First, and most importantly, there was disclosure. Rogan and Goldie made it very clear that Evans was a team mate and friend of Jardine. If there had been no disclosure, you might have had a point.

Second, Evans was actually pretty on the mark with his commentary. Without the final knockdown, I could easily see scoring this one for Jardine. Evans agreed with this. Jardine was more agressive and landed more strikes. Rampage was more accurate and got a couple of take downs. Save for the last knock down, a very close fight.

Lastly, the ufc is trying to build Rashad up. Good business call as well.

Does anyone have a transcript of the shit talking between Rashad and Rampage at the end?

Some people I was with were laughing so hard at things Rampage was saying I missed half of it.

Rashad was mumbling and a low talker as a commentator so I did not hear most of the things he said, but the things I did hear were ridiculous.

“Me and Keith are gonna go to Sonic after this and share some ice cream.”

“Keith definitely won rounds 1 2 and 3!”

Ok he didnt say exactly that, and I am all favor of having guest fighters for announcers, however the bias was a tad disgusting, and plays into the argument of the “MMA Broadcast model” that was posted on BE a few days ago.

I hope at UFC 97 they can get Couture or Kenflo back as the third guy again, they always did the best job. Or even Mir, since Pulver is apparently doing WEC now.

i think your off base on this one. the viewing audience clearly was aware of the Jardine-Evans connection. they were commentating a fight, not delievering news with sometype of journalistic integrity being threatened.

I think you are right on. The bias was absolutely horrible. Rashad’s commentary was very boring. Just because someone is “well spoken” doesn’t mean they are entertaining to listen to.

Rashad came across really strange when he and Page were promoting their fight. i thought Page was hilarious while Rashad kept cursing the whole time and generally repeating this line “I’m gonna fuck you up”. Dude..how about trying to be a bit more creative with your trash talking? ’

the crowd clearly thought the same as they unleashed boos on him as he walked out of the octagon while Page got cheers.

I hate evans even more now, his commentary was a disgrace and as rightly pointed out he did influence rogan and goldie from calling the fight as it was. Evans is full of himself and needs to be brought down a notch, he is not a fan favourite, not a fighter you want to watch, hope he gets knocked the F**K OUT!!!

I don’t have a problem with Rashad guest commenting on fights. I’d stop short of calling the result in question a “disgrace.” It was just unappealing to me. Fighters who are able to somewhat articulately analyze the fight – before, during, and after – can add a lot to a broadcast and break the sort of predictable nature built by Rogan and Goldie.

Rashad was really put in a bad spot, because I believe he can offer a lot more if he doesn’t have the emotional weight of a friend fighting affecting what he says.

I think Rashard is classy and articulate but friends have no business commentating on fights especially if Joe and Mike are not going to question anything they say. In the third, Jardine was leading with his face and getting smacked hard everytime he legkicked and should have been losing even without the knockdown at the end. This still not as bad as Yves Saint-Le-Can’t Make Up My Mind with his Ed Hochiuli impersonation – how do you stop the fight and say, no, no you’re right you’re okay, you let me know when you’re out. If Sell came back to win, what a mess.

If I hear one more thing about Jardines awkward style while he is getting punched in the face…..

I also like they mentioned how on dimensional rampage’s striking was… as he was taking jardine down and throwing kicks.

I agree 1000 percent it was border line disgusting how biased rashad was during the commentary. I mean I understand the relationship between jardine and rashad but come on show a little class and be unbiased. It was painful to listen to. After this fight I hope ramapage cleans rashads clock. I never disliked rashad, but now I officialy dont like him. I can’t belive what a punk he acted like after fight.

Well at least Rashad’s bias was known/expected/disclosed…unlike some of the loverboy bias Goldie and Rogan tend to get on. The way they announce some fights you’d think one guy was murdering the other when its actually WAY closer than they’re letting on.

People need to relax – Rashad was the 3rd guy there for color commentary and he had two other “neutral” announcers to set it straight if he was getting out of hand.

Reading all the comments thus far, I find that bias wasn’t the problem per se. My problem is derived from the product of said bias. I just didn’t care to hear the emotional upheaval and subsequent spin in favor of Jardine. It just didn’t add much information to the telecast, in my opinion. Furthermore, Rashad’s presence as Jardine’s friend probably affected how Rogan and Goldie called the match.

 I can’t believe people would hate Rashard for getting in Rampage’s face (I’m sure Dana or some UFC official told him to do that.) Its called promoting a fight. Has anyone ever seen a weigh-in before? It was very tame and comical in fact because they are both nice guys – “gonna be some black on black crime.” The commentating might have seemed annoying maybe but it is entertainment. I think Rashard did provide some insight and you would expect him to build up Jardine. My only problem is that Joe and Mike went out of their way not to step on his toes or question his clearly bias assertions.