Let's get to the point.

Jackson vs Griffin

I actually had it scored as a draw.

Round 1 -- 10-9 for Rampage (Griffin was winning the round but because of that one uppercut that 'rocked' and knocked down Griffin I'll give it to Rampage)

Round 2 -- 10-8 for Forrest (Griffin landed hard leg kicks, then ended up getting Rampage caught in a guillotine, Rampage gets put on his back in the sequence, and does nothing for the rest of the round except get beat on [and this was for what, the last 4 minutes of this round?], Forrest passed his guard and eventual held mount for a couple minutes, Griffin didn't do lots of damage but he certainly dominated the round completely)

Round 3 -- 10-9 for Rampage (Close stand up round but I think Rampage was definitely the one landing the harder shots, this is a round I will rewatch closer later today)

Round 4 -- 10-9 for Rampage (Griffin was probably winning this round at the point when he got up from underneath Rampage, because of the solid triangle attempt earlier in the round, but I think Rampage won the stand up game pretty clearly for the next few minutes, landing hard shots, even when Forrest kind of blocked them)

Round 5 -- 10-9 for Forrest (Pretty close round but Griffin landed more shots and was more aggressive throughout the round [he wasn't very aggressive... but compared to Rampage this can be said], also landing 3-4 leg kicks that were probably the most significant shots landed in the round)

47-47 Draw

However, the 3 judges for the fight ventured to score it 48-46, 48-46, and 49-46 for Forrest.

What happened was... two of the judges must have given the 1st (unlikely), 3rd, or 4th round to Forrest, as well as the 10-8 second and 10-9 fifth which seemed pretty clear.  As for the 49-46 score... that's hard to explain.  This judge might have scored one of the rounds a 10-10 and still given Forrest one of the other close rounds too... idk, this judge just seems to need glasses.

Overall, it was a great fight.  Forrest definitely did better than almost everyone expected, and I feel good that I stuck to my guns and picked him.  Rampage went for... no take downs in the whole fight?  I'm pretty sure of it.  The only time Forrest got taken down (4th round) was when Forrest was going for a take down with a leg trip like he did against Rua, but Rampage powered through it while Forrest had one of his feet in the air and got on top.  That was interesting, really Forrest's take down defense wasn't tested.  But, what he did do was show a really good ground game and a really good stand up game that was a lot better than most people expected.  He continued to be virtually impossible to ground and pound, showed submission attempts off his back, and from the top showed the ability to pass Rampage's guard to mount, and throw submission attempts from there as well.  On the feet, he threw constant kicks -- the head kicks and body kicks were mostly insignificant, but the leg kicks were strong and did damage -- especially in the first two rounds, and then later in the 5th they were decent as well.

I look forward to a rematch sometime in the future.

Cote vs Almeida

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