UFC 88 Recap: Evans Over Liddell, Franklin Finds Success at 205

Rashad Evans defeated Chuck Liddell in explosive fashion Saturday, September 7^th at the Phillips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. The final blow, an overhand right, was one of the few that Rashad connected with. He spent most of the first round avoiding ‘The Iceman’ and doing a bizarre combination of dancing moves and punch slipping.

However, when the second round started, it was clear Evans had found a technical hole in Liddell’s game. Rashad found his confidence and range, picking his shots and looking for the right moment to strike, which came at 1:51 of the second round. Just as Liddell began to connect with an uppercut, ‘Sugar’ Rashad Evan’s delivered a crushing overhand right that put the aging star down for more then a minute.

Rashad presents an interesting conundrum. He is, without a doubt, an athletic marvel. His speed and strength rival anyone in the division. Chuck Liddell himself said, in an interview that aired on the UFC Countdown program, that he believed Evans was faster then himself. He also said he didn’t believe that speed would be a factor. Whoops!

Either way, the UFC wanted Liddell to win this a fight. A ‘teacher vs student’ title fight starring Chuck Liddell and Forrest Griffin would be a spectacular draw. Evans and Griffin, less so. Unfortunately there isn’t much else for them to do. A bout with Lyoto Machida would prove a loss for Evans, and forcing Machida to fight anything beyond a title fight at this point would be downright unfair. Evans against Wanderlei Silva might be interesting but again, they’d ruin either an undefeated record (Rashad) or demystify a quickly deteriorating legend (Silva). Not to to mention the fact that Evans has proved willing to ‘heel’ himself in the eyes of the fans, embracing a very ‘Floyd Mayweather’ type personality that talks a lot and backs it up in the ring. COED is interested to see what the UFC has planned.

In other news from the evening (which was a very good card, in actuality, featuring many good fights), Rich ‘Ace’ Franklin found another victory post-Anderson Silva nose breakage, against Matt ‘The Hammer’ Hamill. Hamill is an excellent wrestler who couldn’t take Franklin down. Franklin lit him up with leg kicks for 3 rounds, and eventually caught ‘The Hammer’ with a what might be the most perfect body kick COED has ever seen. Rich Franklin’s shin caught Hamill’s liver flush, the wrestler crumpled and began to tap immediately. If Franklin will become a factor in the already stacked 205lb division remains to be seen, but this win was certainly spectacular.