sore leg or not), he was probably dropping f-bombs, pissed because he felt he had rightfully won, completely pissed for not winning that decision and for allowing himself to put it in the judges hands in the first place. Yet, to his credit, he didn’t take that route in the middle of the Octagon, but carried himself with some friggen dignity and integrity.

For God’s sake, should he have started ranting and raving that “he’s the man” and that he was robbed and that he’s coming back to get Forest and show the world he’s the man???? Come on Luke! You’re drinking today’s kool aide, served up to you by self-serving and pathetic assholes like Floyd Mayweather, Terrell Owens, Chad Johnson and on and on and on.

In my book, you have to kick the champ’s ass, outright to take a belt. That wasn’t the case at all. Quinton knocked the crap out of Griffin in the first with the upper cut. He opened a massive gash over Griffin’s right eye by the fourth. He scored two legit and clean takedowns. He landed far more truly effective power shots. He was excellent in checking the majority of Griffin’s attempts (aside from the kicks in rounds one and two) And by the way, he stood upright, bearing the 205 lb weight of Griffin and body slammed him, WHILE IN A TRIANGLE attempt!

The UFC got it’s Ultimate Fighter poster boy his belt. Even if it came in the most debatable manner. It’s no secret that the UFC has under-promoted Rampage since he arrived. After all, he is originally a PRIDE mega-star and Forrest is Dana White’s UFC prodigy of heart and guts (and I do love Griffin by the way). Lidell has been promoted over and above Rampage even after Quinton K.O.d his ass and even after a successful, albeit boring title defense against Dan Henderson. Dana White’s a control freak, and with Joe Rogan gushing over Forest before the fight began and throughout, I can’t help but have a real bad feeling about last night’s decision.

As it’s been said many times, it’s not the best fighter that wins, it’s the fighter that fights the best that night that wins. And Forrest was clearly fighting a better fight. Despite all the numbers, I always felt Forrest had that intangible “something” that can’t really be quantified on a stats sheet. Right now, Forrest is just in the zone, and it’s really good to see such a good guy, a hard working guy, make it to the top. Rampage did fight a bit flat footed; he certainly wasn’t as explosive as he’d been in the past. But that doesn’t take anything away from Forrest’s win. Rampage is probably a bit down on himself right now, which is reasonable. But he’ll be back, and Jesus, there’s still plenty of awesome fights in the future for the LHW division.

He knows karma got his ass this time. Nothing he should say as a man. It wasn’t supposed to go five, much less let Forrest beat him. He’s smart just to shut up and take his lumps. In fact he’s lucky he ‘doesn’t lose his whole purse and his trainers didn’t retire.’ Since they both made the prespective bet.